March Madness Day 8 Recap

Everyone always says your views change when you have a kid. For sure, there are big changes: spontaneity isn't dead, but it's much harder to pull off. "Sleeping in" until 7:30 AM is a luxury, not a curse. Your first thought in public when a kid's being unruly is sympathy, not condescension. It also affects little things too:

In case you missed it, New York Yankees relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain will miss some time this season thanks to an injury suffered during a freak trampoline accident while playing with his son. Now, Chamberlain being a) a Yankee, and b) someone who's proved fairly injury prone, my initial reaction last year would have been "What an idiot, he should have been much more careful." Now, my reaction is, "Poor guy (and he's a Yankee!), he was trying to get some quality play time with his kid and then this happened," and "I'm glad this guy's working on spending quality time with his kid, considering how many wouldn't do so."

I'm not sure exactly what the lesson is, but I think it's that fatherhood makes you into a tremendous softy who is able to feel sympathy for a New York Yankee. But I could be wrong.

Shoutouts:
To Melissa A, Paula B, Chuck B, Tammy F, Nate G, Corey H, Manuel J, David K, Celinda K (nice work honey!), Ed K (nice job, Dad!), Mark P, Chuck M, Mo M, Craig M, Andy M, Mike M, Ben P, Joe P, Julie S, and Max T, for all correctly slotting Kentucky and Kansas into the Final Four.

To our current leaderboard:
1) Manuel J (--)
2) Corey H (-6 pts)
3) Ben P (-10 pts)
4T) David K (-12 pts)
4T) Mark P (-12 pts)
4T) Barack O (-12 pts)

To Max T, Mike M, Craig M, Nate G, Chuck B, Julie S, Mark P, David K, Ben P, and Corey H, for all correcting picking 3/4 Final Four teams. Everyone except Chuck missed on Louisville, Chuck missed on Ohio State. Normally, 3/4 would be the best in the pool,but...

To Manuel J, for correctly picking all 4 Final Four teams this year. This certainly isn't a yearly occurrence in the pool. Well done, Manuel!

To the 63 of you (us) who correctly picked Kentucky to make the Final Four, and to the 27 of you who correctly slotted Kansas in the final weekend. That means 8% of the pool picked Louisville, 40% picked Ohio State, 72% picked Kentucky, and 31% picked Kansas.

To Norine M (my aunt), who reminded me that Lehigh (they of the spectacular 15-over-2-seed upset, well, one of them) is located in Bethlehem, PA, where I had visited her and my cousins in the past.

To Rachel G, Susan G, and Zahra H, for buttressing up little Miles and preventing the pool's youngest ever entrant from finishing in dead last.

And to little Miles himself, for correctly picking one Final Four team (Ohio State).

To Linda Y, who, though her chances of winning took a disastrous spill with UNC's no-show in the final 3 minutes of their game, now will have no qualms about rooting for her favorite team (tOSU) in their attempt to win the title. You see, unabashed Ohio State fan Linda picked UNC to win it all. As a lifelong Seahawks fan, I heartily endorse NOT picking your favorite team when betting, as it makes the losses twice as excruciating. The downside being it can put a damper on the wins, but, like I said earlier, I'm a Seahawks fan.

To Boston College, who was nowhere near any postseason basketball action, but punched their ticket to the Frozen Four (college hockey) yesterday. Well done, Eagles.

To Carlos Beltran, who lived up to his pledge and paid for former teammate Jon Niese's nosejob. I almost filed this story under 'Condemnations' because, well, it's just weird. But since Beltran stood by his word, I figured it was positive...I think.

Condemnations:
To Jon Niese's new nose. It doesn't look that much different from the old nose.

To the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team, who got clocked by #1 seed Notre Dame. Thing is, this was a Sweet 16 game, not a first round game. Yikes.

To me, see most years I miss a weekend (at least) of games to fulfill frisbee-coaching duties. I stepped down as coach before this season so as not to miss a bunch of spring weekends with Celinda and Miles. But, my yearly tradition of missing games will continue on as I will be at a wedding in New Jersey next weekend, and am likely to miss the two semifinal games. While this likely means no insightful nuggets on the games, on the bright side, the updated daily spreadsheet will probably be a little late. But not too late.

To, again, the US Olympic Soccer team. After losing 2-0 to Canada, they merely had to beat El Salvador to move on to the next round of qualifying (the knockout stage). Instead they gave up 3 goals (1 in the dying seconds) and had to settle for a draw 3-3. This eliminated the US from the next round, and considering qualifying was on US soil, this is a travesty. Get ready for Day 9!