Is It Baseball Season Yet?

Seriously. Opening day cannot come soon enough for me. Good thing I only have to wait until Wednesday! While I'm disappointed in the news about Carpenter for my Cardinals, I still am very excited about their season. And baseball in general.

Speaking of which, congratulations to Guggenheim Partners, or as everyone in LA keeps referring to it, Magic Johnson's group, on winning the bid on buying the LA Dodgers. Now that the sale is done, they can focus on the team and making it the franchise that it should be.

No, I'm not becoming a Dodgers fan. But this whole debacle with Frank McCourt - the divorce, the bankruptcy...it hasn't allowed for good development and growth for the Dodgers franchise. I may be a Cardinals fan, but at the core I love good baseball. It's good to have competition in the league. If there's no competition and the same team keeps winning and winning over and over again, people lose interest.

So hope the Dodgers are able to overcome this and I look forward to seeing the Dodgers-Cardinals matchup live at Dodger Stadium this season.

NCAA Final Four was this weekend and the only real surprise? Kansas upset Ohio State by coming back from behind at the half to win by 2 points. I guess I understand now why Mizzou had problems beating KU this season. They are one tough team.

Kentucky beat Louisville, so that means tomorrow night's championship game is Kentucky vs Kansas. As a Mizzou fan, I just find it so difficult to root for KU, even if they are in the Big 12. Kentucky's been the #1 since the beginning of the tourney, so KU's the underdog. I think I may just have to say this: I look forward to watching a good game.

The Tebow-Sanchez drama has really gotten...well for lack of better words, quite ridiculous. Every sports pundit is reporting on their thoughts about whether this was a good move for the Jets, whether Sanchez should feel like his job is on the line, and so forth.

Okay, yes. The move brings up a lot of questions. But it's April. NFL season doesn't start until September. The draft hasn't even happened yet. A lot of things will change between now and then. I don't have any clue what the reasoning is for the Jets picking up Tebow but Tebow doesn't seem to sound like he's going to be a back-up. He clearly wants to fight for the starting QB job. Well, I guess one thing's for certain. Hard Knocks shouldn't even question what team to choose for their show this season.

In NBA news...honestly, other than Jeremy Lin being out for the season with injury, I haven't kept up with it much. I told you, the NBA is not my forte. Kobe had a rough week this week, but he's Kobe. He's picked it up and in today's game was the leading scorer.

In NHL news my St. Louis Blues clinched the Central Division Title, albeit not exactly in the fashion that they had hoped as they lost to the Blue Jackets 5-2 last night. As the NHL season starts to wind down, it'll be interesting to see how the playoff picture turns out. None of the national sports peeps (at least in LA) seem to care about hockey, but I imagine once the playoffs come around it'll be "oh, did you hear about this?"

Growing up in St. Louis, had no clue how little respect the NHL gets on a national scale. Now that I'm in LA, who has 2 NHL hockey teams? Wow, yeah I get it. The NHL gets such little coverage on a national scale. In LA, when it comes to sports talk on the radio in the morning, I have Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, or the San Diego sports station. It is uncanny how often Dan and Colin are talking about the same thing...at the same time!

If I had to guess, I think that most national sports coverage focuses on the following primarily: NFL, MLB and NBA. Everything beyond that is included because it's topical. We aren't hearing much news about NCAA football, are we? Nope. We're hearing about NCAA basketball because the tourney is still going on. But what about after? No.

The NHL should get more coverage, but they don't. It's a shame. I'm not just saying that because The Blues are doing well. The LA Kings are doing well too, and no one out here seems to care. It's sad.

And...that's all I've got for tonight folks. More updates soon on my thoughts on the world of sports.

NCAA & Peyton Madness, MLB Spring Training

Hello sports fans!

I have not posted recently and I apologize. I will admit that the time period after the Super Bowl until the beginning of March Madness is what I consider the worst period in sports for me. I enjoy a good NBA game but it's not a big passion for me, there's no football, no baseball and hockey...I probably follow it more than the NBA because of the St. Louis Blues but it's not a big passion for me.

