PLAY BALL!!!

The first Sunday in April means a lot of different things to us - it's Palm Sunday for many of you... this year it also happens to fall on April 1st - "April Fool's Day". I'm stll dreaming up a few good pranks to pull on family and friends as I write this. ;) One thing that is universal though is that the first Sunday in April is traditionally the first day of baseball season! Those of us out here in L.A. are truly blessed to have the legendary Vin Scully announcing most of the L.A. Dodger games. Both L.A. teams - the Dodgers and Angels - should be strong contenders for the playoffs again this year. The first game of the 2007 MLB season is tonight at 8 ET/5 PT in St. Louis as the New York Mets travel there to take on the 2006 World Champion Cardinals. Catch it live on ESPN2.


The NCAA Basketball Final is set and after picking the final four teams correctly in my bracket, my Cinderella run came to a crashing halt yesterday after Georgetown and UCLA both lost. FYI, my 88.2% standing on ESPN going in tumbled to a middle-of-the-road 63.9%.

In game one, Ohio St. controlled their matchup with Georgetown throughout. However, with only three minutes to go the outcome was very much in doubt as Ohio State led only 56-52. The outcome of the game turned on two VERY controversial calls - a blocking foul called on Georgetown's Jeff Green with 2:32 to play on a play where Ohio State's Greg Oden just ran him over. Even the announcers seemed a little incredulous at that call! 51 seconds later, a charging foul was called against Patrick Ewing Jr. on what looked to be an obvious blocking foul on an Ohio State defender. With that, the Ohio State lead went to nine at 61-52 and it was clear soon after that the spirit of the Hoyas had been broken. What would have happened if those two calls had gone the other way? Unfortunately we will never know...

In the second game, there was no controversy at all... the only thing to be said is that for the second year in a row my UCLA Bruins were thoroughly dominated by the Florida Gators... After the first eleven minutes of the game, the outcome was really never in doubt. The Bruins got out in front early, playing the same stifling defense that had helped them dominate against both Kansas and Pittsburgh. Little did we know that when the Bruins relinquished the lead at 7-6 with 10:54 to play in the first half that they would never lead again. Florida got up by as many as 18 points before settling on a 76-66 result. The Bruins only had three turnovers in the game. What did the Bruins in though was their abysmal shooting - 39.1% from the floor, including only 21.7% (5 for 23) from three point territory. On the other hand, Florida shot 53.1% from the floor including 40.9% (9-22) from beyond the arc.


With that, I hope you all have a very fun April Fool's Day! Lastly, good luck to everyone of you who is playing fantasy baseball this year. I actually still have one draft left to do as Yahoo had a server issue yesterday morning during one of my scheduled drafts... it's being run now at 9:30 ET/6:30 ET this morning. I hope you can win some leagues, especially any money leagues you may be involved in. Tomorrow, I'm going to give a list of players that may be still available in your free agent pool - sleepers who are out there that can help you win your leagues!