Parade of the Three Piece Suits

Not to get all Bill Simmons on you, but as I sit here watching first round coverage of the NFL Draft on ESPN, I have the urge to live-blog and bring you some of my thoughts / observations in real time.  Just let me start by saying that the NFL Draft's first round is one of the best, and most underrated, televised sporting events of the year.  It combines great football analysis, highlights and unintentional comedy into a three-hour program that makes for must-see TV.  Without further ado, here are some of my observations from the 2011 NFL Draft.

• Fantastic Under Armor lapel pin for Cam Newton, who completely unsurprisingly starts his NFL career as a giant billboard.  Note that I didn't say "starts his professional career," since we all know that began at Mississippi State about three years ago.  Still to be determined: whether or not Newton will take a pay cut to leave Auburn for the Carolina Panthers.
• We switched over to NFL Network because ESPN keeps showing video of players on the cell phone crying minutes before they are announced.  What fun is watching the draft if you can't be surprised by the announcement?  Plus, NFL Network has Deion Sanders and his absurdly wide windsor knot doing post-pick interviews with the players, which is a bonus.
• Huge win for NCAA football with Jake Locker going eighth overall to Tennessee.  With Locker having taken a huge risk in coming back to school this year to play at Washington, having him slip late into the draft could have forced a chain reaction whereby even more young college players leave school early for fear of coming back, having a subpar year and crashing through the first round.
• In a stunning upset, light-colored suits dominate the top ten picks of the first round.  With a potentially season-killing lockout looming, it's nice to see the players not dressed like undertakers.

• Newton's lapel pin was good, but it had absolutely nothing on Mike Pouncey's diamond-heavy watch, which had a face roughly the size of a softball (see right).  Good to see these guys are saving wisely in preparation for a lockout.  I just Googled "Mike Pouncey watch" and saw that Twitter is already exploding because of it.
• If you abide by my "guys with awesome names become awesome players" theory, then the Giants did well by taking Prince Amukamara.  While I was hoping for Boston College offensive lineman Sal Costanzo, I'm happy about the pick.  It's always nice to leave the first night satisfied with your team's pick.  And no, that was not a dig at Vikings fans, who now have to live with Florida State's Christian Ponder at quarterback for the next half-decade.
• I now really have a craving for some of the team-colored jelly beans that each team has on their draft table inside of Radio City music hall.  If I ever become the General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, you can bet I'll run through an entire mason jar full of strawberry and lemon Jelly Bellys per round.
• Rich Eisen of NFL Network just reported that Eagles draft pick Danny Watkins decided to go to Butte Community College because of the great firefighting program that they have there.  Apparently he decided to go to school solely to concentrate on a firefighting career, and didn't even play football in high school.  Definitely the best non-football-related piece of information of the day.

And on that note, we'll wrap up Caught Looking's coverage of the 2011 NFL Draft.  Let's enjoy these memories, and hope that come this fall we have plenty of actual football-related moments to replace them.  While I love watching these rookies-to-be take the stage in their Sunday finest, I'm even more excited to see them on the field.  

College Baseball at Sunken Diamond

For a variety of reasons, college baseball never really caught on as a mainstream sport in the U.S.  Unlike NCAA football and basketball, where the link to professional athletics is direct and clear and where college programs are seen as the top feeders into the NFL and NBA, respectively, there's a big gap between NCAA and Major League Baseball.  As a result, college baseball is more like lacrosse or soccer than like football or basketball - it's not often covered by major media outlets, it's not a significant revenue driver and it's not a priority for athletic departments.  Instead, college baseball is a true amateur's game.

