Chalk walks

How is this for crazy: there were 12 NCAA Tournament games since Thursday. Underdogs won 8 of them.   At ESPN.com, only 2 brackets out of 5.9 million-plus entered in Tournament Challenge got the entire Final Four correct.  Personally, I'm pulling for Kentucky to take it as the the last 6 times they've won, the New York Yankees have won the World Series the same year. I'm with Ashley Judd.

If Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter was looking for a reaction to his criticisms last week of Derek Jeter and Theo Epstein, he got a couple.  Jeter hit him with a nice and sarcastic back hand here - rare for him to take a stand - and it was backed statistically that he receives more bad strike calls inside than Showalter would have you believe, and Tito Francona took up for his boss with a solid rebuke of Showalter. 


MLB trivia time: what active MLB pitcher has the most post-season wins?  Answer below.
Freak NHL stat: Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has had shutouts on March 25th in 2011, 2009, 2008 and 2007.  The Penguins didn't play on that day in 2010.

It seems more and more like MLB will add a second wild-card team to each league for the 2012 season, which ought to make fans of the non-big two in the AL East happy.

NFL Draft geeks will be happy to know that the NFL Draft is in one month.  Get your popcorn ready!  Speaking of popcorn, word is this year's HBO Hard Knocks will follow the Tampa Bay Bucs, assuming of course there is a camp to video.  If you've not seen Hard Knocks before, run down a torrent of it.  Always good stuff.  

Trivia answer: New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

Have finally thawed out enough to add this magic goal from Javier Martina that secured Toronto FC's 2-0 win on Saturday at BMO Field over the Portland Timbers.  It wasn't a pretty effort, but I'm thinking we'll be lucky to see a goal as nice as this all season.


As there has been in plenty of games around the globe of late, the soccer world has been observing a moment's silence in respect for Japan and the people that have lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami a few weeks back.  The U.S. hosted Argentina on Saturday night in New Jersey, and as you'll see at the 0:37 second mark or so here, not all are entirely respectful.