The Big Boys have arrived in Atlanta for the last three games of the year in college basketball.

They need little introduction, but I will still introduce them because you come to this blog for witty intros to overhyped sporting events. You're all champing at the bit aren't you.

Game 1 will supposedly tip off at 3:07 pm PT in Atlanta between the East Region Champion and #2 seed Georgetown and the South Region Champion and #1 seed Ohio State. This game will be big. Literally. There are big guys playing in this game. Greg Oden and Roy (don't call me Julius) Hibbert are large men. Greg Oden may look like he's 35, but when he talks, he definitely sounds like he's 18.

In the Griddle's contest, if Ohio State wins, then the entries "it goes up to 65", "maligNED and beLITTLEd", and ToyCannon are eliminated.

If Georgetown wins, Suffering Bruin, Dodgergabe, sonic death monkey, and Trojan Ron all go down.

Game 2 should be starting around 5:47 pm PT between the West Region Champion and #2 seed UCLA and the Midwest Region Champion and #1 seed Florida. Oh, and Florida won last year. The Gators are doing their best to somehow make UCLA look like a sentimental underdog that people want to root for. That's really hard to do and is a credit to Billy Donovan and his fine upstanding group of young scholar-athletes. Nevertheless, a UCLA victory would be, in my opinion, a bit of a surprise as I picture Lee Humphrey raining down threes as he gets open as the Bruins try to double team Noah and Horford.

The only thing you can count on is Jim Nantz trying to be inoffensive and then wondering how sanctimonious Billy Packer be. How many more years will CBS inflict Billy Packer on America? I'm guessing that will be as long as Packer wants to stay.

I picture this scene when Packer dies.

Packer: Hey, St. Peter, well I'm ready for heaven.

St. Peter: Sorry, you didn't do well enough in life.

Packer: C'mon, I'm a good guy! I went to church every Sunday.

St. Peter: Yeah, but you should have asked the people who came up to me in airports to tell me about you.

As for the Griddle contest, a win by Florida would eliminate Dodgergabe, "maligNED and beLITTLEd", and "sonic death monkey." A UCLA win would eliminate Toy Cannon, Suffering Bruin (he would lose the irony tiebreaker too), and Trojan Ron.

There are just seven people who can win. Trojan Ron is the current leader by one point over Suffering Bruin. Sonic death monkey is presently in 13th place and would make the biggest leap if Ohio State beats UCLA on Monday. He would beat Trojan Ron by one point in that scenario.

If all the picks were weighted evenly, Suffering Bruin would be the leader with 50 correct out of the first 60 games.

And remember back to the early rounds when Monterey Chris ruled the roost and we were thinking of building a series of churches in his honor? He's tied for 66th and he proved to be the latest in a string of false gods that I've worshiped.

Last night at the Freeway Series (exhibition variety) game between the Angels and Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, I finally got to see in person, one of baseball's rarer events, the triple play.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Angels reliever Chris Resop walked Olmedo Saenz to lead off and Adam Godwin ran for him. (Godwin did not bring up Stalin or Hitler to Angels first baseman Casey Kotchman I believe.) Andy LaRoche followed with another walk. And who was coming up? Why, it was Brady Clark! Whom I still had to adjust to being on the Dodgers. It was Clark's first at bat as a Dodger.

And on a 2-2 count, the runners were going, but Clark lined the ball right at Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick, who was already shading to second for the double play. Kendrick just jogged to second to double off Godwin and threw over to Kotchman at first to complete the triple play as LaRoche made a game, but ultimately futile jog back to first.

And there it was in my scorebook "43 TP". For the Dodgers, it was no runs, no hits, no errors, and none left.

The odd thing about the triple play is that sort of happened in slow motion. Clark didn't seem to hit the ball very hard. Kendrick didn't seem to run to second fast nor was in a particular hurry to throw out LaRoche at first. It just sort of happened.

The crowd didn't react much at all. The players don't really have a way to celebrate such a play. The triple play is not as satisfying it seems as the ground ball double play, which is one of baseball's most aesthetically pleasing plays. Just look at the drawing on Kurt Bevacqua's baseball card from 1976 over at Cardboard Gods. That is artistry.

The triple play is just one of those things that happens. It's a big thing. It's the ultimate rally killer. But ultimately, it's not a lot of fun to watch. Crossing it off my list of baseball feats to see in person, is sort of like being a birder who just needed to see a duck to complete his life list.

What's left on my baseball life list to see in person:

• no-hitter (blue footed booby)
• perfect game (least bittern)
• unassisted triple play (Wilson's phalarope)
• four home run game (whiskered auklet)
• game lasting longer than 26 innings (Le Conte's Thrasher)

The Pirates sent former All-Star Dan Kolb to their minor league camp and decided not to put Jose Hernandez on the big league roster.

And former Pirate manager Bill Virdon and Chuck Tanner are angry that next year, the Pirates spring training stadium, McKechnie Field in Bradenton, will have lights. Virdon and Tanner have voluntarily decided to have electricity removed from their homes I hear. And they won't use gasoline-powered cars, but rather travel around in horse-drawn buggies. Or rickshaws.

Kenny Rogers, who originally went on the DL with a "tired arm", turned out to have a blood clot in his left shoulder and will miss at least half the season after surgery.

Chad Durbin is expected to take Rogers' spot in the rotation.

Carlos Guillen received a 4-year, $48 million extension to his contract today in other Tigers news.

Do you eat the pavilion?

The New York Times and CQ Press matched up each major league park with its House Representative and discovered, not surprisingly, that all but three of them are represented by Democrats. The exceptions are Toronto (for obvious reasons), Cincinnati, and Texas. As the article points out, baseball stadiums are almost all in cities (especially downtowns) and they are almost all in Democratic areas (which tend to be the big cities.)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has AT&T Park in her district and Rahm Emanuel has Wrigley Field.

However, unlike those slackers at CQ and the New York Times, I go the extra mile. Rogers Centre in Toronto is in the constituency of Olivia Chow, a member of the New Democratic Party.

Los Angeles Angels reliever Scot Shields received a three-year, $14 million contract extension Thursday. Shields has the first and second most appearances in a season by an Angels pitcher, pitching in 78 games in 2005 and 74 in 2006. Shields is three short of the Angels record for relief wins with 31. Dave LaRoche holds that record.

The Florida Marlins finalized their 25-man roster and it contains two players who have toiled for quite a while in the minors while only being able to sip at a tall cup of coffee in the big, although they have seemingly enjoyed unlimited ventis in the minors.

One guy who made the team is 36-year old Jason Wood, who played his first game in the majors back on April 1, 1998 for Oakland. Wood entered that game to take over at shortstop in the ninth after Shane Mack had batted for Rafael Bournigal. Wood got one at bat for Oakland, on April 5, 1998, and struck out against Jeff Nelson of the Yankees.

Wood soon went back to the minors and was dealt in July to the Tigers for Bip Roberts. The Tigers made him a September callup and on September 7, 1998, Wood went 2 for 3 against Mike Sirotka of the White Sox. He was the Tigers DH and left for pinch hitter Luis Gonzalez.

In 1999 Wood played in a handful of games for the Tigers and batted .159 and then it was off to AAA. He played for the Pirates AAA team in Nashville for two seasons and then moved over to the Marlins AAA teams in Calgary and then Albuquerque. None of his AAA stats were overwhelming. Nevertheless, the Marlins brought Wood up in September and he got 6 hits in 13 at bats. Wood got his first major league hit in nearly seven seasons with a pinch single against Brett Myers of the Phillies on September 9, 2006.

The other journeyman joining the Marlins is a little younger, 32-year old Lee Gardner, who has pitched a few games for Tampa Bay.

The Texas Rangers will put Eric Gagne on the disabled list to start the season.

From the Seattle Times:

Ordonez on verge of making Mariners.

Yep, a 36-year old infielder, who hasn't played organized ball since 2004, with a career OPS of .599 (an OPS+ of 60! and that exclamantion point means shock, not "60 factorial")

And with the return of Russ Ortiz, it seems like baseball teams are recycling bad ideas and players like Hollywood enjoyed making "Police Academy" films.

The whole article about who is going to be on the Mariners 25-man roster would make me want to flee from Seattle up to Canada and seek asylum from Bill Bavasi.

Ken has added a very easy way for HTML challenged clods like me to put up photos.

So where was this photo taken?

I added a better view of the mysterious wildlife.

Not that it's written by me, nor would I know enough, but the Kyodo News Service has a preview of the upcoming season for Japan's Central League which starts play Friday (Thursday in most of the U.S.)

The Chunichi Dragons of Nagoya are trying to become the first team to repeat as champ since the Yakult Swallows in 1992 and 1993. The Dragons return the CL's top hitter for average in Kosuke Fukudome (.351) and the home run and RBI leader in Tyrone Woods (47, 144). Chunichi has one of the CL's top pitchers in Kenshin Kawakami (17-7, 2.51).

The Hanshin Tigers (of Nishinomiya) and the Yomiuri Giants (of Tokyo) are both considered contenders and likely to finish in the top three, which would be good enough to make the playoffs under the CL's new expanded playoff system that mirrors the one used by the Pacific League. The second place team meets the third place team in a best of three with the winner facing the first place team in a best of five. Unlike last year, the first place team will no longer receive a one game advantage.

The Pacific League started play last weekend and the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks won three of their first four and defending Japan Series champion Fukuoka Nippon Ham Fighters started off 1-1-2.

Also, the owners finally decided to immediately end the "kibo-waku" system which allowed amateur players designate a team that they wished to negotiate with or vice versa (a team could pick a player prior to the draft and forfeit a pick.)

And they were De-Azaled!

OK, that really doesn't work well. But the Florida Marlins named Alejandro De Aza, a 22-year old who has never played above AA as their opening day center fielder. De Aza beat out Alex Sanchez, who was released.

De Aza was originally signed by the Dodgers and then taken by Florida in the 2004 Rule 5 minor league draft.

Baseball cube record.

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. Except in Venezuela where I think it works differently.

Ugueth Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in jail today by a judge in Caracas for the attempted murder of five people on his family's ranch. The Venezuelan Attorney General's office said that Urbina was also guilty of "illegal deprivation of liberty and violating a prohibition against taking justice into his own hands during a dispute over a gun."