Just because the players are amateurs, though, doesn't mean they aren't really good, as I learned in person at the Stanford vs. Cal game at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond yesterday.  With perfect temperatures and barely a cloud in the sky, it was another fantastic day for baseball.  A few friends and I made the short walk across the Stanford campus just in time for the first pitch, and enjoyed a high-quality baseball game.  The players (particular the pitchers) were a lot better than I expected them to be, given the fact that there are so many levels of minor league professional baseball between college ball and the Major Leagues (not to mention all of the international leagues that also feed into MLB).  Of course, Stanford and the Pac-10 are known for fielding competitive baseball teams, but nonetheless I was pleased with the quality of play.

The weather was perfect for Stanford and Cal at Sunken Diamond.

Most people, if they know anything at all about college baseball, associate the game with the offensive explosion that often accompanies metal bats.  This year, however, bat specifications for NCAA baseball have been changed dramatically, and as a result the college game more closely resembles the wooden bat version of the sport that MLB and MiLB fans are used to.  While Stanford scored a bunch of runs off of the Cal pitchers, the Cardinal strung together line drive base hits rather than attack the Golden Bears with a barrage of homers.  In the bottom half of the innings, Stanford pitching made the Cal hitters put the ball in play and, with the exception of one three-run homerun, kept the ball in the park.

As for Stanford's baseball stadium, it was what I would expect a college park to be like.  I only have Princeton's field to compare it to, but overall I thought it was more than adequate for a college baseball team.  While the physical playing field was average (the outfield wall could use a touch-up, but the new scoreboard was a nice touch), the seats surrounding the field were well-positioned and well-maintained.  And while there were a decent number of fans in attendance given the odd Monday at 5:30 PM local start time, we were easily able to grab great seats midway down the first baseline and had a perfect view of a pretty good baseball game.  Given the speed of the college game, the quality play and the great Palo Alto-area weather, even a casual fan will definitely enjoy spending a gorgeous afternoon at Stanford's Sunken Diamond.

LED scoreboard, good.  Covered chain-link outfield fence, bad.

Easter Sunday at AT&T Park

When many of my friends started talking about how they'd be spending yesterday afternoon at church in celebration of Easter, I joked that I'd also be spending the day at the local synagogue for my religion. I made my first trip to San Francisco's AT&T Park yesterday to watch my Braves cap a three-game sweep over the Giants, and now consider the afternoon one of my favorite regular-season in-person baseball experiences ever.  From the wonderful weather and notoriously beautiful ballpark to the exciting nature of the game and a desirable outcome (a Braves victory), I couldn't have been more satisfied with my much-anticipated first trip to AT&T.

We got to the stadium 90 minutes prior to first pitch to make sure I was able to explore every aspect of the stadium.  We entered through the main gates, where a great looking brick facade makes the stadium fit in extremely well with the apartment complexes and office buildings that surround it.  Once inside, we walked around the outer loop of the park to the walkway between Levi's Landing (the right field wall, see below) and McCovey Cove, the famous waterway that borders the back of the stadium.  Again, here the stadium perfectly blends with the surrounding area, as the walkway and back facade are the perfect complement to the bordering harbour.  Everyone told me that AT&T was a beautiful and well-designed park, and they were right.  The stadium is very "San Francisco," from the local and well-integrated sponsors to the female public address announcer, and is exactly what I wanted out of a Bay Area baseball game.

Levi's Landing and McCovery Cove are among the visual highlights of San Francisco's AT&T Park.

Inside the concourses of the stadium were tons of food options, with perhaps the best selection and diversity I've seen outside of the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field (both of which have great concession offerings).  The concourses were a great combination of an old-time baseball feel (classic signage and brick facades) and modern technology (LED screens both showing the game and displaying menu choices).  As for the game itself, we sat in the bleachers in left center field and had a surprisingly good, clear view of the action.  While I'm normally more of a behind-the-plate kind of guy (even in the upper deck), I realized that you can more clearly watch plays develop from behind the mound (just like you watch it on TV).  The AT&T Parl viewing experience might cause me to reconsider bleacher seating as an affordable option at other stadiums in the future.

Easter Sunday at AT&T featured blue skies from warmups to the final out in the 10th inning.

