Tuesday night, as I was grasping for a topic to write about this week, I flipped on the TV to see what sports were on. Unfortunately, the best option for most of the night was Cubs baseball. They ended up winning the game, but it was what happened during their late rally that really piqued my interest.

After a double to start the inning, there was the usual National League tomfoolery of bunting the man over to third. Normally, this would be my sticking point for the inning, but I noticed something I thought was even stranger than small ball.

After a walk, the Cubs were left with one out and runners on first and third. Perfect, I thought. Time for the ol’ double steal. As much as I tried to will the runner to break for second, the Cub weren’t going to try it.

This got me thinking about all of the things I wished there were more of in sports.

Let’s start with the situation described above. Teams just aren’t willing to take risks on the base paths. Any high school baseball team worth its salt has at least three different plans for first and third situations. If you send that runner, the most likely scenario is a free base and a breakup of the double play situation. Teams probably aren’t going to risk a run to gun someone out at second.

In the worst case scenario, Rickie Weeks applies a tag before spinning like Terrence Stansbury and making a pinpoint throw home. Realistically, only the Kung-Fu Panda would be caught in this scenario. Professional base runners are too smart to fall for any tricks. It’s a win-win for the offense, and should be done more often.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the alley-oop. The college and NBA ranks are so chock full of athletic players that plenty of teams have players at every position who can throw down. With teams like this, there is no excuse for not throwing at least ten alley-oops per game. They’re high percentage shots that provide a momentum boost and an opportunity to run back up the floor pounding your head like Darius Miles.

This is more than just show. Creighton’s pick-and-roll this year would have been vastly improved with more lobs to Gregory Echenique. The lob provides a nice outlet for our undersized guards when teams decide to double the ball-handler. The Jays may be losing Echenique, but they have enough athleticism (and Big Willie Style) to include the alley-oop in their repertoire.

Any play that uses a backdoor cut can be turned into a defense-demoralizing poster. The alley-oop is so efficient because it is the pass that gets the ball closer to the rim than any other. If one breaks down basketball to its most fundamental elements, that’s exactly what you want. Make sure to tell your dad this information before watching him seethe and start telling you about how good Dave DeBusschere was.

The final thing I want to discuss is the lateral. Now calm down, I know that people have been arguing for the option to make its way into NFL playbooks for a long time. I’m thinking bigger than that. How many times have you seen a receiver brought down with a teammate within five yards? Let me answer that for you, all the time because receivers are divas and always chasing the ball instead of blocking. In a perfect world, the scrappy, over-the-middle guy could just lateral to his glory boy teammate and give viewers a more exciting football experience.

It seems like Ed Reed is the only player in the league that knows that football is meant to be played like everyone is Mike Vick in Madden 2004. The lateraling would make fantasy matchups hectic, but I’m willing to sacrifice my sanity for more crazy Ed Reed plays.