MARLBORO, NY – This month of March can’t end soon enough for me as I have my head buried further up my ar$e than usual. Historically, this is the worst month for me on a personal level and the sports scene is not far behind, as Angry Ward pointed out earlier in the week. Here’s what’s on my mind…
Breaking [Spring] Training…the Boys of Summer will be packing their duffle bags amid the Florida and Arizona sunshine and head for their Major League Baseball locales where the weather will be dubious at best. Opening Day 2018 will be one for the record books, as all thirty teams are scheduled for play on March 29 – the earliest start to a season in MLB history. As a traditionalist and at the risk of sounding like an old-timer, bring the first pitch of the new season back to Cincinnati where it belongs.
There was a more innocent time when I’d anxiously wait for that first plausible day after a winter of oiling and breaking in a new glove to have a catch with my old man. Topps Baseball Cards were already hitting the candy stores and Little League practice was close enough where you could smell the field in the crisp early Spring air. All this changed with the bastardization of baseball as a business in 1981 when players and owners couldn’t agree on free agency and cost the fans two months of no baseball. Then in March 1984 my dad died suddenly and in turn so did the sport that binds fathers and sons. Many years have past and while I’m a de facto baseball and New York Mets fan who enjoys attending a game now and again, baseball doesn’t excite me like…
Hockey. On April 11th the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begin and all three of the tri-state area teams may be making early tee times and vacation plans. We know for sure the Rangers are out (queue The Price Is Right fail music), the Islanders appear to be closer to done, and the Devils are hanging on by a thread. With the sorry NY state of pro hoops and Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey ceasing operations, there’s nothing going on at these venues save for the Harlem Globetrotters and Disney on Ice. By the way, the Bruins are playing with two-thirds of a team and are still competing at a high level and winning on a regular basis. Beware the Bear once the best tournament for the best trophy in sport rolls around.
March Madness? I don’t know about you but with all the upsets on that one side of the NCAA Tournament bracket it resembles what you would commonly see in the NIT Tournament. With a good-looking #3 seed in Michigan, there’s also two #9 seeds and the darling of March, the #11 seeded Loyola of Chicago to make things easier for the winner of the opposite side of the bracket. I’ve watched some good basketball but it would be a monumental upset to not see Villanova or Kansas or Duke win this otherwise March Mildness.
That’s it for me. Feel free to weigh in below and come tomorrow for DJ Eberle, who likes walks on the beach and films with subtitles.
