1. I watched the Final Four on Saturday night, but I can't say I was paying that much attention. We had some work friends over and I spent a lot more energy justifying the merits of "Roadhouse" and defending my debate nerd high school career than I did actually watching the games. My recollection is that Illinois' half court offense looked unstoppable and that North Carolina had better individual players on the court than Michigan State did. Overall, the whole episode just reminded me that I'm not the sports fan I used to be. The old Michael would have gotten furious at being with people who aren't paying attention to the game on the screen. Married life has whittled away at that angry man.
2. I hope that the Tim Hudson who got shelled on Saturday afternoon isn't a harbinger of the guy we just signed to a long-term deal. Hudson gave up a steady diet of sharp grounders and line drives, en route to allowing seven earned runs in four innings. If his declining strikeout rate really is a sign that his best days are behind him, then the Braves are in serious trouble in the coming years, since so much of their payroll is going to be tied up in Hudson, Hampton, and Chipper, all of whom are probably in some form of decline. I tried to write Hudson's struggles off as meaningless spring training stats, but if we're going to get excited about Andruw because of his hitting this spring, then shouldn't we be concerned about Hudson?
And by the way, the Indians who torched Hudson were shut out today in the opener, mustering only two hits.
3. I bought EA Sports' MVP '05 for PlayStation II a couple weeks ago and my progress can be summed up this way: Saturday, I went 31 straight innings without scoring a run. This is like my last year of little league baseball all over again. Strangely enough, the wife wasn't sympathetic to my "I'm 0-0 with the Mets in the 13th inning!" excuse when she asked why I hadn't gone out to buy limes.
In her defense, she ripped the "Fever Pitch" article out of her new "Entertainment Weekly" without reading it, possibly in solidarity with my jihad against it.
4. If you're looking for a pick-me-up on a Monday, then here's what not to do on your lunch break: drive to lunch listening to a book on tape describing the SS's medical experiments on untermenschen in the early 40s, followed by reading an Atlantic Monthly on the compilation of war crimes committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. The lesson, as always, is that I'm insane.
5. I'm proud to say that I watched about two-thirds of an inning of the Red Sox/Yankees game last night. The bitterness boycott commences...
6. One sign that the Hawks have a little to learn in becoming the Fat Girl: I ran in the Philips Arena 5K on Saturday morning, which was good fun, especially when a homeless man joined the race at the end and demanded to know where all the prizes were. However, whereas the Falcons' Draft Day 5K last year included running on the field at the Dome, tours of the locker rooms ("This is where Michael Vick puts his bling!"), and plenty of games on the field, the Philips Arena 5K allowed us access to none of the above. No locker room tours, not chances to walk on the court or shoot baskets or even go inside the arena itself at all. I'm OK with the idea of running a 5K in support of an arena owned by very rich people and sponsored by a giant multinational corporation, but couldn't they do a little more to sell their wares to me? Where was the huckstering? The true Fat Girl would never miss this opportunity.
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