All in all, it was a great day.  The sellout Giants crowd was passionate but (mostly) respectful, and it's clear that the fans love their Giants.  Just as the stadium has become a part of the city landscape, the team itself has also become part of San Francisco culture following their 2010 World Series championship.  While I was obviously rooting for the Braves yesterday, I'm excited to go back to AT&T Park to root alongside the Giants fans against a more hated opponent.  Time to check the schedule and see when the Mets are coming to town.

Happy Birthday, Caught Looking!

From middle school up through college, I always had this vision of playing an entire 162-game season of video game baseball.  Each year I would buy the newest edition of the hottest baseball console game (in the beginning it was Hardball 5 for the PC (right), at the end it was MVP Baseball 2004 for Ninentendo Game Cube), build a roster, and start a full season with the intention of playing all 162-games plus the playoffs.  Despite my annual wave of determination, I don't think I ever made it past game 40 or 50 - by that point, I was always ready to move on to something new.  It was easy to say that I'd battle through an entire video game baseball season but, as I found out year after year, almost impossible for me to do.

Exactly one year ago today, in contrast, I started Caught Looking and wrote my first ever blog post.  Since then, I've posted 120 times (including this one).  I've covered games I've attended in person, things I've watched on TV or read in magazines, books I've read and grumblings I've heard.  I've added video clips, photos (both "stolen" and original), block quotes and hyperlinks.  I've written from my home computer, my old work Blackberry (in South Africa), and my current Android smartphone (most recently while in Los Angeles).  I've been to, and blogged about, sporting events in South Africa, New York, Durham, Los Angeles, the Bay Area and more.  And, most importantly, I've had a great time doing it all and I'm still going strong.

Unlike MVP Baseball seasons past, I have no intention of giving up on Caught Looking, and if anything I'm more committed to the blog than ever.  The response from family and friends has been great, and even people that I hardly know / don't know at all have started to check in regularly.  Just last night I was out with friends when someone's first question to me was "How's your blog going?"  And while I'm very happy that people have been reading (and, I think enjoying) the posts, I get perhaps as much or more satisfaction from just writing them.  Caught Looking  has given me the perfect excuse to log my sports-related experiences, observations and opinions, and I know I'll continue to enjoy looking back on old posts as time goes by and as the sports world continues to change.

All that being said, there's still a part of that video game-playing kid in me who gets bored and needs change every now that then.  Without further ado, (and as promised under my 2011 Blogging Resolutions), welcome to the brand new Caught Looking website!  I'm very proud to unveil the new logo and site layout in time for the blog's one-year anniversay today, and hope you are as pleased with the changes as I am.  While the look and feel may have changed, though, I'm still very committed to continuously posting the kinds of material that has made Caught Looking "famous."  Thank you again to all of you for sticking by me for a year, and please let me know if you have any suggestions for blog improvements.

Rooting for Laundry

As a result of my busy schedule I've fallen a little behind on my consumption of Sports Illustrated, but I used some of my time off this afternoon catching up on the last couple of issues.  While, with the NFL Draft upcoming, professional football has been in the news lately for more than just lockout-related reasons, SI ran a great spread earlier in the month that featured a poll of self-identified NFL "diehards" on their reactions to a possible NFL work stoppage.  The two-page report (which can be found in the "Scorecard" section of the April 11 issue, in case you're interested) contained a bunch of interesting findings, but one statistic in particular caught my eye.

The poll asked the 314 people surveyed, "Will you watch the NFL if replacement players are used in 2011?"  63.1% of NFL diehards answered "yes."  Additionally, the poll asked "If the season is canceled or delayed, what effect would you imagine that having on your future interest in the NFL?"  Here, a surprisingly-low 44.5% of respondents answered that a work stoppage would have "no effect," while 10.7% actually responded with "I'd be more interested."  What does this tell us?  Well, for one, it just emphasizes the fact that football is truly America's sport now, and that nothing the league can do would really seriously damage football's popularity in this country.  The NFL has already successfully overcome countless off-field disciplinary issues (Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress and Donte Stallworth, to name a few) without any permanent damage, and if anything has been made stronger by the related publicity and news coverage.  The SI poll reiterates the notion that not even a labor dispute can stop the ever-powerful NFL train.

