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Rant, rave

What's wrong with a level playing field? Not a thing

QuesTec helps define a universal strike zone for major-league baseball. Yet some pitchers have railed against it.

Drug testing ensures a level playing field for all athletes. Yet some refuse, saying it infringes on their rights.

Golf club testing ensures all players use legal equipment and no one has an unfair advantage, knowingly or unknowingly. Yet some are offended by the insinuation their clubs might be juiced.

Why is everyone so touchy? Shouldn't athletes want assurance their opponents doesn't have an edge?

Sure, QuesTec's implementation has been uneven. But it's an inevitable step in the right direction, like drug testing and club testing. Of course, many variables always will, and should, be part of the game. Weather, for one. Injuries, for two. Human error, for three.

Ah, human error. It always will be part of the game. It should be a minimal part of the officiating, though, and eliminated altogether when possible, such as timing track events and calling the service line in tennis.

Someday, there will be no umps or refs in pro sports. Technology will reign. Big Brother will officiate everything. A smidgen of charm will be lost, replaced by a blanket of fairness.

Leaving only the athletes to make errors.

It was mid July 2002, and the Devil Rays had just suffered another in an endless stream of losses.

Afterward, with reporters gathered in his office, someone asked manager Hal McRae about Randy Winn, whose 70th steal as a Ray set a franchise record. Seventy steals? That was a normal season for Rickey Henderson, McRae said, joking. Someone then mentioned how Chris Gomez recently had matched the Rays' single-season record for home runs by shortstop with six. McRae laughed again, deep, hearty guffaws. Six measly home runs? That was a good week for Barry Bonds! Ha ha ha ha ha! Laughs all around.

The outburst helped McRae decompress after another defeat, and it illuminated the Rays' feeble, albeit brief, history.

Well, a few Rays records won't be so comical if Aubrey Huff keeps it up.

Huff, 26, is stroking extra-base hits at a phenomenal rate - by Tampa Bay standards, at least. After game No. 81 Tuesday, the season midpoint, Huff was on pace for 90 extra-base hits and 342 total bases. Through Friday, he has 47 and 180. The team records are 63 and 292, both by Fred McGriff in 1999.

Huff is an average fielder, but since the 2002 All-Star break, he has emerged as one of the league's top hitters. A second half like his first, and the Rays will be one more step further away from laughingstocks.