on the Simpsons, and Keeping Score

In a short news promo before last night's rerun of the Simpsons, something caught my attention about an upcoming hockey game. The sportscaster said, in her spiel about why the game was worth watching - "Every point counts!"It was a typical phrase, probably used daily in a sports broadcast somewhere around the world, a rhetorical statement not really specific to the game, but a general excitement builder. It made me pause and think, though - Does every point count?In hockey and soccer, yes. Goals are worth a point. In Baseball, yes, runs are worth a point. They matter.In other sports, the singular point is only incidental. There is a possibility that a single point (not several points at once) cannot be scored in basketball, football, and tennis.The 'extra' point in football is the only instance in which a team can add 1 to their tally, and theoretically, they could play a game and score points without ever having the opportunity to add just '1'. Likewise in basketball, the commonest number of points scored with a goal is 2, with the 'free throw' single point only taking place after a foul. If no fouls occur in a game there may never be a single-point opportunity.Why isn't 'one' the base number for a goal in basketball and football? Does the adding of several points for every score make the game somehow more exciting? Do spectators get a greater thrill from larger numbers representing the team's effort at the end of a match?If you can relate to Homer Simpson, the answer is yes. In episode 5FO1 - "The Cartridge Family," the Simpsons attend a soccer match between Mexico and Portugal in which neither team scores, and the game ends 0-0. The scoreless event infuriates the crowd and spawns a riot, eventually leading Homer to purchase a gun for his family's protection.Perhaps the NFL and NBA, in an attempt to avoid crowd anger over low scoring games, decided adding all the extraneous points was the best way to keep guns out of the hands of Homers around the country.The episode is particularly relevant this week as states around the country enact new gun control laws - Maryland is expected to sign some of the strictest measures in the United States next week.The Simpsons episode originally aired almost 20 years ago, but hasn't lost a bit of its humor in two decades."A gun is not a weapon, Marge, it's a tool. Like a butcher knife or a harpoon, or, uh... or an alligator. You just need more education on the subject. Tell you what - you come with me to an NRA meeting, and if you still don't think guns are great, we'll argue some more."http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/scripts/cartridge-family