The linked article notes, with no hint of irony, that Urbina is a "free agent."

Venezuelan coverage of the story, in Spanish.

"Hey, Todd, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I don't know. I don't think I can learn a whole opera in Yiddish."

Recently released Todd Walker is actually pondering whether or not to file a grievance against the San Diego Padres for releasing him during spring training, so they would only be on the hook for $987,500 of his $3.95 million salary that he got in an arbitration hearing.

Padres GM Kevin Towers insists that Walker was released for baseball reasons, not in retaliation for winning his arbitration hearing.

Jay Gibbons of the Orioles is hoping to stay injury-free this year after hurting his knee last year running into an outfield wall. David Ginsburg of the Associated Press describes it this way.

"I can't run into a wall. That derailed my whole season," said Gibbons, shaking his head as he recalled the mishap in Los Angeles that put him on the disabled list with injuries to his neck and right knee. Gibbons was playing right field for the Baltimore Orioles when he collided with the wall while chasing a fly ball on May 26.

Hmm... May 26.... May 26 .... Just where were the Orioles playing on May 26, 2006?

Well played, Mr. Moreno. Well played.

This post is going over as well as one I made about John Wetteland being named bullpen coach of the Nationals. That joke bombed. Oh well. Seemed funny at the time.

Or maybe I can summarize it in even less time!

John Kerry starts off welcoming the witnesses and throws in two Yogi Berra quotes. And also says:

"I am concerned when fans lose access to their favorite team; or, as we will discover today, they are forced to change their TV service just to see games.  That is wrong.  That is a sign that the system is not working."

Continue reading...

Norm Larker, a first baseman and sometime outfielder, for the Dodgers, Astros, Braves, and Giants, for six seasons from 1958-63, passed away in Long Beach on March 12.

I had somehow missed Larker's passing until I noticed Rich Lederer mentioning it on Baseball Analysts today.

Larker didn't make it to the majors until he was 27 with the Dodgers in their first year in L.A. He finished second in the NL in batting average behind Dick Groat with a .323 average in 1960, but slumped in 1961 and the Dodgers had him share first base responsibilities with Gil Hodges. Both Hodges and Larker were taken in the NL expansion draft in the offseason and the job was given to a much younger Ron Fairly.

Because of his big ears, Larker was often, presumably affectionately, as "Dumbo."

At 10 am ET/7 am PT (and don't bring up Arizona or Hawai'i), it will be time to be glued to your computer so you can listen to the streaming audio from the hearings from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The hearing is titled: Exclusive Sports Programming: Examining Competition and Consumer Choice and it will be held in the Russell Senate Office Building room 253. That's where I testified about the New York Times' excessive use of periods in the spelling of UCLA. Strangely, there were no Senators present at that time.

Scheduled to testify in front of likely just two senators, John Kerry and Arlen Specter, will be:

• Rob Jacobson, president of INDemand
• Stephen Ross, a law professor at Penn State
• Bob DuPuy, President and CEO of Major League (his business card reads, "Good idea, Bud!')
• Chase Carey, CEO of the DirecTV Group, Inc.
• Chase Carey's mustache
• Carl Vogel, President and Vice Chairman of EchoStar Satellite LLC. (aka Dish Network)

The end result of this will likely be nothing. But if you want to listen, you can stop by CaptiolHearings.org for streaming audio.

Kerry is making claims that 60 million people could lose access to their favorite team, although that would assume that there are 60 million people who really want the ability to be able to listen to the dulcet tones of Michael Kay telling how you aren't as smart as he is or Keith Hernandez telling you that he was a really great player or Mark Grace saying something that would get him fired if he worked for a team that people knew existed or Jim Palmer trying to make us believe the Orioles are a relevant team. Some people might even miss watching the Devil Rays on TV.

After missing the final months and the postseason last year with a separated shoulder suffered in a taxi accident in Miami, Mets reliever Duaner Sanchez will be out until midseason now with a fracture in his right shoulder. In between, Sanchez had been sent home from Mets camp for a day when manager Willie Randolph didn't think he was being serious about his rehab and had shown up overweight.

In other transactions:

The Padres are going to release second baseman Todd Walker, about a month after Walker won his arbitration case.

The Marlins acquired reliever Jorge Julio from Arizona in exchange for Yusmeiro Petit, who was, for a while, an "untouchable" prospect for the Mets. Apparently, Petit can now be touched.

Toby Hall will likely miss all season for the White Sox after tearing his right labrum.

Toward the end of this story on MLB.com, comes news that the Orioles are leaning toward carrying 13 pitchers this season.

And then there are pitchers who are disappointed that they are being sent to the minors anyway. How bad do you have to be to not make a 13-man pitching staff. Especially a pitching staff that consists of 13 Orioles pitchers?

Sendy Rleal was sent to the minors on rehab assignment. That will apparently involve Orioles broadcasters as well who will try to figure out which language starts words with an "Rl" sound.

DirecTV says it will offer a few extras to Extra Inning subscribers.

For $39 extra (the basic package will cost $160), subscribers will get:

1. 10 games a week in HD.
2. A screen that can show up to eight games at once.
3. A channel that shows highlights of live games.

Or possibly a DVD player at your church, it's "Champions of Faith", featuring religious testimonials from the likes of Mike Piazza, Jeff Suppan, and Mike Sweeney. If I'm not mistaken, all of the three are Catholic and most of the others in the linked story are Catholic too.

The press release/story is from "The Christian Post." There is some helpful information in it.

Contained in the video is inspirational, uplifting music from famed singer, Bob Dylan, who had a powerful conversion in his life late in his singing career. He is known as one of the greatest songwriters in history.

Oh, that Bob Dylan.

The Final Four this year consists of four schools who have all won a national championship before: Florida, Ohio State, and Georgetown have one title apiece and UCLA has 11. All the schools have also lost in the championship game. Florida has lost once, UCLA has lost twice, Ohio State has lost three times as has Georgetown The last Final Four that had four schools that had already won it all was back in 1998 when North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky, and Stanford made it to San Antonio.

The matchup between UCLA and Florida in the semifinals is a rematch of the championship game from last year. The only other time that happened was in 1990 and 1991 when UNLV and Duke did it. Cincinnati beat Ohio State in two straight finals in 1961 and 1962.

It's the first time the combination of seeds in the Final Four are 1, 1, 2, and 2.

Unrelated things I've come across while leafing through the NCAA Final Four Record Book.

• When La Salle won the national championship in 1954, they wore uniforms with sleeves.
• When USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956, they used periods on the jersey.
• In 1963, Loyola of Chicago won the national championship despite missing 61 field goal attempts. They were 23 for 84 in a 60-58 overtime win over Cincinnati. In 1985, Villanova missed all of six field goal attempts in its 66-64 win over Georgetown. The Wildcats made 22 of 28 field goals.

As for the Griddle's contest, there were 106 entries and now there are just seven entries eligible to win:

1. "It goes up to 65" wins if Georgetown wins, regardless of its opponent.
2. "maligNED and beLITTLEd" wins if UCLA beats Georgetown in the final.
3. ToyCannon wins if Florida beats Georgetown.
4. Suffering Bruin wins if Florida beats Ohio State.
5. "Dodgergabe" wins if UCLA beats Ohio State.
6. "sonic death monkey" wins if Ohio State beats UCLA.
7. Trojan Ron wins if Ohio State beats Florida.

There's a holiday for me tomorrow, so I will try to get back in the business of posting baseball content.

The Select Six becomes the Final Four today and then we wait around until Saturday.

Again just two games on the agenda:

11:40 AM PT - #3 Oregon vs #1 Florida in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis - The Ducks are the only team not seeded first or second to make it this far. And the Ducks have been hot lately, winning nine straight. They will unleash their four guard attack with lots of three point attempts against the defending champion Gators. Some people think that Joakim Noah is the most hated man in college basketball. Apparently, people have short memories and have forgotten J.J. Redick. And just think about what Christian Laettner would have had heaped upon him if he played just a few years later?

Remember. An Oregon win makes me take a one-week trip to that state. Travel agents are standing by.

2:05 PM PT - #2 Georgetown vs #1 North Carolina in the East Regional in East Rutherford - I will miss a good chunk of this game. So I will leave you to ponder things like this. Or maybe this. Expect CBS to show lots and lots and lots of highlights of Michael Jordan and James Worthy. And Patrick Ewing. And Patrick Ewing, Jr. And John Thompson III, who something like John Thompson, Jr. Just don't expect Fred Brown to show up and cheer for the Hoyas.

As for the contest, it is explained in excrutiating detail here.

And for your viewing pleasure, the ending of yesterday's Division II championship. The announcers are Ian Eagle and Dan Bonner. Unless Viacom gets upset:

Sitting down with some paper and the scenario generator on the Yahoo NCAA tournament contest, I worked out who would win if any of the 32 possible ways for the last five games to be played shake out.

• Two entries will win if their choice for national champ is right: those are "minus the orange" (aka Vishal) who will win if Oregon wins its last three games and Diane Firstman who will win if North Carolina goes all the way. So that accounts for eight of the 32 scenarios. The fact that there were so few people to pick North Carolina may indicate a West Coast bias among Griddle readers. Of course, either entry would be eliminated if either the Ducks or Tar Heels lose.
• Current co-leader jkm1927 has two ways to win. That entry wins if Ohio State wins the championship and beats either Oregon or Florida in the semifinal.
• The other co-leader, Trojan Ron, has two ways to win also. He would have to have Ohio State win the national championship over either Florida or Oregon AND if Georgetown beats North Carolina.
• Entry "dodgergabe" has three ways to win, all of which involve UCLA winning the national championship over Ohio State. That entry will be eliminated tomorrow ONLY if BOTH Oregon and North Carolina win.
• Entry "sonic death monkey" has three ways to win, predicated on an Ohio State win over UCLA in the national championship. That entry will be eliminated tomorrow ONLY if BOTH Oregon and Georgetown win.
• El Lay Dave has three possible paths to victory. He needs UCLA to beat North Carolina OR UCLA to beat Ohio State combined with an Oregon win over Florida.
• "It goes up to 65" has two ways to win. Georgetown has to win the national championship over either UCLA or Florida. That entry is eliminated with an Oregon win.

