Pay attention to enough presidential elections, and you might believe that about half the folks in this nation are politically conservative. Read your favorite holy book every night, and you might think most folks need to be a little more socially conservative. And watch enough old game films, black and white, grainy, classic, and you might think about reverting to a world where everything is more athletically conservative.

I am a part of that last group, a proud (if not card-carrying) member of the athletics conservatives. I like my shorts short, my socks high and my T-shirts stitched with cotton, the fabric of our lives. I like ball players with nicknames like Dizzy and Daffy, the Clipper and the Splinter and the Babe. I yearn for the days when the NHL standings were filled with all of six teams, even though there were 21 by the time I was born.

I am a pigskin purist, a left field Luddite, an ace antediluvian, planted firmly at the top of the starting rotation for the Good Ol' Days.

I do not, in short, particularly care for change. And I do not, it should follow, particularly care for instant replay in Major League Baseball.

In the event that you have been living in a log cabin during much of the last month, a couple of Major League umpires have had problems recently in the field of play. During a game last month at Yankee Stadium, a home run ball was declared foul. The next night, in Houston, a home run ball that cleared the wall but bounced back was ruled in play. And the problems have only continued on the diamond.

Those two missed calls, in particular, have sparked cries for more cameras and instant replay on the field. In theory, the new technology, which is scheduled to be implemented in August, would be used only to determine home runs. But commissioner Bud Selig, one of the more liberal minds in sports today (the man did help to develop the wild card, division realignment and Interleague play), will certainly allow instant replay to stretch its tentacles to close plays on the basepaths, catches in the outfield and, worst of all, balls and strikes at home plate.

Now, yes, instant replay has worked, to an extent, in the NBA and the NFL, though neither situation is perfect. On the court, referees are able to confirm whether a player released the ball in time at the end of each quarter. And on the field, officials duck their heads under a curtain to review disputed plays. Neither process slows the game too much.

But baseball is a timeless game, and the times might be changing, but that does not mean the sport needs to change, too. Baseball relies now, as it always has, on the eyes and ears and reactions of human umpires. That is part of what affords baseball its status as the national pastime, even if football has grabbed away millions of fans. You do not need a machine to determine the outcome of a game, only a bat and a ball, an umpire or two, and nine players a side. It works.

No need for change.

Sports writer Matt LaWell can be reached at 407-9952 or mlawell@coxnc.com