Let's Turn this thing around!

Since my last post we have learned something very important: the New York Mets evidently read my blog.

Scroll down a little bit and you will read about me ripping the Mets apart, how its unbelievable that they can spend so much and still be so bad. Well, to say that they have turned things around since that point would be an understatement.

My beloved Metropolitans have enjoyed a 9-1 homestand, including sweeps of the Braves and Dodgers. All of a sudden their pitching (with the exception of Ollie Perez, of course, who will never be good), is dominant. Mike Pelfrey has thrown 24 consecutive scoreless innings, Johan Santana is looking in form, and the rest of the gang (John Niese, John Maine) have pitched above their heads in getting some wins.

The other noticeable difference? Ike. The Mets called up first baseman Ike Davis, something they were clearly hoping to be able to hold off on at the beginning of the season, and it has coincided with the run to first place in the NL East. Now, is Ike the only reason for the wins? Of course not. Other players have finally started to hit as well, but Ike's .355 batting average has certainly made a difference in comparison to whatever garbage Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanotto were bringing to the table. They weren't doing anything like this either.

At 13-9, the Mets actually look like a legitimate team this again. Keep an eye on their results this weekend, though, when they have to take on the Phillies in Philly. Then we'll see if they actually have a chance of contending come September.

$132 Million never bought so little

Dear New York Mets,

Quit wasting so much money. If you are going to be this bad, just go ahead and put your money to better use. Give it to the community in Queens or something. Better yet, give it to me. I could do a whole lot with just shy of $133 million. I mean, that is a whole lot of cabbage. I could fulfill my dream of owning a space shuttle, for one thing.

Now, I realize that I am writing this the day after the Mets managed to pull out a 2-1, 20 inning win over the Cardinals, but honestly that is most likely going to be the greatest highlight for the team this season. An 0-7 performance from your lead-off man is going to be your most memorable highlight from the season. Cause let's be honest: this rotation is simply not going to get the job done.

The one bright spot for the boys this year has been Mike Pelfrey, who is 2-0 on the season, and happened to get a save in last night's marathon game. Pretty impressive. Hopefully Mike can keep up the play, cause in my experience he has been inconsistent.

So this being the first baseball post of the new year, it is only natural that I talk about my RMOB stat. I plan on keeping track of things again this year, and will hopefully have a season ending RMOB standings to really judge the experiment. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this post. Looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

Little Man in the Garden

It's been far too long since I've posted, and a lot of pretty cool stuff has happened lately. My excuse is that I've been posting like a mad man on the Flyer News blog and then it was Easter.

I'm back now though. Madison Square Garden is cool though. Sitting on press row in the Garden when you could extend your feet and be on the court is even cooler. To give you an idea of where I was sitting, just look at the basket in the picture. I was underneath that. Hanging out on the court after Dayton won while the players were going nuts is even cooler.

So I had a great time. Part of me is glad that Dayton went to the NIT, cause this might be the only two times I ever cover a game in MSG. Hopefully not, but maybe. At the same time, though, it was the NIT. I mean honestly, as great as it was to see the guys play well and win the tournament, it was the NIT. Don't go bragging to your friends or shouting it in the streets. The fact remains the season was a disappointment. The NIT Championship is a consolation prize.

Now the Flyers have to move on. London Warren, Kurt Huelsman, Rob Lowery, Mickey Perry and Marcus Johnson are not going to be here next year. The way I see it, Kurt and Marcus are the two big losses from that group. Everybody else is easily replaceable, especially since there were a lot of negatives that came with the positives London and Rob brought to the table.

It is going to be interesting to see who Dayton actually has next year. Chris Wright might go to the NBA, and rumors abound about Chris Johnson and Paul Williams both transferring. Personally, I think all three will be back next year. Wright isn't good enough, and CJ and PW are going to be starting all next year and the focal points of the offense. Them and Wright (if he comes back) could be Dayton's Singler, Scheyer and Smith.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

What a Weekend

March Madness is my favorite time of the year, and this time, it lived up to its bidding. This has been the greatest tournament I can remember.

The first day alone--unbelievable. A one-point game to start things off, two overtime games, upsets, a buzzer beater (Murray State over Vandy). Just incredible. My bracket was already hurting badly after day one (just 10 out of 16 games correct) and I didn't care. Seeing all those close games--there is just nothing like it.

Then Friday was a little bit meh. Nothing all too exciting happened, but I'm not sure those of us watching could have taken much more drama. you just needed a little bit of a break from the absurdity.

No worries though, things got back to insane for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday games were awesome, with Northern Iowa's major upset of Kansas being the signature game from the two days. All in all, the greatest opening two rounds in my tournament-watching career: mid-major's have ruled so far, the majority of games have been close and Duke is still alive and playing well.

Surprises
How about Cornell. The 12th seeded Big Red have won by 13 and 18 points in their two games. They have just been raining threes, and its been phenomenal to watch, even though they beat Temple in the first round.

Jon Diebler. The Ohio State guard has been absolutely on fire, and making the Buckeyes look like a legit title contender all of a sudden. He's shooting 50 percent from distance, and that is cause for concern for the rest of the field. If he keeps that up, Ohio State is actually good.

