Boy, if conspiracies are reaching down into Little League, I guess they're everywhere:
Mike Burvan, the veteran manager of the Dyer Little League team that won last year's state title and hoped to win it again this year, said that's just plain wrong.Burvan was hopping mad Monday, a day after Dyer was eliminated from the competition at the conclusion of round-robin preliminaries.He accused Lebanon of throwing its final game in those preliminaries and not trying to score against New Castle in order to ensure a spot in Monday's semifinals.Winning by losing?
If I understand Burvan's conspiracy theory, it goes something like this: Dyer won the tournament last year and was considered the team to beat this year. When Lebanon beat Dyer, that left three teams -- those two plus New Castle -- with 2-1 records. Under the tie-breaker rules of the round robin tournament, New Castle and Lebanon could keep state champion Dyer out of the final if New Castle had the best runs-per-inning numbers, so Lebanon threw the game to get New Castle in and keep Dwyer out.
Let's assume the coach is right. If the object is to win in the end, and the best way to do that is to lose somewhere along the way in order to keep a stronger team out, is that going against the rules or using the rules to get your ultimate objective? Is the point to win or to do your best, whether you win or lose? Just wondering.
