I got to listen to the beginning of the yankees game tonight. My first Sterling listen of the year. And my first time hearing Suzyn Waldman as full-time yankee announcer. I've said it before about that traitor--she's above average as a talk radio call-in show host, but when it comes to commentary, she just can't cut it. Train her as they may, she just doesn't have the announcing gene.

It was quite interesting to listen to the tone of their voices. I've listened to Sterling for many years, and maybe I'm imagining things, but he seems like he's still reeling from the worst collapse in baseball history. There's a certain deadness in the booth, at a time of year when usually the opposite tone is apparent. And with Waldman's horrible tongue-tripping, blatant misuse of words and phrases, and god-awful timing added to Sterling's uncharacteristic solemn demeanor, it's just not a good listen. Every line Sterling says sounds to me like, "The charade is over. I give up." And every one of Waldman's sounds kind of like my announcing of a freshman football game on Tiger TV (Public Access channel 22) when I was fifteen years old.

But things got beter for the listener when Randy Johnson gave up a single, double, and triple to the first three batters of the game. He gave up four runs over three innings. I can't wait til his failures count.

Great job by Bucknell, UW-Milwaukee, and especially Vermont in the NCAA tourney. The first two days of March Proverbial Madness are two of my favorite days of the year. Upsets rule. I picked Vermont on my illegal--I mean, All American office pool, mainly because I heard their coach interviewed on Mike & the Mad Dog this week. The guy was so funny, I had to root for his team. And I decided I'd pick them, regardless of who they were playing or what their seed was. And it paid off. I'm still waiting for the year when one of these 13 seeds actually wins the whole thing.

I overheard the dude who runs our pool at work say he had Pittsburgh going a long way. And since he's a Syracuse fan who's from Kansas, I'm guessing he's ripped up his sheet by now, as all three of those teams hve bowed out in the first round. Tough. He's also a Mets fan. But he seems relatively happy besides all that...

Also, I'm gold for both the RSN Roof Deck and Monster Seats Ticket Opportunities. So Tuesday and Thursday of next week will be my last two visits to the virtual waiting room until next year. I'll miss you, VWR. And by that I mean I won't miss you at all. In fact, you'll be erased from my memory until next season. Hopefully I get randomly selected in at least one of these drawings, as I've never sat in either area. I have been to the Monster seats on the Fenway tour, and I've had dreams where I was on that roof--long before there were seats there. But never for a real game/in real life.

Also, I have to give credit to the Cubs PR department. For their giveaway days, instead of the usual keychains and mini bats, they're giving away autographed baseballs and official jerseys to 500 or 1,000 winners on certain days. Actually, I guess it's not that good if you're one of the 40,000 people who doesn't win. Terrible job, Cubs PR department. Your tricks almost worked on me.