There’s nothing more satisfying than waking up in the morning and picking up the paper and reading Life, Love… Sport (April Madness Edition). The college basketball season finally came to a close, and we had a deserving winner, and, most fittingly, a deserving loser. More on that later. Also, in professional ball-tossing (baseball), the Detroit Tigers have started a startling 0-7. Will I talk a bit more about it? Probably, stay tuned. Also, today there will be an update on the official EPL team of the LLS, the Everton FC Toffees. Incidentally, I happen to love toffees.
The biggest news story coming out of the week has to be the championship finale of NCAA March Madness. For the past several weeks we’ve been hearing about how Memphis will make its free throws when it counts. Well it counted on Monday night, and I counted a 25 percent success rate with free throws in the final minute. That’s just not acceptable. Here’s to hoping that Calipari will devote at least 10 minutes every practice from now on just on getting points from the charity stripe.
On the other hand, Kansas came up huge when it counted, mostly through Mario Chalmers. He nailed a crazy shot in the final seconds to send the game to overtime and basically kill the hopes of the Memphis Tigers. Now, Bill Self is apparently weighing an offer from Oklahoma State, his alma mater. Let’s clear a few things up first. Oklahoma State will never achieve the basketball tradition that the University of Kansas has. The recruits might be intrigued by the offer of playing for Self, but, in the end, most all of them will end up in Kansas if they have a chance.
Just because he’s going to be making an extreme amount of money, rumored to be around $4 million a year plus a $6 million signing bonus, that doesn’t mean that Self should leave the team he’s built. On the other hand, who can turn down that kind of offer? If he really needs the money, I say go for it. Just know that you’re always going to be looking up at Kansas in the standings, where it counts the most.
Now back to baseball. It’s been too long since we’ve discussed any topics in the LLS related to baseball. It has come to my attention that the Detroit Tigers have become the only team in the MLB to start the season without a win. This comes as little surprise to me because I predicted this. The trade for Cabrera and Willis have been hailed as a breakthrough for the team, but check out this information before you score it a success.
Willis has been slightly better than mediocre with only two good years on his resum. So getting him and expecting him to pitch with a sub-3.00 ERA when he couldn’t contain the Washington Nationals last year isn’t the smartest move. And Cabrera has been known to be a fat load that has the work ethic of a dead cow. Also, last summer, I worked at a golf course with a nephew of the owner of the Florida Marlins and he told me that Cabrera was totally into voodoo. How weird is that? Weird enough to be mentioned here.
Now moving on to the world of soccer. The official team of the LLS is slipping. Everton FC is now fifth in the standings and is close to missing out on Champions League action next season. Let’s all pray to the patron saint of the LLS, Kaley Cuoco, to help the team get over the hump and make the cut. The team’s next match is against Birmingham City with a chance to tie Liverpool for fourth place and an automatic spot on the Champions League roster.
Also, a word about Euro 2008: the motherland (Russia) has finally made an appearance on the European soil after a lengthy absence. The round-robin group is composed of Greece, Sweden and Spain – quite the tough group. However, there is still a good chance that it could advance to the second round and make a nation of drunks and mafia members very proud.
Final Fact:
The record for the most major league baseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.
Maystrovsky’s column appears weekly. Maystrovsky is a member of the class of 2009.
