It's March Madness time, one of the whackier couple of weeks in the sports year. This is the time of year when everyone, sports fan or not, thinks they can fill out the perfect bracket. It's when college basketball junkies can get their pants handed to them in pools by idiots who thought Xavier was just a character from 'X-Men', much less a university. I consider myself a member of the latter group; while you can probably count the number of players I can name on two hands, I always seem to come out with a pretty decent bracket. It's almost as if the more naive you are, the better your bracket will turn out.
To prove my theory, I'm going to predict this year's Cinderella, and this year's dissapointment. If you're as much of a rookie college hoops fan as I am, toss a couple teams out there too, you'll be spot on, trust me. And if you consider yourself a somewhat knowledgeble fan, then give it a shot as well so we can all laugh at you as your dignity gets swept away when your "this year's George Mason" gets pummeled by a 4 seed in the first round.
Ok, here's mine.....
Cinderella: Oklahoma State (They're coming off a big win over Oklahoma, and their first round game is against the always underachieving Tennessee.)
Flop: Wake Forest (I think they'll have no problem with Cleveland State, but after that they have to play the winner of Utah vs. Arizona. Utah is as strong as anyone out west right now, and Arizona is probably the strongest 12 seed in recent memory.)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Haynes-worth it?
Welcome, Washington's newest $100 million man, Albert Haynesworth. You've been a godsend to Tennessee the past two seasons, but will you be the same guy for my Washington Redskins? You see, you've made my 'Skins the offseason champs once again and I'm anxious to see how you do here. Will you still be yourself when you step onto the grass Fedex Field or will the culture of underacheiving here get to you? Will you follow in the footsteps of Bruce Smith, or trip over your own feet like the dancing defensive end Jason Taylor? As much as I want to see you flourish here, I'm worried about you Albert. I'm worried about the fact that you didn't turn into the beast that you are until your contract was about to expire. I'm worried about the fact that you've been in one of the best defensive systems in all of football the past couple of years, and now you're starting over. I'm worried about a lot of things Albert, I just need to know that you're going to be the same guy you were down in Nashville.
Please don't stomp on my head,
Quinn Casteel
P.S.- What do you think about playing right tackle?
(commenters: Reply to this post from the point of view of Haynesworth.)
Please don't stomp on my head,
Quinn Casteel
P.S.- What do you think about playing right tackle?
(commenters: Reply to this post from the point of view of Haynesworth.)
A-Roid
When the first A-Rod story broke, I was, as most baseball fans were, heartbroken. As routine as it has become for big name players to have their careers tainted by performance enhancers, I've developed some pretty tough skin for that stuff, but this one is different. While I'm in no way shape or form a Yankee fan, I was very much looking forward to the day Alex Rodriguez broke Bonds' all time home run record. Obviously now it doesn't matter if he gets there or not, the record will be asterisked either way. And whether it was fair to A-Rod or not, I think the public deserved to know despite the fact that the test was supposed to be anonymous.
While I'm glad that we have the truth about A-Rod, I think everything should have stopped there. The Gammons interview was absolutely necessary because at that time we needed to know what was going on. A-Rod fessed up, told when and why he was juicing, and revealed basically everything we needed to know.
The next step was finding out exactly what he was doing, and how often he was doing it. I think that was also good to know. That press conference at the Yankees' spring training facility was another necessary step because it confirmed and cleared up some things that the public needed to know.
Since then though, things have gone downhill. To be honest, I couldn't care less who A-Rod's cousin is. We don't need to know who was sticking needles in the guy's butt, the only thing that matters is that A-Rod used steroids. I don't need to know all these random details that just drag the whole story out more. It's almost as if the media is trying to guilt trip baseball fans, and I'm not sure what to make of it. There's no doubt that what A-Rod and Tejada and all these guys was awful for the game, but criminalizing these guys to this degree isn't good for baseball either.
I don't know if we're supposed to start boycotting baseball to punish the steroid users, or what. Personally, I think the steroid era is behind us and we should all move on; not forget about it, but move on. I think the public humiliation and Hall of Fame neglect is punishment enough. I'm tired of all the national media attention being devoted to the A-Rod story; this is the best time of year for baseball fans. It's when every team in baseball looks to be poised for a World Series run. Everyone thinks this is the special year for their team, and that's a beautiful thing. I just wish we could all be focused on that stuff rather than nitpicking A-Rod's every move from '01-'03.
While I'm glad that we have the truth about A-Rod, I think everything should have stopped there. The Gammons interview was absolutely necessary because at that time we needed to know what was going on. A-Rod fessed up, told when and why he was juicing, and revealed basically everything we needed to know.
The next step was finding out exactly what he was doing, and how often he was doing it. I think that was also good to know. That press conference at the Yankees' spring training facility was another necessary step because it confirmed and cleared up some things that the public needed to know.
Since then though, things have gone downhill. To be honest, I couldn't care less who A-Rod's cousin is. We don't need to know who was sticking needles in the guy's butt, the only thing that matters is that A-Rod used steroids. I don't need to know all these random details that just drag the whole story out more. It's almost as if the media is trying to guilt trip baseball fans, and I'm not sure what to make of it. There's no doubt that what A-Rod and Tejada and all these guys was awful for the game, but criminalizing these guys to this degree isn't good for baseball either.
I don't know if we're supposed to start boycotting baseball to punish the steroid users, or what. Personally, I think the steroid era is behind us and we should all move on; not forget about it, but move on. I think the public humiliation and Hall of Fame neglect is punishment enough. I'm tired of all the national media attention being devoted to the A-Rod story; this is the best time of year for baseball fans. It's when every team in baseball looks to be poised for a World Series run. Everyone thinks this is the special year for their team, and that's a beautiful thing. I just wish we could all be focused on that stuff rather than nitpicking A-Rod's every move from '01-'03.
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