Blog Posts For: March 2009

While March Madness continues to whittle the competition down, the music world has seemingly already boiled the year of 2009 down to two performers, Michael Jackson and U2.

I must say that the Elite Eight was a much better round to watch than the Sweet Sixteen. A two seed and a three seed winning might not be much of an upset, but it at least gives the final four a little bit of that Cinderella groove back. Now everyone rooting for the underdog will cheer for Michigan State versus UConn and Villanova in the game with UNC. The question is will those cheers be wasted on teams that are simply too overmatched to keep their NCAA season going.

One has a jeweled glove and jacket. The other wears high heels and tights. One lost his home after a couple decades of dubious behavior. The other has done his best to make himself an unprofitable artist for a major record label. They are both 50 and they are both apparently trying to make a last splash. They are Michael Jackson and Prince.

Baseball is a wonderful sport for a few reasons. The first is that the game is played at a leisurely pace. Many people may hate this, but how many people would like to run several miles a day in 90 degree weather that is oftentimes humid in constricting cotton uniforms with optimal body coverage. My simple sense of humanitarianism would make feel guilty while I tried to enjoy my gloriously cold beer in the bleachers while watching a man literally kill himself on the field below me. The second is that it is a game nerds and geeks love for the simple fact that it is a game where the law of averages reigns supreme. These laws lead to certain results that cannot be denied. So, the question is: what certainties do we have to look forward to this season?

A quick look at who is touring this summer makes me realize that despite all the dire economic news the music industry is rolling out the red carpet. Seriously, the list is tremendous for every genre. If I mentioned these all these names in a single conversation I would be accused of name dropping.

I love sports. I check ESPN's website dozens of times a day for the latest development on the NFL front and for things as silly as the New York Yankees ERA last season. I am not so completely insulated from reality that I can not appreciate how silly the idea of professional sports can sometimes be, and sometimes I wonder which sport is the silliest.

The 2008 Final Four was perhaps the most disappointing in the history of me watching the tournament (interesting caveat huh). All the number one seed made it. Every single one! Who wants to watch a 65-team, single-elimination tournament in which the predicted top four teams are the actual last four teams standing?

I just read some disturbing news today during my annual college basketball cram session. I just read that the Big Ten could have eight teams in the NCAA Tournament. That is more than the amazing ACC and the mighty Big East hope to have in the tournament. I am a huge Big Ten sports fan, but even I think that is ridiculous.

While performers from decades past are ready to bury their grudges, performers in the now seem to be picking fights left and right. Yes, Fleetwood Mac seems to have it all together for a reunion tour and Leonard Cohen is coming to the U.S. to perform after ignoring the country for 15 years (to be fair, we ignored him first). Meanwhile the celebrity snub list is growing with offenders as young as Miley Cyrus and as old as Madonna.

Teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers are having terrific seasons. The Boston Celtics, second in the Eastern Conference, have clinched a place in the playoffs and the Los Angeles Lakers are blowing away the competition despite the now annual Andrew Bynum late season injury. About this time fans can choose to focus on the playoffs or the lottery, and this year everyone would rather be focusing on the playoffs.

The class is just not that great this year. Only one player, Blake Griffin is considered a sure thing, and only two others are considered worth exploring. These two are Greg Monroe, a freshman power forward from Georgetown, and Rick Rubio, a young guard playing in Spain.

When it was announced that Elton John and Billy Joel would be touring again it was heralded as a second chance to see the two greatest piano men of the last four decades play unbelievable duets. When Britney Spears announced her return it was questioned for its resemblance to a desperate plea for attention (It’s called The Circus Starring: Britney Spears for goodness sake). So where does Michael Jackson’s recently announced tour fall on a scale that goes from epically great to historically pathetic?

Not too long ago the Dallas Cowboys were beginning another promising era that could have brought yet another Super Bowl win to their storied history. The Arizona Cardinals were looking like they were going to be collecting veterans looking for a rest stop before officially retiring (their M.O. for the past decade). Now, after the Cardinals managed to get into the Super Bowl and play half way decently, everything is turned around in the Southwest.

Four months ago Frank McCourt and the Los Angeles Dodgers offered Scott Boras and Manny Ramirez $45 million dollars over two years to stay in sunny L.A. Boras retorted that he would then be taking serious offers. In the coming months magical mystery teams offered more, apparently these teams were from alternate universes because no other team that I have heard of even came to the table with enough to match the offer.

Many, including me, have condemned Scott Boras and Manny Ramirez as greedy bastards, but I think the pair knew they were never going to get the four-year, $100 deal. I think that was a mystical number chosen to do one thing: make sure Manny did not have to report to spring training until March.

It is not but a week into NFL Free Agency time and there are already completed deals that are causing havoc in every football-obsessed sports fans life. They range from questionable signings to questionable trades and are boring our girlfriends who thought it was safe to take us out in public.

The NBA is in trouble. It looks more and more like a lockout will ruin any progress the NBA has made to win back fans that they alienated the last time the league went into lockout mode in 1998. Fans lost 928 games, the league lost all of the goodwil Michael Jordan helped secure, and players lost of $500 million dollars. In 2011, after the collective bargainings talks fail and this strike inevitably happens, I think fans should intervene as the owners rape the players association and demand some changes.