Tossing Batting Practice….while wondering how a country that produced the immortal Jin Ho Cho and Sun Wu Kim can be in the WBC final?

So much like the Little League World Series, the US lost to Japan (after all the Chinese Taipei guys were like 46) and our boys are going home. It’s good to see that Roy Oswalt, who got lit up in the final, will fit in well with the rest of the Astros, who are on track to make the ’03 Tigers look like the ’98 Yankees.

Had I still been in college while watching last night’s game, I think I would have enjoyed the Sadahara Oh drinking game. Basically if I took a drink every time the ESPN booth mentioned his name or the camera flashed to him, I would have had alcohol poisoning of epic proportions. Also known as the Jimmy Buffet edition.
(there I beat all of you who know me to the punch, so any comments will not get past the fictional ombudsman)
We get it, revered Japanese hero, they love him, hit lots of home runs. Alright enough already.

So Castro's son is apparently the trainer for Cuba? Does he also administer the beatings for potential defectors? Does he put players down like horses when they're too hurt to perform? I have lots of questions about this.
Is it like prison, do the Cuban hierarchy beat the hell out of one player to prevent mass defections? Or are there families held in a work commune together only to be released provided all players return?

Sticking with baseball momentarily, everyone knows Curt Schilling retired today, and it does start to mark the end of an era in my eyes.
The departure of Manny, and the instant aging of Varitek and Ortiz last year started the trend, but now the book is starting to close on the last team of my youth.
The group of idiots, and why not us, was the last team that featured all the players older than me, and was the last group I truly lived and died with every single day.
Schilling has been a polarizing figure here in new England the last couple years, but to me I love him. I don’t agree with his politics in the least, or many of his other opinions, but an athlete that candid about anything, and that thankful to be a ballplayer, and to the fans is ok in my book.

I still remember the chills I got as we cheered Schilling as he walked to the bullpen for the start of game 2 of the 04 World Series, for all you did Curt, I say thank you.

I tried today to explain the magnitude of what 2004 meant to me and everyone I know to a southerner today. The best equivalent I could come up with would be beating Florida in the BCS title game after trailing 28-0 after three quarters.
If you equate anything in life to college football…a southerner will understand you. I think that’s where Obama needs to go to garner support for his policies.

After driving to Myrtle Beach and back this week, I have to say, the state of South Carolina is a lot bigger than it looks on a map.
Myrtle Beach was nice, kinda looked like a cleaner Atlantic City, minus the drugs, hookers, Jersey trash and Casinos.
Which I guess makes it nothing like Atlantic City, oh well.

Most of my drunken ramblings about the NCAA tournament came and went, clearly I am more coherent and thoughtful sober, but I’m infinitely funnier drunk.

However, nothing sucks more than liking an upset and talking yourself out of it, only to see it come to fruition. I’m looking at you Cleveland St. And glancing with an evil eye at Wake Forest.

Overall it was kind of a dull first two rounds in my strictly for entertainment purposes bracket challenge against myself; I still have a pretty good shot to win, provided everything goes my way.

I was 13-16 in the Sweet 16, and frankly had I actually listened to some of my own research written below I might have been better. Instead I got drunk Wednesday night and put my picks in at 1am.
Like the good coach in me I'm more annoyed with the games I lost, particularly because they could have been prevented.

After spending the tournament in Vegas last year, I am forever ruined watching it on the CBS local feed, where you spend the entire time not watching your game, even if its a back and forth thriller, but watching the little scoreboard box, and getting excited or riled up over the slightest change in score.

As far as my theory goes, well it was 11-16 with teams ranking in four or more categories. Three of those teams that didn’t were Duke, Michigan St. and Villanova. All three of them got favorable draws against other middling teams but overall it seemed to hold up again.
In the end this year I’m surprised it held up as well as it did because there were so few mid-majors who excel under the radar.

I am definitely glad that I have grown up and kicked my NCAA gambling addiction, because Ball State over Tennessee absolutely would have ruined my women’s pool.

Stacey Dales, you are sorely missed on the women’s hoops analysis. Kara Lawson, you owe me 1,500 bucks from breaking my hd tv with your ugliness, and possibly burning my retinas beyond repair.

My all time Nemesis Boston University is the top overall seed in the NCAA hockey tournament, I cannot stress how hard I will be rooting for the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota to take them out. Especially since I always end up rooting for BC against UND, despite close family ties to the crew from Grand Forks. (population Quincy, Mass. Yet is the third largest city in ND)

For the first time in 15 years my honorary college is in the hockey tournament. The Northeastern Huskies are going to be the darlings of the tournament, or do like they always do in the Beanpot and choke in the end.

Let the chants of Sieve! and BU Sucks!!! begin. Go Huskies.