the mad sports man

it was a great day to end the month. 17c made it a good day for working outside. got some rain happening now and a whole wad of wind on top of that. supposed to have some thunder and lightning, but have heard nothing. supposed to get a whole wad of snow tomorrow. i wish that was an April fools day joke, but alas it is not. what is spring? and baseball season is close.

the first game had Michigan State beat Louisville 76-70 in overtime to advance to the final four. Michigan State will face Duke, who beat Gonzaga 66-52. Michigan State vs Duke will play in the national semi final game Saturday along with Kentucky vs Wisconsin.

the first final four match up is set as Kentucky will face Wisconsin. Kentucky hung on to beat - albeit barely - Notre Dame 68-66. earlier Wisconsin beat out Arizona 85-78. Kentucky vs Wisconsin will play Saturday. two more games tomorrow and that will set up the other final four match up - also next Saturday. the games has Duke playing Gonzaga and Louisville facing Michigan State.

in the south region, Gonzaga beat UCLA 74-62 and is now in the elite eight for the first time since 1999 and will face Duke, who just beat out Utah 63-57, in the south region final. in the east region Louisville beat N.C. State 75-65. they await the winner of the Oklahoma vs Michigan State matchup. that one is late in the game. that will also decide the last elite eight matchup. update: Michigan State 62 Oklahoma 58. Michigan State plays Louisville on Sunday as well as Duke vs Gonzaga.

in the midwest regional semi final, Notre Dame took out Wichita State 81-70. they will face Kentucky, who just finished putting the boots to West Virginia, winning 78-39. there is your first elite eight matchup. in the west, Wisconsin beat out North Carolina 79-72 and will face the winner of the Xavier vs Arizona game. that game is still in progress. update soon. update: Arizona 68 Xavier 60. Arizona plays Wisconsin Saturday, as well as Kentucky vs Notre Dame.

last day of the first weekend of march madness, and it began with - you guessed it - another upset. with a 1 seed losing yesterday (Villanova) a two seed went down today in the opening game as Michigan State took out Virginia 60-54. by the end of today, we will have the sweet 16 matchups. side note: i was at an Oilers game against Philadelphia and actually won 5-4 in overtime. update: yet another upset as #7 Wichita state takes out #2 Kansas 78-65. second upset of the day and only three games in.

spring started at 4:45pm. where is it? got a 5cm of snow here. it has been gloomy and grey all day today and is supposed to snow off and on all weekend. down east it has been either cold or nasty snow storm. 79 cm in nova scotia and they are still digging. wow. meanwhile on the first day of spring there was also a super moon and a total solar eclipse. mostly in europe. so much for spring.

march madness has begun in earnest after two days of play-in games and already two upsets and a minor upset. the minor upset had #11 UCLA knock out #6 SMU 60-59. the two upsets involved a 14 seed knock out a three seed. Georgia State beat Baylor 57-56 and UAB beat Iowa state 60-59. is there more to come? stay tuned.

the annual partaking of green is now. as st. patrick's day continues, green beer will be consumed, green will be worn and even a green river. chicago river gets dyed with green. even green worn on the ice and on the baseball diamonds. even green ice skated on. so happy st. patrick's day

the ncaa basketball known as march madness is knocking on the doorstep. today was selection Sunday after the conferences had their finals. the brackets are out. got mine printed out and will follow as much as possible. the tournament begins Tuesday with twp play in games with two more play in games on Wednesday. the real madness begins Thursday. expect some upsets. lets get it on.

another warm one today. 18c at the moment. driving the organizers of the red bull crashed ice event nuts with the warm weather. should cool off for the main event tonight. it is supposed to cool off starting tonight. rain, gusty winds and the temperature dropping. 2c for tomorrow and a rain/snow mix. monday should be clearing out and back to spring again. i like my spring.

comedian will ferrell is playing in five different games and playing in 10 different positions - one position for one team in the games. the first game he was in was Oakland A's vs Seattle Mariners. he was shortstop with Oakland, then switched teams and played second base for Seattle. his next game was the Chicago Cubs vs the L.A. Angels where he played first base with the Cubs and center field with the Angels. he was also first base coach with the Cubs. he was then off to his third game - the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Cincinnati Reds. he was in left field with the D-backs and played third base with the Reds. the fourth game, which just ended i think was the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago White Sox. in the 9th inning he struck out with the Sox and then, a few minutes later was catching with the Giants. the last game has teh L.A. Dodgers and San Diego Padres where he has to pitch and play right field. who he will pitch and play right field for will be decided when

mmmm liking the fact that we're about to get to the teens to end the week. 12c tomorrow and 14c for Friday and Saturday. may not be much snow left by Monday. i know full well we could get hit with some more snow. it usually does. in the meantime, enjoy the early rendition of spring.

the Kansas City Royals and L.A. Angels got interrupted twice by bees. yes bees. is that a fly ball? no that is a bunch of bees. total eeepp. not sure who won the game. ya know it's spring when......

spring has finally arrived. it is 4c at the moment and it is supposed to get to 10c by the end of the weekend. even supposed to be above zero for the week. so the snow and ice is melting and will continue to melt. oh by the way. late Saturday night (more like 2am Sunday morning) we move our clocks ahead an hour (unless you are somewhere where you don't have to). lose an hour of sleep, but on the plus side, the sun sets later. woohoo daylight hours later into the day.

the season 14 premiere of hell's kitchen is ON. started with the signature dish. the dinner service is happening as i type. who will win. tune in and watch. things are already heating up.

hard to believe i have had this blog for eleven years. ELEVEN YEARS. wooow. lots of ups and downs. the sick days. the long distance relationships, the break ups and friendships. eleven baseball seasons and eleven world series. nhl seasons and stanley cups. the grey cups, the super bowls, nascar seasons. 6 olympics - three summer (2004, 2008, 2012) and three winter (2006, 2010, 2014). pictures and interesting posts. no hitters, perfect games and milestones. here is hoping for a few more years of the mad sports man.