Good Times on the Horizon

Next to the entire NFL season. It is almost my favorite time of the year when it comes to sports. In two weeks, there will be the be the beginning of a smorgasbord of high-level competition that runs a solid two months straight. Ya...a smorgasbord. It is the time for desperation plays, game-winnings shots, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. Players all stop talking and put everything they have out on the field of play, leaving nothing behind. Sports fans all over the country are joined together through a common bond -- the hope and desire to see their team that they have poured their heart and souls into to win a championship. On top of the two consecutive months of championship caliber basketball and hockey, MLB baseball begins and then we all get our football fix on NFL draft day. Whats even better, the clocks go ahead an hour on Sunday morning. The days get longer and warmer and boom...spring is here before we knew it. So, in a time of economic turmoil, there are plenty of things out there to be positive about. Here is the upcoming schedule of what is probably the greatest two months of sports....

March 19 - March Madness begins
April 5 - MLB Opening Day
April 6 - NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship
April 15 - NHL Playoffs begin
April 18 - NBA playoffs begin
April 25/26 - NFL Draft
End of May - Stanley Cup Playoffs
June 2 - NBA Finals

Enjoy...

Quick recap of the week...

MLB

• Alex Rodriguez will miss 10 weeks for surgery to have cyst removed, may miss 4 months for torn labrum in hip -- yikes, the hits keep coming for A-Roid. It figures that within weeks of admitting to using steroids from 2001 to 2003 that A-Rod would have a torn ligament, an injury that stems from steroid abuse. It may or may not be related in Rodriguez's case, but the timing is just so perfect. Speaking of timing, the conspiracy theorists are already saying that this is to let the whole steroid controversy surrounding him subside and that Bud Selig is breathing a big sigh of relief. I don't think this helps at all though. The only thing that can make this start to go away is for him to keep playing great baseball. This worked for Jason Giambi when he admitted to steroid use and made a comeback and started playing well again.

• Manny Ramirez resigns with the Dodgers for 2 years, $45 million -- The Dodgers were going to sign Manny all along, they had to. Scott Boras drove the price up higher and higher because he had all the leverage. He even tried to push it up to $55 million. Manny made the Dodgers an obscene amount of money through ticket sales, dreadlock wigs, and jerseys and Boras and Manny knew it. The investment will pay itself off because Manny can keep people going through the turnstiles during touch economic times

NBA

Utah is red hot right now, they have won 9 in a row. New Orleans and The Team T-Mac Quit On have won 8 out of the last 10 and are rising up the Western Conference standings. Cleveland is plugging away winning 9 of their last 10, both they and Boston have already clinched playoff spots (the Eastern Conference is terrible). Dwayne Wade continues to play MVP caliber basketball, he is almost single-handedly putting the Heat into the playoffs. I can not wait to watch him play in that first round, but that is probably as far as the Heat will go. Shaq is back as far as making headlines goes, hes had both good and bad ones but there will be more on that later. The last quarter of the season has begun, each team has 20-22 games remaining and it is time for teams on the fringe to ramp up their game.

What to watch this weekend

• Mens College Basketball Conference Tournaments -- theres a bunch of them
• Cavaliers @ Celtics Friday 8pm EST
• World Baseball Classic -- there are lots of games on this weekend -- USA v. Canada on ESPN Saturday @ 2pm EST