Paul Tagliabue pulled a Peyton Manning late yesterday afternoon, delaying the start of the 2006 season by 72 hours in the hopes that a new CBA can be agreed to.
Early reports are that this just may work. A deal will get done, the salary cap will balloon up to $104M, representing a $9.5M increase in 2006.
But I'm not optomistic that a deal will get done, because I can't possibly believe that much has changed since the owners decided to break off talks yesterday morning.
I'm tired of reading about this subject, tired of talking about this subject, and even more tired of writing about this subject. Today would have been the start of free agency, and instead of analyzing contracts and the directions teams are heading in, we're talking about how billionaires can't come to an agreement on how to disperse the billions of dollars in annual revenue.
It's nauseating, at best, and until a deal gets done, I'm tuning out.
World Baseball Classic
Much to his chagrin, the world apparently doesn't revolve around George Steinbrenner. Proof of this was last night's launch of the World Baseball Classic in the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
I actually like the idea of the WBC, but I'm not thrilled with the timing of it. I would've preferred to see something like this in the fall, after the World Series. With the WBC wrapping up just 2 weeks before Opening Day, I'm concerned that some MLB teams are going to have a key player on the disabled list before the season actually begins, and if the WBC was scheduled in the late fall, there'd be time to rehabilitate those injuries before Spring Training.
That said, I'm actually getting a little excited about the World Baseball Classic. Sure, a lot of stars have backed out, but there's enough talent in these games to make it worth watching. The smart money is on Venezuela to win the whole thing behind a talented, and deep, pitching staff led by Johan Santana, Freddy Garcia and Carlos Zambrano.
March Madness
While I'll never be labeled a big fan of basketball, every year I fall victim to full-blown March Madness. I watch as much of conference tournaments as I possibly can, since I'm foolish enough to believe it makes a difference when filling out my NCAA Tournament bracket.Once again, I'll be getting the March Madness package on DirecTV, which means I"ll likely need to take some half days in the middle of March to fully enjoy this package. When the time comes, I'll be posting my bracket(s) on here.
The small and "mid-major" conference tournaments kick off this weekend, and I think most people are curious to see how badly Gonzaga beats their opponents on Monday night. For the first time since Gonzaga joined the WCC, they'll be hosting the conference's tournament, which doesn't make the rest of the conference too happy. Gonzaga is in Spokane, WA, and most of the schools are in southern California. Tickets were quickly gobbled up by Gonzaga students, and aside from Duke at Cameron Indoor Arena, no team enjoys a home-court advantage like Gonzaga. Should be interesting, and if not, you can always count on Adam Morrison to do something worth watching.
Tomorrow night, an ACC matchup really overshadows all the conference tournament action. The aformentioned Duke hosts in-state rival UNC at 9pm on ESPN2. This game never disappoints, and even though Dick Vitale's voice often causes me to envy the deaf, I'll be watching it. How does Duke respond to the loss to Florida State the other night? UNC can hang with Duke, so it should be a good one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment