New year, new chance ( s ) to get it right.

Turning the sports calendar, a few things I hope we see this year.

1. A Pew Foundation two-question survey for fans across America:

√ Would you like to see Pete Rose’s name on a Baseball Hall of Fame ballot?

√ If not, would you vote to eliminate other rascals, rogues, scoundrels, womanizers and cheats with plaques at Cooperstown? Another way of saying: Ty Cobb, Cap Anson, Leo Durocher, Gaylord Perry and, well, just say the list is long.

Rose will be 73 in April, is a confessed liar and cheat. Cobb was a violent loon, Anson a racist, Durocher suspended for gambling, and Perry an avowed cheat?

Truth is, Rose helped enrich MLB by millions of dollars in 23 seasons. He drew fans to see him play in 3,562 games; won three batting titles; had a 44-game hit streak; owns three World Series rings; had best ever 4,256 hits; and played in 17 all-star games.

To bring Pete Rose in from the cold would make MLB another mega-bushel of money, score public relations points, and give Americans a feels-good-to-forgive moment.

2. Ken Burns documentary – Basketball in Kentucky. Start at Carr Creek, reel up a generous slice on personalities, pick the perfect narrator based on voice and understanding of every nuance in the material. Dan Manley in Mt. Sterling). Access a wealth of priceless photos. Voila! A five-night series, minimum.

3. Jake Bell, SEC coordinator for basketball officials, shows courage over political correctness insisting his designates do their jobs, demand coaches stay inside the coach’s box.

4. Kentucky Wildcats travel to Nashville for SEC Tournament in March, 31-0.

5. Rick Pitino retires. A new career, before Da Coach pops a vein in his neck while verbally scalping an 18-year-old.

6. Elijah Sindelar, Kentucky Mr. Football 2015 becomes point man on revival of Boilermaker football, starting in 2017.

7. NBA Players Union drops age limit, let high school graduates do what most do, choose college or career.

8. NBA draft in June, second overall pick: Willie Cauley-Stein, after Duke’s Jahlil Okafor.

9. Year III of Mark Stoops’ football at Kentucky is a launch year. 1. Word inexperienced is deleted before it’s a crutch; 2. With pay hike and contract extension last year translates into progress this fall for Big Blue Nation: Year three. Show us something!

10. Somebody gives UK director of athletics Mitch Barnhart a commendation, a medal, or at least a gift card to Wal-Mart. In two e-mails to UK fans, Barnhart crowed about his men’s basketball team’s 3.1 grade point average for fall semester. And, he said, “We enter the New Year 26th in the latest Directors’ Cup standings, which puts ahead of last year’s record-setting pace heading into the spring semester.”

A public commendation for a man who uh, doing his job.

11. Television sports executives end the mindless halftime on-the-run dumb question interviews with ball coaches headed to locker rooms.

12. Army-Navy game. For series sake, hope the Cadets end the Middies’ 13 years win streak.

13. Hope the brainless cliche Tell it like it is, goes the way of Howard Cosell … allowed to die and be buried.

14. When a college football player lingers over an opponent after a violent or unnecessarily brutal hit, 15 yard penalty, automatic ejection for player and position coach.

15. Statewide canvas of fans. “Would you like to see Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky compete in football and basketball annually?”

16. Will the sports guy confess who hatched the idea “… SEC West teams are strong and teams in the East are weak,” identify himself? Maybe self-anointed genius Paul Finebaum in Alabama?

Sounded clever and SEC media herd bought it, incorporated it into daily/weekly renderings.

In January, reality showed up. SEC West teams played in seven bowls, lost five, including No. 1 ranked Alabama. Meanwhile, East Division teams ran the table, 5-0.

What’s it mean in 2015? Advertisers touting SEC as best in America could take a hit in profits. A harder hit might be to Crimson Tide hearts.

17. Hope your favorite ball coach manages a sweet deal like Tony Barbee’s at Kentucky. Titled special assistant, Barbee is not allowed to coach. A Louisville Courier-Journal report said, his “… is essentially a desk job and pays $150,000 a year.”

So, essentially Barbee is a fan still being paid by Auburn, and $150,000 from UK … to watch games from best seat in the house, free.

18. Double college football playoffs to eight teams.

19. Need inspiration? Try Sum-It-Up. Life story of college basketball’s winningest coach, Pat Head-Summitt.

Hope we see …

20. Bill Walton guests on CBS’s The Late Show when Stephen Colbert takes over this year, could be classic.

21. Television sports network executives cut back on talking heads. Guys and girls in 2014 analyzed everything they saw and too often were so busy blabbing we saw things they didn’t see.

22. Pittsburgh Pirates go to the World Series.

23. Tribute. Stuart Scott, personality at ESPN more than two decades, died last Sunday. In 2015 someone will sit in his chair knowing he or she cannot fill it. Boo-Yah!

24. Talk show viewers/listeners experience more classics like tweets from two Alabama fans to talk host Paul Finebaum after Ohio State dumped the Crimson Tide.

√ Fan 1. “(It) Wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.”

√ Fan 2. “Germans? Are you actually comparing Bama’s loss to the bombing of Pearl Harbor?”

And so it goes.

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com