My Holy Grail Of Sports

Next Wednesday I am going to what I believe is my first mid-week day game when the Mets play at Dodger Stadium. I am pretty excited about this, to say the least, because it just seems like this is where the magic of baseball lives. Every other professional sport plays at night and on the weekends, but Major League Baseball hangs on to one of its better traditions with the get-away day game.

This got me thinking of all of sporting events I have been to and all those I would still have to, which seemed like a ranked list, so a ranked list there shall be.

Best Sporting Events I Have Been To Live

1. Game 7 - 2001 World Series: A month and a half after 9/11, a Stealth Bomber buzzed the stadium and then it got good: Curt Schilling faced Roger Clemens in each of their hey-days. Both threw 8-inning gems before turning it over to their ace relievers. When Randy Johnson began warming in the 8th inning to pitch the ninth, it was one of the greatest reactions I have ever seen in a crowd. Mariano Rivera came in for the save and Luis Gonzalez hit that little squibber to win the World Series.

2. Game 3 - 2006 NLDS: Not only did I get to see the Mets play in a playoff game, but it was 15 minutes from home, they won it, it was a blowout, they clinched the series at it, and it was a sweep over the Dodgers. Perfect.

3. Monday Night Football: Rams at Packers. My sister-in-law was a trainer for the USC football team, so when she mentioned that she, my brother and I were going to a Packers game at Lambeau, USC's equipment guy called his buddy Red, the Pack's equipment guy. Long story short: we got a free dinner in the fancy restaurant inside the stadium before they opened the building to the public, we got about $100 of Pakcers gear each, we sat in the second row in Ahman Green's family's seats (he wasn't suiting up that game), we stood at midfield after the game, we toured their training facilities, dining room and locker room, and we each took a picture standing in Favre's locker wearing his helmet. And it was Favre's 200 consecutive game, in which he crushed the Rams.

4. USD vs. #24 Gonzaga: The Richie Frahm, Matt Santangelo, Casey Calvary led Zags came to USD on a Thursday after having moved into the national rankings for the first time in a decade three days earlier. The game was live on ESPN. Afterwards, Stuart Scott coined the name for the old USD Sports Center "High School Gym." Also, because of the TV coverage there was a good Greek showing (till halftime of course). The ladies of Alpha Phi hung a poster in the gym that spelled the name of our own mascot incorrectly, which gave way to my second favorite prank I ever pulled.

5. Game 5 - NBA First Round: Clippers vs. Nuggets. Carmelo Anthony's post-season impotence was in its infancy, and the new look Clippers with Elton Brand, Chris Kamen, Corey Maggette, Quiton Ross, and newly acquired Sam Cassell, Vlad Radmanovich and Cuttino Mobley carried the Clippers to the franchise's first series win in history.

Others in contention: my only game at Shea (Mets beat Houston 4-2 and Armando Benitez did not blow the save!), Notre Dame High School vs. Saugus High School (teams traded four game winning drives in the fourth quarter), UCLA football over Alabama at the Rose Bowl (and my friend who painted "A" on his chest had an "A" tan line for months), seeing Jordan, Bird, Magic, Gretzky, Ripken, etc., Piazza's grand slam in his return to Dodger Stadium as a Met, McGuire homered at Busch Stadium on the Fourth of July, free (donations requested) Monday Night Football in Tempe when they actually ran out of beer in the stadium (note: college kids + free admission = order more beer), the finish of the 2006 Boston Marathon, Wrigley, PacBell Park (or whatever it is called now), "Jeter Sucks" chant at Fenway during a Red Sox-Devil Rays game, Ducks eliminated the Stars.

Sporting Events I Need To See (Even Though Some Are Probably Better On TV:

Playoff Football, Final Four, Super Bowl, Hole-In-One (hitting it would be great), No-Hitter, Perfect-Game, Hitting for the Cycle, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, all four Majors, all for Grand Slams, Olympics (swimming, downhill skiing, bobsled, hockey, track and field, baseball, tennis), Tour de France (Alpe d' Huez, Col de la Colombiere), Ryder Cup, Davis Cup, College World Series, BCS title game, the Rose Bowl, World Cup final, Triple Crown win at the Belmont, MLB All-Star game and Home Run contest...to be continued...

March Naptime Is Here

Whatever happened to the Tourney being interesting?

The opening weekend was pretty good - a few good upsets and lots of tight games, especially in the second round. Then this weekend has been blowout after blowout, with higher seeds winning every game but Davidson's Sweet 16 game. Memphis took the mystery out of this morning's game in the first five minutes, and there is pretty good reason to think that Kansas will romp over Davidson (although lots of teams thought they were going to romp on Davidson).

