Sorry, Coach, A Tie Ain't Like Kissing Your Sister
Sorry, Coach, a Tie Ain’t Like Kissing Your Sister
Games ending in a tie have gotten a bad rap over the years. When I was a young athlete just about all of my coaches had a favorite saying – a tie was like kissing your sister – meaning a tie was no good and nobody wanted one. Despite hearing it nearly every game, I never really bought into that concept. Sure, winning was great, but I hated losing more than anything, and to avoid losing, a tie to me seemed a perfectly acceptable alternative. The mindset of the coaches seemed to be that a tie amounted to the same thing as losing, when even as a kid, I knew it wasn’t. In fact it wasn’t half as bad. While it meant you came near to losing, it also meant you almost won. So I considered it a half-success, much better than the alternative of another game in the L column—which is not to say, that, as a coach myself later on in life, that I wouldn’t go for the win instead of a tie if I knew I had a shot. But I still don’t mind a game finishing in a tie, if it means I didn’t lose. To me, 10-0-1 looks a whole lot better than 10-1, it means I’m still undefeated. I might not be untied, but at least I’m unbeaten.
So I still don’t get why most everybody in sport loathes ties so much. Some sports hate ties so much that they did away with them, like the NFL and NCAA football did when they instituted overtime for games ending in a tie in the regular season. Soccer games end in penalty kicks. The NHL got so ridiculous in their effort to do away with the concept of a game ending in a tie that they now award you a point in the standings if you lose in overtime, instead of it counting as a complete loss. Why even bother to have overtime if the loss by the losing team isn’t really a loss? By their very nature, baseball and basketball weren’t designed to end in ties, so they didn’t bother me very much, but for other sports I saw no dishonor at all in tying an opponent. It meant nobody won and nobody lost and you could come back and play again on even terms. It seems to me that when playing a team better than you, an upset win would be great, but tying would be a much more preferable result and look far better than losing, even by the slimmest of margins.
I’ve seen many things disappear in my short time on this earth, real rock music, the guitar solo, true journalism, Reagan Republicans, Pontiac, the Houston Oilers, conservationists that actually cared about the earth instead of political agendas and money, the list goes on. I can now add the tie ball game to that list also.
Winning is great, but I’d much rather tie than lose, because losing is the worst outcome possible.
Jeff Vanderslice
Games ending in a tie have gotten a bad rap over the years. When I was a young athlete just about all of my coaches had a favorite saying – a tie was like kissing your sister – meaning a tie was no good and nobody wanted one. Despite hearing it nearly every game, I never really bought into that concept. Sure, winning was great, but I hated losing more than anything, and to avoid losing, a tie to me seemed a perfectly acceptable alternative. The mindset of the coaches seemed to be that a tie amounted to the same thing as losing, when even as a kid, I knew it wasn’t. In fact it wasn’t half as bad. While it meant you came near to losing, it also meant you almost won. So I considered it a half-success, much better than the alternative of another game in the L column—which is not to say, that, as a coach myself later on in life, that I wouldn’t go for the win instead of a tie if I knew I had a shot. But I still don’t mind a game finishing in a tie, if it means I didn’t lose. To me, 10-0-1 looks a whole lot better than 10-1, it means I’m still undefeated. I might not be untied, but at least I’m unbeaten.
So I still don’t get why most everybody in sport loathes ties so much. Some sports hate ties so much that they did away with them, like the NFL and NCAA football did when they instituted overtime for games ending in a tie in the regular season. Soccer games end in penalty kicks. The NHL got so ridiculous in their effort to do away with the concept of a game ending in a tie that they now award you a point in the standings if you lose in overtime, instead of it counting as a complete loss. Why even bother to have overtime if the loss by the losing team isn’t really a loss? By their very nature, baseball and basketball weren’t designed to end in ties, so they didn’t bother me very much, but for other sports I saw no dishonor at all in tying an opponent. It meant nobody won and nobody lost and you could come back and play again on even terms. It seems to me that when playing a team better than you, an upset win would be great, but tying would be a much more preferable result and look far better than losing, even by the slimmest of margins.
I’ve seen many things disappear in my short time on this earth, real rock music, the guitar solo, true journalism, Reagan Republicans, Pontiac, the Houston Oilers, conservationists that actually cared about the earth instead of political agendas and money, the list goes on. I can now add the tie ball game to that list also.
Winning is great, but I’d much rather tie than lose, because losing is the worst outcome possible.
Jeff Vanderslice
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