* Oh man...I came back from an important party last night and turned on ESPN and for the first ten minutes, I couldn't get any news other than the babble going on about the Final Four. I mean, who cares about the Final Four! And if there is anything more annoying than Dick Vitale's enthusiasm, I don't know what it is. Anyway, the scrolling news is going on below and I hate watching that. Am I the only one who does? It takes forever and if you look away, you miss the one game you were looking for and have to go through the entire thing again...which is another reason to hurry up and get the NBA and NHL schedules over. Enough already. I'm getting to the point--I promise.

So I'm reading that annoying scrolling news (I missed the Yankee score twice going through) and then I see the devastating news: "Ken Griffey dislocates shoulder - out indefinitely." How very sad. The man has missed most of the last two seasons. His time as one of the greatest players of all time is running out. He works incredibly hard to make it back and seems poised for a monster season: a season to put Cincinnati critics and boo-birds to shame. And then it happens: he runs, he dives, he hyperextends himself and is on the ground in a heap of pain. It's terribly sad for him, for his team and for us as fans.

The loss for us fans is not too dissimilar to the Beatles breaking up or Elvis going into the army. At the height of talent's capability and career, the talent is gone and we are robbed of something exciting that can't be replaced by anything else. Who knows, perhaps Griffey can come back one more time and be brilliant again. But the chances become slimmer and slimmer each time he gets hurt. Those that doubt how talented this man is and the treasure his talent is to baseball isn't a true fan at all.



* The Flagrant Fan is finding it hard not to smile at the Braves early tough start. With Maddux struggling (he looked like he was throwing up balloons last night), and no Glavine and Millwood behind him, the Braves are in serious trouble and could finish last in this division.

* The other team in as much trouble is the Diamondbacks. I don't understand how the team's batting could be worse and you wonder how their GM let it happen. This used to be a great and balanced team. It looks old and feeble at this point.

* This time changing is for the birds. They should "spring ahead" the time on a weekday when we want those work days to go faster. To have one of our few days off to go faster is depressing! Plus, there are no games on today until ESPN's night game. How did that happen? Well at least the time change brings us faster to ESPN's Sunday version of Baseball Tonight at 7. It's a great version of the show since there is usually only one night game on Sundays and you get a lot of highlights and insight.

* Speaking of Baseball Tonight, Karl Ravich is that show. The show suffers tremendously when he is not anchoring the cast. Gammons and Harold Reynolds are the best with Ravich, but at least when they are not there, you still have good quality (I hated Valentine as a player, manager and now as a commentator). But you lose Ravich and it's vanilla. When the Chris Berman steps in though, it's magic as there is no better highlight guy in history.