Published: April 22, 2008 12:01 pm         

When odds are long, you gotta believe

A Japanese high school abandoned a baseball game last week after giving up 66 runs is less than two innings. The starting pitcher had recorded only four outs. Not to be outdone, Union scored a 53-0 win over Eminence. The Bulldogs batted around four times in the first inning and the game was called in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule.

Several college teams have made plans to follow suit next fall by scheduling some cupcakes. The University of Oklahoma will host the Chattanooga Mocs, a team that has gone 0-19 against Division I-A teams in the last 20 years. OU is doing its best to live up to the phrase in their state song, “Where the wins come sweeping down the plains.”

Indiana is scheduled to thump Murray State on Sept. 6 in Bloomington. The Racers had a winning season last year but in the last decade they have only managed 33 wins, hardly a conquest even by Indiana’s standards.

Purdue will have to plead guilty the same weekend when they bring in Northern Colorado as a sacrificial lamb. NC was 1-11 last year. Is this the legacy that Joe Tiller seeks to leave?

My best friend from high school used to be the assistant coach at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, in the ’80s. Denny Crum persuaded Pat Foster to bring his undersized team to Freedom Hall, and I drove to Louisville to be the honorary coach for the night, sitting on the last seat at the end of the bench and cheering on a bunch of guys I’d never met. Lamar lost by 25 and left town with $15,000 in the athletic department’s coffer. Now you know why smaller schools are willing to take their lumps against the giants. Sometimes, it pays to get killed.

I learned that the hard way in college. My NCAA Division 2 team traveled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to play NCAA Division l Middle Tennessee State and the guy I jumped center against was 6-foot-10. When we were introduced, he shook my hand and patted the top of my head. The place erupted in laughter! Then the Blue Raiders erupted for 152 points while limiting us to 45. MTSU was happy with the win, and my coach was happy with the $5,000 check.

Every now and then, the underdog doesn’t follow the script. Remember what happened at Michigan last year? Division I-AA Appalachian State rode into town and squeaked by the Wolverines, 34-32, forcing 109,218 stunned fans to swallow their spit. Which reminds me of something Solomon wrote: “The rich man thinks of his wealth as an impregnable defense” (Proverbs 18:11, NIV).

No one likes to see a lopsided contest, especially when someone gets pummeled so badly that all the drama is drained from the outcome. But when David beats Goliath, we all rejoice in the moment, except for the 109,218 stunned fans in Ann Arbor. The greatest feats are often accomplished by people not smart enough to know they are impossible.

Tony Thomas is a church pastor, a high school basketball coach and author of “A Smidgeon of Religion.” He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com