MLB Baseball started, College Basketball is ending and the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. Here are reactions to that and more.

The True sports fans:

I grew up on baseball. I loved it. I would listen to games on the radio while playing dice baseball. Even though I gave up the sport at an early age (I once struck out in t-ball but that is a story for another day), I still loved watching and following it. I have many great memories of going to games with my dad. My buddies and I still travel to different stadiums although we do it less and less because we are all busy and have kids now. But I have been to 20 different MLB ballparks which is pretty strong. This gives me an idea for the top 10 next week. Anyway, I lost some interest after the strike in 94. The Royals went through a pretty dark 20 years of sucking from 94 to 2014 so that didn’t help my fandom. And now, I am honestly too busy to follow 162 games a year. But for those that do…you are the truest of the true sports fans. Being a die hard NFL fan is easy. You just have to watch on Sundays and the occasional Monday or Thursday. But I know people who check the box score of their favorite baseball team every day. Cardinal fans claim to be the best baseball fans which I highly dispute. The truest of the truest are those that check the box score of their terrible last place baseball team 162 days a year. You know who you are and we see you. We aren’t going to be you but we see you.

Opening day and the Royals are eliminated from the Playoffs:

Okay, not really but yesterdays performance was about as Royals as it gets. They had all this excitement. New Manager, bringing back the original powder blue uniforms, Salvy becomes the 4th captain in franchise history, Frank White throws out the first pitch and what do the Royals do? They lay and egg and lose 2-0. Classic Royals taking away your hope as quickly as possible. Maybe I am wrong. They had a pretty good spring but I think this team is still a long ways away from being good. 70-92 is my predicted record and we are basically already out of it before it started.

The Madness of March Madness:

The Final Four is tomorrow featuring FAU, San Diego State, UConn and Miami just like we all predicted. We did a family tournament challenge made up of myself, my wife, my two kids, my two siblings, my brother and sister in law and two of their kids. Out of 10 brackets, only my 10 year old daughter has a team in the final four with UConn. None of us are college basketball experts. My brother in law probably follows it the closest because he is a Duke fan. But just the odds of this happening are slim. Danielle picked all chalk and went 0-4 for her final four. In fact none of the top seeds even made it to the elite eight. This was the maddest of the march madness. I am sure things will be back to normal next year but what a crazy tournament. Savannah has UConn winning it all, so she still has a chance to have the champion. But she is the rarity. I am sure we are not alone but I don’t remember a more top to bottom tournament where no one, two or three seed made the final four.

NBA Playoffs are next:

The NBA Playoffs are right around the corner so there won’t be a shortage of meaningful basketball. However, have you noticed how many teams make the playoffs now? 20 freaking teams, that is how many. There are only 30 teams in the whole league. I mean if you don’t make the playoffs you really suck. The regular season is basically worthless. No wonder guys don’t play defense and sit out games. There is no reason to play until the playoffs. You have to play just enough to make it in the top 20? How hard is that. Anyway, in case you are like me, and don’t really have a team, here are 3 teams to cheer for in both the East and the West.

Milwaukee Bucks: My 14 year old son is a Bucks fan. Apparently he only cheers for teams in Wisconsin now. He is the moodiest of the moody teenagers lately. It would be nice for that mood swing to swing positively occasionally and the Bucks winning would help that. So for the sake of Danielle and I’s sanity, please cheer for the Bucks.

Atlanta Hawks: uh, win with Quin. Duh! Go Hawks!

Toronto Raptors: O.G. Anunoby plays for them. He is from Jefferson City. My buddy, Jordan was his coach. I occasionally played basketball with him at the Y. He was real good. I was really not. But it was fun and I can say I played ball against an NBA player. Anyway, O.G. is a good kid so cheer for the Raptors.

Denver Nuggets: The Chiefs have beaten the Broncos 15 times in a row. Come on, we can give them this.

Golden State Warriors: Everyone hates them. Join me on the dark side. Go against the grain. Plus when they are playing well they are really fun to watch. Also, speaking of the Warriors I don’t think I have ever seen a more bizarre home/away record. They are 31-8 at home and 9-29 on the road. Unbelievable. Unfortunately for the Warriors, not all the playoff games will be at home.

Los Angeles Lakers: Just kidding. Screw the Lakers, they always win and LeBron is lame.

Sacramento Kings: They used to be in Kansas City until I was like 5. They played at Kemper. Everyone loves Kemper. Plus they haven’t made the playoffs in 16 years. two thirds of the league make the playoffs and they couldn’t make the cut for 16 years. I can’t name a single player on their team but go Kings.

There you go…now you can care about the NBA. You’re welcome.

Lamar Jackson’s Problem:

Lamar wanted to get paid fairly and he is not. This is absolutely true. The Ravens say they want to keep him but don’t want to give him a ton of guaranteed money which also makes sense. There is lots of blame being thrown around. Some are blaming the Browns and Massage boy for having a deal that guarantees everything. Richard Sherman tried to blame Mahomes for signing such a team friendly deal so he can win a lot. But the real issue is something no one wants to talk about. Lamar is not that good and has a short shelf life. The way he plays leads to injuries. He can’t throw accurately down field. He is a unique talent but not a sustainable one. The Ravens basically built their whole offense around him. So the Ravens are hosed if he leaves. But no one else thinks they can just plug and play with Lamar in their offense. So Lamar is hosed as well. During his MVP year, everyone was saying that the Ravens were changing football forever. But instead, the Ravens haven’t accomplished much since and Lamar has been injury prone. I feel bad for Lamar, I really do. But the bottom line is that the Ravens are the best place for him and no one else wants him. The press is saying he is a top 10 quarterback but the press say a lot of dumb things like the Chiefs can’t win without Tyreek. The league has spoken. It’s time to work out a deal with the Ravens. Unfortunately now he is in real trouble. He has dug his heels in so to speak, demanded a trade and will probably sit out Deshaun Watson style minus all the creepy massages.

Tune in next week for the top 10 baseball stadiums I have visited.