Then there are a bunch of people who can win if all five games go exactly to their predictions.

• "Fatwa on Florida" (trainwreck?) would win if both Florida and North Carolina win tomorrow and then again next Saturday and Florida wins the national championship.
• "Bama Yankee" would win if Ohio State beats Florida for the championship as long as North Carolina wins Sunday.
• ToyCannon would win if Florida beats Georgetown for the national championship.
• If Florida beats Ohio State for the national championship AND Georgetown beats North Carolina, Suffering Bruin wins.
• If UCLA beats Georgetown in the national championship and Florida beats Oregon tomorrow, "maligNED and beLITTLEd" wins.
• If Georgetown beats Oregon in the national championship, the winner is Confucius.
• If Ohio State beats UCLA in the national championship and Oregon beats Florida Sunday, Sam DC wins.
• If UCLA beats Georgetown in the national championship and Oregon beats Florida Sunday, then "Grassy Schmoll" is the winner.
• If Georgetown beats UCLA in the national championship and Oregon beats Florida Sunday, then Hythloday is the winner.

If your entry isn't on the list, we have some lovely parting gifts for you.

In this case, they hurt my sensibility.

In this article from the Motley Fool site about the DirecTV deal, there are way too many  baseball metaphors used. One was funny. Two were cute. Three were annoying. When the count reached four, I tried to gouge out my eyes.

But as Jacobson touched first base, convinced he had legged out a hit for his subscribers, Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, called a hearty "steeeerike." According to DuPuy, iN Demand's supposed home run offer had actually landed well inside the outfield, completely missing the requirements for carrying The Baseball Channel and sharing rights fees for "Extra Innings." An in-your-face argument quickly ensued at home plate. Jacobson huffed, "By rejecting this matching offer, Major League Baseball has proven it never intended for iN Demand to have a fair and equal opportunity to bid for Extra Innings." DuPuy retorted that the March 31 deadline for completion of a cable-baseball deal stands. There'll simply be no, um, extra innings.

Ed Bailey, a catcher mainly for the Reds and Giants over 14 seasons, passed away in Knoxville, Tennesee Friday.

Bailey made the NL All-Star team three times with the Reds and then, for reasons not entirely clear, was traded to the Giants early in 1961 for Bob Schmidt and Don Blasingame. Schmidt and Blasingame were both terrible for the Reds, who still ended up winning the pennant in 1961, despite receiving very little offense from its catcher. Bailey did play on the pennant-winning Giants team in 1962, but went 1 for 14 in the World Series.

Bailey's career record.

The Elite Eight gets pared down to a Select Six.

No more worries about which games is being shown on CBS anymore.

The agenda is brief, but power-packed. Times PT.

1. 1:40 PM - #2 Memphis vs #1 Ohio State in the South Region in San Antonio. Memphis got to this spot last year, but UCLA held the Tigers to 45 points. In 1985, the Tigers made it to the Final Four and lost, scoring just 45 points against Villanova. Ohio State last made it to the Final Four back in 1999. The Buckeyes last lost in a regional final back in 1992 when Michigan beat them.
2. 4:05 PM - #2 UCLA vs #1 Kansas in the West Region in San Jose. UCLA is 4-0 against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. That statistic really means little or nothing today. Let's go with nothing. UCLA has been to 16 Final Fours and Kansas has made it 12 times. This will be the first time the two schools have met in a regional final however. They've played in a national semifinal, a third place game, a first round game, and a second round game.

jkm1927 and Trojan Ron are tied for the lead in the contest with 79 points and three people are just one point back. Wins in this round are worth eight points.

If Ohio State and Kansas win, mikewyz moves into the lead.
If Ohio State and UCLA win, jkm1927 and Trojan Ron would still be tied for first.
If Memphis and Kansas win, Prince's March Madness takes over the lead.
If Memphis and UCLA win, humma kavula takes over the lead.

Chone Figgins, who thought he had just one broken finger, turned out to have two, and the Angels third baseman will now miss 5-6 weeks of the season.

Figgins has a broken middle finger and index finger on his right hand. Maicer Izturis and Robb Quinlan will get the bulk of the time and Erick Aybar will head west with the team out of spring training.

Across the pond, Japan's Pacific League had its opening day, and the Seibu Lions and Orix Buffaloes won their openers over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Rakuten Golden Eagles respectively.

The third game, between the last two Japan Series champs, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and Chiba Lotte Marines, ended in a 4-4 tie after rain halted play in the seventh. Julio Zuleta supplied all the offense for the Fighters with a sixth inning grand slam.

This year, both the Central and Pacific Leagues will have their top three teams play in a two-tiered playoff called The Climax Series. However, the head of the players association, Yakult Swallows player Shinya Miyamoto, is threatening to ask the players to boycott the Climax Series if changes to the draft system aren't made. There would be no plans to disrupt the Japan Series. The linked story explains it better than I can.

In exchange for wearing microphones during ESPN and Fox broadcasts and agreeing to umpire the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the umpires union (the World Umpires Association) was able to get Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox reinstated.

Hallion and Hickox had resigned in 1999 during the umpires ill-fated power play to force MLB to give them a better deal.

ESPN and Fox will not air the umpires comments live.

And now we're down to twelve, which really needs an alliterative nickname, please submit suggestions below.

Tonight's agenda (all times PT)

4:10 pm - #5 Butler vs #1 Florida in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis - As much as I hate the Gators, I can at least be happy that they have to spend a weekend in the Mound City. I'm sure that Joakim Noah is off soaking up the sights at the International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame.

4:27 pm - #6 Vanderbilt vs #2 Georgetown in the East Regional in East Rutherford - Vanderbilt got its start thanks to Cornelius Vanderbilt making a killing in steamboats and railroads and generally robber baronhood. Georgetown was founded because the Pope thought it would be a good idea. For those scoring at home, it was Pius VI.

6:40 pm - #7 UNLV vs #3 Oregon in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis - If this game is on your TV screen, either you live in Nevada or Oregon or you are streaming the webcast to your set. The Mountain West champs take on the Pac-10 champs. Note to Vegas fans, you can gamble on those riverboats.

6:57 pm - #5 USC vs #1 North Carolina in the East Regional in East Rutherford - The Trojans try to put two teams from the same city in the Elite Eight for the first time since Villanova and Temple did it in 1988 (they both lost in their regional finals.) It also happened in 1971 when Penn faced Villanova in the East Region Final and Villanova won.

In the Griddle's contest, Suffering Bruin leads jkm1927 by 3 points 70-67.

If the higher seeds win tonight, jkm1927 and Trojan Ron (who again picked against the Trojans) would be tied for first. The entry "purple humidor" could make a move to the top if Butler can upset Florida.

If the higher seeds win out and the final comes down to Florida versus North Carolina, the winner would be the entry "Fatwa on Florida."

Fish. Barrel. Fire away.

After Pakistan was shocked in its opening match of the Cricket World Cup by Ireland in Montego Bay, Jamaica back on March 17, Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room.

And now Jamaican police say that Woolmer was murdered. The police have no suspects and no one has been arrested although the Pakistan team was interviewed.

BBC coverage.

Despite Woolmer's death, the competition has gone on.

It's the first day of the regional semifinals with games in the West and South regions set for play.

Monterey Chris doggedly maintains a 1 point lead over Suffering Bruin in the Griddle's NCAA tournament contest. And the esteemed Mr. Chris of Monterey has the potential to pick up four victories tonight.

The agenda (all times PT):

4:10 PM - #4 Southern Illinois vs #1 Kansas in the West Region in San Jose. Salukis have an advantage in that their mascot is a real animal. There is no bird called a jayhawk.

4:27 PM - #3 Texas A&M vs #2 Memphis in the South Region in San Antonio. The Aggies are home to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. The Tigers were the favorite pick of James Carville this year.

6:40 PM - #3 Pittsburgh vs #2 UCLA in the West Region in San Jose. A matchup between two schools whose campuses I have visited! The Cathedral of Learning takes on Royce Hall in a battle of iconic buildings.

6:57 PM - #5 Tennessee vs #1 Ohio State in the South Region in San Antonio. I was thinking. How many times have these schools met each other in football? The answer, just once, in the 1996 Florida Citrus Bowl. Tennessee won 20-14. Ohio State has won all three meetings on the hardwood, including a 68-66 win back on January 13.

If you wish to compare yourself to others who entered Yahoo's contest, 85.9% of all entries picked Ohio State to make it to the Elite 8. Florida was tabbed by 83.3%

Butler received support from only 1.7% of all entries to make the Elite Eight. USC and UNLV only were named on 2.8%

Brian McCann signs with the Braves for six more years.

Tony La Russa knocks back one too many.

Thanks to stolenmonkey86 (note not his real name, he really prefers to be called Monterey Chris.)

Following up on this post from yesterday about corruption in Japanese baseball's draft (a post that omitted Monterey Chris' name), comes news that NPB voted to abolish the kibo-waku draft plan.

But not until next year.

Until then, let the under-the-table payments flourish!

The new closer for the Boston Red Sox will likely Julian Tavarez. Or until Mike Timlin gets healthy.

Tavarez had one save last year. It came on May 28 against Tampa Bay.

Here is the Retrosheet play-by-play for the ninth of that game:
DEVIL RAYS 9TH: SEANEZ REPLACED WAKEFIELD (PITCHING); Gomes
walked; Gomes advanced to second because of defensive
indifference [Gomes to second]; Wigginton struck out; Branyan
lined to first; Lee walked; Paul walked [Gomes to third, Lee to
second]; NORTON BATTED FOR PEREZ; TAVAREZ REPLACED SEANEZ
(PITCHING); Norton struck out but Gomes advanced to home and Lee
advanced to third and Paul advanced to second and Norton
advanced to first on a passed ball; Gathright walked [Lee scored
(unearned), Paul to third, Norton to second]; J. Lugo walked
[Paul scored (unearned), Norton to third, Gathright to second]; Crawford singled to left [Norton scored (unearned), Gathright
out at home (left to catcher), J. Lugo to second]; 4 R (0 ER), 1
H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Devil Rays 4, Red Sox 5.

