Fourteen for ’14

Been a long time since I put a post together.  Not sure where the time went but thought that the end of 2013 was a good time to reengage with this.  So here goes with 14 thoughts for 2014.  In no particular order, here they are:

1. Turning 55 — biggest event of the year was hitting the “double nickel” birthday in late November.  While I thought that it would hit me in the same way that turning 50 did (i.e., wow I am really a middle-aged guy now), it didn’t.  I feel good and am generally happy with where my life is right now (happy marriage, generally satisfied professionally, kids seem to moving ahead with their lives, extended family doing okay, etc).
2. Teaching Revelations — I have spent the year teaching college full-time (four courses a semester with about 100 students or so), so I have a number of thoughts about this (probably more than I can fit here).  Bottom line is that the students at the top are the same students at the top when I was a student in the 1970s.  They are conscientious, intellectually curious and focused on the task at hand.  The students at the bottom are also the same students that dwelt there way back when and for the same reasons (the opposite characteristics of the top students — lazy, unfocused and not curious).  The problem is that, unlike when I was a college student, there are not very many students in the middle.  That is, I have a bi-modal distribution of students, which makes it quite tough to teach.  Do I aim at the top and leave the bottom behind or do I aim at the bottom and bore the top to tears?  Tough to know what to do, isn’t it?
3. Yoga —  I have really enjoyed doing yoga this year and have found it a great way to increase flexibility and reduce stress.  I particularly enjoy the “savasana” (the relaxation exercise at the end of the practice), which ironically is often the part of the class that many people pack up and leave before.  It kind of defeats the purpose of the yoga practice, doesn’t it?
4. Baseball —  As a lifelong NY Yankees‘ fan, it pains me to say this, but I actually was glad that the Red Sox won the World Series. I had hoped that the Yankees could learn that a winning team can be put together without breaking the bank and signing over the hill players for a ton of dough.  Yet they seem not to have gotten this lesson and will be destined to be a mediocre expensive team yet again next year.
5. Sportscasting — Why are there so many bad sportscasters out there?  You would think that given the sports crazy society we live in that there would be a demand for quality people on the sidelines and in the booth, but if someone says “scoring the basketball” again I will scream!  Let’s hope that John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman exit stage left and make room for some decent new talent there as well.
6. Tattoos — I know that I am an officially an old fart with this comment, but I still don’t get tattoos, especially the cover the arms and the neck style that so many professional athletes have.  What’s the point, really?  You are going to need to get them removed at some point when they sag and fade, aren’t you?
7. The Weather Channel — I like weather.  I like to follow it and like the statistics about it and used to love watching The Weather Channel to get my fix.  However, watching it now is like watching a train wreck.  We don’t get the weather each day, we get the coming of the apocalypse.  Why can’t you just broadcast the weather and ditch the hyperbole?  Do we really need to name winter storms?  Don’t think so….
8. Master of Sex — My wife thinks that the new Showtime drama about William Masters and Virginia Johnson appeals to my prurient interest, but I disagree.  This is one of the best shows on television, with good writing, well thought out real characters and yes some sex to boot.  Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen are terrific as the leads, but there is a good supporting cast as well.  This has replaced Boardwalk Empire as my favorite cable drama (that show got way too gory for my tastes).
9. The New York Times — I love the Times and have since I started getting it every day in the 1970s while a student, but I am a little concerned about the continued exodus of good writers from it.  This year David Pogue, the tech writer par excellant, left to go to Yahoo to do his thing there.  Too bad as I loved his “state of the art” column in the Times and probably won’t follow him to Yahoo.  Let’s hope they don’t lose too many other quality writers.
10. Public Radio — I am so happy that I can get good public radio stations from other areas to listen to on a regular basis.  I now have the WBUR (Boston) app on my phone and can get WNNZ (Amherst) in my car, so I don’t have to listen to our local station and its now almost continuous fundraising appeals.  What other station would announce its February fund drive in mid-December?  No other station, that’s who.
11. Tennis — I am now playing tennis year round two or three times a week and am enjoying it more than ever.  I think I have figured out that the reason that so many people play tennis well into their 60s and 70s and even 80s is because it’s a fun game that can be adapted as you age.  You may run a little slower and not get to shots you might have once upon a time, but that’s where the brain comes in and makes adjustments.  I also love the fact that our 7 am tennis group is like a big family that cares for each other in good times and in bad.
12. Friends — As I wrote during the summer, we have reconnected with lots of old friends this year, and it has made me realize that our lives might be short but they can be rich as well.  I hope that in the coming years I will be able to be a better friend to all.
13. Family — In addition to realizing the blessing of friends, I also know that I am lucky to have a good and supportive family who loves me even if I have the occasionally screw-up.  Let’s hope that we can continue to support each other in the weeks and years ahead.
14. 2014 — My wish to all is for a happy and peaceful year ahead.

