— Major League Baseball needs to promote itself better; here’s an idea:
Someone runs a 12-team (or 14) fantasy league, with celebrities as team owners; the draft would be live on MLB Network during spring training, probably via Zoom.
Then, during the season, a weekly Hard Knocks-type show would air, with trade negotiations and owners discussing their teams, and other projects they’re working on.
People like watching celebrities; find 12 of them who like baseball and like to gamble some, and just like that, you have an interesting TV show.
Each celebrity would be playing for a charity of their choice. Who would the celebrities be?
You’d need a cross-section of younger/older celebs…….MLB Network doesn’t work very hard promoting the sport; the fantasy league would be a big upgrade to their current programming.
— Cleveland Guardians have their home opener April 8th; problem is, there is going to be a total solar eclipse that day, an event that hasn’t happened in northeast Ohio since 1806 and won’t again until 2444.
Because of the eclipse, the Guardians-White Sox game will start at 5:10, moving it back an hour- the eclipse is supposed to be at its peak from 3:13-3:17.
Officials are saying 200,000+ visitors will be coming to the area to witness the eclipse; most schools in the area will be closed that day.
The Guardians should be creative and get Bonnie Tyler to sing the national anthem; she sang Total Eclipse of the Heart, a big hit back in the 80’s.
— Virginia Tech 75, Virginia 41
Awful game; Hokies led 36-16 at halftime.
Virginia shot 32.7% from the floor.
Tech had lost four of last five games, before this one.
— Texas 62, K-State 56
Longhorns had only one player in double figures (Disu, 20 points)
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 8-38 on the arc.
K-State has lost seven of its last eight games.
— Houston 73, Iowa State 65
Cougars never trailed; they led 28-23 at halftime
Houston was 24-32 on foul line; Iowa State was 10-15
Cyclones were 9-17 on arc, only shot 36.8% inside arc.
— Nebraska Cornhuskers are 8-0 SU at home in Big 14 games, 0-7 on the road; the home team is 14-1 ATS in their conference games.
— Pitt Panthers won seven of their last eight games, covering all eight.
— Arizona Wildcats’ basketball coach Tommy Lloyd signed a 5-year contract extension that will keep him with the Wildcats until at least 2029; he will earn around $5.5M/year.
— Baseball Notes of the Day:
Red Sox signed P Liam Hendriks for two years, $10M; he will miss most of this season with an injury.
Arizona Diamondbacks signed OF Randal Grichuk for one year, $2M.
Cubs signed OF David Peralta, 1B Dom Smith to minor league deals.
Mets signed DH Luke Voit to a minor league deal.
— Word of the Day: Fraud- wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.
— Brooklyn Nets are 21-33 this year; they fired coach Jacque Vaughn Monday, hired Kevin Ollie as interim coach- he won a national title at UConn ten years ago.
— As of right now, only nine NFL teams have the same two coordinators they had this past season; 14 teams have a new offensive coordinator, 16 have a new DC.
— QB Jimmy Garoppolo is suspended for the first two games next season; for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy. Las Vegas Raiders are expected to release Garoppolo in mid-March; his $11.25M salary for next year could be voided because of this.
— I’m not sure why, but flag football is going to be a sport in the 2028 Olympics.
— There should be a rule; each writer on the Interweb is allowed only one mock NFL draft; you do more than one, you’re just making stuff up to create content.
— John Grisham is a great writer; seven of his books have been turned into movies. Most of his work deals with lawyers and the legal profession.
These days, Grisham probably just sits on his couch with a legal pad, watching MSNBC and taking notes for his next book. Real life is stranger than fiction.
— Happy 67th birthday to the great pitcher Dave Stewart, who went 84-45 for the A’s in a 4-year span, from 1987-90, a period when the A’s won three AL titles.
