Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for April 7, 2010 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* Tiger Woods drew a 1:42pm tee time for Thursday's first round of the Masters. So when ESPN signs on at 4pm, they'll catch some of his round. Not so Friday, when he tees off at 10:35am.
* The undefeated U-Conn women repeat as national champs. They beat Stanford 53-47 after shockingly trailing 20-12 at halftime.
* Cornell basketball coach Steve Donahue jumps to Boston College.
* Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is named Naismith college coach of the year. Hopefully that will quiet down the bellyachers who wanted his head after he had the temerity to lose to Butler.
2. Food Fight!
Ya gotta love the intramural squabbling. The Milwaukee Brewers owner complains about how much the Yankees spend, and the Yankees president in essence fires back "stop whining." The Yankee payroll is around $200 million, and the Brewers roughly $80 million. In addition, the Yankees pay millions in revenue sharing and it doesn't seem that all the money winds up in the players' pockets. The truth is, the system is broken; it's not a level playing field. And it's the owners of all the teams who are equally at fault. Football found a way for everyone to have a shot at the Super Bowl -- when will baseball owners wake up and do the same for their fans?
3. Opening Daze
I struck a nerve with my yearning for the good old days when Cincinnati opened the baseball season with a quaint parade instead of an opening night game in Boston that ends at midnight when the kids are asleep. Dan K. wrote on Facebook, at "Len Berman's Top 5," "This is way too late for adults, too. I have to be at work in the morning. I can't stay up until midnight watching baseball, no matter how big a fan I am." Jim S. says "Right. TV money calls all the shots. For the "American Way," it's "TV's Way.." But Artie M. counters, "Wow, if we can't stay up till midnight, watching our favorite team open the season against their hated rival, then maybe you all should take daily naps!!"
Take that!
4. The Dog Ate My Homework
In Canada, a slo-pitch softball player who got whacked by a line drive and suffered eye damage is suing the owner of the baseball field for $1.5 million, and a judge is allowing the case to proceed. The player argues that the owner didn't install a sun screen to protect the players, and didn't warn them of the dangers of the sun at that particular time of day. Oh.
So the next time the dog eats your homework and you flunk out of school, you might think about suing the kennel. The nerve of them for not properly training your dog not to eat homework assignments.
5. Gramps
So if Brett Favre decides to come back next season he will be the first grandpa playing in the NFL. His daughter gave birth to his grandson the other day. And you thought he had trouble making up his mind about things before? "Now where did I place that huddle?"
Happy Birthday: Former Giants running back Tiki Barber. 35.
Bonus Birthday: Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe. 46.
Today in Sports: At RFK Stadium, with President Nixon on hand, Ted Williams makes his Washington Senators managerial debut. The Yankees win anyway, 8-4. 1969.
Bonus Event: I'll drink to that. Prohibition ended in the U.S. 1933.