Now that is some high quality relieving!

And the Marlins are interested in Armando Benitez!

A loud cheer erupts from the San Francisco area!

Or at least they say they are going to, according to a wire service report.

IN Demand said Wednesday it will offer to match the terms of DirecTV's $700 million, seven-year deal with Major League Baseball on behalf its owners, who are affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems.

As part of the offer, iN Demand also said it would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV.

Bob DuPuy of MLB withheld comment as did Chase Carey. Chase Carey's mustache also had no comment.

Thanks to bhsportsguy for the tip.

Headline has been altered to add quotation marks around "matches"

Update - It appears that MLB is less than impressed with the offer

"The communication sent to our office today by iN Demand is not responsive to that offer," he said. "In spite of their public comments, the response falls short of nearly all of the material conditions (among them requirements for carriage of The Baseball Channel and their share of the rights fees for Extra Innings) set forth in the Major League Baseball offer made to them on March 9."

From the bottom of this story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Ortiz excels: Look for the Giants to announce any day that Russ Ortiz has won a rotation spot, a formality given how he has thrown. Ortiz not only became the first Giants starter to work into the fifth inning, he went six, allowing two solo home runs. One was a wind-aided cheapie by Nelson Cruz, the other a legitimate shot to center by Ian Kinsler.

Ortiz retired the first nine Rangers and struck out six. He has a 3.00 ERA in 18 innings. When the Giants do announce Ortiz is in the rotation, "I'll be the most excited guy on the team," he said, "even more excited than a young guy just because I went from high up to way down and have a team that believes in me."

Look for Russ to crank up the music loud in the Giants clubhouse on the day he starts and tell everybody that it's "Ortiz Time!"

Last week, news broke of the Seibu Lions team bribing amateur players to get them to sign with the team in what is now a legal way to circumvent the draft in Japanese baseball.

The system is called "kibo-waku" and it allowed a player or a team to negotiate a contract ahead of time with the provision that the team would then forfeit its pick in the first round of the draft. While this may seem like a good way to give players more freedom of choice, it turns out that the system is rife with bribery. Japanese amateur baseball now opposes it and it is expected that NPB will abolish the system.

In this Yomiuri Shimbun piece, the corruption in the system is described.

Last June, Chiba Lotte Marines manager Bobby Valentine spoke of his outrage of being informed by scouts that a particular pitcher would require 8 million dollars to sign. Valentine then met with reporters and lashed out. He started by reminding everyone that the 12 teams pledged to play by the rules, which Valentine praised.

"I am glad that they have cleaned up their act," Valentine said.

But by stating what everyone knew after 2004--that corrupt dealings had occurred in the past--Valentine was forced by his owner to apologize and say, he "was misinformed."

Valentine later asked The Hot Corner: "Does that mean I was misinformed when I said 'they had cleaned up the corruption?'"

Last Sunday, he said he wanted to retract the apology altogether

Universities and high schools are all mixed up in this too. It's like taking the worse of U.S. college sports recruiting and tossing Scott Boras into the mix to create a way of distributing talent.

Marty Martinez, who played seven seasons in the majors as a utility infielder and served as manager of the Seattle Mariners for one game in 1986, passed away last week.

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times wrote a remembrance of Martinez and his long career in baseball. As a scout, Martinez signed Edgar Martinez and Omar Vizquel among others.

In the linked story, Stone gets the date wrong of Martinez's lone game as a manager. It was actually on May 8, 1986.

Martinez's career record as a player.

Will now be called Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The original name was the Ballpark in Arlington. Then Ameriquest Field in Arlington. And now Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

From the AP story

The parent company of the subprime lender, ACC Capital Holdings Corp., announced last week that it was slashing its work force for the second time in less than a year. The company cited the "very challenging nonprime market" for the cuts.

There will be a quiz later.

Much later.

Much, much later.

In a probably not unexpected development, San Diego pitcher David Wells announced today that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Wells is trying to avoid any worsening of his condition by changing his diet. And cutting back on his alcohol consumption.

Will we end up seeing a skinny David Wells by the end of the year?

In honor of the recent elections in Finland (you mean you weren't paying attention?), I thought it would be fun to take a look at pesäpallo, the Finnish version of baseball. Finns now call it pesis, which I prefer since I don't have to figure out how to type anymore diacritical marks.

The game is played with 12 to a side, although only 9 players are out in the field at any one time. The offense has three DHs available, called jokers in the game. The jokers aren't fixed in the batting order and the manager can use them at his discretion. The rules are relatively complex, although I think they're easier to understand than cricket. The pitcher stands near the batter and tosses the ball in the air and the batter tries to hit it as far as he can. The defense can catch it on the fly for an out or try to throw him out at first. However, the batter doesn't have to run the first two times he hits the ball.

The really weird thing is that the bases aren't in a nice square like baseball, but in a zigzag of sorts. It's usually 20 meters from home to first. Then 32 meters from first to second. Then 36 meters from second to third. And finally 38 meters from third to home. All runners are retired on force plays, sort of.

When I was on vacation with my dad in 1994 we were in Helsinki on a Sunday afternoon. There is pretty much nothing to do in Helsinki on a Sunday afternoon. We had already taken a bus tour of the city. We had walked around. We had been travelling through Europe for two weeks. So we turned on the TV and they were showing highlights of pesis for about an hour.

We came to the same conclusion. We had no idea what the hell these people were doing.

I think it can best be summed up this way:

Pesis on suosituimpia koulupelejä

Kun pelit saadaan käyntiin, liikuntatunnit sujuvat kuin siivillä. Kuitenkin palloon osuminen, heittäminen ja kiinniottaminen räpylällä ovat suorituksia, joiden harjaannuttaminen vaatii paljon harjoitusta. Näiltä sivuilta on tarkoitus löytyä työvälineitä pesistuntien kehittämiseen.

Koulupeleissä voi tehdä sääntösovelluksia, ja niitä kannattaakin tehdä ryhmän osaamisen mukaan. Koulupesissäännöissä on tärkeää edesauttaa sitä, että jokainen saa pelata.

That's from here.

Finnish would be a lot easier to understand if it didn't have 15 different noun cases.

Thanks to joejoejoe for the suggestion.

48 games done in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and I know that I sure can't win my own contest! I sit in a seven-way tie for 85th, along with league commissioner bhsportsguy. The two of us need to get together and employ more Jack Molinas-like tactics.

The leader is still Monterey Chris with 55 points with Suffering Bruin hot on his tail one point back. Three people are three points off the lead. The next round of games are worth four points each.

Monterey Chris tabbed 14 of the Sweet 16. However, one miss was a team in the Elite Eight (Washington State) and the other was a national runnerup guess in Wisconsin. So, it's going to be hard for him to keep the lead.

Suffering Bruin tabbed 14 of the Sweet 16 as well. His two misses were teams he picked to win one more game (Texas and Wisconsin), but he's got his Final Four intact. This puts him in a spot, as professional gamblers like to say, where he's more likely to win.

It looks pretty likely that the contest will come down to the championship game barring a team like Butler or UNLV making it to the final. North Carolina seems to have very little support from the leaders. Ohio State and Florida are the more popular choices. If either of them go down before the Final Four, the contest will really open up.

Thursday's games will be from the West and South.

In San Jose, #1 Kansas plays #4 Southern Illinois at 4:10 pm PT with #2 UCLA playing #3 Pitt afterwards.

In San Anonio, #2 Memphis plays #3 Texas A&M at 4:27 pm PT (check your watch to make it sure it truly starts at 27 minutes past the hour) and #1 Ohio State plays #5 Tennessee after.

The Sweet Sixteen features:
3 SEC teams - Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
3 Pac-10 teams - UCLA, Oregon, USC
2 Big 12 teams - Kansas, Texas A&M
2 Big East teams - Georgetown, Pittsburgh
1 ACC team - North Carolina
1 Conference USA team - Memphis
1 Horizon team - Butler
1 Mountain West team - UNLV
1 Big 10 team - Ohio State
1 Missouri Valley team - Southern Illinois

California and Tennessee are the only states represented by more than one school.

There are just three private schools left: Georgetown (the only one with a religious affiliation), USC, Butler, and Vanderbilt.

UCLA and North Carolina both have played in the Final Four 16 times, although the NCAA only credits UCLA with 15 appearances as the 1980 trip was vacated.

Kansas has 12 Final Four trips, Ohio State has nine, Georgetown and UNLV have four, Florida has three, Memphis has two (both as Memphis State) as does USC, Oregon and Pittsburgh have one Final Four appearance each.

It is possible that there could be four first-time Final Four participants. I believe that has not happened since 1959 when Cal, West Virginia, Louisville, and Cincinnati all made their Final Four debuts. I could be wrong about this.

Saturday seemed like an exciting day in the NCAA basketball tournament. I had to work. So I didn't see much except the end of the Butler-Maryland tilt and the end of the UCLA-Indiana UFC bout.

Again I will state that my 8th grade team at De La Salle School of Granada Hills scored more points in its game against Guardian Angel of Pacoima than UCLA and Indiana did. That game back in 1979 ended, I'm pretty sure 57-56 with 6 minute quarters. Ultimately, we missed the playoffs when we lost the tiebreaker rematch with Guardian Angel as their coach had to managed to figure out a way to beat our full court press. We would have played a zone defense, but our coach wasn't an Allstate agent. Interestingly, the team that won the league (we tied for second) was the only one that played a man-to-man defense. We couldn't score against them. That was Santa Rosa of San Fernando.

So now that you are thoroughly bored by tales of CYO basketball, on to today's agenda. Again all times PT

• 9:15 am - #5 Tennessee vs #4 Virginia in the South Region in Columbus - The Cavaliers try to avoid joining commonwealth pals VCU on the sidelines. The Vols wish to show that men can play hoops too!
  
• 11:15 am - #9 Purdue vs #1 Florida in the Midwest Region in New Orleans - The Gators need to be stopped, but unless the Boilermakers suit up Purdue Pete or bring back Glenn Robinson or Rick Mount, that likely won't happen today.
  