New York Sports Fan

English: Cap logo of the New York Yankees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For as long as I can remember I have been a big sports fan.  I think I inherited this love of sports from my dad, who took me to games when I was little and seemed really into it.  He wasn’t much of an athlete himself (except for golf in latter years, which I think was more of social thing than anything else), but boy was he a big fan.  We lived in Rochester, New York, which really didn’t have any major professional sports teams, unless you count pro soccer or lacrosse, so he was an especially big fan of the New York professional sports teams, namely the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants.  Even when I was became an adult and left home and raised a family of my own, I would come home and sit in front of the television and watch games with my father.

When he was in his mid-60s and needed a quadruple bypass operation, and my sister and I both came home to be with him and my mother.  I remember sitting in the tv room with him watching some sporting event and trying to engage him in a conversation about the operation and his hopes/fears about it.  Instead, we watched the game, and he said that mom knew where all the legal documents were in case anything happened to him during the operation, but we didn’t talk much more about the operation or anything else for that matter, just two guys watching a game together.  Ironically, when he died a few years latter of complications from a lung infection, his last night at home was during the 2000 Subway Series, and we had a nice chat about our beloved Yankees over the phone.  Little did either of know that it was to be the last time we would talk about our love of sports.

This year doesn’t look to be a good one for New York sports.  The Giants faded during the end of the regular season and missed the playoffs and look to rebuild next year.  The Yankees, even with a healthy Derek Jeter, seem old and outgunned by the other teams in the AL East.  The Knicks, who started strong, are also old and one-dimensional with Carmelo Anthony taking the bulk of the load.  The Rangers were hurt by the strike and don’t seem to be jelling very well, especially on the power play.

Nevertheless, even in the bad years for New York sports (and there were lots of them), I still remember watching the games with my dad and enjoying the time together, even as we watched mostly in silence, sharing a silent bond.  I miss those days.

He’s Back…..

After a hiatus of about six weeks, I decided that I needed to get back on the saddle and do a little blogging, so here goes.  Here’s what’s on my mind these days:

(1) Spain — had a wonderful two week trip to Spain with my wife and daughters at the end of December and beginning of January to visit our former AFS exchange student and her family outside of Madrid (where we were treated so wonderfully) and see the sights.  Highlights were as follows:

• Granada — this city in Andalusia is a beautiful example of Moorish architecture and the Al-Hambra, the medieval Islamic castle, is one of the most spectacular buildings I have ever seen.  It was especially beautiful surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains which sported a fresh coating of  snow.

• Toledo — Another example of mostly well-preserved 1000 year old buildings and the confluence of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  Loved walking around the cobble-stoned streets and absorbing the sights and smells.

• Seville — Despite a stomach bug that prevented me from eating 12 grapes at midnight (the Spanish custom for good luck in the New Year), the other large city in SW Spain was quite a contrast to Grenada with its more modern feel and wide flat boulevards.  The holidays lights and laser light show in front of the City Hall were spectacular, as were the royal palace (the Alcazar) and the art museum.  My wife and daughters loved walking all around the city, especially in the early evening as is the Spanish custom.

• Passat TDI — We rented a six-speed Passat turbo-diesel and had a ball with it!  It gets about 50 mpg and it really books.  Despite a dispute with the rental car company about a scratched bumper that I now dealing with, it was a great experience to drive a fun economical car like this.

