Okay, I think we may have dealt with this one before, but I honestly don't
recall the concensus or applicable rules, so I'm going to ask again, since
it came up at this weekend's Harvard/Cornell game.
 
The referees were understandably upset on Friday night when the ice was
suddenly covered with fish during the pre-game introductions, and they were
quite justified in asking the fans not to throw anything else on the ice.
They also issued a warning that if any further foreign objects were thrown
on the ice, they would call a bench minor against Cornell.
 
Well, some yutz in Section D was either late to the game, or just plain
stupid, and threw something right before the second period started anyway.
Cornell gets called for a bench minor, Sancimino serves it, Harvard breaks
the scoreless tie 56 seconds into the penalty, and wins by one goal.
Everybody's pissed, because Cornell stayed in the game with Harvard for 60
minutes, and it's been a LONG time since that happened in the regular
season (and going on four (five?) years since it happened at all).
 
Here's the problem:  What's to stop me from going to Bright Arena at
Harvard next year and throwing something on the ice every few minutes, to
get penalties called against Harvard?  Not that I'm going to do it, but
here's the sticky point - what rule in the book allows the officials to
assume that it was a Cornell fan that threw the foreign object?  If it was
a Harvard fan, there was nothing that either the Cornell team or the
Cornell fans could have done to stop it, and although I'm fairly confident
that it was probably just some idiot sophomore who didn't get there until
after play had started, it *could* have been a Harvard fan.  Gentlemen,
start your rulebooks.
 
So did anybody else also notice that the officials' discussion with
McCutcheon about the bench minor delayed the game about three times as much
as the removal of the offending object did?
 
--
Jeffrey "Beeeej" Anbinder                                [log in to unmask]
Development Assistant, Cornell University      [log in to unmask]
Editor/Novelist/Freelance Writer             [log in to unmask]
DJ, 93.5 WVBR-FM                            http://beeeej.cit.cornell.edu
 
"An artist is never ahead of his time, but most people are far behind
theirs."
                   - Edgard Varese