• 11:30 am - #7 UNLV vs #2 Wisconsin in the Midwest Region in Chicago - Remember when UNLV was the team people feared and Wisconsin was just a joke in basketball? I think they called that time the 1990s. You kids should look into it. Back then we used things called payphones and rode to work in Toyota Corollas that were powered by sheer gumption.
  
• 11:40 am - #5 Virginia Tech vs #4 Southern Illinois in the West Region in Columbus - If the Hokies win this one after beating Illinois Friday, they will keep looking for schools further south in Illinois to play. I looked for a while and after you get south of Carbondale, well, let's just say you don't really want to go south of Carbondale. Actually, you probably should just skip Carbondale while you're at it.
  
• 11:50 am - #11 Winthrop vs #3 Oregon in the Midwest Region in Spokane - When these traditional rivals meet up, you know the action will be hot and heavy. I remember once when some dudes from Rock Hill, South Carolina walked into a bar in Eugene and they wearing adidas sneakers! So the Oregon guys took 'em out back and challenged them to a race. Over a 15-mile cross country course. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
  
• 1:45 pm - #7 Nevada vs #2 Memphis in the South Region in New Orleans - Remember it's the Nevada Wolfpack, but the North Carolina State Wolf Pack. Wolves are deadlier when they travel in typographically smaller groups.
  
• 2:00 pm - #8 Kentucky vs #1 Kansas in the West Region in Chicago - This one's for bragging rights to see which state that starts with the letter K is best in basketball.
  
• 2:15 pm - #5 USC vs #4 Texas in the East Region in Spokane - Yo, guys, use the round ball, not the pointy one. It's sort of orangish. Yeah, that one. That's the one. No, you can't wear pads and a helmet.
  

In the Griddle's contest, Monterey Chris (continuing his shameless plugs) leads with 43 points, just one ahead of Suffering Bruin and two ahead of jkm1927 and the mysterious "bobsbrother." And he had to list his Final Four in print in a newspaper.

Art Lopatka, who pitched in just eight major league games passed away at age 87 on March 10 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Why is this obituary significant? Lopatka had his career cut short, according to his son in the article, when he hurt his hand after Del Ennis hit with a line drive in batting practice. Lopatka would later sue the Phillies for failing to treat his injury correctly and asked for $250,000, a pretty astounding amount for 1948. The Phillies settled out of court.

Lopatka then went on to a long and apparently quite fruitful career in business and also ran the Chicago Hornets franchise in 1949 in the All-American Football Conference.

Tip of the hat to contest leader Monterey Chris, who tabbed 29 of 32 first round winners. Wins in the second round are worth double, so the leader will likely fluctuate throughout the next couple of days. I'm starting the day tied for 94th and ahead of people who just guessed, flipped a coin, or chose teams on the basis of whichever one had a stronger mascot.

Today's agenda, all times are PT, and the second games of the day in each city just have approximate start times.

• 10:10 am - #9 Xavier vs #1 Ohio State in the South Region in Lexington. In the old days, those of us on the West Coast never got to see the first game of the day on Saturday, but the East Coast people didn't see the last game of the day. But CBS has granted couch potatoes everywhere the chance to have a full day of basketball excess. Except for those of us who have to work today. Like me.
  
• 12:20 pm - #5 Butler vs #4 Maryland in the Midwest Region in Buffalo. Butler plays in Hinkle Fieldhouse. Maryland used to play in Cole Field House, but now plays in the Comcast Center which is a much less interesting name. Butler's bulldog mascot is named Blue. Maryland's terrapin mascot is named Testudo. So, I think this game is a tossup.
  
• 12:40 pm - #6 Louisville vs #3 Texas A&M in the South Region in Lexington. The Aggies are looking to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1980. The Cardinals are looking to do it for the first time since 2005. Fans of both schools find it a long drought.
  
• 2:40 pm - #6 Vanderbilt vs #3 Washington State in the East Region in Sacramento - The Commodores will likely launch up three-pointers by the gross. The Cougars will set lots and lots and lots and lots of screens. Wazzu has never played in the Sweet Sixteen. They were runnersup in 1941, but the tournament just had eight teams then.
  
• 2:45 pm - #7 Boston College vs #2 Georgetown in the East Region in Winston-Salem - Two Jesuit schools enter the Octagon. Only one may leave! The other has to stay and contemplate the nature of piety as exemplified by St. Ambrose. That should be 10 pages, not counting the bibiography.
  
• 2:50 pm - #11 Virginia Commonwealth vs #3 Pittsburgh in the West Region in Buffalo - The Panthers last made the Final Four the same year Washington State finished second (see above.)
  
• 5:10 pm - #7 Indiana vs #2 UCLA in the West Region in Sacramento - The Bruins first played in Sacto in 1948 against an AAU team called the Sacramento Senators. John Wooden never brought his team back to River City, nor did any other UCLA coach until the NCAA sent this year's squad to Cowtown.
  
• 5:15 pm - #9 Michigan State vs #1 North Carolina in the East Region in Winston-Salem - The Spartans are the only team that wears green and is playing on St. Patrick's Day.

Charles Einstein, who cowrote two of Willie Mays' biographies, Born to Play Ball and My Life In and Out of Baseball, passed away on March 7 in Michigan City, Indiana.

In addition to a long writing career for the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Einstein also wrote for the TV series "Lou Grant." Einstein also edited the four volume Fireside Book of Baseball.

He was the son of comedian Harry Einstein, aka "Parkyakarkus", and was the half-brother of Albert Brooks, Dave Einstein (aka Super Dave Osborne), and Clifford Einstein, who is chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

ESPN.com profiles Adam Greenberg whose major league career (with the Cubs) so far consists of one plate appearance and one pitch, a 92 mph fastball from Florida pitcher Valerio de los Santos. The pitch hit Greenberg in the back of the head.

Greenberg would suffer from severe headaches and vertigo which hampered his comeback chances with the Cubs and Dodgers organizations. Greenberg now is in the Royals organization.

De Los Santos has been out of the majors since 2005 as he says he has had nightmares about the pitch.

There is a companion piece about Fred Van Dusen of the 1955 Phillies who is the only other player whose only time in the majors consists of one plate appearance in which he was hit by a pitch. Van Dusen wasn't hurt by the pitch however.

Five other players have an HBP in their only plate appearance in the majors, although they have played in the field or pitched:

Ham Wade
Charles "Victory" Faust
Harvey Grubb
Cy Malis
John Rheinecker

Rheinecker is still active, although he is an AL pitcher.

Murray Chass of the New York Times wonders why if Pete Rose bet on the Reds every night to win when he was manager, he apparently didn't bet when Bill Gullickson started.

According to the Dowd report, which included a diary of bets that Rose made on Reds games and many others — it listed bets on 390 games over all, 52 of them involving the Reds, in a three-month period in 1987 — Rose developed a consistency of not betting on certain contests.

In particular, Rose stopped betting on Reds games that Gullickson started. If Rose bet on his team to win other games but didn't bet on Gullickson's games, he was sending a signal to the bookies he was betting with that he, as manager of the team, didn't think much of his team's chances in those games.

Gullickon's game log with the Reds in 1987 (via Retrosheet).

You can continue discussion of the NCAA tournament at the thread below.

Back to work today, so you will have to carry on without me for long stretches of the day.

Five people lead the contest with 15 of 16 correct choices.

Here's the agenda, the times listed are in PT and remember that the times listed for the second games of each doubleheader are approximate.

• 9:15 am - #13 Albany vs #4 Virginia in the South Region in Columbus. Marmaduke's favorite team takes on the favorite team of Charles I.
  
• 9:25 am - #10 Georgia Tech vs #7 UNLV in the Midwest Region in Chicago. Ahh, memories of the days of "Lethal Weapon III." I had to look up who the other two guys who weren't Kenny Anderson.
  
• 9:30 am - #15 North Texas vs #2 Memphis in the South Region in New Orleans. The Tigers haven't lost since December 20 when Arizona beat them.
  
• 11:30 am - #11 Winthrop vs #6 Notre Dame in the Midwest Region in Spokane. Back in November, Winthrop beat Presbyterian. The Eagles have also beaten Limestone. Notre Dame beat Alabama when the Tide was ranked fourth. That was a while ago.
  
• 11:35 am - #12 Long Beach State vs #5 Tennessee in the South Region in Columbus. Time for all the 49er alums in the Windy City to go root on "The Beach." I believe there are four.
  
• 11:45 am - #15 Texas A&M Corpus Christi vs #2 Wisconsin in the Midwest Region in Chicago. TAMU-CC calls itself the "Island University." I guess they have a point.
• 11:50 am - #10 Creighton vs #7 Nevada in the South Region in Columbus - The Bluejays try to join fellow Jesuit institutions Georgetown and Xavier in the second round.
  
• 1:40 pm - #14 Miami University vs #3 Oregon in the Midwest Region in Spokane - And so it begins. This is the mystery game. It's likely going to be seen only in Oxford, Ohio and Oregon. And maybe in Saskatchewan and parts of the Northern Marianas.
  
• 4:10 pm - #12 Illinois vs #5 Virginia Tech in the West Region in Columbus - The Illini will try to press on without Chief Illiniwek. The Hokies will try to get along without their mascot which is a ... um ...
  
• 4:10 pm - #16 Niagara vs #1 Kansas in the West Region in Chicago - I'm not sure what's in the water of the Niagara River that makes the eagles there purple.
  
• 4:20 pm - #9 Purdue vs #8 Arizona in the Midwest Region in New Orleans - When the Wildcats won it all in 1997, they finished fifth in the Pac-10.
  
• 4:25 pm - #13 New Mexico State vs #4 Texas in the East Region in Spokane - New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus' bio on the IMDB says, "Is considered the most underrated guard in NBA history." Well then it must be true.
  
• 6:30 pm - #13 Holy Cross vs #4 Southern Illinois in the West Region in Columbus - People from Worscester pronounce their city's name "Wooster." People from Carbondale pronounce their city's name "Carbondale."
  
