Sweet 16

Ok, now let's talk a little about March Madness.  If you're like me your bracket looks pretty miserable.  To be honest, who could have predicted Kansas to be out before the Sweet 16?  And how about the Big East teams: Villanova, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Georgetown just rolling over and letting a bunch of mid majors beat them.  In Pittsburgh's defense, Xavier is a very solid tournament team who has made their 3rd consecutive Sweet 16, but for the others, especially G-Town, what a terrible showing.

So my bracket is pretty lame right now with my Sweet 16 not looking too hot.  In the West Region I only have Syracuse left, I picked Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, and BYU as my other picks in the West  I have the same situation in the South Region, only one team remaining that I had picked in Duke.  I had Villanova, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M in that region before they all bowed out.  Thanks Big East!  As the Midwest Region goes I have two teams left.  Yes, I actually called it that Michigan St was going to beat Kansas anyway so having Northern Iowa there doesn't mean much to me and I also had the Buckeyes there, but instead of Bruce Pearl and his jacket I had John the 3rd and G-Town,  Big East teams must have just beat each other up in the Garden for their conference tournament.  In the East is where I'm currently thriving having three of my four teams still in the Sweet 16 with Kentucky, Cornell, and WVU left.  I also had New Mexico instead of Washington.

Now I'm giving you my thoughts on what the Elite 8 could look like and reasons why.  Even with the injury to Lucas the Spartans turn the clocks to midnight and the Northern Iowa's Cinderella ends because Tom Izzo is just an amazing coach and he always finds a way to win in March.  I also think that Evan Turner and the Ohio State Buckeyes squeak by Tennessee, although I have a weird feeling that the Vols are going to pull this one out I don't know why.  Kentucky over Cornell, the Wildcats are just too athletic and fast for Cornell to stand a chance even if they do have the best 3-point shooting percentage in the nation.  Mountaineers over the Huskies because Bob Huggins is just a BOSS with that sweat suite he wears.  DeSean Bulter will pick up the team and carry them on his shoulders with an amazing performance.  The 'Cuse over Butler ending the countries longest winning streak with that stellar 2-3 zone and then upset with Xavier over Kansas St leaving everyone in Kansas looking forward to baseball season and another great year with the Royals, watch the suicide rates in the Midwest go up soon.  Duke over Purdue in a solid game but with the big men inside for Duke and the pale white gingers they have shooting from the outside will overwhelm the Boilermakers and St. Mary's over the Baylor Bears.  St. Mary's is hot and they're playing with a confidence that can not be matched.

If all these games end up like I picked then I will certainly entertain people with taking money from them to give them my "expert" picks.  But from the looks of my bracket it's not very good.  Just a number for you, 3,576,022.  No that's Coach K's salary but that my current ESPN tournament challenge ranking. Wish me luck in the Sweet 16, seriously.

Cups of Joe

Let's take a break from the Madness cause clearly only women and morons have brackets looking pretty right now.  So I'm going to talk about the spring training news that is going around and it all seems to be around the Minnesota Twins with their new stadium opening up (no dome in Minnesota in April and September?), Joe Mauer getting to stay in his home town, basically, and gets a huge contract, and finally Joe Nathan goes under the knife for Tommy John like so many other great pitchers.

Joe Mauer agrees to a contract extension with the Minnesota Twins for 8 years and 184 million dollars.  Not bad for a guy who lives in a log cabin.  But I want to know how a small market team like the Twins have the ability to give that much money when they pride themselves on "using what they have" and seemingly try to trade away every big name guy that has ever come through their farm system.  I'm not saying the AL MVP doesn't deserve a big time contract like that, because he does, he's the best.  Plus, he's a product of the area and I'm sure the fans would have went wild if they didn't sign him because he's a local boy.  Joe Mauer has been one of the best players in the game over the past 3 years and he is a catcher, not a common find.  But I'm guessing with the new stadium the Twins will bring in enough revenue to support that contract and possibly they will turn around and become a contender and learn that spending money will actually result in moving past the 90 win mark and possibly past the ALDS.

As for Joe Nathan, what a loss for the Twins.  Statistically since 2004, no other closer has had better numbers than Joe lets be honest, he has unbelievable stuff.  Losing any solid pitcher in a bullpen will hurt any team as well all know with the Mets losing "K-Rod" (even though it wasn't injury just because he sucks now).  But a guy like Joe Nathan would be like the Yankees losing Mariano or the A's losing Andrew Bailey.  It's just going to hurt them.  Now the replacement?  I'm guessing Franciso Liriano could make the move into the bullpen because he hasn't been able to reproduce the effectiveness he once showed as a starter so why not move him into a 2 inning role guy because his stuff could be very effective in a short span for the Twins.

