What Time Is It Not ... ??

So we have Daylight Savings Time. We spring forward and we fall back. That’s OK. It keeps us in the light more than in the dark … supposedly. This got me to thinking and allows me to share a few thoughts about saving things in general.

Saving daylight is fine with me. I work my job from 9 AM till 6 PM, rain or shine, light or dark or whatever. But another faucet of our lives that is very important along with Daylight Savings Time is time itself. While we are prudent in saving daylight we also should be vigilant in just how we spend our time.

Consider the realm of sports. How long does a football game last? By the time you leave your home to attend a game till you return home following that game, you will spend at least 6 hours of valuable time. Now what can be done to save some of that time?

One thing that might help is to have the teams run only their scoring plays. Most of a football game is taken up watching the teams run up and down the field. Once in a while, one or the other will manage to cross the goal line. What if during a game each team scores one touchdown? And of course each team would want to kick their extra point after touchdown. That’s OK. So there would be one touchdown and one extra point for each team. That would be a total of four plays. Wouldn’t the game be much shorter in duration if they just ran those four plays? You see, the game would be over in about ten minutes. Then those fans who wanted to see the bands march could hang around for that. But the entire event would last no more than thirty minutes or so. Look at the time you could save.

Suppose a game was going to end in a tie score. There would be no need to play the game at all. The visiting team would not have to travel. Those unnecessary night games would not be played saving thousands of dollars in stadium lighting expense for the schools.

Now if the sudden-death playoff rule were in effect, that would cause one additional play to become necessary. That last play would have to be included to complete the game. But that’s OK. Sudden death has its place.

And baseball could have similar advantages. Why should two teams waste time playing scoreless innings? Just play the innings where scoring occurs. If a slugger is going to hit a grand slam homerun, first send the three runners out to load the bases. Then let the guy homer. Don’t take time watching those singles, walks, hit batters or whatever just to load the bases. I once saw the Houston Astros play an eighteen-inning game. That game lasted for hours. Wouldn’t it have been more time efficient just to play that final inning where the team that won scored the winning run?

Basketball games would be a lot shorter if they just took the shots where the ball goes through the hoop. Why waste all that time shooting shots that are going to miss?

I am sure you have the drift. Daylight savings time is OK but what really matters is how our time is spent

If you like this column then fine. But if you don’t like this column, look at the time you could have saved by not reading it. At least five minutes.

Now don’t lose any more time thinking about this. Go on to something else. Your time is not going to hang around forever.

Winston Hamby
The Beaumont Enterprise
Whamby2@houston.rr.com