Wild World Of Wednesday - April 2, 2008

I can’t get over how thrilled I am that Major League Baseball has begun its season. In fact, I am still in a sort of euphoria after my weekend of attending games. As I was driving to Dodger Stadium on Monday, I felt for my fellow baseball fans that were experiencing rain outs and cancellations with their team openers…

In game two on Tuesday night of the Dodgers’ opening home stand, third base coach Larry Bowa was standing a bit outside of his designated box. The ump motioned to him that he needs to stand in a certain place and Bowa freaked out! He got in the ump’s face and had to be restrained by Torre and the crew. When he finally walked to the dugout, Bowa started throwing things on the ground. I thought the guy was going to pop a vein and Vin Scully calmly called the shots as the events unfolded. Looks like we’ve got a live one here!

By the way – the Dodgers have pulled off some sick plays already! A double steal in the bottom of the 7th inning last night that ends up being the difference maker in tying the game with the Giants. I can hardly contain my excitement…I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this is a sign of what is to come for the entire season…what an awesome finish to defeat the Giants again 3-2. By the way, Rafael Furcal is THE MAN!

Manchester United secured their place in the second round of the Champions League when they defeated Roma 2-0. Superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were responsible for scoring the goals. The quarterfinal games continue with Liverpool v. Arsenal and Chelsea v. Fenerbahçe. Meanwhile, the MLS season has begun in the States and the Los Angeles Galaxy were blown out 4-0 by the Colorado Rapids. The Galaxy hosts their home opener tomorrow night against San Jose. Chivas USA tied FC Dallas 1-1 and the game in Salt Lake City had the largest attendance of the weekend with 20,272.

The Western Conference of the NBA has teams jockeying for the top position. Sacramento, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota, Memphis, and Seattle are completely out of the picture while Golden State, Dallas, and Denver continually fight to stay in. The Eastern Conference is much clearer – Boston, Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland have clinched a spot in the post season. New York and Miami have been eliminated from post-season appearances.

UCLA haters have been whining that the team isn’t deserving of their place in the Final Four. Deal with it. They played badly but got it together when it counted – not because of some imaginary help from the refs. Quit hating Los Angeles just because you have never put together the money for a plane ticket to visit.

The NFL has meetings this week and they are discussing important issues like hair. On one hand, who really cares? On the other, you don’t see executives having dreadlocks and long hair. Every job has its “uniform”. But again, who really cares? The player is the one that has to deal with it if it gets pulled. I’m really on the fence about it since I can see both ways. My question is this - why are not more important things being focused on? I know there are other issues that they are discussing, but come on…hair? The owners did approve helmet radios for the defense now. This should curb any “sign stealing” controversies in the future. In more stimulating NFL developments, the shield logo has been redesigned. Yeah, I know, I’m shaking with excitement…

I did recently discover that I must be missing something…as I was returning home from Chavez Ravine on Monday…Dave Dameshek was discussing Dancing with the Stars on his ESPN radio show. I must say that I am confused…I though cool, sports-loving dudes didn’t watch that sort of programming on television. This is not the first time that I have heard the show discussed on ESPN radio either…if someone could explain this to me, I’d really appreciate it. For the record, I've never watched it.