Tossing Batting Practice….while wondering if there are any other words to the One Shining Moment song besides "One shining Moment"

All in all the tournament sucked from start to finish, and I’m not saying this cause I’m bitter I didn’t win a pool for the second year in a row. (the longest such streak in my life, I too may have to fire Billy Gillespie, and hire someone new to fill out my brackets).
The actual final CBS montage should have been a perpetual loop of Scottie Reynolds going the length of the floor to beat Pitt, since thats the only thing anyone will remember about this tournament.

The title game was so thoroughly uninteresting I was watching reruns of Family Guy and My Name is Earl by the time it was 14-7.

Saturday night I had the odd experience of walking into what turned out to be a Michigan St. bar for the semifinal game, and being the only UConn fan in the bar. I was happy for the Spartans but the 20 straight minutes I was subjected to the school song in the bar quickly proved to be annoying.

I have always hated North Carolina, I guess because I’ve been a Duke fan for a long time, but its also because I think Roy Williams’ whole folksy, dag gum it routine is a sham. I’m sure he really does act that way but to be honest, I like Jim Calhoun for all the reasons people don’t like him. He’s rude, and ornery, and quite frankly, he’s real. I feel Roy is a fake.

I was hoping that Villanova could pull off the upset Saturday, and get some revenge from the 2005 Sweet 16 in which they were robbed. With under 10 seconds to go Allan Ray drove to the bucket was fouled and hit a shot, only the whistle was blown for a phantom travel.
Only two people in the entire arena thought he traveled, the official, and Jason Harrington; bad officiating defender extraordinaire. Despite his presence as an oxymoronic (emphasis on the moronic) Millitary Intelligence officer, Jay would vehemently defend Osama Bin Laden against a bad call, if Osama were a fellow basketball official.
Jay and I along with Guiney were privileged to be in the Carrier Dome that night. Sort of. We were so far away it was hard to tell dark blue from sky blue, but regardless. UNC went on to win the national title, but I still say I was robbed from seeing one of the great upsets in tourney history that night.
Alas, Saturday night Villanova was just another in a long line of overmatched teams in this tournament, against UNC.
Despite my disdain for the Tar Heels I did enjoy watching them play this year, their fast break was impressive, and honestly, when they wanted to play defense they were as good as anybody in the country. Yes I am a huge basketball nerd.

It’s not often you can witness the peak of a person’s life come to an end, but when the scoreboard hit triple zeroes, the real world came calling for Tyler Hansbrough who will never be able to replicate his popularity for the last four years.
Hey Tim Tebow, hope you were watching, cause you’ll be experiencing the same thing next January.

I have long been a defender of the Globe, and while I won’t get into the whole issue about its potential demise, its stories like the one about the Vermont athletic director, who as the headline states “fosters a state of excellence” that makes the average person realize they too could be a sports writer or editor with seemingly no training.
For those of you who don’t know, UVM dropped a pair of spring sports earlier this year. It’s sad that it happened, but to laud an AD who is lucky enough to have a hockey program in the Frozen Four, as fostering excellence is kind of like George Bush proclaiming economic growth as unemployment skyrockets.

Monday was opening day, kind of. But even in Georgia it felt like the start of baseball season was here, after all it was cloudy and overcast, 43 degrees with a stiff wind that cut right through you. It felt like home.

Wednesday night I finally got to catch a Sox game, courtesy of the free baseball package preview, I can honestly say I was a little too excited to see a WB Mason commercial for the first time in three months. And there was something homely about the sound of Don and Jerry. Since I was priced out of Fenway long ago, the sights and sounds of the ballpark no longer indicate Opening Day, its commercials and Heidi Watney that tell me its spring time again.

So in game 2 of 162 I got a taunting text message about the Sox losing from a couple of Braves fans down here. I have to admire their incredibly poor timing and the faithfulness as many are convinced they can make a run this year if their young bullpen comes through. Well that young bullpen today blew a seven run lead in the seventh while walking in four runs with the bases loaded.
Might want to work on that timing Braves fans because your insults only make me laugh.

I am desperately trying to find a ticket to go to the Masters this weekend but since I might have to sell my first born it probably won’t happen, but instead I could attend the state Grits festival on Saturday, which I was informed three separate times in the 10 minutes I listened to the radio today.