Monday Grab Bag: Hey, look, baseball!

WOOHOO, baseball is back, and with it nearly 24 hours of nice weather!  This week in the bag I'll touch on both the Rox and the Sox opening weekends, a little spring football, and one of the Utah schools (not who you would think) trying to pick a fight.

Click below for the bag...




White Sox open impressively, but fail to sweep the Indians - The first four innings of 2011 were the best single start to a White Sox campaign in my entire life.  My Sox put up 14 runs through the first 4 frames Friday afternoon, and I nearly passed out due to giddiness.  Unfortunately reality set in, and the Indians outscored the Sox 20-10 over the final 23 innings played in Cleveland.  A 2-1 season opening series victory, even against the lowly Indians, is nothing to sneeze at, but, after dominating the first 2 games, I would've liked to have seen a series sweep.  It was the in-division records which doomed the team last season, and it is imperative to get off to a good start against the AL Central in 2011 if we're to avoid last year's October-less fate.

Baseball's back, and with it some early mashing from my Sox.  From: the trib

Rockies split weather-shortened opening series with D-backs -   It was a opening series of ups and downs for the Rockies.  Opening day saw the Rox unable to pull off the extra innings comeback, as a wild pitch in the 11th gave the D-Backs the winnings run.  Saturday gave the Rox a shot at revenge, and they took it, if barely.  Huston Street tried to give the game away in the 9th, and Russell Branyon's blast to deep center would've been gone in most other ball parks for a game changing 3-run homer, but Colorado escaped with a 3-1 win.  The 24-hour turn from 80s and sunny to 30s and snow doomed the Rockies series finale with Arizona. Had there not been 16 opportunities to make up the game with Arizona over the course of the season, I think they might've tried to fit the game in as, at least in Boulder, the worst of the weather held off for a few more hours.  Regardless, the season begins on a middling note for the Rockies.  Good thing there's still 160 games to go!


Final Four wrap and Title preview - I nailed Saturday's winners as both UCONN and Butler advanced to tonight's final.  Butler slowly, but surely, put away the upstart VCU Rams in the evening's first game, going on to win 70-62.  The Bulldogs out-rebounded VCU by a ridiculous +16 margin; there are simply no wins in a Final Four when you get killed on the boards like that.  UCONN squeaked out a 56-55 win over Kentucky in the nightcap.  A Brandon Knight steal gave the Wildcats the ball with 16 seconds on the clock and only down 2, but they failed to get anything moving to the basket and had to settle for a 23-foot heave that rimmed-out.  UCONN hit their free throws to seal the game.

Butler was able to power through VCU, but UCONN won't be pushed aside as easily.

I want to believe that Butler will win tonight.  It's easy to root for underdogs in sports, and a small school from the Horizon League fits the underdog tag nicely.  However, a Big East squad who has yet to lose on a neutral court this season, and is lead by the best player in college basketball, is just too strong to pick against.  A very tired UCONN squad takes it 65 - 61. 


Spring Football - Lost in the flurry of baseball openers and Final Four hoopla, the Buffs are in the midst of spring practice.  Less than a week remains before the annual spring game, and CU has precious few practices left before summer sets in.  Word is that Tyler is separating himself from the pack in the race for starting QB.  In the short open scrimmage this past weekend the shifty Californian completed 18 of 19 passes, including a sweet 58-yd TD pass to Paul Richardson, for 246 yards against an injury-depleted Buffs defense.

Tyler was on fire this weekend, but I'm not ready for football.  From: the BDC

I'm not too interested in football this time of year, but I am planning on going to the spring game on Saturday, if only to check out the always awesome garage sale. 


Apparently some BYU writer wants to pick a fight - According to this guy, all Buff fans are biased against BYU.  News to me.  I wonder how much time Mr Harmon figures we in Buff Nation spend contemplating BYU and the Mormon religion.  I know I, for one, can't go one waking hour without focusing almost entirely on their existence.   Additionally, since BYU bested CU in a bowl game 23 years ago, we're apparently resentful of their winning ways.  Got me there; hell, I have yet to get over that 1937 Cotton Bowl loss to Rice... how I still resent those damn Owls!

Time to get serious; 4 articles in 25 years does hardly a pattern make.  Hell, I'm surprised he was even able to find 4 semi-Colorado articles that even mentioned BYU; we just don't give a fuck about the Cougars.  In the past 64 years we've played BYU twice; with that sort of frothing rivalry, it would be understandable that we'd like to take a few pot-shots once a decade... had any of those articles been written by true Buffs. Rick Reily is persona non-grata in Buffalo circles (who specializes in hack journalism anyway), Woody Paige, besides being a Tennessee transplant, is still coming down from his acid trips during the 60s and 70s, and I've never head of that other dude.  And oh my God, Jay fucking Marriotti!  Not only is he from Pittsburgh, but I doubt any group would claim that sleaze as their own.  I know growing up in Chicago the mere mention of Marriotti's name made me spew obscenities.  Mr Harmon, if you're going to attempt to understand the proclivities of Buff Nation, I implore you to pick some actual and true Buffs to examine. 

Seriously, what the fuck?  Nearly every basketball expert in the country is questioning Jimmer's ability to translate into the NBA, and this guy picks us to squabble with?  Maybe BYU's a little jealous about which schools got super-cool invites to new BCS conferences.  Enjoy the Independent wasteland, BYU.


Happy Monday!