What college football and the catcher have in common: they should be banned.

Malcolm Gladwell has been campaigning to get colleges to ban football.  You can do a Google search on "malcolm gladwell college football" and you'll get plenty of links.  Here is one to the Intelligence Squared debate.

Sunday I heard Malcolm interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN.  Initially I was skeptical but Malcolm knows football and has been a fan.  Basically, he got to a point where he was appalled at his own involvement in an activity that is so dangerous to the players who are performing for our entertainment.

You know, like the baseball catcher, the dumbest position among the three American team sports.  Why does it still exist?  Because baseball fans refuse to behave responsibly and demand that it be banned.  We would rather continue with a basic mistake in the game's development over a hundred years ago and continue a barbaric practice, much like football.  Catchers being pounded in the head by foul balls over and over and over is unacceptable.  It's ridiculous, especially considering that the position is stupid.

Eliminating the catcher as I have long advocated allows for the low tech sure strike zone: a round or oblong target with rounded corners.  The catcher can be moved out of his box, given a glove and allowed to position himself anywhere in fair territory.  Beside the pitcher probably makes the most sense but it's not mandatory.

Of course, some of my other ideas would also need to be implemented, too.  Base runners are not allowed to leave the bag until the ball is hit.  Foul territory is extended 45 feet from home plate in a quarter circle.  The plate umpire is also removed from harm's way to behind the pitcher.

Added bonus: all this should speed up the game significantly by removing most of the dead time between pitches that sucks the life out of baseball.

The percent of fans who ever wanted to play catcher themselves is probably very low.

The percent of parents who would allow one of their children to play catcher is undoubtedly much lower.

So why is it OK for someone else to play catcher or for some other parent's child to play catcher?

Think about the football question.  Then think about the baseball catcher.  Think.