Opening Daze

I have been watching baseball all afternoon (two games simultaneously for the most part), and have seen some pretty good stuff. I have a few observations so far, some baseball-related and some not.

I know that it's politically correct for the networks to all stick around to show all of us at home the various performances of "God Bless America," but even setting aside the fact that I can't stand the song and resent having to stand and remove my cap for a song that is not our national anthem just because Irving Berlin put the words "God" and "America" together in it, after hearing Lyle Lovett sing it last night, everything else is going to sound second-rate. (How's that for a parenthetical clause?)

I can also tell that the bane of my existence this summer is going to be those commercials for Scott's fertilizer. Is there a more annoying character than "Scot for Scotts?" Nails on a chalkboard for me. It doesn't help that I used to work at Scott's advertising agency, where the people who worked on the account casually referred to the product as, "the sh-t." The last thing I want this spring is some ginger scolding me about my lawn.

There were a couple of great pitching performances too, none of which were turned in by CC Sabathia. I like Sabathia (how can you not like a guy who wears such big pants?), but I'm concerned that his lack of velocity is going to be an ongoing problem. On the other hand, Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg? Shut the front door! Simply great.

I also would like to comment on the women's basketball game, where Louisville beat Baylor, who had merely won 71 of their last 72 games, and were ordained tournament winners before it even began. That was one of the craziest games I've ever seen, where a totally superior team was beaten by an incredible display of outside shooting (16-25 for 3-pointers anyone?). The cruelest twist was that Baylor had trailed for the entire game, and by 16 with about 7 minutes left, and came all the way back to take the lead for the first time by 1 point with 9 seconds to go, only to have a Louisville player, who had moments earlier missed a key free throw, dribbled the length of the court, got fouled with 2 seconds left, and calmly sunk both to win. Incredible theater.