Leading Off - Today’s post will be devoted entirely to sports. So I suppose if you don’t like sports you can check back later or read what I wrote yesterday about my birthday. But it won’t just be about statistics as I will go into what it feels like to be the rival school of Titletown U.S.A.
Sadly, It’s Great To Be A Florida Gator - (Though make no mistake, it’s still great not being one too.) It’s difficult for me to describe what it’s like to watch the Gators win another basketball championship. Ignore the fact that they won their first one on my 22nd birthday and their second one about an hour before my 23rd birthday. What really kills me is this team just started making the NCAA tournament a few years ago. Does anyone else remember that? These Gators used to be pretty bad. I remember in high school when it was a big deal that they beat Kentucky. It only took the Gators five or six years to put together what will be remembered as the best post-season starting five ever assembled. All I can come up with is that FSU must be terrible at recruiting. Neither of us were that good back around the turn of the century. Lord knows neither town is much more appealing than the other, at least as college towns go. They must have better facilities or something. Whatever it is, it occurred to me that it really wouldn’t have taken that much for our situations to be reversed. In basketball, anyway. Football is a whole other story that I’d rather not get into.
Also, I never used to hate the Gators. I hated Miami and merely disliked UF. I think that was due to the fact that FSU lost to Miami in football about 700 straight times before finally winning my senior year and then again this past year. But FSU beat UF the first two years I was in school. And no one here really cares about basketball so it didn’t break my heart if FSU lost to anyone. But it’s different now. Now UF has FSU’s number in football three years running. And even though the Seminoles beat the Gators in basketball this year it’s the Gators with a second straight NCAA championship and the Seminoles with a second straight NIT bid. Their success has made me jealous, even bitter. Now the tables have turned. Now I hate the Gators and merely dislike the Hurricanes.
You would not believe how many Gator fans there are in Tallahassee. We must have great grad school programs at FSU, or maybe the ones in Gainesville are just terrible, because I can’t account for where they’ve all come from. There were a few after the first basketball championship, a lot more after the football championship. Now it seems like they’re everywhere. No matter where I go I see orange and blue. It’s bad enough we have to share the same state; can’t we at least have our own city?
The worst part about this is that it won’t ever go away. I mean that. When the Gators won their first football championship in 1996 they had their moment in the sun, but then FSU won their second football championship in 1999 and had some words of their own. But even if FSU were to win a championship in either basketball or football sometime in the next ten years it won’t matter. What the Gators have done over the past twelve months is historic and will not ever be forgotten. People will always remember when Gainesville held both the football and basketball championships at the same time. They’ll always remember the back-to-back basketball titles and the fact that they’re the only team ever to win back-to-back titles with the same starting five. No quantity of championships by FSU will erase these facts. Even if FSU were to pull the exact same feat, UF will be remembered as the school that did it first. Gator nation will be able to hold this over all college sports fans forever.
This is merely the tip of the iceberg of my disgust.
MLB Predictions - I love baseball season. Here are my annual pre-season predictions:
National League:
East: Phillies
Central: Reds
West: D’Backs
Wild card: Mets
American League:
East: Yankees
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild card: Twins
I know, I know. I’ve got some explaining to do. The NL East is stacked this year. Sadly the Marlins might finish in fourth just because the Braves, Mets and Phillies are all pretty dang good this year (though personally I think they have a shot to do some amazing things this year). I never pick the Phillies. No one ever picks the Phillies. Therefore, I’m picking the Phillies. Everyone is telling me the Reds have got the team this year and I don’t like anyone else in that division, not even the Cardinals. The D’Backs could be the great young team of the year. They have the advantage of an old ace (Randy Johnson) to help the young pitchers and a weak division to beat up on all year. I’m going with the Mets in the wild card because it’s a safe pick.
The American League is much tougher. The AL is far superior to the NL once again this year. As per my own rule, I will never pick against the Yankees until the year after they lose their division (which is the reason I’m not picking the Braves this year). Though I must admit, the Red Sox look awfully good. The Tigers took a World Series team and made it better. They could win it all this year. I don’t really like anyone in the AL West but I like Vlad so I’ll take the Angels. The AL wild card was the hardest because it came down to the Red Sox, White Sox, Indians and Twins. I think all of them will finish with records that could win a division in the NL, but sadly that’s not the way the post-season works. I’m going with the Twins because they have pitching and I’m a sucker for pitching.
Florida Marlins - As I type this, the Marlins are leading the Nationals 6-1 in the 6th inning. If they hold on to win it’ll be only the second time the Marlins have ever started a season off 3-0. The only other time was in 1997 when they won their first World Series. Maybe I should update my predictions. Or maybe not.
Miami Heat - I can’t believe the Heat are probably going to win the Southeast Division but it looks like that’s exactly what they’re going to do. Caron Butler of the Washington Wizards broke his hand and will be out six weeks. That’s all the advantage the Heat need. I thought they would finish fourth but after beating the Raptors last night they might be able to finish in third in the east. This would probably mean they’d play the Wizards in the first round, which for reasons I’ve already mentioned would be a great draw. If they end up in fourth place behind Toronto they’ll be stuck playing Chicago. That could be trouble. The third seed has the advantage of not having to play either Detroit or Chicago until the conference finals. Playing Cleveland in the second round would be no picnic, with or without Wade, but it’s better than losing in the first round to the Bulls. I’m actually more interested in the Heat now that Wade has been out. It’s made their playoff push that much more interesting.
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