(2) Teaching — After a month away from teaching I am now fully back in the classroom teaching four classes.  While I love teaching, I think that four classes, especially two new ones (Law and Econ and Bureaucratic Politics) may be a bit much.  Will keep you posted if I have time to do so!!

(3) Superbowl XLVII — Although my beloved Giants were not part of the post-season this year, I still managed to have fun watching the Ravens and the 49ers play in the Superbowl, especially since the game seemed to actually be quite compelling after the blackout.  I think that Beyonce should bring her own power source next time…

(4) Public Radio Rant — My local station is once again fundraising and now it seems like they spend a month doing “pre-fundraising” and a month doing “post-fundraising” so that most of the year is spent “schnoring” for money.  It’s really annoying and I don’t like it.  So there.

(5) New Blogger — My good friend Dan Ornstein is blogging regularly for a new on-line Israeli newspaper (The Times of Israel) and is worth a read at — http://bit.ly/WzdS1R.

Memories of My Father, Public Menorahs, Fiscal Cliff and a Few Other Friday Reflections

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted anything and thought it was time to do so.  A bunch of somewhat random thoughts for today:

(1) My father — According to the Jewish calendar, this weekend marks the “yartzeit” (anniversary of the death) of my father, who died on December 22, 2000.  It’s hard to believe that he’s been gone that long and that he missed the birth of two grandchildren and the maturation of two others.  I think of him often and wonder if he would be happy with where his children have ended up and what his grandchildren have done.  Knowing my dad, I think he would be proud of us and our children and supportive of whatever we decided to do.  While like many of us, we struggle to carve out our own identities, especially sons of high achieving fathers, I am proud of what I have been able to take from my father, especially his generosity of spirit and ability to make those around him better.

English: President Jimmy Carter at Lafayette Park (D.C.) Hanukkah menorah lighting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(2) Public Menorahs — I got a call today from the office of the local Chabad office asking me to contribute to their Hanukkah menorah lighting on Sunday, and am glad it went to voicemail.  I am a proud and observant Jew (in a liberal fashion), but I not happy that we have public menorahs.

First and foremost, Hanukkah is a minor holiday that most Americans would never hear about (cf. with Sukkot or Shavuot, two important harvest festivals that even many Jews don’t observe) but for the fact that it is in December and is close to the 800 pound gorilla of American holidays, Christmas.  I like Hanukkah.  I like cooking latkes and eating donuts.  I like exchanging gifts.  But it’s not a major holiday and having a large menorah sitting in a parking lot makes it seem that way.

Second, I don’t like public Christmas trees either.  I think that we should have freedom of and from religion.  If a church wants to have a tree or a creche on its property, I think that’s great, but I don’t like that we have one in the public square.  Having a menorah and a tree doesn’t solve the issue, it merely disenfranchises everyone who isn’t Christian or Jewish.

(3) The Fiscal Cliff — While there’s too much brinksmanship here for my taste, I do think that there will be a deal done soon and it will have higher top tax rates and some kind of entitlement reform.  I also think that the stock market will go up significantly before year end if it’s done.  Let’s hope!

New York Knicks logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(4) The New York Knicks — Although I have been a Knicks’ fan for many years, my attention to them has waned, as they have gone through a number of really mediocre seasons.  Yet, this year they seem to really have a wonderful team.  Last night they showed that, even with their best player, Carmelo Anthony, on the bench with a cut finger, they can beat one of the best teams in the league, the Miami Heat, with a combination of hustle and teamwork.  Their coach, Mike Woodson, holds the players accountable and this is producing winning basketball.  My Duke Blue Devils are doing well too.  This all makes up for the lack on an NHL season….

(5) College Freshman — I am teaching introductory economics at a local college and this semester I have a class mostly full of freshman.  While I am quite pleased with the efforts of most of them, some of these students should not be in the classroom.  It’s not that they are misbehaving or being distracting to others, it’s that they are disengaged from the learning enterprise.  I have one student who is basically failing, who I had to convince that he might need to miss a sports’ practice in order to go to tutoring so he might pass the class.  YIKES!

