What's a slaughter rule, and which sports have them?

a slaughter rule is basically a rule that stops a game when one team has so many points more than the other that it would be impossible for the other team to catch up. Baseball is one sport that I can think of that has one.

At one point my dad gave me earrings and pointedly mentioned that the designs on them were fertility symbols.

My mom stuck a kokopelli keychain in my stocking one year but was sensible enough to make clear it wasn't anything passive aggressive, she just thought it was a neat variation on the design. This was long before the little flute playing fertility dude started appearing everywhere.

I am trying to figure out, did that soccer team not have backup players? Like, what if the goalie gets hamstrung in the championship game? Isn't there anybody else who could have filled in?

This is why baseball has 25-man rosters for a game where only 9 people are on the field at a time. And while there are occasionally hilariously poor "backup" plans, it's very rare that a team is caught so far out that there is literally nobody who can fill in at a given spot on the field.

Baseball is one sport that I can think of that has one.

Not at the pro, semi-pro, or even high amateur (i.e., college) level.

My mother gave my brother an african statue for christmas. She told him that it was a fertility doll. A few months later, he and his "friend" had a pregnancy scare (not that my mother knows this). He got rid of it. He tried to give it to me, but I was having none of it.

Is there a slaughter rule in regular baseball?

I know that there are slaughter rules in football and in baseball as played by the kids in one of the local park districts.

I am trying to figure out, did that soccer team not have backup players? Like, what if the goalie gets hamstrung in the championship game? Isn't there anybody else who could have filled in?

They did have a substutute.

I wonder if the sub was just really crappy? and/or she'd never been trained as a goalie?

I think that slaughter rules may be just at the lower levels, so that the kids don't feel bad.

My mother gave my brother an african statue for christmas. She told him that it was a fertility doll. A few months later, he and his "friend" had a pregnancy scare (not that my mother knows this). He got rid of it. He tried to give it to me, but I was having none of it.

Very wise - next thing you know it will be chasing you around with a knife.

I remember doing a research paper on cryonics back in highschool. I don't recall the "acoustic fracturing events" bit, though. Yuck. But even back then, it seemed pretty out there.

I mean, regardless of if science eventually figures out how to cure what killed you, they also have to figure out how to cure death too. I mean, there's plenty of lethal things we currently have a cure for, but they don't mean squat if you die before you can be treated.

And of course, if it's somehow even possible someday, it brings up questions about the soul and whatnot (if you believe in such things.)

Just a mess all around, really.