Monday's festivities

So Monday was opening day for baseball as well as the National Championship for men's NCAA basketball. Quite eventful I must say.

I'll start with opening day.. and since the only game I watched was the Cubs game, we'll stick to that: I'm worried.

This team needs guys who can step up and deliver a big hit. Hopefully the fact that Aaron Harang is awesome was the only reason we couldn't hit for two hours yesterday. Now, I understand that it's just one game, and the first one at that- but the problem for the last few years on the Cubs has not been talent, it's been execution.

The Cubs have the hitters to be a very good offensive team but we can't be streaky like we have the last few years. We'll score 12 runs in one game and then a total of 5 runs the next four games. That just will not cut it.

Zambrano will be fine, he just had a bad day and Adam Dunn basically took full advantage of two very bad pitches.

Anyway, I'm venting and its worthless to get mad about one game.. so on to Florida.

Last nights game was proof that I don't know what I'm talking about in the world of college basketball. The whole year I labelled Florida as the most overrated team ever, despite winning the previous national championship. Well, they won another one with the same group of guys. After the first five minutes or so of the game it looked like it was going to be a shootout till the end. Then Florida just decided that enough was enough and pulled away to the tune of an 11 point half-time lead which they never gave up. All Florida did was prove that they were not only this good last year but this year as well.

Now, last night's match up pissed me off because frankly I can't stand either school. Florida has dirty programs in both football and basketball and Ohio State fans are giant dicks. It's a lose-lose situation. So I ended up rooting for Ohio State just because I didn't want to see a team like Florida win back-to-back championships in basketball with a nice football championship in the middle. That's just sick.

But that's what happened and it pisses me off. Now I have to watch Cubs baseball for the next two months while they're still relevant and pray that the Notre Dame Blue-Gold game tides me over until fall practice begins.

FINALLY!

All that spring training crap is done and I can finally yell at the Cubs and not feel bad. There's something about when I accidentally watch Cub spring training games and I start getting into it. Like violently. When I start yelling at guys (who have no chance of making the big leagues) to hit the cut off man.

But now it IS the big leagues. Now the games matter again. Now we can finally find out if the Cubs and Yankees both spend hundreds of millions just to watch the playoffs.

Will anyone on the Cubs stay healthy? God I hope so.

Let the Old Style flow and the southwesternish wind blow.

Oh, by the way, the Cardinals have a losing record.. HA!

Baseball Preview

We're three days away from opening day between the defending World Champs and NY Junior. Now seems about the right time to start throwing some crazy predictions out there so here goes:

* When Bonds breaks Aaron's record there will be much more applause than expected because no one in this country can actually stick up for what they believe in. I, however, will not be watching and hope that it never happens.

* The Yankees will miss the playoffs. Their pitching is absolutely terrible. Sure they have Rivera, but he's a closer.. what do you do the first eight innings? Frankly that team just can't score 11+ runs in enough games to make it to the post season.

* The Cardinals will miss the playoffs. Bear with me. The Cubs have a sick offense and one of the deepest rotations (if it stays healthy). The Reds were surprisingly close last year but won't be able to surprise people with Bronson Arroyo again. The Cards lost their pitching (which wasn't much to begin with) and last year proved that if Pujols gets hurt, there's more than fantasy owners crying.

* The Pirates will be the worst team in the League. They're awful and Kansas City at least TRIED to get better.

* Neither Wild Card will come out of the East.

Speaking of Wild Cards, here's my prediction for the playoffs this year.

American League:
East: Boston
Central: Minnesota
West: Anaheim
Wild Card: Detroit

National League:
East: New York
Central: Chicago
West: San Diego
Wild Card: Los Angeles

ALCS: Boston def. Detroit (4-2)
NLCS: Chicago def. New York (4-2)

World Series: Chicago def. Boston (4-3)

So perhaps none of this happens, and I'm a huge homer for the Cubs but I really like our chances this year, more so than in 2003. Chicago will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cubs' first World Title with another one. George W. Bush will declare Chicago a national disaster and require the government to help the clean-up process.

Its the end of March 2007 and..

* ... we've had the most uneventful and yet most exciting NCAA tournaments I've ever seen. When a number seven seed (UNLV) is the biggest underdog in the entire sweet sixteen, its hard to yell at the tournament committee for poor seeding. Obviously, they got it right. Now we're about to start the Final Four and we have have two one-seeds (Florida, Ohio St.), UCLA (which should have been a one-seed in my opinion) and Georgetown (the hottest team going into the tournament, number two seed). This is going to be some extremely athletic, physical and competitive basketball. The first game is the fast-paced Florida-UCLA rematch of last year's championship game and the second semi-final will be two bruising, physical teams with deep shot threats. I can't wait.

* ... every baseball team except for the Devil Rays, Pirates and Royals are the best team in their division. As a Cubs fan, I know I do this. I remember saying to some of my friends that there's no way the Cubs don't win their division this year. The Reds and Cardinals don't have the pitching and Milwaukee is... well, the Brewers. We'll probably win early with our strong pitching rotation and our obvious power line-up. But then someone gets hurt and our line-up gets shuffled and everything goes to hell. Every team will experience this except for the Cardinals and it pisses me off like no other.

* ... NBA basketball is about to start. I know they've been playing for several months, but frankly, the league just isn't watchable until teams start fighting for playoff spots.

* ... spring football for college is beginning. For three weeks every spring, college football die-hards have something read about. Message boards who ask "Who's the next QB?" or "What's the new coach bringing to our team?" begin answering their questions. Depth charts begin to shape up with the frosh and sophomores starting to step up. Its good times.

* ... fantasy baseball team owners are going insane. You know I'm right. Spring training starts in early March and you get really excited so you set up your league's draft for March 12th because you can't wait any longer. Then all of a sudden its March 27th and please God lets play a game so I can start talking trash. Everyone either loves or hates their team and its driving them nuts to sit there and see all those dashes in the scoring columns day after day. LET'S PLAY BALL!!! Less than a week guys, relax.