Blustery

Hopefully you all had a wonderful Easter. As I mentioned, I spent much of the weekend at Midway. Due to my being a guest at other places, or having too many guests at my house, I haven’t slept in my own bed since Thursday, which was also the last time I didn’t sleep fully clothed. I’m a little groggy.

ITEM ONE: It’s tough to make any sweeping generalizations about the season after one week. A lot of the issues players and teams are experiencing could be written off as working out the kinks, getting rid of the rust, etc. The real story to take from week one of the baseball season is the weather, something I am sort of an expert on. After games in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland were postponed due to cold weather and snow in Cleveland’s case, there have been murmurs of creating new schedules in order to prevent things like this from happening, but I’m going to have to call shenanigans. The cold we saw this week isn’t as common as some pundits would have you believe. The average temperatures in these cities for this time of year is in the 50s and 60s, much as it is in October when postponing games based on temperature would be unspeakable. The idea that we would reschedule games in the off chance that it gets cold in April is, meteorologically speaking, as silly as saying that we should reschedule May games in Texas on the off chance there is a tornado. Another fact ignored in this hullaballoo is that this week it snowed in Atlanta and Texas as well. Really, the only way to evade quirky Spring weather is to shorten the season or not allow outdoor baseball at all.

ITEM TWO: Hockey Playoffs start this week. Whee! Here’s my take on the opening round.
EAST: Islanders vs Sabres: This could go 7 games as the Isles are riding momentum and the Sabres have been coasting since about November.
Lightning vs Devils: The Devils swapped out coaches at the end of the year, which is worrisome. For the second round. Equal offensively, the Devs have the upper hand in net and on the blue line.
Rangers vs Thrashers: We’ll get to see a lot of this series on NBC, mostly because it’s the Rangers. I’m excited to watch the Thrashers, because they have some smooth young skaters who don’t get nearly enough attention.
Senators vs Penguins: The Pens have a scary set of young guns that seem ready to sweep a perennially underachieving squad that is lacking defense this year.
WEST: Flames vs Red Wings: There are a couple of things working in Calgary’s favor. Not much separates the top from the bottom in the West, the Red Wings are creaky, and they Flames have more recent Finals experience. Should be a great series.
Wild vs Ducks: The Wild have been unstoppable when all of their offensive parts are there. As is evidenced by their 7 seed, those parts haven’t always been there. Look for an opening round upset and Niklas Backstrom to become a celebrity.
Stars vs Canucks: I can’t put my finger on what makes this such an ugly series for me. The Stars have been slippery for years, but they face a tough stopper in Roberto Luongo. I see this series being short, but I don’t know who will win.
Sharks vs Predators: If the Predators can keep San Jose’s top line in check, and I think they can, they shouldn’t have any problem in this series. Otherwise, expect scores to be very high.

ITEM THREE: The constant musical chairs of college coaches this offseason is somehow fascinating to me. A couple of lineages: Minnesota terminates coach Dan Monson (who eventually goes to Long Beach State (Which is funny, given the style of basketball he coaches and the style LBSU plays. (His kids went to my high school!) (Quadruple parenthesees!)))), Minnesota hires Tubby Smith from Kentucky, Kentucky hires Billy Gillespie from Texas A&M, Texas A&M hires Wichita State coach Mike Turgeon. Others: New Mexico hires Iowa’s Steve Alford, Iowa hires Butler’s Todd Lickliter. Michigan fires Tommy Amaker, hires West Virginia’s Jim Beilein and West Virginia hires Kansas State’s Bob Huggins. This amuses me terribly. Not as much as Larry Eustachy getting another job, however, let alone a renewed contract.

Only three, albeit long, items this week. Keep it real.