I still don't see how people or players will want to play outdoors in Minnesota in April or late September but then again they can pull it off in Detroit so I guess they can try and see if those crazy Gopher lovers can go out and see games in probably sub-40 degree temperature.  Either way Joe Mauer is the man regardless just because he didn't want to run away from a place where he grew up, basically he's a country pumpkin through and through.  As for Joe Nathan it's a terrible thing to see, but AL Central teams will be happier, but in about 12-18 months from now I bet he'll be back and sitting batters down again.

March Madness All Over Again

Disclaimer, this is in no way the exact picks that are going to win some loser a ton of money.  If I had that kind of information I clearly wouldn't be running any type of BS blog.  Thank you.

Now this is a great time of the year.  College basketball is at its finest and spring training baseball is on daily and when one ends the other begins, perfect planning.  So, I'm going to try my best to breakdown the bracket to what I think is going to happen in the tournament.

MIDWEST

I'm taking Kansas over Lehigh like a normal person, UNLV over UNI.  5-12 Michigan St will beat up on New Mexico State and Maryland beats the Cinderella story Houston by 15-plus.  Bruce Pearl and his magically suit beat San Diego and the Hoyas plow past Ohio.  Georgia Tech with the upset special and Ohio State over UC Santa Barbara.  Round 2.  Bye-bye UNLV as Kansas moves into the sweet 16.  Michigan St has flashes of earlier on in the year and beats Maryland, G'town beats Tennessee on a buzzer beater, yes I'm calling it.  Finally, Evan Turner drops 25 in the win over Georgia Tech.  Sweet 16.  Tom Izzo and the Spartans shock the Jayhawks to move on and the Hoyas represent the Big East beating the Buckeyes.  Elite 8.  Georgetown and John the 3rd move into the final four with a 65-59 win over Michigan St.

WEST

Syracuse only wins by 10 over Vermont.  Florida State beats an Gonzaga team that was once good this year and yes it's our first 12 over 5 upset with UTEP over Butler.  Vanderbilt beats Murray State by 20 and Minnesota upsets Xavier with great defense.  Pittsburgh gets the win against Oakland and BYU stomps over Florida who has no business in the tournament.  And Kansas St beats North Texas.  Round 2.  'Cuse over Florida St by 15 and UTEP over Vanderbilt so there's a sleeper for you.  Pitt over the Gophers so they go back into their hole and BYU over Kansas St because Mormons have something or someone on their side.  Sweet 16.  Syracuse over UTEP cause the clock struck midnight.  Pitt over BYU in an awesome game, if this actually happens then I think this game will be one of the best of the tournament.  Elite 8.  The Big East prevails again the 'Cuse avenges a loss this year to the Panthers making it to the final four.

SOUTH
Duke handles Pine-Bluff.  Louisville over whatever Pac-10 team they play and the Aggies of Texas A&M over USU big time.  Sienna over a weakening Purdue team and this upset will be huge.  The Irish prevail shortly after Patty's day and beat Old Dominion.  The Baylor Bears prove there's a good time in Texas this year beating Sam Houston and Richmond wins big, finally Nova kills whatever team they play, watch out.  Round 2.  Duke beats the Cardinals and Pittino goes back to his mistress.  A&M beats the Sienna by 4 probably 75-71 again I'm calling my shot.  Notre Dame beats the Big 12 Bears of Baylor and throw you're V's up for Villanova and Scotty Reynold as they roll past Richmond.  Sweet 16.  Duke finally makes it there with a solid victory over the Aggies and big Luke ends a great career losing to conference rival Villanova.  Elite 8.  This hurts big time but I don't think Nova can handle the big men that Duke has and yes, it's happening again, the Blue Devils will be in the final four, not that I hate them I just don't like seeing Nova lose.

EAST

Kentucky loses Eastern Tennesee, just playing Texas chokes again to Wake Forrest and Cornell is the other 12 over the 5 beating Temple.  The Badgers badger the Wofford team back home, yea I know it's bad and marquette gets upset by Washington, I just have a feeling, remember the disclaimer earlier?  New Mexico Lobos, I believe, over Montana and Clemson beats up on Mizzou.  The Mountaineers stay hot and win by 25 I'll say.  Round 2.  John Wall and company dances into the sweet 16 with a win over Wake Forrest.  Cornell is another underdog in the sweet 16 with a win over Wisconsin.  New Mexico over Washington and I wanted to have them in but the Huskies just don't have 2 upsets in them.  WVU and sweatpant wearing Bob Huggins win against Clemson.  Sweet 16.  Kentucky over Cornell to move past another Cinderella story.  New Mexico loses to West Virginia as they stay hot still.  Elite 8.  Kentucky and their young talented squad move into the Final Four with a tough win over the Mountaineers.

