"Mercy Rule" shows no mercy

Did you hear that Team USA was beaten by Puerto Rico in the second round of the World Baseball Classic? The interesting thing about the game was not that Puerto Rico won - they are a team full of major-leaguers and are very talented. The amazing thing was that the final score was 11-1 in seven innings. No, the final two innings weren’t rained out. It was a “mercy rule” game. You know, when a team has a 10-run lead late in the game. Our best American professional baseball players were “mercy ruled”? How embarrassing is that!

I think the term “mercy rule” is a bit of a misnomer. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have a rule like this for certain competitions, but is it really necessary at the highest levels and should it really be called a “mercy rule”? I think our USA baseball team is talented enough that they could have come up with a couple of good rallies in the final two innings had they been given a chance. They do have some pride and I think some of them might have been humiliated by the seven-inning loss (in some cases, that may not be a bad thing).

Honestly, I can’t remember the last time that I had heard of the “mercy rule” being used. I remember it back when I was playing Little League baseball and church league softball 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, I think the primary reason for the rule was for the sake of time. In community recreation leagues there was a time limit on games and the “mercy rule” helped keep things on schedule. I understand the need to have such a guideline, but should it really be called “mercy rule”? It really doesn’t show mercy at all. It seems to be just a more obvious way to highlight an embarrassing defeat.

When it really comes down to it, showing mercy means that one shows compassionate leniency toward an enemy or a wrongdoer. According to Webster, it is a discretionary power to punish or to spare. It is a withholding of some form of punishment or judgment that was rightly deserved. God showed mercy to us in sending Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins. He withheld judgment for our sins and refrained from issuing the penalty of death that we all rightly deserved. He provided life for us through His Son when we deserved death and hell. I love the verses in Lamentations 3:22, 23 that say, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness”. Showing mercy to others is commanded in Luke 6:36 when the Bible says, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful”. How have you done recently at showing mercy to others that may have “deserved” your wrath?

While I think that our current sports culture has no idea of the true meaning of mercy, maybe we can use a sports situation when the “mercy rule” is applied to share the message of God’s mercy to us. Also, let’s be careful about running up the score. Obviously, you don’t want your players to give less than their best and there are some lopsided competitive situations that might be unavoidable, but we need to be careful about embarrassing an opponent. While I believe that there is an appropriate use of the “mercy rule”, let’s be sensitive to the feelings of the ones who may be on the receiving end of that “mercy”.