Lots of things have happened since my last post and there's no way that I'm going to address them all here.

First off, the Colts opted to release Peyton Manning and not pay him the $28 million bonus he was due last week. This should not have been a surprise to anyone, but it still...well for lack of better words, sucks. I understand the position Jim Irsay is in. How can he pass up the chance to draft Andrew Luck? And could he really afford to draft Luck, pay Manning and build a team that had a chance at competing? Probably not.

Both Irsay and Manning were tearful during the joint press conference held last week officially announcing the news. As much as I hate the thought of Peyton in a non-Colts uniform, it's probably the best thing that could happen to him.

The Colts are rebuilding. They have a brand new coaching and management staff. They have cleaned house with releasing players such as Dallas Clark, Joseph Addai and Melvin Bullitt, to name a few. The Colts are starting over.

Peyton doesn't have time to lead a starting over team. If Peyton is healthy and able to play at the level we all know and love he's got about 3-4 years best. The Colts may not reach elite status again for 3-4 years, based on the restructuring process. By then Peyton would be looking at retirement.

So Peyton has the chance to shop around and attempt to find another team that he can lead to greatness. The lead contenders seem to be the Broncos, the Cardinals and the Dolphins. Seattle and KC wanted to talk to Manning and he said, "not interested." Ouch. But I don't blame him on that. Seattle has been a total train wreck in recent years and KC has some stars like Dwayne Bowe, but KC is in the same division as Denver and the Broncos are better built to be a winning team at this moment with Manning at QB than KC. So I get it.

So where will he end up? I have some thoughts but who really knows? We all thought Albert Pujols was going to re-sign with the Cardinals until at the final hour the Angels came in and blew us all away with their offer. There could be several dark horse teams that throw out an offer last minute and when Peyton finally makes that announcement we'll all go "huh? Didn't see that one coming!"

I originally thought Miami, because Peyton already has a home there, they have decent offensive weapons and a relatively good defense, and adding him to the mix could help them win. However, if you think about it if you're in Miami, you're in the same division as the Patriots. Which means you have to play better than them to win your division and if you don't, you better hope you're good enough for the wild card. If you're Peyton, that's risky.

That's why at this point, I think it's between Denver and Arizona. Denver has a strong defense, and they do have some decent offensive weapons that Peyton could throw to. They are in a weak division that Tebow lead to victory last season and would certainly have a shot at the playoffs.

Arizona is about on the same level, except I don't think their defense is as strong as Denver. But they have Larry Fitzgerald, and as a fan of both Peyton and Larry, it would be fun to watch them play together. And the NFC Worst, I mean West is a weak division. Except for that whole 49'er effect.

As a Rams fan though, I'm praying Peyton ends up in Denver or Miami, not Arizona. I don't want the Rams to face Peyton twice a season and ruin the Rams' chances at a playoff run (laugh all you want, but the Rams could find themselves there soon).

All shall be revealed soon.

In other madness, it's March Madness, and the NCAA tourney is set. Both the Missouri Tigers and the St. Louis Bilikens made the tourney, which is nice representation for my home state. However, although Mizzou was 30-4 on the season, they did not receive a #1 seed. This after winning their conference tournament and teams like North Carolina lost theirs.

Strength of schedule seems to be the big factor here. Okay sure, I get it. Michigan State lost 7 games but their schedule was tougher. The NCAA is hard to figure out some times, but I'm not incredibly unhappy with the results. Mizzou ended up as the #2 seed in the West, and they have a VERY good shot at making the Final Four. I believe they are a better team than Michigan State and can beat them.

But the NCAA tourney is always interesting. You never know what's going to happen. People seem to think that Kentucky, the #1 overall seed, is a lock. I don't think so. It's a tournament. Everyone is vulnerable. Is a 15-16 seed going to win overall? Probably not. But if Butler could make it to the Final Four 2 years in a row? Anything is possible.

