March 30th update

Dodgers sold to L.A. legend

• The LA Dodgers were sold on Wednesday for a mind boggling amount of $2 billion. This is almost 250% more than the previous high for a baseball team (the Cubs were sold in 2009 for just over $800 million) and almost double the previous high paid for any American sports franchise (the $1.1B paid by Stephen Ross for the Miami Dolphins). However, the headline of the purchase may be that one of main owners is former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson.
• The new owners are a group called the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group and made up of Johnson, the CEO of the Mandalay Entertainment Group, the president of the Guggenheim Partners and Stan Kasten, the former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals.
• Kasten stands to be the head “baseball” man in the group, but Johnson says he will be deeply involved with the day-to-day operations of the team. He is particularly interested in helping the players develop both on and off the field. Dodgers players on the other hand, are interested in beating their new owner on the court.


Final 4 Preview

• The Final 4 is upon us, and on Saturday the games will commence. Kentucky's fantastic young squad will take on the other big program in the state of Kentucky and their own former coach in Louisville and Rick Pitino. Pitino, who was considered to be a finalist to make it into the basketball hall of fame, apparently will not be inducted this year.
• The second game will feature two #2 seeds in Ohio State and Kansas. Ohio State has endured a bumpy season in basketball and even moreso in football but they could make it a banner year with 2 more wins. Kansas has had 2 assistant coaches take on new head coaching jobs already (although they will stay on for the Final 4) although that's not as damaging as the news Kansas' Elite 8 foe North Carolina heard this week.
• Kentucky is considered the prohibitive favorite to win it all but they still have a tough road ahead. After the games on Saturday, the National Championship game will take place on Monday night.

March 16th update

First full day of NCAA relatively tame

• The first full day of the NCAA tournament was exciting, but not as thrilling as the tournament has been in the past, with only a couple upsets. The most notable result was #12 seed VCU downing #5 seed Wichita State 62-59, but even that one wasn't too shocking given that VCU went to the the Final Four just last season as an 11 seed. Bradford Burgess, who sent the Rams to the Elite 8 last year with his last second shot to beat Florida State, was the hero again, making a late 3 that proved to be the final margin.
• The most controversial game of the day was Syracuse's tainted victory over lowly UNC-Asheville. Syracuse, a 1 seed, was expected to destroy Asheville but was instead in a dogfight, leading by only 2-3 points for much of the final few minutes. What made it even worse is that Syracuse seemed to benefit from some awful officiating calls, including a phantom goaltending call, a lane violation that gave the Orange 2 points, and an out of bounds call against UNC-A when none of their players was remotely close to touching the ball. Without those plays, UNC-A, may have become the first 16 ever to defeat a 1 seed. The road doesn't get any easier for Syracuse who is without Fab Melo, one of their best players, who was suspended for the tournament due to academic reasons.
• 16 more games take place today so get ready for more action!


NBA trade deadline passes with flurry

• There was lots of movement at the trade deadline, although Dwight Howard (who will be with the Magic for another year and a half because he signed a waiver saying that he would choose not to become a free agent this summer), Steve Nash and others are still on their old teams.
• Monta Ellis, one of the top scorers in the NBA was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for former #1 overall pick Andrew Bogut, who has been hurt for most of the year.
• Brazilians were on the move as big man Nene was dealt to the Washington Wizards in a 3 team deal that brought the physical but error-prone Javale McGee to the Denver Nuggets and lightning quick Leandro Barbosa was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Indiana Pacers.
• The Portland Trail Blazers, who lost to the Knicks by 42 Wednesday night, are giving up on this season seemingly, trading starting Center Marcus Camby to the Rockets and starting Small Forward Gerald Wallace to the Nets for draft picks and young players. The Blazers also waived disappointing former #1 overall pick Greg Oden who is injured again and has only played a total of 82 games in the 4 1/2 years he's been in the NBA.
• Derek Fisher's second Lakers stint ended, as he was dealt to the Cavaliers with Luke Walton and Jason Kapono for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga.


NFL Free Agency begins

• The NFL offseason has begun and lots of players have new homes already (although Peyton Manning isn't one of them yet).
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made the biggest splash so far, signing the best WR (Vincent Jackson) the best offensive lineman (Carl Nicks) and arguably the best CB (Eric Wright) available to long term contracts that were not cheap.
• Former #1 overall pick Mario Williams left the Houston Texans for the Buffalo Bills, CB Cortland Finnegan left the Titans for the St. Louis Rams and RB Peyton Hillis signed with the Kansas City Chiefs where he is expected to form a deadly 1-2 punch with Jamaal Charles.
• Lots of other players, including Drew Brees, Ray Rice, DeSean Jackson, Wes Welker, Matt Forte, Dwayne Bowe and Reggie Wayne will return to their previous teams.