>>>>What I honestly don't get is why the top collegians rush to the NBA. What's wrong with being a BMOC? Everything is provided for you, every last thing. The pro money will still be there for you in a year or two. I hope John Wall returns to Kentucky next year to complete unfinished business.
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>>>I agree with you, but I think for many of these kids, it's a matter of not being particularly good students and the money making a huge difference in their lives and the lives of their families.
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>>>I think with basketball, you couldn't really do what I'm about to propose, but I bet you can still with baseball. It would be interesting to do a little research to see if there's any correlation between which kids sign with a major league team right out of high school and which go to college first, and the family's socio-economic status. My hypothesis is that the higher the family status a priori, the more likely to go to college first.
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>>I am feeling so romantic about this year's March madness. Butler! Butler! Butler! That would be too cool for school.
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>>I just watched two of their stars on the CBS halftime show and hope they to the improbable and take it all the way home. A couple of white sharpshooters. That sounds really racist, doesn't it? Barack Obama is probably cheering for them, too. I think I am on OK ground there. I like this team. This would be the maddest thing in the history of Marches. Milan HS was another basketball team that did the impossible. It can happen. (You can look it up. A former boss of mine played on the Muncie Central team Milan took out in the finals. It was all open then, the biggest HS's in Indy against the most rural burbs. No wonder they made a movie out of it).
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>On my trip to the city this weekend we were accompanied by a friend of my wife's mother who was the 3rd generation of his family to graduate from Butler. Come 1:30pst Saturday we were glued to a tv at Lefty Odouls watching the game. It took about 30 seconds to realize that the tables to the left and in back of us were full of Bulldog fans as well. Fantastic experience and game!

That's the magic of the tournament.

Lefty O'Doul's, that's a nice memory. I was fortunate enough to stay at the St. Francis a few times and it was right around the corner.

You probably know who the real Lefty O'Doul was. He hit .383 for the Phillies in 1930. Even in a hit crazy year that was something.

The best hitter ever? That's an easy one IMO. Ted Williams. His career average was in the .340s, among the highest ever, and he played in an era that was not so hit crazy. He hit over 500 homers at a time when that was not common at all. If he had not given up 5 or 6 years in the prime to fight in two wars -- he was a fighter pilot -- it would have been his career record Hank Aaron was going after, not the Babe's. He had 20-10 vision and could literally pick up the spin on the ball.

A crusty guy, too. He did not suffer fools gladly and spent his entire career bickering with the Boston sports press. They were a bunch of vicious little farts who wanted to make his reputation for him instead of letting him make it for himself. The one guy who really got him was John Updike. "Kid Bids Hub Adieu," Updike famously wrote about Williams's last game. He hit a homer in his last at bat.

My favorite Ted quote: "My name is Ted Williams and I'm the best f-ing hitter in the American f-ing League." And he didn't say effing.

Teddy Ballgame himself -- some great pictures here although the Wikipedia is more comprehensive.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/photogallery/player/williams_ted2/index.jsp

And oh, for what it's worth, still a little steamed at John H. for his comment about basketball players all being ghetto and stupid -- the hitter he seemed to admire most was Tony Gwynn, a black guy. Sports Illustrated ran a long conversation between the two of them talking about hitting. The SI writer was smart enough to shut up and let the microphone tell the story.