Follow Ups

I've received some nice comments to some of my blogs the past few days and would take the time to answer them.

The Agony of Victory:

From my brother Myron:

I get what you are saying, but what do you think about a 100m sprinter who tears a hamstring during a race? It is definitely the event that caused it.

Personally I think the bench shirts should be banned because they allow lifters to use superhuman amounts and the injury factor is greatly increased.

Or just ban stupidity in the first place. That would work best.

My reply:

I know hamstring injuries occur during track sprint races but I haven't been able to verify a full blown tear that required major orthopedic surgery for the top sprinters in the world. Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson and other top sprinters from the last couple of decades have never had that type of extreme injury. I watch the Big Ten Track and Field Championships every year. I watch the Olympic track events and I watch the NCAA championships. Many of the top sprinters are also top college football running backs and I can't recall even one who was hurt that badly from sprinting at top speed.

A LOT pull up lame from hamstring pulls and I'm sure some of those involved minor tears, but the usual treatment is rest and rehab, not surgery. Like I said, it's bound to happen once in a while, but it doesn't appear to be the norm.

Powerlifting IS different, whether it's the special shirts they wear or the lifts themselves, extreme injuries from extreme lifts seem to be the norm. At some of the local events, guys who aren't even close to the best in the world are comparing scars and surgery stories. All caused from powerlifting. Pat W, a friend of yours from high school has a doozy of a forearm scar caused by a tendon tear during one such lift.

The world record holders consider these types of injuries the normal price of the sport. And they do happen often.

I don't argue their right to perform such lifts, but I question their judgement in doing so. They KNOW these types of injuries WILL occur. It's rarely a matter of if.

The only other place I see this is with baseball pitchers. But their surgeries usually are a permanent fix. Powerlifters continue having multiple, similar injuries throughout their careers knowing it's the price they just have to pay...


My other followup from yesterday's blog:

Again from Myron:

Basically I see it that the league should do whatever they can to get every call correct. I've hated the "challenges" rule in the NFL. Review everything. It still bugs me that the fair/foul ball was incorrect in the Twins' playoff game a few years back.

The other alternative is to NOT show the instant reply 17 times on TV. Don't show ANY replays. And don't have any instant replay decisions either. Make the game like going to a minor league ballpark and watching a game. That's where the real spirit of the game. But we live in a society that no longer wants that. We have youtube, Hulu, and NetFlix. So the instant replay needs to be perfected and utilized well. And everyone knows the thing that really slows down a game is pitchers taking FOREVER in between pitches for strategy.

My Reply:

We live in a world with several major sports channels now competing with ESPN. ALL of them feature highlights of the previous days games as their major attraction when live sports aren't on. They talk about them and they show them endlessly. People have replay. You might as well do something good with them as long as they are avialable.

I wrote a blog a couple years ago about baseball simply having guys in the booth looking at every single play and having a signal to tell umps to quick reverse something that was wrong before the next play occurs. In baseball you ALWAYS have time for a quick look (you're right about those pitchers).

I also think challenges are the worst way to fix things, but I'll take them over nothing. In time, they'll figure out better ways of doing it. Baby steps.

And it was the Mauer play that got me started on this entire rant years ago. SIX umpires, one of them just for that VERY PURPOSE, and he still MISSED the call. AND IT WASN'T EVEN CLOSE!

I don't see how there can still be fans out there who say replays aren't needed.