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Paul Yarbrough: Instant Replay for Baseball the Wrong Call
» With all the blown calls by umpires during the baseball playoffs this fall, there is increased talk of utilizing instant replay in the sport. Dear baseball, please don’t do it! Do officials for pro and college football get every call right, even with an expanded replay system? Absolutely not. There’s a certain flow to baseball that would be irreparably harmed by the use of more instant replay ...
» I had to chuckle when Major League Baseball decided to go with an all-veteran World Series crew in reaction to the blown calls. One of the umpires caught in the middle of several erroneous calls was longtime veteran and respected Tim McClelland. Bad calls happen. The human element to the sport is one of the things I love about baseball ...
» USC quarterback Matt Barkley is a sensational freshman. If he stays healthy, there is no doubt he’ll be playing on Sundays some day. As a UCLA fan, I sure wish he could declare himself eligible for the NFL draft now! Alas, he’ll have to wait until after his junior year ...
» The Trojans are good annually, but why must they also benefit from officials’ calls? In Saturday night’s game at the Coliseum against Oregon State, the Beavers had a costly block-in-the-back penalty, and moments later the same infraction by a USC player was ignored. Then, in one of the worst calls in the history of football, a Beaver receiver had his helmet ripped off on a vicious and late hit in the end zone after scoring a touchdown, and nothing was called. I officiate football and know you can’t see everything, but a receiver in the end zone with the ball should be the focus of someone’s attention. Right? To its credit, the Pac-10 on Monday suspended the unnamed official who inexplicably missed the call. Well, that’s a start ...
» There may not be enough police officers in Eugene to keep the peace on Halloween when the Trojans and Ducks battle in a 5 p.m. game. The winner gets the inside track to the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 ...
» Billy Packer finally retired and gave us relief during the NCAA basketball tournament. Can’t Tim McCarver do the same? ...
» When I wrote last week about officiating a football “game” for 5- and 6-year-olds, it wasn’t my intent to set off a debate, but perhaps that’s a good thing. My thought while standing there on the field that day was, “Do boys this young really need to put on the pads and play tackle football?” ...
» One faithful Noozhawk reader responded with a similar thought: “Football for 5- and 6-year-olds! We can’t start the brain damage to our young early enough.” ...
» But another Noozhawk reader had a different take. Football Mom wrote: “Football is not dangerous. My son has been playing for nine years and has had one minor injury. Yes, kids can get hurt, but mostly because parents wait until they are older to put them in football when the other kids have been learning how to hit and get hit for years. If they learn how to play properly when they are young (and getting hit by a 5- or 6-year-old beats getting hit by a ninth- or 10th-grader), they know how to avoid injury. If my son didn’t play football, he would be on the streets after school doing who knows what? I am grateful for the time-consuming sport.” ...
» I’m not sure Football Mom has it entirely correct, but I do know one thing: I’m glad I had daughters and didn’t have to make the decision on whether to allow them to play the sport.
— Noozhawk columnist Paul Yarbrough can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 10.27.09 @ 03:54 AM
Don Denkinger. ‘Nuf said.
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» on 10.27.09 @ 09:18 AM
I have to agree with you, Paul, and disagree with Football Mom. Neither one of my boys, now grown, played in an organized youth football league at the earliest level but both played very successfully in high school. In fact, they were more successful than some others who had played since the earliest levels. Our experience is that it’s more about desire and athletic ability than having played since the age of 5. Exposing one’s children to that kind of head banging early on doesn’t seem wise to me.
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