I'm Sold

After watching some of this World Cup, I have to say, I think MORE sports should adopt a penalty kick style resolution to resolving tied playoff contests.

In MLB, if the score remains tied after the bottom of the 12th inning, then the contest should be decided by a rousing game of strikeout. Only players on the field at the end of the game would be eligible, and only the pitchers who last pitched for each team would pitch. Now, strikeout is a game whose rules differ from playground to playground, so to be clear, I'd play a variation where you have your 4 infielders and the pitcher and catcher, the umpire would still call balls and strikes, and each team would get to bat through their line-up, any ball hit and handled by an infielder would be an out, any grounder hit past the infield would be a base hit, along with walks, any flyball hit into the field would be a double, and any home run would be a home run, also to keep things moving, each batter would be allowed a total of 4 foul balls per at bat, a 5th foul would be an automatic out. The team with the most runs wins, with fewest outs being the second tie-breaker, and fewest pitches thrown being the third tie-breaker. No more 14 or 17 or 20 inning games in the playoffs, cause no one wants to see that.

In the NBA, a playoff game tied after 1 overtime will be decided by a game of H-O-R-S-E, again, one of the five players from each team on the floor at the end of the tie would be chosen by their own coach to engage in a game deciding round of H-O-R-S-E. Imagine if in this year's finals instead of a double overtime (unfortunately, only one 1OT game this year's finals, so there wouldn't have been a H-O-R-S-E game, anyway) game you had a game of H-O-R-S-E between Dwayne Wade v. Dirk Nowitski, pretty awesome if you ask me.

In the NFL, if in the playoffs the score remains tied after the first overtime, I think to mix things up, a punt, pass and kick contest between a player designated by the head coach would be in order. Make that odd little skills contest they run for kids into something more meaningful.

In the NHL, oh wait, nevermind, first noone in the USA watches hockey, and secondly, they do the penalty kick thing, too.

That covers the main team sports in the USA, FIFA has shown the way, it's time for our leagues to follow.

(and more seriously, it's long past time that the NFL adopts the NCAA Div I style of OT, much more exciting, and fairer, too)