Not Mad About March Madness

The Fan is a baseball fan. Football is fun to watch in its season and golf is enjoyable to watch if you like that sort of thing. But baseball is this Fan's game as is somewhat obvious. What is less obvious is that the Fan will really be happy when "March Madness" is put in its straitjacket and sent home for the season.

Don't get the Fan wrong. There is no put down here for those of you who enjoy the annual college hoop tournament. But the dang thing just takes over everything. It eats up 45 of the 60 minutes on ESPN's SportCenter. It is front page news on all the major sports sites. And worst of all, it seriously messes up programming on CBS. The wonderful wife of the Fan is NOT happy.

The Fan used to enjoy basketball. Growing up in New Jersey, the Knicks were the team and we used to keep score of every game. Phil Jackson was a player on those teams. That's how long ago THAT was. And there were two glorious seasons were Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBussure (how the heck did he spell his name?), Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe made for the greatest show on the court. Actually, Monroe was a part of the second great season but not the first. Can't remember the first guard. But he was the basketball equivalent of Mickey Rivers.

Anyway, those days were fun. But then the NBA became a game of dunking and traveling that was never called and pushing and shoving that is never called and the fun went out of it.

Actually, the Fan was never a fan of ANY college sport. Call it a character flaw if you will, but all that rah rah stuff just felt cheesy and just never resonated for this Fan. There are millions who disagree and that's all fine and good, but this is a democracy right? Well, actually it isn't but this isn't a political blog, so we'll leave that there and dangling.

So no longer a Fan of basketball and never a Fan of college sports, March Madness is an irritation that lingers for two weeks until the darn event is finally over and baseball can take over as it rightly belongs.

Don't even get the Fan started on other sports. Hockey and Soccer are tedious for the Fan. The puck or the soccer ball goes back and forth for a couple of hours and you may have three or four total scores and the stupid games can end up in a tie. At least tennis has cute little gals in short skorts running around and grunting. That's always a good thing. But not really the Fan's bag.

No. Baseball is the game. It's the only sport that brings this kind of passion. Many think it's boring. Many think its time has passed. But it's enduring and relentless and bigger than all the A-Rods and steroid stories. It's the only sport that has the ability to coax 150+ posts out of the Fan in less than three months.

March Madness? Let the Fan know when its over and then it will be March Gladness.