If you've been reading the FanHouse today, you're probably familiar with my perhaps-too-virulent rant about the Home Run Derby as compared to the All-Star Game. If you gathered anything of importance from that diatribe, it's that I happen to really enjoy the Home Run Derby. But, as Jayson Stark points out at ESPN.com today, that doesn't mean the derby is perfect. Stark suggests a series of ideas to improve the thing, including limiting pitches, getting more accurate readings on how far that ball actually flies, shortening up the competition, etc. But his key idea is his first:
Why give these guys all their swings in one burst? Let that second hitter answer before the score gets out of hand. How complicated is that? Just break the final into three "rounds" of three outs each. That'll do the trick.Hitter No. 1 gets to bop all the homers he can hit before he makes his first three outs. Then it's Hitter No. 2's turn. Then they alternate, just like in a real game, until they've used up all nine outs. And if everything goes right, the finals might build to an actual crescendo as opposed to an excuse to sprint for the parking lot.
Stark brags that everyone he's introduced the idea to has "loved" it, and it's hard to disagree. Rather than just have the final two contestants up there banging away -- after they've usually spent most of their energy in the early rounds, anyway -- give them short bursts to prove themselves. That could lead to a derby with a bit more drama, as Stark says.
One other idea: less Chris Berman. As in, no Chris Berman. That would be fantastic, thanks.
So, FanHouse commenting cognescenti, let's hear it. How would you improve the derby?
I hate pretense. It's something that almost ruins NCAA athletics for me. Everybody carries on like Division I athletes are amateurs, that everyone follows an archaic recruiting guidebook, that no one cheats or slips people a little money here and there. None of it's true, of course, and it's people that argue for the NCAA in comparison to, say, the NBA, that spout that convenient and annoying tripe. At least in the NBA, there is no pretense of amateurism. People are paid what the market (either rightly or wrongly) values them, something the NCAA will never do for its thousands of revenue-generating athletes. 
