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Over a week without
updating this? Not good – somehow I’ve let impending final exams top my
priority list. March also has some pretty high quality basketball being played
on the collegiate level, so that is time consuming. My Ohio Bobcats were
eliminated Thursday night (ending my dream for them to make the Big Dance and
become the first 16 seed to take down a 1 seed in NCAA tournament history), but
the agony of that defeat was healed by arguably the greatest basketball game of
all time. If you weren’t fortunate enough to have stayed up until 1:30 on the
East Coast, I recommend checking out Connecticut and Syracuse’s 70 minute
marathon on ESPN Classic….you won’t regret it.

 

Okay, on to baseball
with an assortment of thoughts on the recent happenings. We’ll call them “Hit
and Runs.” (The baseball term for running on contact, not the assault kind.)

 

1.   
Pat
Burrell helped
the Philadelphia Daily News stay in business a little longer by paying for
an advertisement thanking the fans for their support over the last nine years. As
fans, we were admittedly hard on Pat (if you chase that low and away pitch for
strike three one more time!!), but fans connected with him the most during the
magical ride last October. So, thank you, Pat.

 

2.   
Oh,
A-Rod. He really knows how to divert media attention from his steroid use. He’s
so desperate, he’ll try anything. For example, saying he wished Jose Reyes was
the leadoff man in the Bronx! It’s too easy to pick on Alex because of how
obvious it is he never attended or fell asleep during media training classes.

His
hip surgery should keep him out for most of April, so Yankees fans paying
outrageous ticket prices for Opening Day at the New Stadium will have to settle
for Cody Ransom or Angel Berroa at third base. I agree with Tim Kurkjian, who
hit it right on the head when he said the best thing A-Rod could have done was
come out of the box and start the season with 10 homers in April.

 

3.   
A-Rod
plays a small role in this as well….of course he does. The World Baseball Classic
betting favorite Dominican Republic was ousted by the Netherlands. Would
Rodriguez have made a difference? Who knows, but that’s beside the point. I
couldn’t name a single player on the Netherlands roster and I recognized just
one. Big Papi David Ortiz did add some humor to a tough loss. “These guys, they
did it. They beat us. I tell you, the whole world is shocked now. Even in
Japan, they’re like ‘What the heck?’ in Japanese.”

 

4.   
To
be honest, I was a little surprised Manny signed a contract and reported to
Spring Training. I thought he would holdout and begrudgingly accept the $45
million deal – the same deal that was offered to him in November – on April 4^th.
Supposedly, Scott Boras had ManRam “freaking out” over the lack of clubs
interested. Obviously, Boras is one of the people who give agents a bad
reputation, but it must also be tough to have a serious conversation with this guy as ESPN’s Colleen
Dominguez found out.

 

5.   
The
Phillies had eight representatives in the World Baseball Classic, but only
three remain. Here’s a quick statistical summary of those eliminated…

Carlos Ruiz of Panama: 2-5 BB

Matt Stairs of Canada: 0-6 BB

 

…and three minor leaguers from
Australia.

Brad Harman: 3-9…4 R…RBI…BB

Joel Naughton: 0-1

Drew Naylor: 0.1 IP…3 ER

 

Tonight, J.C. Romero’s Puerto Rican
squad slaughtered Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and the United States 11-1 in seven innings. Thus far, Romero
has a win versus the Netherlands, while J-Roll and Shane have combined to go
6-19.

 

Have a phantastic Phillies day! Only
21 more until Opening Day at Citizens Bank!