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I was thinking, upon hearing a
lot of chatter on the sports radio and TV talk shows,
about ways in which sports would be better.
Rather, I was thinking of things that would make sports
better. I was left to my own devices and composed a list
of things that I believe would help make things more
entertaining to those of us "old school" folks.
Here goes, in no particular order:
* The talking heads are complaining that nobody is
watching men's tennis these days. Hardly surprising
because some of the guys' names are so hard to
pronounce, they sound like they ought to be on a hockey
roster some place. I was not
aware that Roger Federer was No. 1 in the world. And I'm
sure that 99.999 percent of Carroll County didn't know
that, either. I don't even know where Federer is from.
He has one of those names where once you say it, you
aren't sure if you've finished yet.
There are lots of problems in pro tennis (and I used to
follow it as much as I do baseball now). First of all,
the men should go back to wood rackets. Technology has
harmed the game. Now you have these players who are
built for hitting big serves, but have few shot-making
or volleying skills. Player A, whose name I can't
pronounce, whacks a 150 m.p.h. serve off the racket of
Player B and the point is over. Five set matches are
taking about 45 minutes to play anymore.
I remember when John McEnroe played Mats Wilander in a
riveting six-hour, five-set Davis Cup match in St.
Louis. Both of those guys were shotmakers and
strategists, much like the other guys in those days:
Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas and Ivan
Lendl. There are no rivalries anymore.
Second, the money and endorsements are such that a top
100 player can be a wealthy man, even if he gets beat in
the second round of the Gstaad Open.
I would have loved to see McEnroe, in his prime, play
Pete Sampras in his prime, both using wood rackets.
There's a reason pro baseball doesn't use aluminum bats;
tennis should follow that lead. *
Show more baseball on over-the-air national television.
I wish they had a game-of-the-week doubleheader on
Saturdays so we could see someone besides the Cubs,
Braves, Giants and Yankees. * Get
rid of interleague play. That goes without saying.
Interleague play has goofed up the schedule so badly
that Atlanta made its last (and only) visit to
Cincinnati on April 22. That's just wrong. Last year,
some players from Atlanta were disgruntled that they
only got to spend two days in Chicago. Players like the
spoils and flavors of other cities, just like ordinary
travelers. Interleague play only helps big-market teams
with cross-town rivals and and NL teams playing the
Yankees. * Make it easier for
players to stay with one team throughout a career. I
hated that the Titans had to lose Jevon Kearse. He was a
fan favorite in Nashville. Barry Larkin of Cincinnati is
an anachronism. He has spent his entire career as the
Cincinnati shortstop. You may see it with Eddie George,
once he marries, and with Peyton Manning, but the days
where players stay in one uniform for a decade or more
have gone by the boards.
That's where salary caps hurt teams.
* Never show live professional soccer on TV. Ever. Show
it on a cable network where the channel number is high
and the hour is late. Then replace it with baseball
during the daytime hour. I'll make an exception to this
suggestion when it comes to international play, because
the U.S. usually doesn't last long.
* Abolish the BCS in college football. It's been living
on the edge two long. This "fifth" game is nonsense and
the BCS folks know it. It's a way of placating big TV,
big college presidents and anyone else who stands to
make a buck. Have a playoff that filters in eight teams
and have the winner play in the BCS title game and the
losers fill in the remaining BCS bowls for consolation.
Also, cut in half the number of existing bowl games.
There have been cases where teams have finished with
losing records because of bowl losses. What are we
rewarding here? |
