100th Post...Buzzer Beater Special

In honor of my 100th post, I thought I'd share with you this clip of a game that took place yesterday. It was the NCAA Division II Championship Game between Findlay (from Ohio) and Cal Poly Pomona. Findlay came in undefeated, the game went into overtime. And then this is how it ended up:




This is yet another reason why I love this time of the year...

Reflecting on the Retirement of Curt Schilling

I heard come across the news wire that Curt Schilling has retired. It's kind of a bittersweet day because of that. He is one of my favorite pitchers and probably one of the best Postseason pitchers. He was the kind of guy that if you handed him the ball in a playoff game, nine times out of ten he'll get you in a position to win.

He was in four World Series (1993, 2001, 2004, 2007) and won three of them with two teams (Arizona and Boston). He posted a postseason record of 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA.

To me, he will be remembered for the 2004 postseason where he had the tendon injury in his ankle and had to have surgery just to pitch in Game 6 of the ALCS. The "Bloody Sock" game helped Boston in their huge comeback against the rival Yankees and helped propel the team into the World Series where he pitched again with the bloody sock and all to a victory and a World Series win for the first time in 86 years.

His last game was fittingly Game 2 of the 2007 World Series against the Rockies with a win.

He was a great pitcher and character in baseball. He will be missed. Curt, good luck in all that you do down the road.

The Aftermath of Week 1 of March Madness

The first weekend of March Madness has come and gone and with it a lot of cheering, booing, excitement and marking on brackets. After the first weekend of the tourney, I have only one team that I'm rooting for still in it (Gonzaga). My other two teams were elimated in the first and second rounds (Tennessee and Washington).

There weren't that many upsets. As far as "Cinderella" teams remaining in the Sweet 16 there is only Arizona (12 seed) and I don't know if I would call them a Cinderella team. In some ways, it's starting to shape up like last year with four #1 seeds in the Final Four with so many favorites winning.

As far as my brackets go, several bit the dust early and some are still doing pretty good. My best overall bracket is one that saw me pick 14 out of 16 for the second round and still has it perfect all the way to the championship game. It'll be interesting after next weekend how my brackets will look.

March Madness Brackets

It's that time of the year again. Yep March Madness :) Part of my favorite time of the year. And along with that comes filling out brackets. And I'm not the only one filling out a bracket. All across the country, people are filling out brackets in office pools, among friends, online on sites such as ESPN.com, Facebook and others. Sportscasters, athletes, and celebrities have filled out brackets. Even President Obama has his bracket filled out and posted. It is an event that draws a lot of attention.

Before I shared about my brackets, I wanted to share some video (from ESPN.com) about some people filling out brackets. First is Dwayne Wade and Samuel L. Jackson:




The second is of President Obama:




Now on to my brackets. This year I filled out the most brackets I've ever filled out (14). 10 of those on ESPN.com, 3 on Yahoo.com, and 1 on Facebook (via CBSSports.com). I filled them out in a variety of ways. I went with the scientific (Each team's record vs Tournament teams, record the last 12 games, Power rankings) as well as the random (school mascots, flip of a coin, drawing numbers out of a hat).

I do have my one go-to bracket. In that bracket, this is my final four: Louisville, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. The championshp game: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh. Champion: Pittsburgh

Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!

2009 Major League Baseball Predictions

Well, it's that time of the year so it means time for predictions sure to be less than correct...but it's fun to predict anyway. so here we go:

AL East:
Boston (division winner)
Tampa Bay
NY Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore

AL Central:
Minnesota (division winner)
Kansas City (wild card)
Cleveland
Detroit
Chicago White Sox

AL West:
Seattle (division winner)
Texas
Anaheim (LA) Angels
Oakland

NL East:
Philadelphia (division winner)
Atlanta
Florida
NY Mets
Washington

NL Central:
Chicago Cubs (division winner)
St. Louis (wild card)
Cincinnatti
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh

NL West:
Arizona (division winner)
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego

Playoffs:
ALCS: Boston vs. Kansas City
NLCS: Philadelphia vs. Chicago Cubs
World Series: Boston vs. Chicago Cubs
Champs: Boston Red Sox

AL MVP: David Ortiz
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester
NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels