April 2, 2007

Today is April 2, 2007; one day after April Fools day and one that will go down in history as one of the best days in sports that I could remember in awhile. First and foremost we saw the end of a dynasty. The Florida College Basketball program made their final run to fame on this day by defeating the Ohio State University pretty handily in the National Championship game making them the first repeat champs since Duke in 1991, 92’. This Gator team is most likely the best college basketball team that we have seen since the run of the running rebels in 1994 and 95’ where the rebels came up just short of pulling off the repeat in 95’ by losing in the Finial Four. The most depressing fact of this is that the team will be broken up because of their aspiration for the NBA and the almighty dollar. Most of these Gator stars, though, will be no more than role players in the NBA (unless they’re lucky enough to be drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies), with Joakim Noah at the top of this list. Noah is projected to go high in the first round but he has no real ability to score and defense and rebounding is his only true asset. But with Noah being 6-11 it will be interesting to see how he matches up with the Tim Duncan’s of the world or KG for that matter. If I have to guess… they’re going to dice him up!!

Speaking of dicing people up, today was the first full day of the baseball season and we saw very little of pitchers throwing gems and the ace of most staff (my fantasy team included) getting knocked around a little and looking a little rusty. But the most intriguing part of today were the comeback stories. First was watching ace Ben Sheets of the Brew Crew dice up the Dodgers, and basically make them look like minor leagues. He had all of his stuff working today and it was nice to see what he can really do when he is healthy. He really has thrown that well for the past year since the WBC.

But the real story of the day was in the Reds-Cubs game at the Great American Small Park. And the headline wasn’t marquee free-agent slugger Alfonso Soriano first game with the Cubs or nor Adam Dunn with his two home run campaign. It was a man named Josh Hamilton that came in the bottom of the 8th and pinch hit for the pitcher and finished the game in left field in the 5-1 win over the Cubs. Hamilton was a first overall pick in the 1999 amateur draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He got injured and made some pretty bad decisions, getting into drugs and alcohol, and never really panned out for the Rays. A phenomenal 6-tool player, unheard of today’s game, he was drafted as a pitcher but was way too good with the stick to not let him hit. Tampa put him in the outfield, in a Babe Ruth like move. Because of this speed and power he started getting a name around the league as the next big thing, but the drugs and alcohol got in the way. After only 15 minor league games, suspensions and rehab, Hamilton was drafted by the Cubs in this year’s rule 5 draft and was then dealt to the Reds for cash. Hamilton then went to crush the ball in the spring and make the opening day roster as the Reds 4th outfielder, giving Ryan Freel a run for his money for the starting gig. Hamilton’s line out to left in today’s game means nothing to everyone that doesn’t know this guy’s story, but for the few of us that do it gives all of us a reason to smile, and to remember that everyone deserves a second chance.