(6) Separation — A couple we know just announced that they are separating after five years of marriage.  They got married in their late forties and have no children, but I can’t help but feel really sad about this.  I hope that we will remain friends with both of them, although I think it is hard not to take sides in a case like this.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Hanukkah (privately!).

Lech Lecha and Other Thoughts for a Friday

Molnár József: Ábrahám kiköltözése (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several thoughts for the end of a very busy week:

(1) This weekend will be the 41st anniversary of my bar-mitzvah (yikes, how did that happen?) and the part of the Torah that I read (in those days we read not chanted from the Torah) was Lech Lecha, from the early part of the book of Genesis.  Short summary of the portion is that God calls Abram (his name before he became Abraham) to go forth from his home in Haran (in Assyria, present-day Turkey) to the “promised land” of Canaan, where he will be a “great nation”.  While there are other things going on in the portion as well (circumcision among them), the “lech lecha” (going forth) part is the part that has always been central to me.  It’s always interesting to note how different I approach going forth and taking risks as a middle-aged man and not as a young teen.  While taking risks and leaving the safety of a sure thing is hard no matter how old you are, somehow I have managed to survive despite taking several “journeys” along the way.  I hope that to continue to my path forward and to continue to take risks, no matter how old I am!

(2) As I look out the window and see many bare trees (whose fallen leaves I spent three hours raking yesterday — ugh!), I think about how, while I love to see the bright colors of fall, there is a certain symmetry to the seasons, which makes me appreciate each one even more.  Gotta put the bike away soon (did 25 miles outside today with my friend Yossi) and get the skis out!

(3) Anybody sick of the election yet?  While I clearly have a preference in the direction I will go, I have not been thrilled with the lack of specifics on either side of the political divide.  I hope that whoever is elected in two weeks, that we start to grapple with some of the long-term challenges we face and not merely spend four years kicking the can down the road and handing our children an even more difficult set of challenges.

(4) I hope that the NHL lockout gets settled soon, so I can actually be following all four major sports at once, although my passion for baseball is waning right given the lack of beloved Yankees in the fall classic.  Looking forward to college basketball starting soon.  Go Duke!

Have a wonderful weekend all and Shabbat Shalom to my Jewish friends and family.

Olympic Fever

While driving home from my morning tennis game this morning I happened to catch Frank Deford‘s weekly NPR commentary on sports.  Deford, whose work I have been following since I was in high school and he was a Sports Illustrated columnist, talks about how the Olympics are different because for most Olympic athletes the games are not about winning but about “medaling” (i.e., taking any medal not just the gold one).  He contrasted the Olympics to other sports where, to quote the late great Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Is this indeed the case?  Are the Olympics really less about winning and more about participating and coming close to winning?  If I am from a third world country and one of a handful of athletes to even qualify for the Olympics, this is a perhaps the case, but if I am from the US or China or Germany or another relatively wealthy country, do I really accept this?  Not so sure I do, for the expectations in those countries is so much higher that in other less affluent places.

While I, like most people, do root for the underdog and would love to see someone from a small poor country do well in London in the next two weeks, I also want to see a high level of competition and will, also like most people, want to see Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte dueling for the gold medal and Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic  battle for the gold.  Just let someone else win the archery gold medal….:)

Let the games begin!

He’s baaaaaaaack!

After a longer than usual pause between posts to deal with a number of personal and professional things (nearly all of them good), I wanted to give my loyal readers some things to chew on on this rainy May Tuesday in Upstate New York.

(1) ACL ruptures — Not the most pleasant topic to lead off with, but I thought that it was a timely one given that my younger daughter had the reconstructive surgery last week and professional athletes Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, Mariano Rivera and Baron Davis all tore theirs in the last ten days.  What makes this innocuous little ligament behind the knee so fragile and subject to tears?  No one is exactly sure why ACL ruptures are so endemic, especially among young women (it seems like half of my daughter’s Ultimate Frisbee team have torn it and had their knees reconstructed), but there are many theories including the bigger faster bodies take more of a toll on the less robust knees.  For more on this injury and rehab, see the really nice article by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons here.