Disappointments
The A-10. Being a fan of the conference I came in hoping they would do well in this tournament. Instead, Richmond and Temple both laid eggs in the first round. Granted, the teams they lost to then dominated in the second round, but still. They looked like garbage in their games. Xavier has barely survived its first two games now, but they of course always seem to do that.

Purdue. The Boilermakers came into the NCAAs looking like a d2 team against Minnesota. They barely reach double digits as a team in the first half of that game. Then, they were a popular pick to get upset by Siena in the first round without Robbie Hummell. Now my boy Mike Liberio's squad is in the Sweet 16. Pretty awesome turnaround from them.

...And so it begins

It's noon, and the dance is starting in just about 20 minutes. I haven't been this excited in a long time. I've got some studying to do, and I can't think of a better way to do it than with some Florida-BYU/Old Dominion-Notre Dame/Robert Morris-Villanova in the background. There is no better time than this.

Three games going on at the same time to start things off. 16 games will be played today. 16! O man its going to be great. I finished my bracket late last night, and think it is a pretty decent one. I went with the boring pick of Kansas to win the national championship, but still made some gutsy picks in the earlier rounds, so it isn't the lamest bracket of all time.

Things to keep an eye for today:

Saint Mary's vs Richmond: Should be a really good 10-7 matchup between two great mid-major programs. I'll be looking for Richmond to win. They are a lot of fun to watch and it would be good to see an A-10 team do well. By the way, without even meaning to, I picked the A-10 teams in this tournament to do extremely well. I have Richmond in the Sweet 16 and Xavier and Temple each going to the Elite Eight. Kinda Crazy.

Wake Forest vs Texas: Maybe the dog game of the tournament. These two teams were both looking waaaaaayyyy better than they finished on the season. They are probably the two biggest end-of-season collapses in the entire tournament field.

Okay, its 12:18, time for me to concentrate on other things. Hope everybody is able to watch the games. If you don't know about it, check out March Madness on Demand to watch any of the games in the Tournament.

Atlantic City behind the scenes

As I said in my last post, I was going to Atlantic City to cover the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Covering and watching the games was cool, but there is just so much more that happened from the time before I even got here until now.

It all started at about 5:40 a.m. Friday morning. I was getting picked up to drive to the airport, and was tired but ready to roll. it was still pretty dark out at that point in time, and I can only assume that some student who had been having a great time Thursday night decided it would be a great idea to remove the cover from the sewer drain outside of Lawnview Apartments.

See where this is going?

If you can't, read on. I began to walk to the car, and this sewer just so happened to be in my path. Being tired and not able to see very well, I walked right over this hole in the ground, and all of a sudden my waist was even with the ground. It took me about two seconds to realize what had even happened to me (one doesn't fall into a manhole very often), but when I finally did get it, the pain took over. I still have the bruise on my right hip and the cut on my left shin to show for it.

Sooooo not the greatest start to the trip. We got to the airport and the flights went off without a hitch, so that was good.

We made it to AC and I posted up in my media spot before the UD game and started to get ready. It was fun blogging and tweeting (my first experience with that), and the game was great to watch from a fanboy standpoint until the final 10 minutes. O well.

One thing that was cool during that time was Verne Lundquist showed up. He is going to be calling the championship game on CBS Sunday and was stopping by to start preparing for his broadcast and watch some basketball. He was sitting two seats down from me, so I talked to him after the Dayton game. He is a really nice guy, and we talked for a few minutes about the games that day. Never talked to a big time broadcaster like that, so that was cool.

I've learned that Terrell Holloway and Chris Mack are both punks this weekend. I have no problem with them being affiliated with the team I dislike the most. Holloway doesn't shake hands, and Mack smiled at the crowd when he called a completely unnecessary timeout with two seconds left and got booed. Coming from a coach, that is embarrassing if you ask me.

Tournament home games are weird

...At least this one was. UD beat George Washington last night in an okay game for the Flyers. It was nice to see them win a close game anyway. Still, that was really not what caught my attention during the game.

What did have my eyes and ears perplexed was the fact that the UD employed people that work at the scorers table were wearing black sweater vests instead of red. In addition to that fact, the PA announcer was announcing the game from an unbiased perspective. Think about that for a second. I've never heard that dude's voice unless it was championing Dayton's cause.

I'm used to "THREEEEEEEEEEEEEE Chris Johnson!"
Instead I got "Chris Johnson, three points."

It was bizarre, I'm telling you.

It was also weird that only 6,930 people made it out to the game. I mean, come on. Even if the fans have given up on the NCAA Tournament and are disappointed in what Dayton has done this season, they should still be coming to the game. BG said something I really like after the game: "Some of our faithful have put conditions on their faithfulness." He's right, and that is embarrassing. Fans should be fans no matter what, and that Arena should have been full like usual last night.

At any rate, I'm going to Atlantic City, which should be pretty cool. I'll be blogging and taking pictures and what not for Flyer News a lot, but hopefully I'll be able to get over and get a post or two up on this thing for the weekend.