SEC: This week’s Sports Editor’s Choice
There is a lot to cover in this edition of the Sports Editor’s Choice. Professional basketball has passed the All-Star break and the trade deadline. College basketball is on the way to driving all of us mad during March. Baseball is starting soon which will have everybody talking about their favorite team. Without any further commentary from the editor himself, let’s dive in.
5- Spring Fever is here
This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.
There is a lot to cover in this edition of the Sports Editor’s Choice. Professional basketball has passed the All-Star break and the trade deadline. College basketball is on the way to driving all of us mad during March. Baseball is starting soon which will have everybody talking about their favorite team. Without any further commentary from the editor himself, let’s dive in.
5- Spring Fever is here
Baseball is back. Nothing more American than a day at the baseball park, a hot dog covered in mustard and relish, cracker jacks and peanuts. Right now all of the baseball teams are hanging out in warmer climates and hitting baseballs over centerfield fences preparing for the new season. Opening day for the 2011 season is March 31, and the first pitch will be thrown in either New York at Yankee Stadium, or in Washington D.C. at Nationals Park, since both games are slotted to start at the same time, it depends on who starts the festivities first. The Yankees will face the Detroit Tigers, and the Nationals will be facing the Atlanta Braves. Prediction tim: the Bombers from the Bronx will represent the American League and from the National League we will see the Philadelphia Phillies taking them on. Over all, the fans from Philly will be fanatic after winning the whole thing. At least that is my prediction.
4- A new number one
Greg Norman was number one for 331 weeks. Tiger Woods stayed on top for 623 weeks. Lee Westwood the former current number-one-golfer lasted for 17. Martin Kaymer of Germany is now the world’s number-one-ranked golfer, and he did it by just making it to the semi-finals of the “World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship” at Dove Mountain Golf Course in Arizona. The question is, will Kaymer’s reign at the top of the golf world be like Norman’s and Wood’s, or will it be short just like Westwood’s? The shortest tenure as number one was a single week, the short stretch was held by Tom Lehman.
3- Who is signing with Van Halen,
and we got a win
The California Institute of Technology finally got a conference win; this comes after 310-straight loses to conference opponents. Way to go Brainy Beavers, this is an accomplishment that hasn’t happened since David Lee Roth was singing with Van Halen, Nintendo released Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. and finally a furry red monster named Elmo appeared on Sesame Street. The Beavers are a Division III college in the Southern Californian Intercollegiate Conference. The team got their win on Senior Night against Occidental, the team that just happens to be their conference rival. Since this is too good to pass up, the Beavers got their win by the skin of their teeth, when senior Ryan Elmquist made a go-ahead free throw with three seconds left, winning 46-45. I hope for the college’s sake they don’t have another 26-year drought.
2- Time to go mad
Get out your brackets, enter your office picking pool and make some decisions as to who is going to win the NCAA Basketball Tourney this year. Although we don’t know who will take the top four spots of the bracket this year, it is like Dick Vitale says, “You gotta love it baby.” I am predicting that the four spots will be held by Duke, Ohio State, Kansas and Texas (remember only a prediction here folks.) Selection Sunday is March 13, and that will let us know who is going to be where. Now if only we can make it through the next couple weeks of conference tournaments without going completely insane.
1- Melo-drama is over
and more trades
Thank goodness the National Basketball Trade Deadline is over, I don’t know if I could handle anymore drama about who wants to go where and why they are so unhappy and how much more money they could be making somewhere else. So to re-cap some of the headlining trades, here we go. Carmelo Anthony finally got what he wanted and ended up in New York with the Knicks and Amare Stoudemire. Along with him went Chauncey Billups. The New Jersey Nets needed to get a headline player which they did; unfortunately it wasn’t Anthony like they wanted. They did get Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz, the Jazz got Devin Harris and Derrick Favors, some extra spending money and two first-round picks, not a bad trade. To round off the big trades, the Boston Celtics dealt out Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Celtics got Nenad Kristic and Jeff Green, they did need to bulk up at the big-man positions of forward and center. There were other blockbuster deals, but out of the headliners these were the “big-three.”