(2) Superstitions and Fears — Having survived last month’s Friday the 13th with nary a care, I sometimes wonder why humans are so superstitious about so many things.  Is it an attempt to deal with the randomness of the world in a way that makes sense (in other words, s*&t happens and superstitions are the way we try and deal with it)?  Or is it something more primitive like the obelisk in the 2001 A Space Odyssey that the monkeys dance around?  I do know that, while I don’t subscribe to many of the superstitions like those involving Friday the 13th (Paraskavedekatriaphobia), a  black cat (Ailurophobia)  or walking under a ladder (ambulosubscalaphobia), I do sometimes fear that I will fail at an activity, like my tennis serve.  And yet, this fear of failure often becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.  Yes, Virginia, it is often all in your head….

(3) Spring Baseball — If the baseball playoffs were held today, the Washington DC area would be very happy with both the Orioles and the Nationals atop their respective divisions.  Alas, the baseball playoffs are not held in May, but in October when the long distance runners will win the marathon and not the “rabbits” who have gone out to an early lead in the race.  That having been said, however, a number of the quality teams from the last several years (Phillies, Red Sox, Giants, Angels) look pretty bad nearly 20% into the new season, and several of them may not make the playoffs if they don’t turn things around by the time that summer really starts in six weeks.  The Red Sox and Phillies, in particular, have gotten old very fast and, even with a couple of winning streaks, they are in dangerous territory.

(4) It’s the Economy Stupid — Now that it looks like a Romney-Obama race, I am hopeful that we will have a substantive debate on the issues with both campaigns dealing with their plans for the future and strong, well-thought out platforms that have little rhetoric and lots of substance.  If you believe that will be the case, I have a bridge that I would like to sell you for cash (small bills only, please!).  Seriously, I am not sure that I can survive six more months of hand to hand combat with nothing but lots of money spent on advertisements to show for it.  Gentlemen, we cannot solve both the cyclical post-recession need to grow the economy and the long-term structural problems by either raising taxes or cutting spending.  WE NEED TO BOTH RAISE TAXES AND CUT SPENDING!!

(5) The Demise of Dewey and LeBouef — The imminent demise of the old line law firm, Dewey and LeBouef, is just one more symptom of an ever-changing market for legal services.  While our society will always need lawyers to help protect us from ourselves and  each other, it is clear that the billing by hour model is gradually going to be replaced by the “value added” model, where lawyers will charge for their added value to the process, not just how long it takes to do a particular task.  This is the way most other professionals charge for their time (e.g., doctors, accountants, architects, etc), and lawyers will eventually get there, though it may take some time to do so.  In the meantime, be prepared for more dislocation in the market and a rough time for young lawyers entering the market.

Lots more to write about soon, but that’s enough for today!!  Enjoy.

March Madness?

Although I will touch on the NCAA basketball tournament, I thought that I would get at some other items of “March Madness” in this post.

Item #1 — Is it just me or is it totally weird that we have just had a week of summer weather in mid-March and that the trees and the animals (including us) are really confused?  While a week of really warm weather does not provide irrefutable evidence for global warming, it is part of a pattern of ever greater vacillations from “normal” season variations.  In other words, we have always had freaky weather from time to time but not all the time.  Now it seems like extreme weather is the new normal, and while I like warmer weather in March, it’s somewhat scary to have 80 degrees one week and 20 degrees the next.  Interesting article about this in today’s New York Times.

Item #2 — Today is the big day for high school seniors and the final acceptances for the Class of 2016 (gosh, I feel old!).  Having gone through this with my own kids, I do feel for the parents of the seniors having to try and figure out what is “right” school for their sons and daughters.  “Right” also has a financial component, which is about as clear as mud these days (where the retail price is not the price that most students pay).

Item #3 — Why does Major League Baseball schedule two regular season games in Japan while everyone else is still playing spring training games?  It seems to me that this put those teams at a colossal disadvantage to start the season, and this is borne out by statistics.  Not that anyone thought that the As or the Mariners were going to go very far this season anyway.