Secondly, though, the poll shows us how little specific players really matter, especially in football.  Yes, people love Tom Brady and Payton Manning and Adrian Peterson.  But what matters more than who's wearing the helmet is, in fact, the helmet itself.  Sports in general, and the NFL in particular, have reached the point where we, as fans, are "rooting for laundry."  We'll cheer for whatever players wear our team's uniform, and as players become increasingly mobile, team brands are strengthening while player brands are weakening.  This is true in all sports, but in the NFL it's magnified.  The players are hidden under padding and helmets, so as a Giants fan I'm not really watching Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs and Hakeem Nicks.  I'm watching a bunch of guys in blue helmets and jerseys, and as long as they win, most fans couldn't care less about the names on the backs.

While 63.1% of NFL diehards would watch the NFL play with replacement players, only 57.3% of respondents said they'd watch more college football during a lockout, and only 50.5% would consume more NBA / NCAA basketball action (all other sports came in at less than 50%).  This means that most diehard NFL fans would rather watch replacement players wearing NFL jerseys than spend their time watching the best college players compete on the gridiron or switch over to professional / college basketball.  As the NFL players continue to fight for higher salaries, perhaps they should take a long, hard look at these survey results.  Brady, Manning and Peterson might just be a lot more replaceable than they think.

Meeting My Hero

People are often surprised to hear that I don't really enjoy meeting professional athletes. Over the years I've had some run-ins with famous athletes and never really thought much of it. Sure, I'll always remember the time I rubbed striker Jozy Altidore's shaved head after the USA beat Algeria to advance to the second round of the 2012 World Cup in South Africa. And yes, getting to meet former Knicks stars Nate Robinson and Wilson Chandler (the latter of whom was one of my favorite Knicks at the time) at the 2009 NBA All Star Game in Phoenix was cool, too. Overall, though, star-gazing over professional athletes has never been my thing.

On Tuesday, however, I got to meet one of my all time sports heroes - as part of my Sports Finance class, Oakland Athletics General Manager and Moneyball subject Billy Beane came as a guest speaker.  Before class started, I had the opportunity to introduce myself, talk a little bit about my background at the NBA and my upcoming plans to work for MLB this summer, and mention my career goals to the true Godfather of baseball analytics.  Given my professional and personal interest in combining quantitative analysis and sports, I'm a huge fan of Michael Lewis's Moneyball (how could I not be?), and still remember the time I had a phone conversation with Lewis about his book way back in 2004.  Getting to meet Billy Beane was a much more memorable experience, though.  Not only did we get to have our brief one-on-one chat, but his commentary throughout our 90-minute class section was insightful, pointed and candid.  I had very high expectations for Beane's visit to our classroom, and he completely delivered on all counts.

Perhaps the thing that impressed me most about Beane was the way he was able to capture the attention of the entire classroom.  We've had some pretty prominent speakers in this class, but no one received the respect and admiration that Billy Beane did.  It's not just that he's famous, or that there's been a best-selling book written about him by a famous author, or that Brad Pitt will be playing him in an upcoming Moneyball  movie.  It's that people truly respect Beane as an innovator, and as someone willing to go out a limb and try something different from the rest of the herd.  As I look forward to the next stages of my career, I hope I have the opportunity to take a few risks for the good of a professional team.  Thanks to my meeting with Billy Beane, I know when the time comes I'll have the courage to take a chance.

