Tropicana Field Home Of The Rays

I had a chance to catch some of the Yankee vs Rays game this past Sunday from Tropicana Field in wonderful Tampa Florida. I am not being facetious when I say "wonderful" Tampa because I have been there and it is very nice. Warm weather, beaches, good restaurants and of course great cigars. However, every time I tune in to a Rays home game I see them playing in a lousy dome. I hate domes for sports unless it is a retractable dome like the Seattle Mariners have for baseball. Anyway, why the hell do they play in a dome? The weather is great in Tampa! This is just plain freakin' stupid! In fact Michael Kay of the Yankee's YES Network lead off the broadcast with it's sunny and 75 degrees here in Tampa and we are playing in the Trop. What a joke! Speaking of jokes, during the game Evan Longoria hit a pop up to the infield that hit the upper catwalk of this dump of a dome and landed in fair territory. Now you are probably asking yourself, "I wonder if they have to play it off the catwalk or is it a dead ball?" The answer is the ball is in fair play and anything goes if it hits the upper catwalks. When I was 10 years old we played whiffle ball in the back yard and the ball was playable off our big maple tree. In fact in the playoffs two years ago BJ Upton hit one of the lower rings and they gave him a home run. Yes, you read that right, a home run! This dump is like a stinking pinball machine. They should sit fans up high to hit flipper buttons. Of course, the ground rules are laid out to both teams by the umpires at the beginning of the game. However, its time the Rays get a new stadium possibly with a retractable dome so all of the New York transplants can cheer for the Yankees. I do know that the city of Tampa does not want to foot the bill for a new stadium. They must think that there are usually more Yankee fans in the stands than Rays fans so why should we build it. I guess this statement should really sum it all up. A dump of a dome to play in, no new stadium in sight and the Yankees have more fans in Tampa than the Rays. Maybe it's time to move because the neighborhood is going bad. As I sit here I keep thinking to myself that it would be a shame if they moved because the Yankees would lose 16 semi home games from their schedule.

NCAA Basketball Tournament

The news is out and it's not a big surprise. The greedy people at the NCAA are going to destroy the sacred basketball tournament for the sake of a few dollars or should I say a ton of dollars. The NCAA announced that they are very close to expanding to 96 teams. They claim its not set in stone yet but they even have a new bracket drawn up. This new bracket looks one of Einsteins theorems. The NCAA claims that the tournament will last the same amount of time as the current tournament which will be made to happen by giving 32 teams a first round bye. BOY, that really makes me wanna watch the first round of brick layers run up and down the court. Can you imagine a number 90 seed playing the number 35 seed? What a dumper of a game.

Of course, the addition of more teams pretty much kills the long standing NIT Tournament. The NIT was started in 1938 and has seen many great players such as Walt Frazier, Lenny Wilkins, Ralph Sampson and Reggie Miller play in its games. Over the past few years, the NIT has been relegated to a 2nd chance tournament for the teams that don't make the NCAA Tourney. It's rich history is being cast aside for the almighty dollar. That really stinks.

The bottom line is the NCAA is going to ruin the tournament much as it has with all of the football bowl games. Teams that have no business moving on to "post season" play will be doing just that. I say keep it the same of just expand it by 12 more teams. With the expansion on the horizon, I can only think about how screwed up my bracket will be next year. It will take me a week to figure out who I want to pick.