by Tom Weppel
Random thoughts from a cluttered mind...
This weekend we go from the Sweet Sixteen down to the Final Four. Without doing any deep digging, I am correct in saying that there hasn’t been a season in which all four #1 seeds have all made it to the Final Four.
All four #1 seeds are still alive heading into play this weekend. I’ll be curious which one or two teams make it through. North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, and Memphis won their first two games. UCLA and Memphis both had fairly tough battles, while the Tar Heels and Jayhawks skated through. I also find it interesting how #12 seed Villanova is NOT really considered an underdog, while #10 seed Davidson is being revered as such! Why not give consideration to a lower seed, even though they come from a bigger, stronger conference?
And I’m sure not many people at all came close to figuring out which sixteen teams would be left, correctly picking out how would win games in the first two rounds. It happens every single year. Of course, those same people play the lottery, I guess.
Anyway, my Final Four prediction comes down to #1’s UNC and Kansas, along with Stanford out of the South, and West Virginia out of the West.
Let’s see if I can pick’em….
Well, the season has started, even though it was done in a non-traditional way, and in another country from ours. The Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics got things going in Japan this week, playing to packed houses of fans, both Japanese AND American it seemed, if you looked out into the crowd.
While all the other teams continue going after it in their Spring Training homes, Oakland and Boston have stats in the books. I thought overall it was a decent display of publicity-getting action, and a lot of people for sure got into it, especially from the Boston side.
And so we are right up on the REAL opening of the regular season, when all teams will start their seasons on American soil. The pomp and circumstance will be strong, and baseball fans will once again be getting their true baseball fix on a daily basis.
There are a few items that stand out to me, though, above and beyond the whole start of the season. First off, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens all do not have a team jersey on. None of those three guys, all who have said they are entirely capable of playing, has a roster spot with a big league team. On Barry’s side, his reps are even thinking there is some sort of collusion going on between teams, all of whom are trying to keep Bonds out of the mix.
While I slightly doubt that, it comes down to the fact that maybe no team wants to deal with the publicity circus that would be certain to follow Bonds no matter where he would go if he were to indeed be playing this season. He says he still has the ability to hit. As the season wears on, we’ll see if some squad does indeed offer him a contract.
Meanwhile, Clemens has been bluntly silent since the whole fiasco on Capitol Hill and the McNamee deal. Roger has camped out in Texas within the confines of his family, laying low while all the other lawsuits and innuendo lines continue to float out there within striking distance. Clemens realizes that it would be smart for him to simply stay out of reach of any media, while keeping his mouth shut.
I would also bet that Clemens is extremely happy the season is about to begin. With games being played, all the attention will focus on players who are still playing now, as opposed to what could possibly go on further with Clemens and his situation.
Sammy Sosa is out of sight as well, after his play last year with the Texas Rangers. I’ll be interested to see if he gets signed by some team this year.
Here’s one more item to keep note of, as play begins…we have not heard nor seen any digging into the backgrounds of the 80 or so players that were listed on the Mitchell report! Also, we have not heard of any current players getting caught with any steroids or HGH in their system! Its as if there was a total and complete shut down! With that said, I’ll be quite interested to match up the stats that will be produced this season, as opposed to what we’ve seen in the past five or six years, and see if there indeed was or is a difference, especially in the power numbers.
And while you can think about being taken out to the ol’ ballgame, just remember that some of those guys DID do supplements of some kind. Most fans won’t even give it a smidgen of thought.
Tom Weppel talks trash with Greg Larson, Lonnie Marts, Eugene Chung, Artis Gilmore, and Ron Duguay on SportsAvengers.com 24/7.
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