RandBall: Two sports, two routs, two reactions

September 4, 2017 at 3:56AM

Two local final scores jumped off the page Saturday, with reactions illustrating a difference between how we view baseball and football. The first was the Twins' 17-0 rout of the Royals. The second was St. John's drubbing St. Scholastica 98-0 in Division III football.

Though baseball has some "unwritten rules," it is generally not considered distasteful to keep scoring runs in a lopsided game. Hitters still need to swing the bat. And there's still no clock, so the losing team still has to record outs to finish things. The final score was gaudy, but nobody would accuse the Twins of running up the score.

In football, there is the impression that the team on the winning side can empty its bench and call only running plays to limit the score inflation. To that end, St. John's "only" scored 35 points in the second half. Still, the St. John's score made national headlines with an undercurrent that poor sportsmanship was in play.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. mrand@startribune.com.

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