• 6:30 pm - #9 Villanova vs #8 Kentucky in the West Region in Chicago - Jim Boeheim will refuse to watch this game as a matter of principle. And it's going to start really late on the East Coast.
  
• 6:40 pm - #12 Arkansas vs #5 Southern California in the East Region in Spokane - I wonder which of the 25 daily nonstops from Fayetteville to Spokane the Hogs flew on.
  
• 6:40 pm - #16 Jackson State vs #1 Florida in the Midwest Region in New Orleans - This will likely be the last game of the first round. Watch for numerous scary looking shots of Joakim Noah laughing on the bench.
  

Bowie Kuhn, the fifth Commissioner of Baseball, passed away in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida at the age of 80.

Kuhn presided over one of the most turbulent periods of baseball history, 1969-1984. There will be no shortage of retrospectives of his career in the coming days.

Also, Helen Dedeaux, the widow of longtime USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux passed away Saturday at age 92. The Dedeauxs had been married for 66 years until Rod's passing early last year.

You can continue discussing the NCAA tournament at the thread below.

I consider the Opening Round game between Niagara and Florida A&M to be Day Zero.

You've had enough to read about all the doings today, but I'll just lay out the schedule for today, all teams PT. Why PT? Because that's where I am and I'm off work today and that's when I'm watching. Sadly, I'll be back on the job Friday and Saturday too.

In chronological order:

• 9:20 am (deadline to enter the contest) - #13 Davidson vs #4 Maryland in the Midwest Region in Buffalo. Both schools are easy to find on a map as Maryland is in Maryland and Davidson is in Davidson.

• 9:25 am - #10 Texas Tech vs #7 Boston College in the East Region in Winston-Salem. I saw Bob Knight in the airport in Toronto once. I did not see Al Skinner in Toronto.

• 9:30 am - #11 Stanford vs #6 Lousville in the South Region in Lexington. The Cardinal(s) have a combined three national championships and ten Final Four appearances.

• 11:30 am - #14 Oral Roberts vs #3 Washington State in the East Region in Sacramento. A rare appearance by the Cougars on the national stage.

• 11:45 am - #15 Belmont vs #2 Georgetown in the East Region in Winston-Salem. Belmont beat Fordham. Fordham beat St. Louis. St. Louis beat Xavier. Xavier beat Villanova. Villanova beat Georgetown once in three tries. QED.

• 11:50 am - #14 Pennsylvania vs #3 Texas A&M in the South Region in Lexington - The Quakers are the last Ivy League school to make the Final Four back in 1979. They committed a record 150 fouls in six games. Peace-loving Quakers my ass!

• 11:50 am - #12 Old Dominion vs #5 Butler in the Midwest Region in Buffalo - Is Old Dominion the only school in the tournament that has the name as the official school nickname?

• 1:40 pm - #11 George Washington vs #6 Vanderbilt in the East Region in Sacramento - This game will be hard to see as most stations go off the air for local news at this time. You have to go over to Buster Olney's house to watch it. Fans in Nashville must look at their TVs at an oblique angle to get the full effect.

• 4:10 pm - #11 Virginia Commonwealth vs #6 Duke in the West Region in Buffalo - The weird thing is that there is also a Virginia State University and it's in Petersburg, not that far away from VCU in Richmond. Well not that weird when you consider that whole segregation thing.

• 4:10 pm - #16 Central Connecticut State vs #1 Ohio State in the South Region in Lexington - The folks in New Britain insist you call it "A Central Connecticut State University." Definite articles were outlawed by a town ordinance back in 1794.

• 4:15 pm - #9 Marquette vs #8 Michigan State in the East Region in Winston-Salem - The only matchup today of two schools that I have visited in person! I know how to live it up on vacations!

• 4:25 pm - #15 Weber State vs #2 UCLA in the West Region in Sacramento - Mitch Albom is speaking at Weber State on March 28. That should be incentive enough for the Wildcat players to advance to the Sweet 16 so they won't have to be on campus for that. Morris Peterson says he'll be there.

• 6:30 pm - #14 Wright State vs #3 Pittsburgh in the West Region in Buffalo - The Wright State website can't display campus events on its website because its server had problems adjusting to the early DST. Orville and Wilbur hang their heads in shame.

• 6:30 pm - #9 Xavier vs #8 Brigham Young in the South Region in Lexington - BYU is making its 22nd appearance in the NCAA tournament and has never made the Final Four. Xavier has made the NCAA tournament 18 times and never made the Final Four.

• 6:40 pm - #10 Gonzaga vs #7 Indiana in the West Region in Sacramento - By this time, James Brown and Len Elmore will just start making up names of players.

• 6:40 pm - #16 Eastern Kentucky vs #1 North Carolina in East Region in Winston-Salem - Eastern Kentucky University is in Richmond, Kentucky and tries to trick Virginians into thinking they are in their own state capital. That's always good for some hijinks.

"Ortiz could climb Giants' rotation ladder"

When will this nightmare end?

Russ is hereby barred from competing in the Griddle NCAA Tournament Contest along with Scott Podsednik and Rick Camp.

MLB.com headline:

Podsednik makes triumphant return.

I'm sure the cheering could be heard all the way from Tucson to the South Side of Chicago.

All four of Podsednik's at-bats Wednesday were significant, but the best sign tied into his particular role for the 2007 season came late in the game. Podsednik tried to bunt the ball on two consecutive pitches and was successful on the second attempt, producing his third hit.

Requisite plug for the NCAA tournament contest.

On ESPN Radio today, Pete Rose admitted betting on baseball "every night".

"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I was wrong," Rose said.

Rose said that he believed in his team so much that he bet on them to win every night.

"I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team," Rose said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game."

Pete can join the NCAA Tournament Pool, but there's not much payout for him.

Sarge Jr. makes a statement through the Angels PR Department,

He seems ... sorry? Regretful? Ambivalent? Defensive?

I don't condone the use of illegal drugs. I support Mr. Moreno's strong stand against them. I have never taken HGH -- during the 2004 season or any other time. Nobody has accused me of doing so, and no law enforcement authority has said I am a target of any investigation for doing so.

I'd still let him sign up for the NCAA tournament contest. (Right now at 61 entries).

Former Atlanta Braves pitcher Rick Camp, along with former Georgia state representative Robin Williams (who is presumably not an actor), and a third guy whom apparetnly isn't evenly remotely famous so his name is not mentioned here, lost an appeal in Federal Court in Atlanta today on charges of conspiring to steal more than $2 million from a mental health agency in East Georgia.

According to the AP story linked above, Camp will be facing a 37 month prison sentence. He had been working as a lobbyist after leaving baseball.

Another former Braves pitcher, Pat Jarvis, was sentenced to 15 months in prison back in 1999 for receiving up to $200,000 in kickbacks while serving as sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia.

Obligatory Retrosheet link to anything involving the name Rick Camp.

Camp's conviction makes him ineligible to compete in the Griddle's NCAA Tournament Contest.

Now, I hope that all the Niagara fans and all the Florida A&M fans will chat together amiably here. I don't want to have to police things.

Yes, today is the day of the game that gives one of the little guys a chance to say that they won an NCAA tournament game. Of course it's sort of like when the NHL expanded in 1967 and put all the expansion teams in one division and then one of them would automatically make the Stanley Cup Final.

What do I know about Niagara? Well, for starters, it's a Catholic university in Niagara Falls, New York. The basketball team lost six of its first seven games because of several players were missing because of suspsensions. But the team rallied to finish 22-11 and beat Siena to win the MAAC.

What do I know about Florida A&M. I know that the A&M stands for "Agricultural & Mechanical." (The "A&M" in Texas A&M and Texas A&M Corpus Christi doesn't stand for anything anymore.) FAMU, as the school also styles itself, won the MEAC with a 21-13 record and beat Delaware State in the final. The Rattlers are probably best known for their marching band, The Marching "100", which actually has over 360 people in it. It's performed at Super Bowls and also was the official U.S. representative to the parade that the French held celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

The best damn band in the land?

And now you can enter the Griddle's contest since you know who Kansas is going to play.

The plans for the new park for the Nationals in DC will feature cherry trees. The trees will not be in play but rather be placed beyond the left field bleachers.

This may be the most famous plant life in a park in that part of the country since the Orioles raised tomatoes in the bullpen at Memorial Stadium.

Also the contest to pick the best [] is still open.

After running a contest for the Pac-10 tournament, it's time to move up to the big leagues. It's time for a contest the pick entire the NCAA tournament.

And instead of doing it myself, I've left the work to Yahoo. Commenter bhsportsguy set up our first private group, which can hold up to 250 entries. If need be, there is a back up.

You can find the link at Yahoo Sports (it's rather obvious). You want to join a private group, 94308. The password is "griddle". (case sensitive)

With more teams in the field, the stakes have gotten higher. No mere $5 Amazon.com gift card. Nope, you get the greatest prize of all: bragging rights! I would promise to put the winner's name (or alias) on the sidebar for an entire year. Just think how much that would impress your kids/spouse/employer/parents/boyfriend/girlfriend/roommate. If someone is all of these to you, then you've should stop watching "Chinatown."

Scott Long over at The Juice blog has sponsored a contest before and he'll be letting you know about the previous winners and Scott will definitely have more opinions on the matter.

And now, thanks to my noncorporate sponsor, ToyCannon, there is a chance of an actual prize for the winner!
There are four choices that the winner may select from:
1) four tickets to a future Dodgers game, subject to negotiating with ToyCannon for which game. It would have to be a weekday game with no giveaways.
OR
2) a choice of one of three books:
"Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way" by Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt
"Nine Innings" by Daniel Okrent
"National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer" by Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist

So, in addition to earning my unending respect and admiration, you can also help my clear bookshelf space! I have read all three books and they are all very good.

Maury Brown in his Business of Baseball blog relates a Sports Business Journal about how Comcast may try to buy MLB.TV subscriptions in bulk and sell them at a discount to their subscribers to keep them from going to DirecTV.

MLBAM seems to not like this.

But just who is in charge of DirecTV, is it Chase Carey or his mustache?

I've made peace with the whole deal. I'm not getting DirecTV. I won't be getting MLB.TV either. I'll just watch my local teams and then just listen in to out of town games. I can live with out the dulcet tones of Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane on Devil Rays broadcasts.

