Not gonna see a lot of me later this week - or most weekends in March, for that matter. It’s my absolute favorite time of year - basketball tournaments and baseball starts!

My youth team (the Black Shadows) had a rough season, though. We started all over (after graduating my team of the past four years that played in three consecutive championship games, and won one of ‘em) with a group of 6-8 year olds, and managed just a single win. Not only that, we wound up with the #8 seed (in a conference of eight) and have to prepare this week to meet the 1 seed, unbeaten red. this team has been together (more or less) for three years now, and their play shows the continuity. No problem. My guys have overachieved this year (despite our 1-7 record) and while I’m not saying we’ll win the game, we’ll play hard, play fair, and finish strong. Not bad for a 9-year-old (with 1 year experience), an 8-year-old (with 1 year experience), a 7-year-old and 6 6-year-olds.

The ACC tourney gets rolling on Thursday. Even though my beloved Blue Devils were bumped by the antichrists from Chapel Hill last Saturday night, I still have full confidence that they’ll win their 7th-of-the-past-8 ACC Tournaments. Yeah, they looked tired against Temple, FL State (who also beat ‘em) and UNC, but a week off will do wonders to rejuvinate both their minds and bodies. A 2-game losing streak coming into March should give anyone in their bracket a serious migraine; I predict a long run in the NCAAs for the Blue Devils - and I pray to the basketball gods every night that UConn & ‘Nova get bumped out early. Texas is playing well right now, and another matchup with them could be a disaster for the exhausted Devils - not to mention the payback factor the Longhorns would have for that blow-out back in December…

Baseball is backtoo - I actually caught my Cubs on the tube Sunday afternoon. I like some of the talent coming in (note to fantasy players: draft Pie early as a rookie CF - he’ll do great things for you in the long term!) Still unsure about Kerry Wood, though - now word is that he’ll be ready by “mid-to-late April”, although the Cubbies have been wrong about predictions like that before. If he doesn’t straighten out his delivery this year, his MLB career is probably over before it really gets going. How many surguries has he had now? And he’s not even 20 yet? Sure, he can bring it at close to 100 mph, but for how long? Sounds like closer material to me…. Prior should have a productive year, too. He’s as healthy as he’s been since ‘03, when Mr. Bartman (as well as numerous errors by illustrious shortstop Gonzalez) kept them out of the World Series just 4 outs away. Zambrano is the unsung workhorse of the trio. He’s had more innings, Ks, starts & games than the other two over the past three seasons. He’s also coming into a contract year, and I hope for a strong year with a long-term contract at the end of it. And now the bastard White Sox have won, so the North faithful need a win - especially after the Bosox won it all in ‘04.

should be a fun few months - - enjoy it!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!