Item #4 — Austin Rivers, the Duke freshman guard and son of Celtics’ Coach Doc Rivers, has announced, to no one’s surprise, that he is going to be a “one and done” college player and go to the NBA next year.  Like Kyrie Irving before him, Rivers is not going to stick around and wait for Duke to get better and be competitive for an NCAA title.  I can’t help but think that Jeremy Lin is a better NBA guard because he played four years at Harvard and actually matured as a player and a young man before going to the NBA.  Now Rivers has lots of talent, perhaps more than Lin did at the same stage of his career, but I do think that his life and career would have been greatly enhanced by the Duke degree and a college career.

Item #5 — Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides about the federal health care legislation (aka “Obamacare“), I would love for there to be a solution like the one that David Brooks discussed in his recent column — the feds set the overall policy direction and the states and localities figure out how to implement it.  While many of the opponents to this imperfect legislation crow about it taking away “our freedoms”, I am not at all convinced that my freedom is being impinged upon when we come up with a system that takes care of the sick by spreading the risk among all of us.  I would rather encourage people to get preventative care than to use the emergency department as their primary form of health care, wouldn’t you?

Item #6 — The NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament has been really fun to watch this, notwithstanding my brackets got busted two weeks ago.  While Kentucky may indeed win the whole thing, I think that any of the other teams could win it as well, and I will enjoy the final four weekend very much.  The Women’s tournament has been less interesting (save Pat Summitt‘s potential last game) with all four #1 seeds making it to the finals.  Baylor’s Brittney Griner could probably play for a number of men’s teams at this point.  She is simply amazing!

Can’t wait to see what April has in store for us….

Super Tuesday?

Thought I’d take this opportunity on “Super Tuesday” to put some super and not so super thoughts on the issues of the day, so here goes!

Item #1 is of course the mega primaries going on today in 10 states across the country.  I continue to be sadder and sadder that there is no real center right option to President Obama (who is really a center left candidate — see former UAlbany and now Princeton historian Julian Zelizer’s excellent article in CNN.com) and thus no real debate about the crucial issue of 2012, which is the “economy stupid”, and not lots of social issues.  I wish that Mitch Daniels and others of the increasingly disappearing moderate wing of the Republican Party would resurface at some point.  Maybe if the GOP takes a shellacking in the fall, there will be some sense of moving to the center, but I doubt it.

Item #2 is the revelation that former New Orleans defense coordinator Greg Williams gave “bounties” for his players to “take out” opposing players, especially the quarterback.  While my wife was surprised and disgusted by this news, I wasn’t.  The NFL is the most popular pro sports league in the US (see my prior post on this topic), but if continued revelations keep coming out about this sort of thing, they are going to have a real public relations problem, kind of like the one that Rush Limbaugh has right now, but I digress.

Item #3 is the cost of higher education in this country.  Having just paid for four very expensive years for daughter #1 and nearly one for daughter #2 (who despite going to a public university, she is from out of state and thus pays “retail”), I especially feel the pain of this problem.  So what to do about it?  Well, like most problems of this magnitude, it didn’t start quickly and won’t end that way either.  I have a couple of thoughts however.  First and foremost is that we send too many students to college for four years.  While I am not on the same page about this as Rick Santorum, who thinks that students are brainwashed by the liberal elite, I do think that lots of students would benefit from two year focused technical degrees that would make them job-ready for lots of emerging industries (like wind mill or solar panel installer).  I know from teaching undergrads at a mid-level private school that last couple of years that many of them shouldn’t be wasting their parents or their own money getting a bachelors’ degree.  Secondly, there are too many schools, especially public ones.  My own state of New York is a prime example of excess capacity.  Why do we have 64 campuses in the SUNY system?  Wouldn’t it make sense to focus energy and limited resources on a small number of better schools than waste it on several mediocre ones?

Item #4 is a shout out to writer Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt, the brains behind the Freakonomics books and web site and podcasts.  I think what they do brilliant and consistently so.  I may not always agree with their take on things, but they always make me think and I always learn something from them.  I also smile and even laugh aloud when I listen to their stuff.  Check it out.

If I were the commissioner of _______ (fill in the sport)

While I am still on a Super Bowl high from my beloved Giants’ win, I decided that I needed to vent about my frustration with pro sports.  This comes from a really big sports’ fan, both an observer and participant, so take it in the spirit of “tough love”!  Be happy to get your additions to my list as well.

In no particular order, here’s my list of changes by pro sport:

Baseball — I am a lifelong Yankees’ fan and that means that I have cheered for them when they have been really, really good (since 1996) and really, really bad (the early 1970s and the 1980s), but I do have some pet peeves about baseball, such as:

• The DH — even though I am an AL East fan (except for the Red Sox), I am finally ready to say that the designated hitter should be abolished once and for all.  There is no other sport that has two sets of rules for teams that play each other and baseball shouldn’t either.  I know that people will say that pitchers’ hitting is really boring and that lots of older players would not be able to extend their careers (e.g., Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, etc), but in point of fact, when AL teams play in NL parks during inter-league play, the games are more exciting because the managers actually have to manage and do things like bunt and use pinch hitters.

• Length of Games — Though the Yankees are some of the worst offenders of this, I think that the umps need to actually enforce the rules about time between pitches and stepping out of the batters’ box.  Four hour nine inning games are ridiculous!!  Once you get into the box, stay there!

• Instant Replay — Notwithstanding the length of game argument, I think that, like the NFL, managers should get a couple of challenges for close plays in the field to be reviewed by replay.  No challenges for balls and strikes but anything else is fair play!

• Playoffs — Compress the schedule so that there are no games in November, ever!  No adding of wildcard teams either.

Pro Football — I think that NFL is the best of the pro leagues, last year’s lock out notwithstanding.  Even it could use a couple of tweaks.

• Equipment & Safety — Though it took them way too long to figure this out, the NFL is finally getting with the program about improving player safety.  Better helmets and other equipment, fewer few contact drills and other changes will hopefully extend careers and lives.

• Playoffs — No more playoff games!

• Pre-season Games — I would make two or three of them not four, and that doesn’t mean 18 regular season games, either.

Pro Basketball — Jeremy Lin, notwithstanding, the NBA is some trouble.  Here’s what I would do to make it more exciting.

• Shorter Season — The lock out produced a 66 game season, and I think that should be the normal length, especially when you have playoffs that go into mid-June.  Each game would be more meaningful and there would be more competition.

• Shorter Playoffs — All playoff rounds would be three out of five except the last round which would be best of seven.

• More meaningful salary cap — The haves and have nots are getting greater and greater apart.  Miami should not have been permitted to sign James and Bosh.  There should be more parity among teams, like the NFL, where even a bottom dweller can rise up in a matter of a couple of seasons.

• Minimum age requirement — I think that you should have to be 20 years old to play in the NBA, which means two years of college basketball or two years of minor league basketball.  The reason why Lin has been a successful pro, at least for two weeks, is that he had four years of college basketball under his belt.

Pro Hockey — The NY Rangers are doing great, but hockey is in a bit of trouble as well.  Here’s what I’d do to fix it:

• Shorter season — Just like the NBA, I would cut at least 10 games off the schedule and make it a November to April league.

• Shorter playoffs — Ditto comment above, but who want to watch hockey in June?  Make the playoffs three out of five until the finals.

• Ban fighting — Olympic hockey doesn’t allow it.   College hockey doesn’t allow it.  How come pro hockey does?  It adds nothing to game and permits people with low skill levels to remain in the league far too long.  If you want to fight go become a boxer or an ultimate fighter and then I don’t have to watch you.

• OT — Make there be a second five minute four on four overtime before the shootout and only award a point if there is a tie after the two OT periods.

• TV Blackouts — The NHL blackout rules make no sense.  We are considered in the home territory of the Buffalo Sabres which is 100 miles farther away than the Rangers, Devils, Bruins and Islanders, so that we get blacked out when the Sabres are home and can’t watch the other more local teams.

Other Sports — Some thoughts about other professional sports:

• Tennis — make men and women get the same prize money; no grunting on the court; and make women play five set matches at major tournaments (or men play three sets).
• Golf — get Tiger Woods a new putter
• Nascar — never watch it and don’t care about it
• UFC — ditto with Nascar

I have another post about college athletics to share soon.