RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
The Olympic torch passed through San Francisco in its lone North American stop, but only after the route was switched to avoid protesters and, alas, also those wishing to cheer. Here's a money-saving idea: From now on, keep the torch relay so clandestine that nobody actually sees the stealth torch, allowing organizers to not actually have a torch run but say they did.
RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
North Carolina-Kansas and Memphis-UCLA made for a heavyweight Final Four on Saturday night in San Antonio -- one guaranteed to produce a great Monday night championship no matter the semifinal winners.
Here's a confession a long time coming. I think I'm turning around on this whole March Madness thing. I think all it took was the greatest Final Four matchup ever.
Dan Uggla blasted a two-run shot over the left-field wall that had him and baserunner Hanley Ramirez on the move early in Tuesday night's game, and for that instant, the Marlins' two best hitters were heading for home.
The Marlins open the baseball season by sending Mark Hendrickson and now Rick VandenHurk to the mound to face Mets stars Johan Santana and now Pedro Martinez. Clearly, Florida dominates both pitching matchups in terms of most letters in the last names.
RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
We're not very serious very often here in Randomville, but let's start off that way today with the international tennis community hunkered here for the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscyane.
The Florida Panthers are not yet mathematically eliminated from the NHL playoff chase. It is ample reason to question the entire concept and veracity of math.
Maybe it's just me. I might be a jingoist, or simply a step (or three) behind the grand notion of globalization. But I'm thinking that a lifelong Oakland A's baseball fan should not have to set the alarm for 3 a.m. in order to watch on TV as his team opens the 2008 regular season with a ''home game'' a world away in the Tokyo Dome.
IN MY OPINION
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The easy way to file away this result would be to give the underdog Miami Hurricanes enormous credit for the valiant comeback that nearly succeeded. Pats on the back and high fives all around, fellas. Great effort, good try, nice season.
NCAA TOURNAMENT | (7) UM VS. (2) TEXAS, 2:15 P.M. SUNDAY, CHS. 4, 12
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Put two brothers or a father and son in a boxing ring and force them to fight, and one of them is going to get hurt and fall hard. But both of them will feel the pain.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The zone that Jack McClinton owned here Friday showed in wide, piercing eyes and a look of demanding anger as he called to teammate Brian Asbury in the backcourt, with arms outstretched and urgent fingers splayed open.
(7) UM VS. (10) ST. MARY'S | 12:30 P.M., CHS. 4, 12
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Nobody believes in this team. That's where you start. The Miami Hurricanes are out here for the first round of the NCAA Tournament -- the school's first foray into March Madness since 2002 -- and unless your fanaticism approaches the level of green and orange face paint, chances are you don't believe the Canes' dream will survive the weekend.
Consider only sports' greatest of greats, and choose a moment of apex or epiphany -- perhaps a year that introduced the magic or confirmed it beyond all doubt. Find that one time when you watched and could begin to sense what you were seeing: not just greatness for the era, but for the ages.
RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
It's Selection Sunday and the Miami Hurricanes men's basketball team is sure to hear good news and be invited to the NCAA Tournament, whereas, at the polar extreme, their pro brethren Miami Heat are embarrassed to have the worst record in the NBA.
He is following you from afar, Miami Hurricanes, as you hit the ACC Basketball Tournament this week and then try to do more in the NCAA Tournament than any group of UM men ever has. He is watching you.
OssaTron treatment? At least the phrase isn't as ominous as the more generic description: Shock wave therapy. That sounds like something related to a lobotomy, or a page from the Michael Vick School of Canine Discipline.
RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
Entering Saturday's season finale at Florida State and with the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament next, it seemed the Miami Hurricanes men's basketball team -- led by should-be national coach of the year candidate Frank Haith -- had done enough to earn an invite to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002, and only the sixth time in school history.
JUPITER -- The Marlins are the best team in the National League. Yes, and Andrew Miller no-hit the Red Sox on Monday. Each statement is technically true, based solely on the numbers, but no less misleading for early March. Pegging your team's hopes on the first couple of weeks of spring training is sort of like predicting the success of a marriage by the first kiss.
RANDOM EVIDENCE OF A CLUTTERED MIND
The Marlins held an audition for a new troupe of in-game entertainers who will debut this season: really fat guys with big jiggly bellies.
I'm not sure how Jacques Martin survives this, and it has gotten harder and harder to make the case that he should. A frustrated Florida Panthers ownership appears in a mood to fire its head coach/general manager -- to offer some dramatic mirror of impatience run-out -- if the team misses the NHL playoffs yet again. And that seems likelier than ever after Friday night's 3-2 home loss to Minnesota followed a recent run of blown-lead defeats that have left the Cats clawing to stay on the periphery...
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