NCAA Bracket --- Click to make it bigger!

ACC Tourney

UNC Won....

Going going... gone.. and.. gone again?

Opening day is almost here. I know everyone is looking forward to it, as they should be. Based on what I read Ortiz re-joined the team and hit a homer to right field that traveled past the initial fence and then past a second. Seems to me Big Papi is ready to go.

In other news it seems Mike Timlin is having some problems with his oblique muscles, and it looks like he'll be shut down for the week. Even though Timlin has been in the league for awhile I still feel that he is a really strong closer. I'm glad that Terry Francona decided to rest him for the week. It's better to work on those injuries now in spring training before the regular season.

Other than that the Red Sox look to be pretty primed for opening day 2007. As far as I can tell we have a really good bullpen this year and I think our hitting rotation is going to work out nicely.

Hopefully I can put an update on here soon regarding some of my opinions on some of the other players. Stayed tuned!

ACC Scores

FINAL
FLORIDA STATE
(20-12) 58
NORTH CAROLINA
(26-6) 73


FINAL OT
MIAMI (FL)
(12-20) 71
BOSTON COLLEGE
(20-10) 74


FINAL I can't believe this one!
NC STATE
(17-14) 79
VIRGINIA
(20-10) 71


FINAL
WAKE FOREST
(15-16) 52
VIRGINIA TECH
(21-10) 71

Simon sez knock you out!

If you've turned on your TV today at all you are probably well aware that in the NHL last night Chris Simon of the New York Islanders clotheslined the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg with his hockey stick. I'm have had very little exposure to hockey and can honestly say that I have never watched full game. The closest thing that to a hockey game that I've watched was when I was a kid I saw the movie "The Mighty Ducks". For some reason or another I've always been under the impression that what Chris Simon did is kind of the norm for NHL, apparently though, I was wrong.

As soon as I turned on Mike & Mike in the morning I heard what had happened, and then again on Sports Center and on SI.com and every where else it seems. What I'm wondering is the college basketball scene so boring that they need to have constant coverage of this one event? Most of the time sports channels barely touch on hockey, but all the sudden someone gets chopped in the chin with a hockey stick and we're paying attention.

Personally, I think that bad publicity for the NHL is actually great publicity. On any other day I'd be talking about basketball or the trades going on in the NFL off season or the upcoming Nextel Cup at Las Vegas, but not today. No, today I'm talking about hockey, and so is everyone else.

It's sad that it takes something very violent to happen for a lot of us to take notice. Do I think Chris Simon should be suspended for the rest of the season? Yes, and no. Yes to the fact that performed an extremely violent act, but no to the fact that he's creating publicity. The NHL needs all the help it can get.

As of right now Simon has been suspended indefinitely which is the right thing. Also, Hollweg get a few stitches in his chin and will be playing in the next Rangers game. A game that I might actually watch or at least pay attention to. Why? Well the NHL has all the sudden got my attention.

ACC Tourney 3/8

FINAL
FLORIDA STATE
(20-11) 67
CLEMSON
(21-10) 66


FINAL
MIAMI (FL)
(12-19) 67
17 MARYLAND
(24-8) 62


FINAL OT
NC STATE
(16-14) 85
21 DUKE
(22-10) 80


FINAL OT2
WAKE FOREST
(15-15) 114
GEORGIA TECH
(20-11) 112

Duke is.. well, not very good.

For some reason or another Duke losing tonight does not surprise me. I used to be a Duke fan, well to say, I was more of a fair weather Duke fan. It's something about the way Coach K does things that just rubs me the wrong way. I get the feeling that he knows in the back of his head that he could do just about anything and still be the coach of the Duke Blue Devils.

Back in the day I remember reading articles about how tough of a coach he was after a lose, how he'd say that his players don't deserve to wear the Duke uniform. Honestly, I haven't read an article like that in a long time. Oh well. I think it's safe for me to write Duke off for a while as an ACC powerhouse.

Then again, there really hasn't been any powerhouse teams this year in the ACC or another conference for that matter. I think a lot of people who break down brackets are going to have a tough time deciding the way things will go.

I'll keep up with this ACC tournament and post scores. Once the dance starts I'll keep track of the ACC teams. Why? I grew up in Virginia, do you think I'm really that aware of any other conference?

Testing.. Testing... One... Two?

The recent information that has come out about former players and current MLB players taking steroids slightly disturbs me. What really gets to me, the thing that really disturbs me is that if it hadn't been for Federal Agents raiding those pharmacies baseball officials may have never caught those players. Honestly, I could care less if John Rocker took steroids, but I do care that MLB isn't doing enough to catch these guys and prevent them from using this stuff.

For one I think that the penalty for using steroids should be a lot harsher than what it is. I mean if it were any average Joe that was caught using an illegal substance do you think they'd keep their job? Probably not. The same should go for all sports. I don't care if it's Kobe Bryant or Manny Ramirez, if they get caught using a substance that they know they shouldn't be using they should at the very least be suspended from their sport for a year.

The Olympic Committee seems to be the only ones who has any idea of what's going on, because when an athlete gets caught by the IOC using something their not suppose to that athlete gets suspended for years at a time. Does anybody remember what happened to Justin Gatlin? He was handed down an eight year suspension, which apparently was getting off easy. Eight years is a long time to not be able to compete in events and to lose out on endorsements.

Hopefully all sports can come together and come up with some sort of unified way to find those athletes that using performance enhancing drugs and get them out of our stadiums, courts and arenas. For every player trying to earn a career dishonestly, there are dozens of other honest players that deserve to play.

Made in Japan

Boston fans got to see first hand how well that expensive made in Japan pitching machine performs. Truth be told Daisuke Matsuzaka performed fairly well in the three innings he was out there. Honestly, it was never a question as to how good of a pitcher he is, after all Epstein seems to know what he's doing. According to an interview boston.com held with Epstein, "He's got a full arsenal. He's going to be very unpredictable. He can throw any pitch in any count. He's got a lot of different looks."

So I guess time will tell if Dice-K is really going to be ask good as what he's been hyped up to be. Even though yesterday was a good day for him, for me though, the jury is still out. Please excuse my skepticism but as history proves a major problem with pitchers from Japan is that after about one or two seasons hitters figure out their pitches and looks. I hope Dice-K can separate himself from Japanese pitches in the past and can help the Boston to another championship this year.


I think this year is going to be the year that the Red Sox go all the way again. I'll post more on that thought later.