Frank: I was at Lafayette Collegein Easton, Pa.,to join my nephew in cheering his Leopards to a 24-21 victory over Columbia. I saw the first1 1/2 quarters of the Badgers, and when I left it was 7-7 and UW was driving. Afew hours later I heard the Lafayettestadium announcer say, "Ohio State 31, Wisconsin 13." What happened?
Artie: I don't know where tobegin. Offensive plays, UW 89 to Ohio State's 40. Total yards,UW 368 to the Buckeyes' 184. The much-touted Terrelle Pryor was 5 for 13 inpassing. All day long the Buckeyes were ripe for the taking, and thatfirst-half drive you saw put UW up 10-7.
Frank: And then?
Artie: Pryor picked the end of thefirst half to make his one good throw, 32 yards to make it 14-10. It was likein Little League, when the worst kid on the team is out in right field andsuddenly there's a fly ball and he sticks his glove up and somehow there's theball. "Hey, Ma, look what I did!"
Frank: So it was 14-10 athalftime. Still highly winnable for Bucky Badger.
Artie: You betcha. But on thefirst series of the second half, Scott Tolzien threw his second interception.And like the first one, it couldn't be just an INT; it had to be a TD, too. Sotwo long returns sandwiched around Pryor's throw and it was 21-10.
Frank: Still plenty of time,though.
Artie: And the Badgers soon kickeda field goal to make it 21-13. But then on the kickoff, the Buckeyes' Roy Smallgoes up the middle, almost untouched, for 96 yards and it's 28-13. It was as ifeverybody on the UW kickoff team sat down.
Frank: Yikes! So then the Badgershad to throw a lot, I reckon.
Artie: Indeed. And the OSU frontseven on defense just controlled things. They already had stifled UW's groundgame, and when Tolzien had to throw they pressured him a ton. He was 27 for 45but got sacked six times. Sound familiar?
Frank: Shades of Aaron Rodgersagainst the Vikings.
Artie: Now the Badgers have a hugegame this weekend against unbeaten Iowa, backhome at Camp Randall. If they win, there's a goodchance of finishing with only one loss. Which could mean the Rose Bowl!
Frank: Absolutely. UW's conferenceschedule after Iowa doesn't look tough:Purdue, at Indiana, Michigan and at Northwestern.
Artie: They don't play Penn Stateor Illinois,which helps. But Iowa still has to play at Michigan Stateand at Ohio State.
Frank: The Buckeyes, meanwhile,close the conference schedule at Penn State, home for Iowaand at Michigan.Two losses could be lurking there.
Artie: PennState already has lost to Iowa, and they still have OhioState and Minnesotaand tough road games at Michigan and Michigan State.
Frank: While the others pummeleach other, the Badgers could emerge as the only one-loss Big Ten team.Provided they rebound against Iowa.
Artie: The "ifs" arestill quite manageable.
Play It Again, Bud
Frank: How sweep it is in thebaseball playoffs, buddy!
Artie: Congrats on your Yankeesfinishing off the Twins.
Frank: Oh, well, that was nice,too. But the really great thing is the Red Sox getting swept by theAngels.
Artie: I understand completely. Ifeel the same way about the Cardinals' brooming by the Dodgers. The genius,Tony La Russa, can pack up his slide rule and go home.
Frank: As for the Yankees, I can'tdeny their sweep was aided by one of the biggest blown calls in history.
Artie: Yeah, that Game 2 whopperby umpire Phil Cuzzi was hard to swallow for all us Yankee haters.
Frank: As the left-field line ump,he was in perfect position to see Joe Mauer's 11th-inning fly land a few inchesfair and bounce into the stands for a double. But he called it foul—andemphatically. Mauer later singled, but two other hits moved him only as far asthird and the Twins didn't score. If he started on second, the Twins likely wouldhave taken the lead.
Artie: Then Mark Teixeira's homerwould only have tied the score, not put the Yankees two games up.
Frank: The Twins are no strangersto blown calls this year. They got jobbed by one in July that could have costthem their shot at the playoffs.
Artie: Details, please.
Frank: In Oakland on July 20, the Twins trailed, 14-13,with two out in the ninth and Michael Cuddyer on second. On a wild pitch,Cuddyer steamed around third and tried to score as the catcher threw back tothe pitcher at the plate. The ump, Mike Muchlinski, called Cuddyer out, butreplays showed his leg clearly got in under the tag.
Artie: If the call had beencorrect, the Twins might have won. Then they never would have needed to beat Detroit in that extragame last week to make the playoffs.
Frank: That July game, and theCuzzi fiasco, got me wondering why Major League Baseball doesn't use videoreplays to verify such game-changing calls.
Artie: Something every other majorsport does, at least a bit, ain'a?
Frank: Right, and even MLB does itin a very limited way. The commissioner, Bud Selig, opposed replay for a longtime, but last year MLB began using video to decide home-run"boundary" calls—did a ball go over a designated line, did a faninterfere with an outfielder, was a ball fair or foul.
Artie: Smart move. Replayconferences can be long but, hell, lots of ballgames already drag on and on.
Frank: The Game 2 crew chief, TimTschida, admitted Cuzzi blew it. And how did he know? The crew looked atreplays after the game. So why not look while a mistake can still be reversed?
Artie: The "purists" saycalls are just part of the game. Tell that to a Baltimore fan who's still honked off aboutthat kid "stealing" a home run for the Yankees in the 1996 playoffs.
Frank: Jeffrey Maier pulled DerekJeter's ball into the stands and helped the Yankees win the series opener, andthey went on to win the World Series. The umpire, Rich Garcia, blew the calleven though he was working the right-field line. Under the current policy, thereplay would have shown fan interference and maybe Baltimore would have won.
Artie: So for other crucial plays,why not be like the NFL and give managers a "challenge" or two pergame? They could fling a red rosin bag while they're charging an ump, and itwould take "indisputable” evidence to overturn a call.
Frank: Don't mess with judgmentcalls on balls and strikes. But when a call on fair/foul or a tag or a disputedcatch decides a game, why not use technology to check it?
Artie: The replays are gonna beshown anyway, and if the call is wrong everyone will know it.
Frank: It's already commonpractice—in the NFL, the NBA for last-second shots, the NHL for goal disputes,tennis for line calls. The only big sport that doesn't use replays is soccer.
Artie: Hell, soccer needs replaysjust to prove that once in a blue moon someone really scores a goal.
