I recently had an article come to my attention via Twitter about softball teams resorting to making outs on purpose to shorten games.

I was asked about my thoughts on the situation. Strangely enough, even though I hadn’t been involved in a game like this for a while (as a player, coach, or parent), it came up not long after I was asked the question. After my experience in that game particular game, I stand even more firmly in my original answer.

I believe in respecting your opponent and feel that this is done by giving them your best effort in what you are doing. Not by making “mistakes” you wouldn’t want to make against a better team on purpose so that you can “help” them out.

Maybe I’m just ultra-competitive, but I find it insulting when a team does things they normally wouldn’t do to try to “give” my team outs. I’m not going to learn anything and my team is not going to get better by standing on the field while your team makes a mockery of the game (in my opinion) and gets “careless” on purpose to give away outs. Of course, like anything else, there are probably exceptions to the rule every now and then, but in generally speaking, these are my thoughts.

Having said that, I know that this is a completely personal view on the matter, so I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic. You can leave a comment here, or join the discussion we’re having about this over at Fastpitch World.

How would YOU feel if you were on the losing end of the lopsided score and your opponent did things like this?