Things I'd Change - Part I . . .

Sports have always been a part of my life. Not that I'm particularly good at any of them, I just enjoy the competition - watching and participating. Fortunately my children are all fairly athletic and so I've had ample opportunity to attend a lot of events, (and coach quite a few too), but I digress. Let me preface this by saying that I have not fully considered all possible unintended consequences (I do have a life ya' know). Anyway, if anyone with real authority were to ask here's a couple things I'd change;

Basketball - In football,  a player can have any number of penalties called on them during a game; holding, offsides, interference, etc. . If they had a tolerant coach, and teammates, multiple infractions could be incurred and yet they could still play from opening kick-off until final gun. So why are kicking players out of basketball games after committing  5 or 6 fouls? 

Perhaps because I'm a long-time Blazer fan and enjoy watching Greg Oden actually play I'm particularly sensitive to this seeming injustice. So,  I would eliminate the disqualification rule. I would replace it with the following; upon committing the 5th (or 6th) foul, any subsequent foul would be treated similarly to the defensive 3-second technical foul - free throws and possession of the ball. The coach would have to make a decision as to the advantage of leaving a player in a game knowing those were the consequences. It could make close games very interesting with different strategies being employed, as well.

Let's face it, we all know that certain NBA players are treated a bit more fairly than others (ahem,  attention Cavs fans, and you know who you are, do you really believe that LeBron can go nearly 3 and 1/2 quarters without committing a single foul?) Maybe this might level the playing field a bit . . .

Baseball - Okay, I know its sacrosanct to mess with the national pastime, but can we not agree that having "wild card" playoff teams and the winner of the All-Star game getting "Home field" advantage has improved the pro game?  My change is simple. I like to believe its the equivalent to the introduction of the three-point shot in basketball, in that it could really open the game up. So here goes - player hits a long fly ball - if he reaches base before it's caught, he's SAFE! I know you're thinking about it - hmmm . . .

Tennis - This one's easy. Toss out the antiquated, and somewhat stuffy, method of scoring. Nobody gets it anyway. Can you name three people who know the origin of it? Thought so. What if we simply said first one to 4 points wins a game. If it's tied at 3, then the first player to win two consecutive points wins the game. See - easy. I realize  "One - Zip" doesn't quite have the same lilt as "Fifteen - Love", but its a game for Pete's sake, get to the next serve!

That's all for now - please feel free to comment on changes you'd like to see as well. Perhaps we can start a groundswell. Don't they keep telling us that the game belongs to the fans?