Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for March 30, 2011 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* Happy "New Year's Eve." Baseball season begins tomorrow.
* Jason Giambi and two other players testify that Barry Bonds' trainer supplied them with steroids.
* LeBron James returns to Cleveland again, and this time the last place Cavaliers beat his Heat team 102-90.
* U-Conn and Texas A&M join Notre Dame and Stanford in the women's Final Four.
* The CEO of the Fiesta Bowl, John Junker, has been fired for financial irregularities.
2. Opening Day
Winter is officially over. Baseball season is here, starting tomorrow.They've moved it up to March 31st in order to get the October classic finished before November. 50 years ago, the World Series ended October 9th when the Yankees beat the Reds in 5. That was some season, 1961. Many argue that it featured the greatest Yankee team of them all, although none of us saw the 1927 Murderers Row team. It was also the summer that Roger and Mickey carried on their epic home run battle. Each morning would bring news of Mantle or Maris hitting a homer or two the night before. Yup, we often heard about it the next morning in the days before ESPN and iPads. And of course Roger hitting 61 looks better and better as the years roll by. If I sound like I'm waxing poetic for the "good old days" maybe I am. But I'm still excited about opening day a half century later. It's still a great game no matter who tries to kill it.
3. Just Curious?
Major League Baseball has joined the effort to deal with head injuries. They've created a seven-day disabled list just for concussions. Justin Morneau of the Twins and Jason Bay of the Mets missed significant time last season with concussions. The minimum disabled list stay had always been 15 days. So now with a new seven day list, you don't suppose if a player is slightly injured, and a team wants to bring in a temporary replacement, they can pretend that the injured player has a concussion so he only has to sit out seven days? Nah. Baseball people are fine upstanding sportsmen.
4. Lights... Camera
Yesterday I asked you for some titles for the Cameron Diaz romantic baseball comedy starring Alex Rodriguez which may or may not ever be filmed.
* From subscriber S.N., On Golden Blonde.
* M.T.: There's Something About Roidy.
*(On the same theme) M.K.: The Un-Natural.
* M.G. on Twitter had a good one: Yankee Doodles Dandy.
* Here's mine: Bride of the Yankees.
5. Hooray for Hollywood
Of course if A-Rod makes his screen debut, it could be in a musical... like the Babe.
(Thanks to subscriber Lou C.)
Uh, maybe not.
Happy Birthday: Voted in 1996 as one of the NBA's 50 greatest players. Former Knicks champion Jerry Lucas. 71.
Bonus Birthday: Singer Celine Dion. 43.
Today in Sports: Perhaps the greatest race horse of them all was born on this date, 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat (featured in my New York Times best selling book The Greatest Moments in Sports).
1970.
Bonus Event: You can see Russia from here. The U.S. buys Alaska for $7.2 million. 1867.
Second chance! Here's my Top 5 mini contest for the Final Four. Predict the winner of the championship game, and the school they will beat. And for the tiebreaker, the final score. (Yes, the 2011 men's tournament and Division I for all you nitpickers, and you know who you are.) Enter here.
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