Life In Sacramento Just Got Worse

Overall, I root for some pretty mediocre teams.  In the four major sports, I've lived to see three world championships: two Giants Super Bowls (and I can't really remember the first one) and one Braves World Series.  Sure, the Braves have made the playoffs and even the Fall Classic a number of times over the past twenty years, but only once did they win the big one.  The Islanders dominant run concluded just before I was born (and they've been absolutely awful pretty much ever since), and while the Knicks have had some memorable moments (and a couple of NBA Finals appearances) that I can remember, they haven't been NBA Champions since well before my time.  Given all of this, sometimes I feel I have a reason to complain about being a Braves, Knicks, Isles and Giants fan.

And then, I watch a video like this one that brings me back to reality.

Yes, it's rough rooting for underperforming teams, but at least I know my teams will still be playing next season no matter what happens during this one.  With the exception of the Isles (who could conceivably move to Kansas City or Canada, or, at the very least, Queens or Brooklyn some day), my teams are among the most stable in sports.  People support the Knicks and Giants no matter how bad they are, and while the Braves' attendance is an issue, the team has relatively stable ownership, a nice stadium and good management.  At the end of each season, no matter how it turns out, I can start to think ahead to the offseason and enjoy the hope that surrounds every "next year."

The same can't be said for Sacramento Kings fans right now.  With it looking increasingly likely that the Kings will move south to Anaheim before the 2011-12 season begins (whenever that will be, given the lockout situation), thousands of dedicated Kings faithful will be left without professional basketball.  The Kings situation isn't getting nearly as much publicity as the Seattle Sonics' did before they left for Oklahoma City, but in many ways the Kings issue is sadder.  At least when the Sonics left, Seattle still had Mariners baseball, Seahawks football, two beautiful and modern sports facilities and even a WNBA team to enjoy.  Sacramento fans will be left without any professional sports (even the WNBA Monarchs folded before last season) and will be forced to stare at the ugly and empty Power Balance Pavilion (apparently what they're calling Arco Arena nowadays . . .) as a reminder of the good ole' days when Sacramento had an NBA team.

I can't say I understand what Kings fans are going through right now, but I definitely feel for them.  Given how much time, passion and hope people pour into their teams, losing one of them must feel like losing a close friend.  I wish Sacramento fans the best.  And hey - if you can figure out a way to get an ice hockey rink into Power Balance Pavilion, you're more than welcome to take my Islanders.

A Fantasy Vacation

I never really understood why girls get on a dieting kick every Spring, right before what they would call "beach season" was set to begin.  These girls come out of Winter hibernation each April and begin an annual ritual of obsessing over their bodies.  Their physical forms are no different in April then they had been in December or the preceeding September, mind you, but because Summer was fast approaching these girls were intent on reworking their diet and exercise routines.  The threat of looking unattractive in a bathing suit is a strong enough motivator to drive these girls into the gym, and I had never been sure why.  While bathing suits do make it easier to judge someone's appearance, the presence of normal clothing doesn't really hide one's form.  Instead, it was as if "beach season" and "Spring weight loss" went hand in hand, and there was no use arguing.

What does this have to do with sports, you ask?  Well, if following Major League Baseball religiously is my diet and exercise routine, then fantasy baseball is my beach season.  While there's no reason that I can't follow every inning of regular season baseball without fantasy sports implications, it's the presence of fantasy baseball in my life so far this April that has kept me glued to my TV, computer and phone like never before.  My fantasy team has been motivating me to check scores, monitor player progress and generally consume a more-than-healthy level of baseball content over the past two weeks since the 2011 MLB season began, and I've definitely become a better fan because of it.

I realize that this is completely irrational on my part.  The usual amount of baseball-watching that I've done in years past is more than enough to stay competitive in our weekly, 11-team league, and I also know that watching baseball on TV or online doesn't change the outcome of the games.  That being said, I just feel better knowing that I'm keeping tabs on league happenings.  Just like how last-minute, pre-beach season workouts usually don't help girls shed extra pounds heading into the Summer, the work I'm putting in now probably won't impact my team's success this season.  It does, however, make me feel better and more confident about myself as a baseball fan (and the self-appointed "MLB whiz"), and for that I'm very grateful.

