Bud Selig is Stupid, Ronald Steele is SEC Player of the Year, J.J. Redick Looks Tired

The World Baseball Classic starts tomorrow. Whose terrible idea was this anyway? Was the pitch to Bud Selig something like “Hey we will get all the Major League’s best players, subject them to injury so they can play in a tournament that nobody will watch or care about, especially since it is right on top of the NCAA tournament, the beginning of the stretch runs in the NBA and NHL, the Oscars, etc. Maybe if we can get one of them to have a season ending injury, we can get some press out of it.” This idea goes right along with having a tie in the All-Star Game, having the All-Star game decide home field in the World Series, no salary cap, and smudging your entire game with a cloud due to ignoring steroids for so long. At what point do the owners realize that Bid Selig is a putz who is ruining their sport. At this pace, do you think baseball will still even be around for our grandchildren to enjoy?

Ronald Steele has to be the Player of the Year in the SEC. Alabama lost their best (by a wide margin) big man in Chuck Davis, and Steele is basically carrying them into the NCAA tournament on his back. I would put him on the first team SEC with Chris Lofton of Tennessee, Big Baby Glen Davis from LSU, Taurean Green from Florida, and Ronnie Brewer of Arkansas. Tyrus Thomas of LSU is my Freshman of the Year, and Coach of the Year is Bruce Pearl of Tennessee. More on my college hoops season awards next week….

I watched the Duke/Temple game in person over the weekend. Everybody is saying that the pressure of chasing all these records is what is bothering J.J. Redick and that it is not fatigue. I disagree. He looked tired Saturday, both during and after the game. One of the things that makes J.J. the best player in the country is he outworks everyone, running all over the place. On Saturday, he just stood around a lot, and in general made himself a lot easier to guard. After the game he looked exhausted when he got interviewed. I hope these so called experts are right and I am wrong and we see a big bounce back from J.J. this week, we shall see.

One of Duke’s problems the last 7 years is that they have not had a ton of depth and they play all three games in the ACC tournament, and then do not have enough left for the NCAAs, and lose to a #5 seed (Indiana, Florida, Michigan St) in the Sweet 16. As a Duke fan, losing in the semis of the ACC would not be the worst thing in the world.

Curtis Sumpter announced yesterday that he is taking this year as a redshirt, and will return to Villanova next season for his senior year. This is a good decision for Villanova, who will not risk upsetting their chemistry that they have developed throughout the season, and for Sumpter, who would risk throwing away a year of eligibility if Nova was knocked out early from the tournament. He can only be better off by showing his stuff and his health to NBA scouts over a full season. Good call.

A horse sold for $16 million yesterday. How can this possibly be a good financial decision? It seems to me the only chance this investment could pay off is if this horse wins a triple crown race and his stud fees are through the roof. That has to be a long shot, no matter how good the horse’s workouts have been. Oh, and by the way, this two year old horse has NEVER run a race before. I wish I had $16 million to play on the lottery. Wow.