The Water Cooler: March 10, 2010
By Bontã Hill
The Guardsman
The wonderful month of March is here and flowers seem to be blooming faster than Greg Zeman’s rough beard.
Two things make this month special — March Madness and the return of Major League Baseball.
I might be more excited for fantasy baseball as opposed to getting psyched about the 2010 San Francisco Giants. Sorry that I’m not feeling gung-ho about the signings of Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa to this season’s club.
The pitching remains solid, but what did the Giants do to improve the pitiful offense from last season? Not much, but the good thing to remember is when have the Giants ever looked good on paper?
The answer is not often. Yet in a division that’s so unpredictable, who knows, maybe the Giants will make some noise and sneak into the playoffs.
I have the rest of semester to break down this year’s team, so let’s switch gears and talk about possibly the most exciting sporting event of the year, the NCAA Tournament.
In a event that has the office geeks scrambling for brackets to fill out, there is nothing like the excitement these three weeks provide.
With Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse being the favorites coming in, this year’s tournament looks to be as unpredictable as ever. I’ll refrain from any predictions for the time being but I’m leaning towards the Wildcats from the Bluegrass State.
With Giants baseball, March Madness, and the NFL’s start of the free agency period with no salary cap, March is looking like a month that will provide plenty of excitement and sunshine.
Idiot of the Week
I have to go with Jay McGwire, the younger brother of steroid using, home run bashing Mark McGwire. What a punk this guy Jay is.
As the elder McGwire admitted to using in his playing days, the newly appointed hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals must’ve been shocked when he got word his bro was writing a book about him.
Jay’s book, “Mark and Me: Mark McGwire and the Truth Behind Baseball’s Worst-Kept Secret,” is out on bookshelves and chronicles when he introduced his older brother to steroids.
Family and blood is obviously not thicker than money when it comes to the McGwire’s. Welcome Jay to the I.D.H.O.F., you gutless human being.
Miscellaneous
The Winter Olympics are over and I failed to mention anything about them. Sorry, but I did watch the U.S. and Canada gold medal hockey game.
Great drama and excitement, but it ended in heartbreak for the red, white and blue. If you don’t know, Canada won in overtime 3-2 as star Sidney Crosby (who I thought was American with the way this country hypes him) scored the game winner to further enhance his legend status in Canada.
Also, I want to end this column by giving a shot out to men’s basketball team manager Mario Gomez. Reason being, he came into this season with a goal of dropping his weight down to 205 pounds and dropped over 30 pounds to reach it.
To one of the loyal Ram supporters, big ups to Mario for working hard and getting the job done.