Meanwhile, no installation required or southern exposure needed to join the Griddle's NCAA tournament contest.

Mat Gleason of Halos Heaven and Tim Marchman of the New York Sun debate in the Los Angeles Times about just what Angels owner Arte Moreno should or could or will do about Gary Matthews, Jr.

Matthews, through his agent, apologized for being a distraction.

Speaking of distractions ...

Don't forget the Griddle's NCAA tournament contest. Win valuable prizes, such as my admiration!

You can chat here about the NCAA basketball tournament. I'll likely run a contest (with the help of bhsportsguy) that will have a prize worth a sum somewhere between $0 and $0. But I promise to put the winner's name on the sidebar!

The New York Times can always find time to write up a weepy feature about the Brooklyn Dodgers.

How many of these does the paper have canned and ready to go? I think Dave Anderson and George Vescey can just bring them up with a macro that was put into their computers.

And from this I can segue into a plug for a talk that a coworker and I will be giving on baseball literature and baseball history at the Central Libary of the Los Angeles Public Library on Thursday, April 5 at 12:15 pm. If you're in Downtown L.A., swing on by and feel free to heckle. Perhaps you can try to frighten me by wearing a Frank Robinson mask. Not that I think anyone makes Frank Robinson masks.

I'll be talking about baseball books, highlighting what I consider to be some of the best ones in my opinion. My coworker, Glen Creason of the History Department, will be having a talk about historic Los Angeles baseball stadiums. I believe I am designated to act all weepy over the demise of Gilmore Field.

Final standings

Trojan Ron and Vishal both finished with 7 points and Trojan Ron won the tiebreaker by having both teams in the final.

D4P and Tom Meagher finished with 6 points.

Thanks for playing. I'll send Trojan Ron his valuable prize.

Eventually.

Although it's just been four days, it seems like it's been more like 96 hours (more precisely 90 hours) at Staples Center for me. And now it's almost time for the championship game (tipoff should be 3:10 pm PT) and the right for one team to automatically go to the NCAA championship game and then engage in a semantic battle with UCLA over who was the "Pac-10 champion."

Today's game will match up the Ducks of Oregon (25-7), the #4 seed, and the Trojans of Southern California (23-10), the #3 seed. This is a rematch of the 2003 final, which Oregon won 74-56. That year Oregon was the #5 seed and USC was the #7 seed.

The Ducks have cruised in their first two games, easily dispatching Arizona (69-50) and Cal (81-63). Tajuan Porter has made 11 of 16 three point shots and scored 45 points in the first two games. Porter is three three-pointers short of teammate Chamberlain Oguchi's record for most three pointers in a Pac-10 tournament. The Ducks shot 62.5% from the field against the Bears.

USC had a bad first half in its opener against Stanford, but then rallied for an 83-79 overtime win, and then avenged two regular season losses with a 70-61 win over Washington State. Gabe Pruitt has hit 10 of 13 three pointers in the first two games and was 6 of 7 against the Cougars.

USC beat Oregon both times in the regular season. The Trojans handed Oregon their first loss of the season after a 13-0 start with an 84-82 win in Eugene on January 4. USC led 84-81 when Aaron Brooks was fouled on a three-point attempt with one second left. Brooks, one of the best free throw shooters in the conference, made the first, then missed the second, and had to deliberately miss the third to give Oregon a chance at a putback which didn't happen.

The Trojans beat Oregon again in Los Angeles on February 3 by a 71-68 margin. The Trojans led throughout and the Ducks made a late comeback to make the score close. That was during a stretch when the Ducks lost 6 of 8 games. But the Ducks have won their last five.

This will be the 100th time that USC and Oregon have played each other in basketball. USC leads the series 58-41. Surprisingly, for teams that have played each other in football as early as 1915, the two teams did not play each other in basketball until 1957. By comparison, Oregon has played intrastate rival Oregon State 327 times. USC has played UCLA in basketball 223 times.

The hotly contested Griddle contest is down to just two contestants:
1) Trojan Ron, who has picked Oregon in the final.
2) Tom Meagher, who has chosen USC.

Here are the updated scores. Vishal would also end up with 7 points if Oregon wins, the same as Trojan Ron, but since Trojan Ron has picked both teams in the final, he gets the tiebreaker edge.

The Seibu Lions are in trouble as an amateur team in Japan, called Tokyo Gas, has admitted that a Seibu scout paid one of its players.

In a press conference, Tokyo Gas team managers said the family
of the pitcher, Yuta Kimura, had received 300,000 yen every month
starting January 2004. The team said it is to place Kimura, 21, on
probation without clarifying the duration.

Seibu owner Hidekazu Ota admitted Friday that its scouting staff
had paid a total of some 13 million yen in under-the-table cash gifts
to two amateur players, but stopped short of identifying the two.

.....

Seibu had made the cash gifts ''to help them build up their
physical strength,'' Ota has said.

You know, I'm feeling very weak and I think I need something to help me build up my physical strength.

The quest for the $5 Amazon.com gift card (or something like that) is, like the Pac-10 tournament, down to two contestants.

They are:

1) Trojan Ron
2) Tom Meagher

If Oregon wins tomorrow, Trojan Ron wins with 7 points. Vishal would also have 7 points, but Trojan Ron gets the tiebreaker edge by having both finalists right.

If USC wins tomorrow, Tom Meagher wins with 7 points.

There could be 3 or 4 others who finish with 6 points.

After plopping myself down in my seat at Staples Center at 12:20 pm, I finally got home at 11:40 pm. I felt sorry for the PA announcer, who was misidentifying players and was a bit tongue-tied at the end of the day. Probably didn't help him that the final game was between Washington and Washington State to further make it hard. And he referred to Washington State as "the Huskies" in the introductions, although he corrected himself.

But it's easier now with just two games tonight.

The first semifinal tips off at 6:20 pm PT between #4 seed Oregon (24-7) and #8 Cal (16-16).

The Ducks pounded Arizona by a surprisingly easy 69-50 margin. The Ducks made 11 of 20 three-pointers and Tajuan Porter made 5 of 6 from long distance. Porter led the Pac-10 in three-pointers made. Aaron Brooks scored 16 points and Arizona missed a whole lot of shots (21 of 60 from the field.)

Cal stunned #1 seed UCLA, 76-69 in overtime. The Bears had a 12-point lead at halftime, frittered it away in the second half, only to come back thanks to some clutch baskets by Ayinde Ubaka, who scored 29 points. The Bears made 8 three pointers and were second in the Pac-10 in that category with 223, behind Oregon's 279.

So it seems likely that this semifinal will be decided on the perimeter. The two teams split their earlier games this year. Cal beat Oregon last year in the semifinals, 91-87 in 2 OTs. Oregon beat Cal in a first round game in 2002, 87-82.

The second semifinal matches #2 seed Washington State (25-6) and #3 seed USC (22-10). The Cougars won both games over the Trojans this year in exciting fashion. Wazzu won in Los Angeles on December 30, rallying from a double-digit deficit to pull out a 58-55 win. The two teams met again last Saturday and the Cougars won 88-86 in 2 OTs.

Washington State beat intrastate rival Washington 74-64 and USC beat the other private school in the Pac-10, Stanford, 83-79 in overtime. Both teams won their games at the free throw line, each of them making 23 free throws to clinch their wins. Taylor Rochestie lead Wazzu with 20 points and Nick Young led USC with 26 points.

Wazzu has won the most games in a season since 1916-17. That team went 25-1 and was awarded a retroactive mythical national championship. The only team to beat Washington State that year was Cal in Berkeley by the score of 28-20. That team played just eight home games and 18 road games. The Cougars won 26 games in 1940-41 when they were the NCAA 2nd place team. That was also the last time the Cougars won a conference title.

USC won its only matchup against Wazzu in the Pac-10 tournament, 17 years ago in Tempe. USC won 85-68 in a 7-10 matchup.

As for the all-important Griddle contest, here are the updated scores.

I believe this is how the contest will shake out:
If the final is USC vs. Oregon and USC wins, Tom Meagher would win.

If the final is USC vs. Oregon and Oregon wins, the winner would be ... wait for it ... Trojan Ron.

If the final is Washington State vs. Oregon the winner would be Vishal, no matter who won the championship.

If Cal makes it to the final against USC and USC wins, I have a three-way tie to sort out and I've decided that Tom Meagher would win the tiebreaker over the two guys because he had more teams correct in the quarterfinals.

If Cal makes it to the final against USC and Cal wins, there would be a tie between D4P and Trojan Ron and there is no real good tiebreaker I could use, so I'd likely just give them both the prize mainly so D4P wouldn't bother me for the rest of my life.

If Cal makes it to the final against Washington State, and Washington State wins, Philip Michaels win. He would be tied with Vishal, but win the "picking the right champion" tiebreaker.

If Cal makes it to the final against Washington State, and Cal wins, then Vishal wins.

I will doublecheck, but since Vishal is the only person to have a chance to have both finalists correct, he is in good position to pull off the win. He's missed just one game and everybody missed that one as nobody picked UCLA to lose its first game.

Another note: On Wednesday, I remarked that the cover to the program featured five players: Jeff Pendergraph of ASU, Aaron Brooks of Oregon, Ayinde Ubaka of Cal, Nick Young of USC, and Derick Low of Washington State. Obviously, with the exception of Pendergraph, whose team was doomed from the start, there is no Pac-10 Tournament program jinx!

A furniture store in Libertyville, Ill. will let all items purchased between March 30 and April 29 be free (presumably you have to save the receipts) if the Cubs end up winning the World Series this year.

The link relates earlier promotions like this. A furniture store in Los Angeles did something similar last December, but over a shorter time period, and only for a win by UCLA over USC in football.

It's a furniture thing, you wouldn't understand.

With Mike Hampton out for a couple more months with an injury to his side, the Braves added another All-Star pitcher to replace him.

Unfortunately, this All-Star is Mark Redman.

Gene Oliver, a backup catcher and first baseman in the majors for 10 seasons, as well as a beloved figure at Cubs fantasy camps and in his native Quad Cities area, passed away Saturday at the age of 71.

