Some rules are meant to be changed or created.

If so empowered, here are a few changes fans would see in the rule books from me:

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1. Pitch the ball. From the time they receive the baseball, pitchers have 10 seconds to go into the stretch or to start their windup to deliver the next pitch.There's way too much dawdling on the mound. Let's pick up the pace.•

2. One mulligan per 18 holes for all golfers in professional events. We hackers take mulligans, why can't they?Mulligans can't be taken on the greens, however. When and where to take one's mulligan if it's taken at all would add more strategy to the game.•

3. Turn up the sound. Noise is permitted during all tennis and golf events. Forget about the concentration crap. When a guy's trying to sink a critical free throw, hit a 100 mph fastball or kick a clutch 50-yard field goal, he has to tune out the noise around him.What makes tennis players and golfers so special?•

4. Get rid of the shot clock in college basketball. Goodness, what will we do without all that scoring?Holding the ball is a strategy of the game, like it or not. If you don't like it, steal the ball. No team executed the Four Corners like North Carolina teams of the 1970s, not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't.•

5. All instant replay challenges come from upstairs. The NFL should take a cue from college football in this regard.A coach shouldn't have to throw a little red flag to have an uncertain play reviewed. Have an official upstairs make such decisions.•

6. No more overtime shootouts in the NHL. Play 4-on-4 in overtime until somebody puts the puck in the net.Don't worry about games going on until the wee hours of the morning. A 4-on-4 scenario opens up the ice, and if a team has a game scheduled somewhere the next night, fans will see high-flying action like never before.•

7. Allow a 3-point PAT option from the 10-yard line. Why not? Teams would never try this until late in the game and this option would keep some games competitive for a longer period of time.The two-point conversion is exciting. A 3-point try to tie a game late? Exhilarating.•

8. No offside in soccer. Open the game up. If a sport is in need of more offense, this is the one. Generate more shots on goal and end to end action, you have a better game to watch and play.•

9. No NASCAR race can be shortened because of rain. Seeing the Daytona 500 cut short by rain would be like a World Series game not going nine innings. Even Bud Selig didn't do that.Just like no race should end under caution, no race should be shortened. Give the fans what they paid to see, even if it means coming back another day.•

10. Smaller equipment for hockey goaltenders. The padding they wear is supposed to protect them, not the net. Why do those leg pads need to be so wide?Goaltenders should excel because of their own skill, not because of what they're wearing.