Play It Again

Steeped in tradition, Major League Baseball is generally slow to make changes. Ask a baseball traditionalist about the designated hitter and after a 30-minute rant, you'll understand what I mean. But in recent years, new trends like baggy pants, steroids and Jose Guillen have come along and made the game far more entertaining.

So yesterday's announcement that baseball will start using instant replay on questionable home run calls should be looked at as a positive. The game is evolving, and so are the stadiums. With fans closer to the field, making the right judgment on home runs is as important as ever. As evidenced throughout the last 15 years, umpires are routinely confounded on balls that don't clearly get over the fence.

This is like when Sega added trading players as an option for World Series Baseball 95. Sure, the game play was identical to the 1994 version, but the ability to trade players resulted in hundreds of more hours spent constructing the greatest video game lineup ever (who knew completing a trade for Marty Cordova would be so hard?).

Critics will argue that the human element is being taken away. They'll say it slows down an already slow game. But by limiting the replays to "boundary calls" - basically any uncertain home run call as determined by the game's crew chief, MLB got this one right. It's subtle enough where it will rarely ever impede on a game. Yet having the option could drastically alter the outcome for this year's postseason and beyond.

Team Redeemed?

Back from a near month long bout with writer's block. Wish I had a better excuse than that. Maybe something like announcing my retirement, changing my mind, contemplating taking a $20 million memorabilia deal with Facebook, only to decide I was coming back. But alas, my life is not nearly that exciting.

Luckily, the team known as Redeem stoked my literary fire.

After watching the U.S. Men's basketball squad's gold medal game against Spain, I couldn't help but liken this team to MJ's "Bad" album - over hyped and certainly no "Thriller".

While the Redeem Team sported a roster that featured at least the four best players in the world (Kobe, LeBron, D. Howard, CP3), to frame this team as one devoted to redemption is ridiculous. The scary thing is, the Redeem Team almost gave the gold medal game away to Spain. Early in the fourth quarter, the score stood at 91-89, Redeem Team.

Under no circumstances should the best NBA players ever lose against international competition. There is just too much talent. Most people chalked up the U.S. failures in 2004 and 2006 to clashing egos and teams hastily put together. But the truth is those teams lacked the patriotism needed to excel on an international level. They simply didn't care enough.

As far as international basketball has progressed since the original Dream Team dominated the 1992 Olympics, it still isn't anything to brag about. Take the silver medal winning Spain team. Their best player, Pau Gasol, is a fringe all-star at best. He's no superstar. Aside from Jose Calderon, no other player on Spain would even crack an NBA starting 5. The same goes for every other team that played in the Olympics. No superstars. Not Dirk. Not Yao. Not Vaginobli. Some very good players, yes. But mostly guys that couldn't cut it in the league.

Unless USA basketball wants to get cute and put together a team consisting of Ricky Davis, Melo, Birdman, Robert Swift and Ron Artest, there really should be no scenario where the US men's team doesn't come home with gold. Redemption? More like a duty.