Sad Day in Sports

Yesterday was truly a sad day in sports. No, no athlete died yesterday but the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) chose to do things that not only altered their sports dramatically (in a negative way) and from my perspective - harmed their consumers in the process.

First -- the NFL continued its pre-season games last night with VERY few starting players opting to play their second and third string players since the games were only "pre-season" as a way to avoid getting their starters injured. Wait a minute - you don't have your starters play yet you charge your fans full price for these pre-season games? Instead of short changing their fans in this way why doesn't the NFL simply change the "pre-season" label to the "back up squad" games. A little truth in advertising would be appreciated.

Second - America's national past time , MLB, instituted their first use of video replay so that teams could challenge the calls of umpires. The last thing I want to see is an expansion of the "video challenge" system which has already harmed our ability to enjoy NFL games as coaches and officials spend several minutes reviewing videotape. Now the MLB's video replay/challenge system is merely for judging home run calls and foul balls but I fear a slippery slope that will one day lead to all of baseball being determined via video reply.

May we never see that day,

Todd