Americans Must Loosen
Their Ties

Daily News Sports
07/14/2002

It seemed like a rational, merciful completion to an exciting exhibition. Bud Selig ended his All-Star Game on Tuesday in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings, a move warranted by both circumstance and reason.

The pitchers, valuable commodities to their teams, could not be overtaxed. Selig apologized profusely, unnecessarily. He practically begged forgiveness, to no avail.

Fans jeered. Commentators hissed. And the whole strange episode begged the question: Why do Americans hate ties so much?

"Part of the appeal of sport is that it's cut and dry, there are winners and losers," said Dr. Jonathan F. Katz, a clinical sports psychologist in Manhattan. "With 9/11, with the economy, here was one thing we could look to for a distraction that we could count on."

And then, we couldn't. No win. No loss. A tie. It was a former Oklahoma football player, Darrell Royal, who first quipped, "A tie is like kissing your sister."

Katz said that this famous phrase was a typical male reaction, equating sports with sex. Men get angrier about ties than women. A tie amounts to no gain, and therefore to no conquest.

Blasphemous as it sounds, baseball probably could use more ties, and fewer extra innings. Its games are already too long. Most fans start leaving the stadium before the bottom of the ninth, anyway. Since there are 162 games in the regular season, a few ties would hardly cause a ripple in the standings.

But that's not the tradition, and not the assumed contract the sport currently extends to its fans. A victory or a loss is guaranteed, unless a climatic phenomenon undoes a climactic finish.

The first extra-innings game, according to the Hall of Fame library in Cooperstown, was played on April 29, 1876, between the Boston Red Stockings and the Hartford Dark Blues. Before that, for five seasons in the National Association, tie games had been halted and ignored in the standings.

Since then, there have been several games that lasted more than 20 innings, and more than five hours. Baseball is willing to extend its regular-season games forever, theoretically, in order to break a tie.

Other sports have also added rules to eliminate or minimize those dastardly ties. College and pro football teams now play overtime. So do NHL teams, with a no-loss incentive to maximize offense in the extra period.

Intolerance for ties is uniquely imbedded in our free market culture.

In November 1978, a touring basketball team from China faced Rutgers in an exhibition at the Garden. When the second half ended in an 84-84 tie, the Chinese left for their bus and refused to play overtime. Rutgers players fumed, but the China coach said it was a perfect ending, a demonstration of "friendship first, competition second."

Two years later, a touring Portuguese team did the same thing to Bucknell, with the same outraged reaction from its hosts.

Americans demand their winners, their losers.

"People don't like ambiguity," said Dr. Richard Lustberg, a sports psychologist from Long Island. "They don't want things unresolved. Living with open-ended situations leaves them with anxiety."

Lustberg, who discusses sports issues on his Web site, psychologyofsports.com, is particularly impatient with the hostile public reaction to the All-Star Game.

"I want to know which person got colon cancer from a 7-7 tie," Lustberg said. "This remains entertainment. This is not the Taliban or Afghanistan. People are bringing their own emotional issues to the table. They would like the environment to change so that they're more comfortable. Their attitude is, 'Baseball should cater to me.'"

In Milwaukee last week, the fans had their salad, their entree, their desert. They demanded the cheese plate, a 12th inning. "Let them play! Let them play!" they shouted.

Selig knew he could not win this one. Already, Major League Baseball is viewed as an uncaring institution preparing to walk out on its supporters again, by way of the negotiating table. Here was a symbolic opportunity for the players and owners to prove their commitment by playing indefinitely into the night.

And then, albeit for good reason, everybody walked off the field.

'This is not the way I wanted this to end," Selig said. "I'm saddened by it. I was out of options."

If this were Italy or Brazil — or any other country trained in the art of the well-played draw — the fans might have gone home with their tie and figured they had seen a wonderful game.

Not here, though, where baseball fans have a deal. We hate ties, even worse than losses.

E-mail: fjbondy@netscape.net

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Original Publication Date: 7/14/02