Comes word recently that Major League Baseball is considering using instant replay to review calls by umpires under certain circumstances. Say it ain't so!<br />
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I guess it was bound it a happen. The National Football League has been using replay - in one variation or another - for years and college football recently jumped on the bandwagon.<br />
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Put me in the column against using replays to "correct" bad calls. It slows the game down and can take momentum away from a team which is - in football - driving down the field, on a roll toward a possible score.<br />
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The game is played by humans... so let humans judge it. If they miss a call, so be it. <br />
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ME FIRST<br />
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What's with the "me first" attitude that is so prevalent in our society these days? It has practically taken over the college and professional sports world, most notably football. Maybe even high school but I don't see enough high school games to form an opinion.<br />
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But one only has to look at the dancing around, chest thumping, and somersaulting into the end zones it realize that on even the most routine of plays, players are playing to the camera. They can't even wait to get home to see a replay of it on the highlight shows... instead focusing their eyes on the Matrix board in the stadium as it shows a replay of their latest exploits. <br />
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And, its not just limited to sports. <br />
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How about all the jockeying of the past few months as first one state and then another juggled their presidential primaries or caucuses in hopes of being first or among the first to hold them. The pressure has even been so great that there has been talk that either Iowa or New Hampshire might move theirs into December... just to be first! <br />
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THE DROUGHT<br />
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Sandra and I were at a wedding a few weeks ago in Dothan, Alabama. At our table at the reception, some people form L.A. (that's Lower Alabama), asked where in Georgia was Gainesville located. "On the shores of big bad Lake Lanier!" I responded, to which they, having heard how we are trying to hog all of South Alabama's water, responded in unison with a chorus of "ohhhhhs." <br />
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While the water levels in Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona drop lower and lower, just to the north of us, Nickajack Lake at Chattanooga is filled to the brim... or at least it was when we saw it the end of October. Meanwhile, parts of Tennessee, not far from Chattanooga, are in just as bad a shape as we are, with talk of water bans and depleted supplies.<br />
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CHRISTMAS SHOPPING<br />
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This is the only time of the year I don't mind shopping. The rest of the year my shopping is usually limited to "buying." In other words, I head to a store, knowing what I'm looking for, I look for it, if I see it, I buy it and am out of there. However at Christmas, the sights and sounds of the holidays make it easy for me, despite the crowds, to wander the aisles of store after store, looking for the things on my list or looking for ideas for people on my list. <br />
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But, is it really the sights and sounds of the season or the fact that, like most of us, I'm caught up in the annual buying frenzy that permeates most of the Western World this time of year? I like to think its the former.<br />
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At any rate, for what it's worth, it's December 18 - one week before the big day - and I'm done with my "shopping" for another year... finished yesterday.<br />
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Merry Christmas!<br />
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<I>(Ken Stanford is Newsroom Manager for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029, SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and AccessNorthGa.com.)</I>
