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03/24/2008: "It's Monday ... It's A Sports Rant. What Else Did You Expect?"

Roundball dominates the news, but baseball is right around the corner ...

- I'm not a big basketball fan, but the stories are just too compelling. First, there's the race in the NBA's Western Conference. After the Spurs looked unbeatable in last year's playoffs and appeared poised to repeat, the other clubs reloaded with talent. The Lakers fired first, getting center/forward Pau Gasol from Memphis. That was followed in close order by Dallas reacquiring point guard Jason Kidd and the Phoenix Suns bringing in Shaquille O'Neal. Only the Lakers move seems to be paying the dividends, though, and with Dallas star Dirk Nowitski suffering a season-ending injury yesterday, they might not even make the playoffs. But the real excitement is in the NCAA Men's Tourney - the classic March Madness. Even if you know nothing about the teams, you can enjoy watching teams play for nothing more than the enjoyment. The upsets were plenty in the first two rounds (Duke sucks!), but with today as an travel day, expect some kind of order to be restored as we enter the Sweet Sixteen ... or will it?

- The King is dead ... long live the King. OK, maybe that's a bit much, but something just as unusual happened today - Tiger Woods failed to win a tourney. He placed fifth in the rain-delayed CA Championships, two strokes behind winner Geoff Ogilvy. It's the first time since Labor Day that Tiger failed to hoist the trophy - a streak of five straight PGA events (seven overall if you include 1 European tour event and 1 partial field tourney). Even in losing, Woods made a charge, regaining three strokes on the lead in the last 9 holes. The most amazing part is that when the Tour arrives at the Master in two weeks, odds are that he'll just start another streak ...

- Smell that? Pine tar ... rosin ... horse hair ... bad hot dogs. Yep - spring training is coming to an end and baseball's opening day is nearly here. Normally, as a baseball fan, this would be a great time. But I'm a Florida Marlins fan. That means watching Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell ... in Red Sox jerseys. Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera ... in Tigers jerseys. And a bunch of guys I've never heard of in Marlins unis. I understand the reasoning that drives things, but it's still frustrating to continually develop great ballplayers only to watch them blossom elsewhere. Hopefully, the new stadium will turn that around ... but I'll believe it when I see it.