RECAP

Final Four- Duke, Kentucky, Georgetown, Syracuse
Elite 8- West Virginia Kentucky, Villanova, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan St

Now I haven't picked a national champion yet because I wanna make sure all my picks make it through Friday once that happens I'll come back and if my final four is intact I'll proceed with the Final Four picks and all that nonsense for whoever cares.

A New LT in New York...Good or Bad?

Usually at this time of the year I would talk nonstop about March Madness but that will come shortly.  Now I wanna talk about the new running back the Jets signed, Ladainian Tomlinson.  I'm not sure that this is going to work out, but it all depends on what happens with Leon Washington.  If Leon stays with the Jets and resigns then there's a good chance the Jets will repeat as the NFL's leading rushing team taking more pressure off Mark Sanchez.

Lets talk about how the Jets didn't want to sign Thomas Jones because he was too old only being 30 but they go out and sign an older and more beat up running back in LT?  "Tank" Jones should have been an All-Pro back but he got snubbed because he's super underrated even in New York.  Even though Thomas Jones has put up better numbers over the past 3 years than LT the Jets opted to let him test the free agent market and he eventually signed with the Chiefs.  The number show that this is a bad move by the Jets front office but maybe LT just needed a change of scenery, lets hope so.

If LT has any flashes of old then the Jets will look like football geniuses, also, he can catch passes out of the flat better than Thomas Jones and that works well with the Jets passing game.  But Thomas Jones is a hard-nosed runner who can run all day and he proved that in his years with the Jets.  He's a hard worker who can just demolish teams, especially with the returning offensive line the Jets have.  I'm going to miss Thomas Jones and I think he's clearly a better running back than LT as of right now.

If Leon Washington comes back to the Jets and performs like we know he can then the Jets will have 3 good back in Leon, LT, and Shonne Greene.  Also, LT can drop some knowledge on those younger guys and help with film and basically help with them like a coach would because he has plenty of things he can share with 2 very good running backs.

If Leon Washington leaves then the LT deal looks bad.  Then we, the Jets, will have an old and some what washed up running back in LT and a young back in Shonne Greene who'll have to take most of the carries because LT has been overused throughout his career and his numbers have been declining for a while now.  So, Mr. Washington please come back to New York, we love you here in the Gang Green and who else will offer you money like we will because you're coming off a nasty injury.  Come back and be part of a good rushing attack and be the special teams all-pro player like we all know you can be.  And if Leon Washington goes else where then the Jets will be kind of skimpy in the backfield pending the draft.  So Jet fans, lets just pray for one of two things.  First, that Leon comes back and if he leaves we have to hope LT somehow turns into Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds and gets better with age, not probable.

"Golden"boy of Boxing is Wack

On the eve of the Manny Pacquiao Josh Clottey fight I want to bring up the fact that this fight should not be happening.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this is going to be a good fight in which the viewer will get their money's worth.  But everyone is still wondering whether or not Floyd is going to man up and actually agree to fight the Pac-man without a zillion ridiculous requests.  Yea so what he agreed to fight, but it was only to save his name.  He agreed to fight only pending certain drug tests that would leave Pacquiao upset and clearly looking like a fool because like a normal person he refused the testing.

We all know Floyd Mayweather may be one of the best boxers in the past 50 years, but the fact is he only fights people he knows he can beat up on so he doesn't lose that perfect record of his.  He's had some good competition over the years and obviously won all of those fights, but Manny Pacquiao is a boxer who is on his level and would give a great fight.  Mayweather is trying to delay this fight so he can say that Pacquiao is the one that is backing out, clearly trying to make Mayweather look better.

Mayweather needs to get over himself and Manny Pacquiao is the guy to prove to the world that Mayweather may be great but he's not perfect and that's what "Goldenboy Promotions" is all about.  Mayweather isn't going to fight Manny anytime soon.  He knows that Pac-man is infact the best pound for pound boxer in the world.  Notice how I didn't use the word "fighter" because my boy GSP (Georges St-Pierre) might be and he is a freak athlete in general.  This fight, if it is to ever happen, would be great for boxing.  Not only will it be the best fight of the decade but it would involve two of the most well known boxers in the world.  Also, I would love to watch the HBO 24/7 on those two guys because the trash talking would be nothing short of amazing.