It's been almost a decade since I last participated in fantasy baseball.  Over the last ten years, I've avoided it in order to focus more on the games themselves, rather than individual player performances.  Or, at least, that's what I had told myself.  Instead, avoiding fantasy baseball kept me further apart from the sport I love most, and I realize now that fantasy baseball can be a wonderful blessing for a true fan.  While it's not clear that following players on your fantasy team will make you a more complete baseball fan, the engagement that competitive fantasy baseball necessitates is enough to boost your Major League Baseball-related IQ and confidence level.

Defense Wins Championships - And Angers Viewers

When people find out that I genuinely enjoy watching NBA basketball, they often immediately launch into an argument against professional hoops.  They wonder with amazement how I can enjoy NBA games, how I can manage to watch lazy, overpaid players jack up deep three pointers and throw down dunks, how I can respect a sport where the star players don't play defense.  I usually argue with them for a bit, putting together a feeble argument about watching the best athletes in the world compete, and then give up.  After all, there's no point in arguing with the NBA-haters; over the last decade, professional hoops had added enough fuel to their fire to keep them going for hours without stopping.

Sometimes, I've even tried to talk myself off of the NBA and towards the college game.  I love Princeton hoops (as I covered here in some detail last month), and it's easy to assume that the history and passion that accompanies Ivy League basketball games extends to all college contests.  When you hear anti-NBA arguments often enough, they almost start to make sense.  The college game focuses on the fundamentals, so it's really a purer form of basketball.  The players play for the love of the game, not for the money.  College hoops is more of a team game; it's not dominated by a few high-priced, big-name stars.

Well, if I needed something to knock some sense back into me and recharge my love for the NBA heading into the playoffs, it was tonight's NCAA National Championship game.  The contest made me want to write letters to Jim Calhoun and Brad Stevens asking for those two hours of my life back.  While defense may win championships, it certainly doesn't make for entertaining basketball.  UConn played ugly, but Butler was abysmal, and the game looked like a two-hour-long middle school girls practice; I saw a lot of shots, but not a whole lot of makes.  Even some of basketball's most basic plays weren't executed properly - there were tons of missed layups, bad passes and dumb fouls.  So much for sound fundamentals.  I can't say that UConn deserved to win that game, but I can confidently argue that Butler deserved to lose it.

This photo sums up tonight's National Championship matchup quite nicely.

Next time you think about blasting the NBA for its lack of defense, remember how painful it was to watch the Huskies and Bulldogs combine for a meager 92 points in a National Championship game.  Next time you want to knock the NBA for letting its stars take all of the shots, think about how many ugly, contested jumpers Kemba Walker attempted tonight.  Next time you're about to claim that the NBA is all about the three-ball, cue up a tape of Butler's offensive possessions from tonight's game and take note of how many productive, fundamentally-sound offensive possessions you see.  While the NBA is far from perfect, let's not pretend that the college game is saving the sport of basketball.  The only way NBA and NCAA basketball truly differs is in the talent level, and there the NBA has college beat by a mile.

Too Bad To Be True

Earlier today, my New York Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch their first playoff berth since 2004.  I was at the gym when I checked the score and heard the news, and I will admit it prompted a little smile and a few brief moments of satisfaction.  After all, it's been brutal to watch the Knicks play over the past couple of seasons, and the playoff appearance will be a lone bright spot in a decade otherwise filled with total futility.  I was glad to see the Knicks put together a solid, complete victory (albeit against the NBA's worst team), and found myself excited to see what will happen come playoff time in two weeks.

