EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday… There is not greater mix of inconvenience and concern than when your kid is sick on a weekend. Debating if it can hold out until Monday and questioning how sick she is – before you blow your Sunday at Children’s Hospital – to find out it is a not normal form of stomach flu, not a burst appendix. So… After suffering through a lack of sleep, here are the topics for today’s piece: Final Four, US Soccer, NY Mets Spring Training
Final Four
So the miraculous St. Peter’s run is over. To their credit they made it last one game longer than most figured by winning of Friday to make the Elite Eight before losing to North Carolina. For all the upsets in the Men’s and the Women’s brackets. (which I will get to), the Final Fours are the Blue Bloods final fours. All the team on the Men’s side are programs that have won it before, with lots of pedigree and legends. The least pedigree team in the group is Villanova, as they don’t have large number of championships and famous alumni. Over the last 5 years or so, however, they have won the title and been one of the best teams in the nation. Joining them are Duke, North Carolina and Kansas. These are some of the most historic programs in the country. Funny enough, Duke will face NC in the tournament for the first time ever… On the Women’s side, it will be #1 seeds Stanford and South Carolina, the remaining two spots will go to #1 NC State, #2 UConn, #3 Michigan and #1 Louisville. Not exactly Blue Bloods in the Women’s game – bar U Conn – but programs that have moved on to be traditional powers.
US Soccer Qualifies
After shockingly missing out on the 2018 World Cup, US Soccer all but qualified for Qatar 2022. There is still a chance they may miss it if they lose to Costa Rica by 6 goals but that is incredibly unlikely. There was already a big shock this weekend when Italy lost to North Macedonia, so the Italians won’t be in the World Cup. This after they won the Euro Championship last year. The Nats exercised a major ghost by qualifying. They also increased their chance of being in an easier pool come the big show. I still think the team is too young to make any noise. The key players haven’t had enough game time together and the coach sucks but credit where credit is due; congrats on qualifying.
NY Mets Spring Training
The Mets spring training is interesting to say the least. There is Sterling Starling Marte in right field experiment, which will have its ups and downs for sure… We have Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom saying they are in constant communication trying to learn from each other… Buck Showalter, who may just be the salty old dog this team needs, saying nothing but positives. However, he did complain about having to pay 100 dollars to fill up the team wagon. When you consider he is making 11 Million this year it seems a bit weird, to say the least… Finally, it maybe only spring training but Fransisco Lindor seems to be swinging a hot bat. Even though it’s Grapefruit League Baseball, it is a very good sign for the Mets. We will see what comes of these developments when the games really count.
Thanks for reading, comment below. Come back tomorrow for our Ben Whitney, who try to tell you that Yankees are due for a big season.