In his career, Oliver was once traded for Lew Burdette and another time for Bob Uecker.

Thanks to Chyll Will for the tip.

Pardon me while I tiptoe onto The Griddle in the midst of Bob's Pac-10 stupor to tell you that, 18 minutes after I opened this file, MLB and DirecTV were to officially announce their Extra Innings exclusivity deal, Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball lets us know.

Larry Stewart of the Los Angeles Times had more on the deal this morning:

Robert Jacobson, president and chief executive of In Demand, said the proposed MLB deal "is stunning in its disregard for baseball fans." ... Commissioner Bud Selig, attending spring training games in Phoenix over the weekend, told reporters the controversy over the deal is "ridiculous."

It's going to be a very long day for me at Staples Center. The first game tips off at 12:20 pm PT between #4 seed Oregon (23-7) and #5 Arizona (20-9). The teams split their two games this year with each team winning on the road. Both teams have been considered Final Four contenders at times this year. But both hit hard times as the season rolled on. Arizona's defensive struggles and lack of depth hurt them. As for Oregon, a favorable home schedule early got them off to a good start and then they fell and fell hard. The Ducks managed to beat UCLA once and Washington State twice, but lost to Washington twice also. That is if you interpret the word "twice" in the previous sentence to mean "once." Kids today and their crazy talk.

The second game should start around 2:50 pm PT between #1 UCLA (26-4) and #8 Cal (15-16). The Bruins beat the Bears twice this year. UCLA beat Cal in the final last year. This year the Bruins shouldn't have too much trouble against a banged-up Cal team that doesn't have much going for it other than jacking up three point attempts. Cal did have a 34-2 run at one point Oregon State Wednesday night in its opening round game.

After that, Staples Center gets cleared out and I go forage for food and then head back in.

The third game starts at 6:20 and matches #3 USC (21-10) and #6 Stanford (18-11). The Trojans and Cardinal split their season series with each team winning at home. Both teams are coming in on a downward trend. The Cardinal have lost three of their last four and the Trojans lost their last two games. This game will eliminate a lot of the contestants in the Griddle contest. It's a tough game to handicap. The Trojans will be slight favorites as they are playing closer to home and are healthier.

The final game will start around 8:45 and matches #2 Washington State (24-6) and #7 Washington (19-12). The Huskies scrapped out a win over Arizona State Wednesday night and will try to avenge two regular season losses to the Cougars. The Cougars won by 28 in Pullman and by 4 in Seattle. Outside of conference play, the Huskies have no notable wins. Both teams played Gonzaga early in the year. The Huskies lost to the Zags by 20 and the Cougars won by 10. UW was playing in Spokane, but Wazzu was hosting Gonzaga in Pullman.

And now updated picks. Incorrect entries are in strikethrough and the points were deducted from your possible total.

There were no changes in the scoring rules.

Braves pitcher Mike Hampton, trying to come back from reconstructive elbow surgery, now will miss the start of the regular season, after hurting his side and possibly breaking a rib, while taking batting practice.

Hampton hasn't pitched since August 19, 2005.

John Vukovich, who despite a career .161 batting average, played in parts of 10 seasons and on two World Series champs, and then served as a longtime coach (and interim manager) for the Phillies, passed away at age 59 today from the effects of a brain tumor.

Vukovich was on the 1975 Reds, but was traded to the Phillies in August. In 1980, Vukovich was joined on the squad by an unrelated player with the same surname, George Vukovich. The Cy Young Award winner for the Brewers was Pete Vuckovich.

Vukovich hit just six home runs in his career, but four of them were against a fairly august group: Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Mickey Lolich, and Sparky Lyle. Vukovich's homer against Koosman was a game-ending homer.

The contest is closed!

Please tell me if you think I entered something incorrectly. The points total will change as I update it at the end of each day. It probably won't change online very quickly as I'm not all that motivated. The formatting may make it look like I cut off a "St." from "Washington". Examine your choice there closely to make sure I entered it right.

It will be a four-day basketball marathon for me. I'll likely not care who is playing come Saturday. But I'll do it anyway.

Of the 33 entries:
20 picked UCLA
6 picked USC
3 picked Arizona
2 picked Oregon
1 picked Washington State
1 picked Stanford

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports misses the World Baseball Classic this spring.

I guess it's just Jeff and I who are feeling wistful for a good Italy vs. Australia baseball game.

Still time for the Pac-10 tournament contest. It's up to 33 entries!

Formey Disney Studios head Michael Eisner (and sort of, kind of owner of the then Anaheim Angels) could be getting back into baseball. But not with a team, instead he and his investment firm are trying to buy Topps, Inc.

Topps' board of directors is opposed to the buyout. And it's not that they don't like Eisner. They just want more money per share.

If Eisner really wants to score points with the makers of Bazooka bubble gum, he should show up at the next stockholders meeting wearing an eyepatch.

Still time to enter the Pac-10 tournament contest. Entries close at 5 pm PT Wednesday. There are presently 31 entries.

• Good news! Jon Lester is back pitching after receiving treatement in the offseason for cancer!
  
• Bad news! Mark Grudzielanek is out 4-6 weeks after knee surgery.
  
• Unimportant news! Former player Tom Goodwin will manage an independent league team in Lewisville, Texas.
  
• Self-serving news! Gary Sheffield says he doesn't care if he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. And he thinks Alex Rodriguez will play well this year.
  
• Good news! Josh Hamilton is off to a good start this spring with the Reds.
  
• Cautious good news! Bobby Murcer says he will be back in the Yankee broadcast booth in 2007, but he doesn't know when.
  
• Angry news! Diane Firstman doesn't like what Bud Selig is saying about MLB's TV conracts.
  

Don't forget: The Pac-10 tournament contest is still open. There are 22 entries, although xeifrank and Trojan Ron needs to fix theirs his.

El Lay Dave supplied a nicer looking bracket!

Additional rules for the Pac-10 Tournament contest: People who have turned in identical brackets were asked to send me their guess for the final score. That tiebreaker will work this way:
1) number of points (+/-) to the winning score
2) number of points (+/-) to the losing score

A person who picks the champion will have priority over someone with an equal score who has no teams left in the final. That is only the case in a tie. If you get a lot of points early and your pick for the final is out, you would still win if you have more points anyway.

By popular demand (at least two people!), I will be running a Pac-10 basketball tournament contest.

Here is how it will work:

Email me at the address listed on the side, your choices for all nine games from the first round on Wednesday through the championship on Saturday. You have until 5 pm PT on Wednesday to send me your picks.

Here is how it will be scored:
The teams are seeded 1-10. For each correct choice, you will receive one point. However, if you pick a higher seeded team to win, you will get extra points to add up to the difference between the seeds.

For example, one of the first games will be #7 seed Washington vs. #10 seed Arizona State. If you pick Washington and the Huskies win, you get one point. If you pick ASU and the Sun Devils win, you get three points.

The maximum points you could get for one team would be 27 if you picked ASU (#10) to beat Washington (#7), then Washington State (#2), then USC (#3), then UCLA (#1). You would get 3 + 8 + 7 + 9 = 27 points. However, the points could change if a pair of underdogs advance.

You need to email me your picks because I don't want any cutting and pasting.

If it looks like there will be a tie coming down to the championship game, I will email the interested parties a tiebreaker question, which will most likely be the final score.

The winner will get a $5 Amazon.com gift certificate. You can send your picks in through a "nom de email" and you can redeem it as you see fit.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. Don't leave your picks in the comments. I will delete them until after the deadline passes.

Bracket

Today in Tucson, 6-3 TP!

Yesterday in Tucson, 3-1-6 TP!

Michael Garciaparra (aka Mia Hamm's brother-in-law) hit into the triple play today for Seattle against Arizona.

Steve Finley (aka a guy who once watched Mia Hamm play soccer on TV) hit into the triple play yesterday for Colorado against the Angels.

Joe Molloy, who used to be George Steinbrenner's son-in-law and a Yankee executive until he divorced The Boss's daughter, is applying now for a less stressful job, Superintendent of the West Ottawa Public Schools, according to the Grand Rapids Press.

Molloy has listed Steinbrenner as a job reference. Presently, Molloy works as an assistant principal at a middle school in Tampa.

I hear that not a lot of people can hold up under the media scrutiny that West Ottawa normally has.

Thanks to the Michigan bureau of the Griddle.

The favorite player of the majority of my readership is out for two weeks with an injury to his side.

Aaron Miles and Jolbert Cabrera will now get more playing time at shortstop for the Cardinals in spring training.

Let the record reflect that I actually like David Eckstein, but I'm shamefully playing to my public.

My archenemy has rejoined the Commissioner's Office.

Commissioner Selig said: "I am delighted that Frank has decided to rejoin us at Major League Baseball. Besides being a baseball legend, Frank has a wealth of knowledge about the game from every conceivable point of view. We are grateful to have the opportunity once again to tap into his knowledge and experience."

My coffee isn't ready yet, avoiding an unfortunate Danny Thomas-like situation.

Chase Casey, president of DirecTV, defended his company's potential exclusive deal to carry Extra Innings.

"DirecTV will do for Extra Innings what we have done for other programming: transform a service that had enjoyed limited popularity when offered by multiple [distributors] into a fan's dream," Mr. Carey said.

Carey claims that only 230,000 Extra Innings subscribers were not on DirecTV and that only 5,000 of those people wouldn't be able to receive DirecTV.

It is not true that Carey has hired Kevin Malone to do the marketing for this deal. Nor has Carey decided that Mike Piazza cannot appear on any DirecTV programming.

Link via BTF

UPDATE - In the letter Carey wrote to the FCC, the deal was described as done, but DirecTV has backed off on that.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has his take on Carey's claims.

The two players connected with the possible illegal prescriptions of HGH from an Alabama pharmacy have one thing in common.

They are Juniors!

Gary Matthews, Jr. and Jerry Hairston, Jr.

Coincidence?

I think not.

"The best I ever had."

That is if Pat Gillick could sing songs by The Who.

In this photo of new Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez watching his team take on the Orioles in a spring training game, note that Gonzalez is watching with a mitt on his left hand.