So we are all set for the first ever all-1 seed Final Four which should provide some great games. I hope. If Howland can't find a way to keep Memphis from getting a lead, all the crappy foul shooting in the world won't keep the Bruins in the game. And if Memphis shoots free throws like they shot against Texas - goodnight Tournament. Kansas and North Carolina could be an absolute classic.

Is anyone else tired of Calipari saying his 1-seed, 1-loss, formerly #1 nationally ranked team is under-appreciated? I know he is making all these "they're mentally tough; their mechanics are good" comments so his kids will start to believe it is true. But why do I have to hear it all the time?

And why do I have to hear all the TV and radio experts talk about what a lights-out shooter and phenomenal athlete and pure scorer Stephen Curry is. They all say he may be the best sophomore in the country and should be in the conversation for the Wooden Award. They say Davidson is a true threat to the NCAA's royalty. They say all this as though anyone who thinks otherwise is a slack-jawed moron.

Where were these experts two weeks ago? Where were they when Davidson (a top 25 team) drew a 10-seed? I don't remember a single person saying they had been robbed and were underrated. I remember people saying they'd beat Gonzaga - they were a sexy first round upset pick. But what about the second round? Or third? Everyone talks about them like they always believed, but most of these people couldn't have named what state they're from, let alone who their star player was.

Not that I saw this coming either, but why do the experts always have to pretend to be experts? When will one of them go on TV and say, "I don't know where they came from, and I don't know how they're doing it."

UCLA vs. Western Kentucky

The second week of the Tourney strikes again. UCLA was up by 21 at half over the last of the Cinderellas - Western Kentucky - before scraping together a surprising close win.

Davidson can't be considered a Cinderella because although they have pulled off two upsets, they were nationally ranked entering the Tournament. Anyone who didn't see this coming, or at least didn't see the Gonzaga win coming, should have.

And Villanova plays in the Big East which eliminates them from the Cinderella ranks, as far as I am concerned.

While it is too bad to see Brazelton and Co. go, I was glad this game was not close early on because I thought there was no way CBS would air the second half of it. That meant we would get to watch the other game which had Jay Bilas and Dick Enberg announcing, rather than Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery. Trading Lundquist (who only blows by association) and Raftery (who is basically Vic the Brick Jacobs without the certifiable insanity and awkward and possibly dangerous man-crush on Kobe Bryant) for Bilas and Enberg (who are both charming, eloquent and intelligent) is like trading Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol.

Fantasy sports makes us root for these types of strange things sometimes. "Come on Mariano - no earned runs, but blow the save anyway." But rooting for strange occurrences so you get to listen to a different announcing crew is an NCAA Tournament staple.

UCLA's defense truly is spectacular when they are on. I don't know the stats at halftime but a few minutes to go in the first half, UCLA was up 30-15 and Western Kentucky was shooting 4 for 22. I swear they had not taken a single shot without a hand in their faces. Between that, Love's outlet passes and magical nose for lose balls, and Daren "the One-Man Press Break" Collison, I don't see UCLA losing. Yes, they have struggled in their three wins, but they just get it done.

Western Kentucky's Brazelton is a spectacular player won't likely get any NBA looks, but he is brutal. He single-handedly carried them in their opening round upset of Drake. Then he got USD's Brandon Johnson and the great Darren Collison to foul out trying to keep up with him. He doesn't take bad shots, he doesn't play out of control, and as John Wooden would appreciate, he plays fast but not in a hurry.

I was a little torn at halftime because MTV-HD was airing the U2: Rattle and Hum documentary. I admit I turned off UCLA long enough to watch "Bad" with the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" mixed in. But that will be on again, and thus can't compete with live sports once they came back from halftime.

Speaking of live sports, I got to watch the Mets take the Braves to the woodshed this morning on ESPN. It was my first Mets game of the year. They played about 3 starters (No Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Delgago, Alou, or Beltran) and crushed the Braves starting 8. That made me happy.

I was set to do an American League season breakdown today, but I realized I don't really care about the American league. I will get to it before the North American portion of the season starts.

I was very surprised that CBS stuck with the UCLA-WKU game after halftime since it seemed like a blowout and the other game was close. Boy, did that decision turn out to be prescient! WKU crawled back in and trailed by just 4, fouled Collison out and got four fouls on Shipp and Westbrook, why Louisville wound up crushing Tennessee.

Nonetheless, when they returned with that 21-point UCLA game, I wonder in how many households did the following conversation took place:
Her: This is over. Come on, turn on the figure skating championships.
Him: There is another game. They'll switch.
Her: We watched like 50 games last weekend.
Him: It's the Tournament! Plus, how many world championships do they have in figure skating?