'You Asked For It: Frank Deford's Top 12 List'
If you click on the title above it will take you to the NPR link where you can listen too. I thought it was pretty cool, particularly because I agreed with most of his top 12. The topics are various sports related suppositions that mostly hit the 'ball outta the park'. For instance, he talks about not allowing viewers to make judgement calls on golf 'penalties'. I totally agree. Have you ever noticed how articles that agree with our own viewpoints are infinitely more interesting then those that counter our beliefs??
In the article, Frank Deford talks about how the dumping of Gatorade buckets on coaches has gotten really old, I could not agree more. Somehow I get this picture in my head of Abraham Lincoln getting a Gatorade shower after the Lee surrender at Appomattox. What!?! No, it's worse than even that, it is just so predictable and boring that I want to turn the TV off as soon as I see the players lurking around the bucket. It was probably tolerably funny the very first time...but enough already!
For the rest of Deford's top 12, you have to hear the article. I don't want to steal his thunder. Be sure to comment to me on the ones you disagree with or feel strongly about.
One Sports Top 20 he did not talk about was the 'Designated Hitter' rule. I read a recent article on the desire by many in Baseball circles to have the Designated Hitter rule migrated to the National League.
Please No! Emphatically! I love National League baseball, I love the traditions. I love the strategy. I love pitcher against batter...and I love the coaching decisions that have to be made in the National League, many of which are wrapped around dealing with the pitcher as batter. Other sports like Baseball and Football change their rules yearly to attempt to squeeze more and more offense onto the 'show'. With all the prissy rules in Football, soon the Quarterback will just walk from end-zone to end-zone on each play. Hockey stages brutal street-fights on the ice just to keep it's viewership, one step above WWF. But baseball rules as they are today go back to the late 19th century...and they are as exciting and thrilling now as they were back then. I love that baseball remains the one American sport with a real history...that batting .333 today is as difficult as it was back in 1930. I love that pitch-hitting for a pitcher in a tight low-scoring game is the same for Clayton Kershaw in 2013 as it was for Sandy Koufax in 1963.
The American League can keep the DH....I don't care really. If all the aging players who can no longer run, throw, and catch need a place to play ball, there is a whole league out there for them. If MLB wants it to be the same in both leagues...go for it....they can get rid of the DH in the American League and send those old out of shape players packing. But for the sake of the game and all things precious and worth keeping in these United States, please leave the Designated Hitter rule out of the National League!
Cheers,nca