Never could I have imagined the reactions of Knicks fans to this not-so-surprising development, however.  After the win, Madison Square Garden was rocking as if the Knicks had just earned a trip to the NBA Finals.  My Facebook news feed was filled with joyful commentary on the victory, with New York-based friends proclaiming their love for the Knicks on their status feeds, and dozens of others "liking" their updates.  While I'm glad to see the enthusiasm, I can't help but wonder how Knicks fans ever got to this point in the first place.

After all, we're talking about the New York Knicks here.  While Springfield, MA may claim to be basketball's official home, any true hoops fan knows that the game is based out of New York City.  And while the Knicks haven't historically been the NBA's most successful franchise, they represent what basketball is all about.  The Knicks have traditionally been, and more importantly should always be, a fixture in the NBA playoff scene, making all of the celebration surrounding a .500 team who had to wait until the regular season's final week to clinch one of the 16 playoff spots a little sad.

True, it's much better than where the Knicks were even last season, floundering at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and waiting for a savior to come to the Garden.  A year later the Knicks are anchored by two young stars, have a few other complementary pieces to build on, and are headed to the postseason.  Never mind the fact that the team seems to have regressed since the Carmelo Anthony trade, or that guys named Anthony Carter, Jared Jeffries and Shelden Williams are getting regular minutes, or that it took a heroic effort by Carmelo to hold off the hapless Nets at home last week.  The Knicks are better than they've been in the last seven years, and that's reason enough to celebrate.

In a way, though, I almost feel worse about how far the Knicks have fallen now that they're back to respectabiity.  Maybe I was able to subconsciously ignore the last few seasons and almost pretend like they never happened, as if my brain forced me to block out the horrible basketball I was watching.  While the Knicks were horrible, they were so bad that I wasn't able to fully process it.  In fact, it was almost funny, with every additional disaster (and there were a lot of them) a different funny joke.  Eddie Curry's out for the season again?  Why not!  The Knicks traded for Steve Francis?  Of course they did!  We used our lottery pick on Michael Sweetney?  Naturally!

Now, though, the playoff berth has forced reality to set in.  All of the pageantry and celebration surrounding the Knicks' "accomplishment" only serves as a reminder that, yes, things really were that bad towards the second half of the 2000s; it wasn't all a bad dream.  While I'm glad to have the Knicks be competitive again, any true Knicks fan shouldn't be flipping out over a dead-average team that clinched a postseason spot in a league where more than half of the teams go to the playoffs every year.  While I know a lot of the buzz comes from fair weather fans who simply tuned out the last half-decade of Knicks basketball, I hope the diehard supporters aren't too pleased with today's news.  The playoffs will be fun, but it won't really be New York basketball again until the Knicks are still competing in June, not just early April.

Making Sense of Cricket

It's no secret that, as an American, my solar system of sports has baseball, football and basketball firmly fixed at its center.  Revolving just around those three is hockey, a truly-Canadian sport which has been adopted by the U.S., and soccer, a sport rapidly growing in popularity here in the States as youth participation rates continue to skyrocket and as the U.S. men's national team continues to improve.  Outside of those, a bit further from my core, are the individual sports with worldwide appeal - golf, tennis, auto racing, etc. - which I admittedly don't pay terribly close attention to most of the year, but which I'll keep tabs on during key competitions such as the Masters, Wimbledon or the Indianapolis 500.

Somewhere at the very outskirts, in rarely-reached portions of my sports galaxy, are the strictly global (read: non-U.S.) sports including cricket, which has become an ESPN newsworthy sport this week because of the Cricket World Cup (see right: the ESPN.com homepage featured a photo from the India vs. Sri Lanka final this morning).  With what I consider the world's most confusing sport infiltrating mainstream American sports media, U.S. sports fans such as myself likely find themselves wondering how they should handle and process this new sports-related information.  Honestly, I'm not sure what the answer is.

