MERCY, MERCY … as an avid high school football fan, I was disappointed to see “running time” instituted last Saturday night in the Northern California Regional Open championship game as perennial prep powerhouse De La Salle of Concord was crushing Folsom High School … “running time” is football’s version of baseball’s “mercy rule” and basically tells the losing team it is so lousy there’s no chance of a comeback and let’s just get this game over with as quickly as possible so everyone can go home and no one gets hurt …

It’s humiliating and disrespectful and contrary to the true spirit of competition … it basically told the kids from Folsom, who had annihilated all comers while racing to a 14-0 record, that they had no business being on the same field with the likes of De La Salle … that while their spirited, never-say-die efforts were perhaps commendable, in the final analysis, they were simply pitiful …

They may as well have just turned off the scoreboard to avoid having anyone’s feelings bruised, or maybe just have a few of the De La Salle kids cross over and play for Folsom for a while to even things out … it’s time to scrap this silly “running time” concept and let the chips fall where they may … I’m sure the kids on both sides of the ball can handle any final score just fine …

FROZEN FUN … last week in my latest Pulitzer-quality exposé, I wrote of the city of Davis’ policy of making potential firefighters wait in line all night for a chance to take a two-hour exam for positions that are not even open at this point … I wondered out loud if this “first come/first served” policy was the best way to hire for such a critical public safety position … turns out my friend Christine had a substantially different take on the situation …

“These are young people,” she begins …”I think they kind of like proving they can rough it. When I went by they all seemed to be having a good time. I didn’t see an unhappy face in the bunch. I think the city would be depriving them of a fun time if they changed the procedure.” … hey, I’m not worried about the people in line … they were, indeed, ready for whatever Mother Nature or the city of Davis might throw at them … but I am concerned about those who weren’t there but who might make excellent firefighters …

I wasn’t aware that “first come/first served” has proved to be the best way to scare up outstanding candidates for employment …. if it is, let’s use it for all city positions, including the City Council … instead of having an election where anyone and everyone can run, let’s limit the ballot to the first five people who turn in their papers to the city clerk’s office, even if they have to stand in line for a week to do so …

LET THE PEOPLE VOTE … given that the new downtown arena to house the Sacramento Kings is projected to cost $448 million, it’s a mystery to me why former NBA star turned mayor Kevin Johnson is so dead set against letting his people vote on the project … I hope the Kings stay around forever and I hope they get the most elegant facility money can buy, but if the good citizens of Sacramento don’t want to spend the money, they shouldn’t have to …

MATH GENIUS … so, I was reading a major metropolitan newspaper out of New York City a few weeks back when I came across the story of a golfer, ranked No. 8 in the world, whose goal, not surprisingly, was to be No. 1 … turns out he had just won a golf tournament and advanced to No. 4 in the world, which was described as “halfway to his goal” … for a millisecond that sounded right, even if it’s clearly wrong … as any second-grader can tell you, “4” is not the halfway point between “8” and “1” … but maybe this golfer’s real goal was to be Number Zero in the world …

CHANGE OF TERMINOLOGY … after the various scandals infecting major college football this fall, can we at least stop using that overworked phrase “student-athlete” and flip it around to the much more accurate “athlete-student”? … since a stunning percentage of major college football and basketball players fail to graduate, putting the word “student” first makes no sense at all … last time I checked, it was the coaches who were recruiting these kids, not the professors …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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