Ted Lasso did not win over the media in his introductory press conference as the surprising new coach of A.F.C. Richmond, but the fictional coach from the television show impressed me with one sentence.

“Back where I’m from, you try to end a game in a tie, well, that might as well be the first sign of the apocalypse,” Lasso said to a group of European reporters who call soccer “football.”

Other than Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who apparently really seems to enjoy a good sister kisser, nobody likes a tie. They are insulting to the players who left everything they have on the field only to leave it the same way the entered.

It is insulting to the fans who spent good money and invested a full day to watch a game, only to see it end without a winner.

When LaFleur and the Packers played for a tie against the Dallas Cowboys last season, fans from both teams were offended. They did not know how to handle it.

Was it a good thing? Was it bad? Is the world coming to an end?

Those were all good questions because, as Lasso said later in the series, “If God wanted games to end in a tie, She wouldn’t have invented numbers.”

Those in charge of high school baseball in Montana, however, have apparently not watched the great show “Ted Lasso.” They allow for games to finish in a tie. They do in junior varsity games, at least.

Early this season, Butte High’s junior varsity team traveled to Bozeman and played the Hawks to a 4-all tie. Making things worse is that fact that the game was the first in the history of the Bozeman High program because the JV game was played before the varsity contest.

What an anticlimactic way to open a program.

That tie was not the result of two teams playing inning after inning without being able to break the deadlock. It was not because they were playing at a stadium without lights and they ran out of daylight.

No, the game was called after five innings by the time limit, which completely goes against everything baseball is supposed to be about.

As the late Earl Weaver famously said, “You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”

Weaver would certainly not approve of how junior varsity baseball and softball are handled in Montana. When the JV games are played before the varsity, they must play those games under on a strict time limit. No new inning can start 1 hour, 45 minutes after the beginning of the JV game.

That rule is right there in the Montana High School Association handbook. (Note: the MHSA’s job is to enforce the rules, not necessarily make them. So, I do not blame the MHSA.)

For starters, it is just silly to play the junior varsity game before the varsity game in springtime in the Rocky Mountains.

As they say in Montana, if you do not like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. That is why the varsity game should always be played first. Get the game that counts in standings in first before attempting the one that does not.

We have seen too many times over the years where the junior varsity softball game ends just in time for rain or snow to wipe out the varsity game. It has happened many times during the four seasons of Montana high school baseball, too.

We can live with the JV game getting rained out. Stopping a game in nice weather because of a time limit is just hard to swallow.

The argument for playing the JV games first is to have the varsity games played closer to “primetime,” so more people can attend. That is fine for sports played indoors, but it is not for spring sports in Montana.

Also, the game is not about the spectators. It is about the players.

The time limit probably doesn’t impact softball as much as baseball because softball is a much faster game. There isn’t as much spitting and scratching in softball. There also isn’t as many long pitching changes and pickoff attempts.

The games are similar in a lot of ways, but still very different.

One similarity is that the junior varsity softball and baseball players are all getting the shaft when put under a time limit. Players in both sports need game experience to develop their skills, and you cannot easily simulate that experience in practice.

I suspect one of the most difficult jobs of a coach in softball and baseball is to get playing time for all the players. Only nine batters bat in the lineup, and they generally only play a couple of games each week during the high school season.

It is harder to substitute players in softball and baseball than it is in other sports, where substitutions are pretty much unlimited.

In softball and baseball, it is tough for the players regularly in the starting lineup to get into any routine or groove. It is impossible for the players who are not. This is not as big of an issue in American Legion baseball because they play more times each week, and they usually play doubleheaders.

Every right-thinking coach in the world would like to have more game action to develop the players.

But in softball and baseball, we too often have a mindset of “just get the JV game over with already.” That is not the case in other sports. In volleyball, they play the subvarsity matches until the conclusion.

In basketball, they would play as many overtimes as needed to find a winner in each subvarsity game. In baseball and softball, the subvarsity games are basically an afterthought.

Good coaches know the value of a subvarsity program. That is quite literally where the future of the varsity program is developed. It is where the players improve on their skills and learn the system the coaches put in place.

The good varsity coaches watch those subvarsity games and evaluate their up-and-coming players. Then they help them improve their game so they might be able to contribute to the varsity team down the road.

One Class AA coach talked to me about this recently, and he said as long as he is making decisions, he will always play the junior varsity game second. And, he said, he will make sure the game is played until it is over.

“If we have lights,” he said, “we’ll play all night if we have to.”

You better believe that is a coach who is going to consistently have a winning varsity team.

What is it about baseball that so many people want to speed it up? Major League Baseball has implemented several new rules to speed up the game in recent years, and most of them stink.

I can reluctantly get behind the pitch clock, but the rest of the rules should be wiped off the book. There is nothing wrong with the sport that has been great since the 1800s.

Plus, the solution to a game being too long for a fan is simple. Just go home or turn the channel on your television. The same can be said for the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings who think the high school games are too long or the weather is too cold.

They can always go home and watch something on television instead.

If that is the route you take, I suggest you watch Ted Lasso on Apple TV. If nothing else, Lasso will fill you in on why ties in sports are just flat-out wrong.

I’m sure he would feel the same way about time limits.

— Bill Foley, who firmly believes the creators of Ted Lasso copied the persona of legendary Montana Tech football coach Bob Green, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.