Finally, Spring Training is upon us for MLB. Hard to believe, but we are less than a month from opening day. That's...kind of scary actually.

Albert Pujols did well in his Spring Training debut with the Angels, despite his disgust with the billboards the Angels put up around LA featuring his #5 Angel uniform and the words "El Hombre." Albert has vehemently stated that he is not "The Man," as that is Stan Musial and doesn't want to be associated as "El Hombre." Guess the Angels didn't do their research as anyone in Cardinal Nation would know that going that route for promos was not a good one.

But enough about Albert. He's not a Cardinal anymore so I don't care.

The Cardinals biggest concern right now is Chris Carpenter. He was having some discomfort so they had him checked out and he has a bulging disk in his neck. Sounds pleasant, doesn't it? Good news is that it isn't a nerve problem, which he has had in the past. But a bulging disk is not good by any means. There's no easy cure for a bulging disk. You learn how to live through the pain.

He won't be ready for opening day, so Adam Wainwright will likely take over the starting role. Not sure how long it will take Carpenter to get back to starting position but it could take awhile. This is not good news to Cardinals fans, who were hoping for the ace duo of Carpenter and Wainwright to lead the Cards to their 12th championship title.

It remains to be seen. The Cards could try to sign Oswalt. Things will start to unfold shortly as opening day creeps closer.

And...that's it for now. Guess I better go fill out my bracket!

Apparently keeping up a blog is harder than I thought. If football season was in gear I'd be posting at least once a week. I love baseball, but it's a long season and it hard for me since my team is in St. Louis and I'm in LA, so I hear a lot more about the Dodgers and Angels.

The Mavs on the NBA championship. Well deserved. Dirk is a beast. What an amazing player to watch. I would have liked to see the Lakers do a 3-peat, but they just were not on it this year. The Mavs played hard and in the end LeBron just could not lead Miami to the win. Which makes me happy, as I'm not a huge fan of LeBron. Is he talented? Most definitely. But as a person? Don't really care for him.

Speaking of the NBA, what in the world is up with my bro Ron Artest changing his name? Ron explains the name change here, but still. Metta World Peace? Ochocinco I can understand, even if it is incorrect Spanish (ocho = 8 cinco = 5. 85 = ochenta y cinco). I just...well, good luck getting people to call you that Ron.

The NHL finals came down to a grueling battle between Vancouver and Boston and in the end, the Boston Bruins pulled off the win. So what did fans in Vancouver do? Riot. The Bulls won the NBA championship in 1992 and which resulted in riots in the city. They WON. Vancouver LOSES and riots ensue. Really Vancouver? So not classy. Makes you wonder what would have happened had they won. Yikes.

Baseball, baseball. Pujols got injured, came back and the Cardinals still have no bullpen. Yet they are tied for 1st at the All Star Break. Though right now the NL Central is pretty much up for grabs among the Cards, Brewers, Reds and...the Pirates? Wow. First time in a long time I can recall them being in the running. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out. The Cardinals organization is going to have to do something on the pitching issue, because even though they are hanging in there in the NL Central, there's no way they'll get further than a division title without some help.

Speaking of the All Star Game, for the second year in a row the NL won. I'll admit, I only watched bits and pieces of the game (although to my credit, the game started at 5pm my time. I didn't even get home until 6:30). I'm glad to see the NL dominating after so many years of the AL winning. I still hate that the All Star Game determines home field advantage. I understand why Selig did it, I just don't agree with it. Home field should go to the team with the best record, just like the NFL.

Oh yes, the NFL. Talks have resumed and today the top players said "we want a deal." Please football gods, let's end this. Players should be reporting to camp any moment now. We're a month away from preseason. Just settle it before things get even uglier than they already are.

Okay, promise to post more and resurrect this blog. More of my thoughts on the world of sports soon!