Again, I'm not saying Mayweather isn't a stud boxer by any stretch of the imagination because anyone with a perfect record has to be pretty damn good.  But he needs to grow some balls and step up to the plate to fight someone who can actually give him a real 12 round challenge, you know someone who can go the distance with him.  So stop with all the stupid drug testing and blood testing requests and finally be a man and step into the ring with a man who can give you a real fight and put your prestige to the test so you can prove yourself to the world and the boxing lovers.  Although, I think the fight would end in a split decision ending in favor of Pacquiao because I think people wanna see Mayweather go down, like me, kind of.

-C.E.

Nomar was Wicked Awesome

So Nomar Garciaparra officially announced his retirement today from professional baseball after signing a one day contract with the Boston Red Sox so he could end his career where he started it.  As a Yankee fan I hated seeing this twitchy, OCD, big nosed weirdo at the plate with his silly rituals and antics, and if the Yankee fans hate you then that means you're probably really good and you usually perform well against the Bronx Bombers.  Nomar did exactly that.  He was a stellar baseball player during his 14 year career although toward the end he was plagued by injuries, but nonetheless he was always a hustling, hard nosed, gritty baseball player.

Nomar came up in 1996 with the Sox at a time when the American League had 3 of the best shortstops in the game.  It was agreed upon all over the league that A-Rod was the best hitter, Jeter was the best fielder, and Nomar was the best overall shortstop in baseball.  That he was.  In 1997 he won the AL Rookie of the year award as well as the Silver Slugger award.  Not bad for a first year player in the best division in baseball and in a town that will shun you if you don't perform. 

To add onto his accolades, and yes this is killing me as a Yankee fan to admit that he was an amazing baseball player but I'm a baseball fan first, he was also a 6 time all star and won the 2006 NL Comeback Player of the Year award.  He is also one of 13 players in MLB history to hit 2 grand slams in the same game and the only player to achieve this feat in his home ball park.  I can imagine the curtain call the Fenway faithful gave him after an 8 RBI, 2 HR day, again not too shabby. 

In 2001 Nomar suffered a wrist injury which basically lead to other injuries to somewhat hurt his career.  After these injuries, similar to Griffey, his numbers declined a little bit.  Then in 2004 he was traded right before the trade deadline and it landed him in Chicago with the Cubs and as we all know that was the year the "Idiots" ended up winning the World Series.  It must have hurt to watch your former ball club that you were the face of break the Curse of the Babe while he was in bed with Mia Hamm watching, probably being happy for his former club because that's the type of person he is.

With a career batting average of .313 and a hand full of awards to his name Nomar Garciaparra will be forever known as a very good major league baseball player and he'll be forever remembered for his wild antics in his pre-at-bat rituals.  He will now join the crew of ESPN's Baseball Tonight and I know I'm excited to listen to his insight and knowledge of the game.  So, Mr. Garciaparra my hat goes off to you for a great career.  Yes Yankee fans we have to give credit where credit is due.  Nomar, you are the man.

71 (no asterik)

I really think that everyone should take a step back and appreciate what UCONN's women basketball team is doing.  The streak started over a year ago, I believe November 16th 2008, and they haven't lost since.  Pretty remarkable to say the least.  This team is on another level, for any team (regardless of the level or sports) to win even half of as many games is just silly.  But this team could probably compete on the professional level in the WNBA.

Another unreal stat is that the Huskies have only trailed 86 total minutes in the 71 game winning streak.  Let's break that down.  A math lesson here for those who aren't stellar with numbers- there are 40 minutes in a college basketball game, therefore, 71 games times the 40 minutes in each game is 2,840 total minutes played in the 71 game winning streak.  So 2,840 minutes-the 86 minutes they've been behind is 2,754 minutes they've led during their 71 game winning streak.  This is just an unreal feat to accomplish. 

They are also 13-0 against top 10 teams during their streak.  Some more math here, sorry but the only way for people to really see how great this streak is, is to throw silly numbers at you, 5.5% of their wins have been against top ten teams.  This is including both the Big East Tournament as well as the NCAA tournament.  And in these tournaments every game is a possibility to be upset, but UCONN has gone through this without a problem.  Just a fact, UCONN is about to win it's 16th Big East tournament.

This team has beat up on opponents on average by 26.2 points.  I can't even imagine the spreads for these games.  UCONN must be giving up close to 30 points a game depending on who they are playing.  It's just unreal for a college team to be a dynasty the way UCONN has been.  I'm honestly hoping that they can continue to win and win and win so this streak goes into triple digits and set them apart from every other team in collegiate and professional sports, by far.  They may be considered the "Evil Empire" of college basketball, but what girl wouldn't want to go to a program that doesn't lose?  Don't worry I'll respond to anyone who cares to comment on that question.