On one hand, it's almost too easy to dismiss cricket altogether.  Not only is the sport confusing, but it's (at least on the grand scheme of all sports) fairly similar to baseball, which we already have, already understand and already enjoy (some of us do, anyway).  With this being Opening Weekend in MLB and with tons of great games to watch, why bother trying to process yet another set of players, rules and statistics?  While living in Richmond, VA over the summer of 2003, I learned the basic rules of cricket from my Indian coworkers.  Even after receiving this rudimentary lesson, I find following cricket almost impossible.  I tried to check in on the progress of the India vs. Sri Lanka final earlier this morning, and the "Summary" tab of ESPN's CrickInfo scorecard looked like the image below.  One quick glance, and I went right right back to checking today's MLB pitching probables (Hanson!  Lannon!  It's the Braves and the Nationals on MASN!)

Despite knowing more about Cricket than 99% of Americans, I can't make sense of the Scorecard.

There's a lot more to sports than statistics and rules, however, and some of the world's best sports are known more for the fan response they prompt than for the quality and excitement of the games themselves.  This summer at the World Cup, I learned to appreciate even the most sloppy and "boring" soccer matches by embracing the cultures, energy and passion of the fans.  This week, Cricket is generating a similar buzz among fans across Asia and Europe, and if nothing else that demands the respect of American sports fans.  I have friends here at school who began watching the cricket finals at 2 AM local time last night, and are still watching as the eight-plus-hour-long match rolls on.  While Americans may not understand what exactly is going on, or how a match could last so long, or why the players are wearing collared shirts, if nothing else we must respect and admire cricket for the excitement it is generating across the globe.  If, come October, MLB's World Series can generate even a fraction of the cricket World Cup's passion, we'll be in for a special Fall Classic.

Today, All Is Right In The World

For a diehard baseball fan like myself, there's no day on the sports calendar that can top Major League Baseball's Opening Day.  Every franchise is undefeated, and a win on Opening Day to go to 1-0 (which my Braves got this afternoon at Washington) can put a baseball fan in a great mood heading into April.  The sport's first day gives us some epic pitching matchups in iconic settings - today, I caught parts of Verlander vs. Sabathia in New York and Lincecum vs. Kershaw in Los Angeles, for example.  We also get nationally televised weekday afternoon baseball, which is a rare treat.  As the ESPN promo below (which I think is fantastic) accurately suggests, baseball's first day (or, more accurately, first few days) is special.

All of that being said, MLB's Opening Day isn't perfect.  While the start of baseball should signify the beginning of Spring, MLB insists on having cold weather teams open at home during the sport's first week.  As a result, instead of watching every team play in short sleeves, taking advantage of wonderful weather (like in today's entertaining Giants vs. Dodgers game in L.A.), we had to see the Tigers and Yankees battle freezing-cold temperatures in the Bronx.  The result is not only sloppy baseball, but visibly empty seats.  While watching the Yankees game this afternoon, I noticed that the majority of the high-priced seats behind home plate were empty.  Between the bad weather and the early start, tons of seats at the Stadium were unoccupied, which takes some of the air out of the otherwise high-flying Opening Day balloon.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the first day of 2011 regular season baseball.  I'm also making my triumphant return to fantasy baseball this year (after a nearly decade-long absence), which I'm very excited about.  I had forgotten how fun it is to have something to watch and root for (or against) in virtually every MLB game; while the season is long and individual games can seem meaningless, fantasy baseball is a great way to generate a vested interest in even the most boring matchups.  Thanks to Jered Weaver, I find myself actively following this afternoon's Angels at Royals contest, and had fun doing it.

Soon enough, as the calendar turns into April, the novelty of the 2011 season will wear off and we'll officially begin the wonderfully-long six month grind that is the Major League Baseball regular season.  This week, though, everything is new and exciting.  Each of the first few games means some starting pitcher's first appearance of the year, or a middle reliever's first trot out of the bullpen, or a bench player's first pinch hit opportunity.  The optimism surrounding those "firsts" is what makes Opening Day so special.  Enjoy it while you can, and happy Opening Day.