NCAAs: Unpredictable as ever
March Madness busted entire country's dream of a perfect bracket
I come to you this week hat in hand. Not only was virtually every upset I boldly predicted last week wrong, but my bracket was broken by the time I could spit up my morning coffee on Thursday.
Such is the plight of we “experts.”
In the back of my mind I knew I should have just relied on my usual source for sage advice on March Madness, my dog. Sadly, Rosie, whose two greatest accomplishments were insisting that I bet on St. Peters to reach the final eight last year and eating my favorite dress socks, has left us. So, it was up to me to either tell my loyal readers what I really thought — or get another dog.
I should have opted for the dog. In the first 32 games last week, I was a sizzling 18-14. My two “You heard it here first” upsets, College of Charleston and Drake are now back in Charleston and Des Moines watching the rest of the tournament like you and me. I lost two teams I had in the final four. Kansas, who I had winning the whole thing, and Arizona who I had in the final with them.
So, moving forward here are my suggestions. If I loudly declare that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, think about taking the odds against.
If I ever offer you a stock tip, it likely would be a heavy investment in the Silicon Valley Bank.
If I ever suggest a yes or no answer to something — pick “other.”
Local teams? We hardly knew ye…
All the while, both the men's and women's tournaments reach their second week with 16 teams still around, each with a chance to cut down the nets the first week in April. None of them calls the Bay Area home.
The Stanford women and the St. Mary's men both fell victim to the same fate. Lack of perimeter shooting.
St. Mary's got its ears pinned back by Connecticut. Here are the woulda's and coulda's of that game: What if Alex Ducas' back hadn't spasmed on him midway through the first half?
Ducas was the Gaels best perimeter shooter and had eight points when he went down. It was a one possession game at that time.
I'm not going to be brash enough to think that the Gaels would have beaten a very good Connecticut team that day. But I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand either.
I still believe Randy Bennett and Tara VanDerveer are the Bay Area's two best college coaches (with a nod to Herb Sendek at Santa Clara), and like the Terminator: They'll be back.
Shohei can you see…
Roll this around in your mind for a while. The most exciting moment of the 2023 baseball season took place before the 2023 baseball season.
Shohei Otani went from being the best baseball player in the major leagues to being to being
a worldwide superstar in the space of two weeks. And just for a flourish, he ended the World Baseball Classic by striking out a teammate and arguably the best hitter in the game with his third best pitch.
Consider this: Otani threw a ball for a strike at 102 miles per hour. He hit a ball off the wall at 114 miles an hour. And he ran from home plate to first base in 4.1 seconds, which could qualify him for the 400-meter Olympic relay team.
The ninth-inning strikeout of Mike Trout that gave Japan the championship was one of those moments where years from now people will remember where they were when it happened.
The WBC was so successful there was an immediate hew and cry for the international series to replace the All-Star game in mid-season.
That thought was met with huzzahs from every corner. The All-Star game has become stale and meaningless with many selectees feigning a hang nail in order to stay home and get some rest.
Let's follow the NFL's lead and move the AllStar game to the end of the season. And, like the NFL, turn it into a skills competition. There'd be sunflower seed spitting, the resin bag toss, batting
glove adjustment technique, and a team butt slapping competition.
The poohbahs in the front office of Major League Baseball were handed the biggest PR boost they've had since the end of the dead ball era, and when presented with the idea of a midseason World baseball tournament they reacted with their usual passive excitement. “We'll think about it.”
When does football start?
Scratches on a note pad
A couple of other baseball related items before we get out of Dodge this week:
In its continuing effort to speed the game up so that it's digestible to the instant gratification crowd, MLB and its Department of Overkill, has decided that it will be actively involved in the efficiency of teams' batboys and batgirls.
The league it seems, has the right to demand the removal of a kid who's not quick enough to retrieve an errant bat or shin guard and thus slows the game down.
Baseball also has no future contractual liability for the hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of psychiatric treatments based on the kids' lifelong feeling of abject failure.
And finally….
ESPN this week released its selection of the 100 best players in the major leagues.
Here's the good news: The Giants' Logan Webb was selected with glowing words about his ability to maybe even win the Cy Young Award.
The bad news: He was the only member of either the Giants or the
A's to be selected in the game's top 100.
That should give you some idea of the uphill battle faced this year by the Bay Area's baseball contingents.
If you want to eat your heart out, consider this: Atlanta and Houston have eight players each in the top 100, Toronto and the Yankees have seven.
The top two? Mike Trout is two, and that guy Shohei Otani is number one. And he's a free agent after this season and expected to earn the biggest salary in the history of the game.
Here's a thought. Instead of the A's buying Otani, how about Otani buys the A's? And moves them to Tokyo?
I'm just sayin'.