Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
November 2, 2001, Washington Post

Clear-Cut Choices

Baseball bigwigs want to kick two teams out of the major leagues before next season: the Montreal Expos and the Florida Marlins. They say that baseball has too many teams and that nobody goes to watch the Expos and Marlins anyway.

Sounds crazy? I think it's a great idea. I'm a huge sports fan, but I think there are too many sports, too many teams and too many games. But why stop at baseball? Here's more sports stuff that I think should get the axe:

Hockey is way too crowded. There are 30 teams. Who can keep track of them all? I say let's get rid of at least six teams. Who is really going to miss the Atlanta Thrashers, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Columbus Blue Jackets or the Anaheim Mighty Ducks?

Pro football probably has the right number of teams and the right number of regular season games. But there are too many preseason games. Each teams plays four or five preseason games, and all they do is clutter up the August sports calendar. Two preseason games should be plenty. And I would definitely get rid of the Pro Bowl, the dumb all-star game they play after the Super Bowl.

I like college football, but can you believe that there are 26 college football bowl games around the Christmas and New Year's holidays? Some of the bowls have weird names like the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Don't laugh. There's even a Humanitarian Bowl. That's an awful strange name for a game where the players are smashing into each other. It's just too many bowl games.

How about some other sports? Golf? Too many tournaments. I say there shouldn't be any pro golf tournaments (that's men's, women's or seniors) between Nov. 1 and March 1. And that goes double for tennis tournaments. Both sports need an offseason. That would make the remaining tournaments more important and exciting.

And how about car races? Half of those races should go. Frankly, I am not much of a car racing fan so I don't care which half.

I know I sound like a grouch who is down on sports. But as much as I love sports, there are so many leagues, teams and players that it's difficult to keep it all straight. Take professional soccer: In addition to the MLS and the WUSA, there are professional leagues and club teams all over the world. It would take weeks to figure it out.

So what do I do? I don't follow soccer. And that's too bad, because soccer is a great sport.

Maybe baseball has got it right. Maybe fewer teams will be better.

It might be worth a try.

What do you think? Anything you'd get rid of in the sports world? Write KidsPost, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071. Or e-mail (with "The Score" in the subject field): kidspost@washpost.com.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company