A – Ageless. Brett Favre just keeps getting it done. I fully expected him to be disappointing this year – last season with the Jets all over again. Instead, you don’t even have to exaggerate to say that he is probably playing the best football of his career.
A – Aroldis Chapman. Let the hype begin. Chapman is a Cuban left-hander with a 100+ mph fastball who just defected and is looking to join the majors. I’ve seen him called the left-handed Stephen Strasburg several times, and he is sure to incite a Matsuzaka-esque bidding war. There are some strange issues around this one, though – he is reported as being 21, yet when he was at the World Baseball Classic in the spring he was reportedly 26. Seems that the Fountain of Youth is in Havana.
A – Albuquerque. Manny Ramirez returned to action in the minors this week in preparation for his return to the pros next week, and as you would expect from him it was a bit of a circus. His first stop was in Albuquerque, where he was hitless in two Triple-A games while generally ignoring the media. A change was in order, so he headed to California to play A-ball. Ever the great teammate, he went 2-for-2 with a home run for the Inland Empire 66ers before leaving the ballpark in the fifth inning.
A – Albuquerque. The circus is coming to New Mexico on Tuesday. That’s when Manny Ramirez is scheduled to report to the Albuquerque Isotopes for a conditioning stint in Triple A before he is eligible to return to the Dodgers on July 3. It’s hard to believe that it has been almost 50 games already since Manny disgraced himself and his sport. I can only imagine what the media coverage will be like surrounding his return.
Thursday
Connecticut (-7) vs. Purdue – Strong defense tends to thrive in the tournament, and both of these teams have top-rate defenses – in the Top 5 by defensive efficiency. The difference here is going to be the pace of play. UConn plays a far more up-tempo style that capitalizes on their size advantage over virtually everyone they play.
by T.O. Whenham – 03/11/2009
Big East – We’ll start with a tough one. The odds would logically suggest that three teams are favored well above the rest – UConn and Pitt at 7/4, and Louisville at 9/4. Head to head matchups don’t help much – Pitt beat UConn twice but lost to Louisville, and the Cardinals lost to UConn.
by T.O. Whenham – 3/10/2009
Maryland Terrapins, ACC – Maryland played one of the most exciting and impressive games I saw all season when they beat North Carolina in overtime last month. Greivis Vasquez had a triple-double and was as good as a player can be.
They have struggled to score points in some games and their once-revered defense has vanished and teams are consistently hitting the high 70s in points against UCLA during conference play. With the Bruins recent struggles, once team has jumped them in the standings and that is the Washington Huskies.
by Max Powers, Doc’s CBB Analyst
The Missouri Valley Conference had been the media darling on Selection Sunday during the middle part of this decade. The conference would receive multiple tournament bids and was able to shed the label of mid-major for most of the decade.
by Max Powers, Doc’s CBB Analyst – 02/11/2009
But once conference play opened up things went south and they dropped their first two games to Illinois and Penn State, both middle-of-the-road teams in the Big Ten.
A – Albertus Maximus. The first big challenge of the year for older horses is the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream, and it attracted a crowd that might not have had superstars in it, but which was very deep and talented. Albertus Maximus parlayed his win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile into a win here. His next stop will be the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest race.
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes will never have to pay for another drink in Pennsylvania for the rest of his life.
We have so much time on our hands before the Super Bowl that we can afford the luxury of breaking this game down from a million different angles. It also means, unfortunately, that we have more than enough time to become very sick of talking about some aspects of the game. Yes, I’m talking about you, Anquan Boldin.
A – Andy Murray. With the Australian Open just around the corner, the tennis season is slowly and quietly off to a start. It’s way too early to know how the year is going to turn out, but early indications are that Andy Murray, the talented but underachieving British star, is ready to unleash a big season. He beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on consecutive days to win an Aussie Open prep in Abu Dhabi this week.
A – Atlanta. I have to be a man and admit that I was wrong about the Falcons. I didn’t believe that Michael Turner was going to get the job done, that Matt Ryan was going to adjust easily to the pro game, or that the team stood a chance of making .500, never mind the playoffs. That’s an 0-fer for me. With a nice road win over the flailing Bucs on Sunday the Falcons clinched their spot, and they can now get ready to play a road game to start the playoffs.
A – Arena Football League. The AFL is taking a year off to get their business in order. The question is whether anyone will care, or even notice. The most telling indication of the state of the league was that the New Orleans VooDoo had decided to fold even though they had been near the top of the league in attendance the last two years and were owned by Tom Benson, owner of the Saints, so money wasn’t a problem.
