EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday. I wanted to start the week focusing on the Final Four for both the men’s and women’s. However, the way the World Baseball Classic ended left me with something to say then too. With that, here is today’s slate: World Baseball Classic Beef, Men’s & Women’s Final Four.
World Baseball Classic Beef
A big congrats to Japan as World Baseball Classic Champions. The final was beautiful as it came down to teammates Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani facing each other in a one-run game. Ohtani k’d Trout for the final out .
The USA may have the World Series but we aren’t world champions. One thing that bothered me, though, is that social media had people saying the USA should make sure they bring more top pitchers to the tournament. As it is all voluntary, there are a lot of players that just opt out. What bothered me is that the blame was laid at the feet of the pitchers gave up but three runs in the final! What is that!?! As a Mets fan, I am a bit of an expert in poor run support for pitchers. I have seen it for Met aces from Johan Santana to Jacob deGrom. Playoff sports is all about playing solid defense and then waiting for the opposition to make a mistake and taking advantage of it. The pitchers got them to the final and the USA bats only got 2 runs but the fans think the pitchers are the problem!?! This just goes to show you that fans are idiots. If no big names are there then no pitchers showed up.
Men’s Final Four
# 1 seeds Alabama, Kansas, Houston and Purdue are gone. I don’t think anyone saw that one coming. The Final Four has one team with some kind of pedigree in UConn… Then you have Florida Atlantic, who had never in won a NCAA tournament game before. Now they’ve won 4 in a row and are just two from becoming National champions… You also have a battle-tested Miami Hurricanes, who had to beat the the number one and number two seeds to get their seat at the final four table… The fourth seat at the table goes to San Diego State. We know them more for their football program than their basketball program but this year the hoops team is playing tough defense and squeezing the attack of opponents. Regardless of who wins, this will go down as the most unpredictable final Final Four ever. Of the remaining four, I see UConn winning it against SDSU.
Women’s Final Four
The Women’s Final Four has changed its structure a couple of times. They are trying to make it more competitive. For a while there were only a couple of top programs, but with more funding from their big ESPN money deal has come an increase in girls playing at the high school level. That has produced an increase in competitive programs. The first key point is that perennial Final Four participant UConn was knocked out of the tournament in the Sweet 16. This ends their streak of Elite 8 and Final Four finishes.
The new structure has the women starting their tournament just after the men… Iowa in their first women’s final four in 50+ years and LSU knocked off Miami to get a seat at the table… The two games tonight see defending champs South Carolina going up against Maryland and Ohio State versus Virginia Tech. South Carolina and VT are the favorites but this is March Madness and anything can happen.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below. Check out Ben Whitney, who will tell you why I wrong on baseball.
