March Madness?

Every year at this time, I find myself swept up in 3 things, the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the end of Spring Training and the beginning of the Baseball season and Golf.  Of the 3, I can honestly say I'm lousy at all of them, but I'm enthusiastic.

Let's start with College Basketball.  I went to SUNY Albany back when it was a Division III Powerhouse.  Take a look at that last sentence for a moment and you can see my problem.  What the hell is a Division III Powerhouse?!?!?!  I remember an article in the NY Times in the late 80's talking about the old Basketball Coach at Albany, Doc Sauers reaching some milestone in wins and being honored for it.  Dean Smith, or Bobby Knight, or some other famous name marveled at the fact that Doc Sauers won that many games without having any scholarships to give out.  So, as you can tell, I don't know diddly about College Basketball but every year I dutifully join in my friends NCAA Pool and donate my $10 to the winner.

Now onto baseball.  I'm a Met's fan.  That should be enough to cause everyone reading this to groan.  My theory is that there are 2 types of Met's fans, the Angry Ones and the Fat Dumb and Happy Ones.  I fall into the later category.  Every Spring I'm hopeful that this will be THE YEAR, the repeat of 1969, 1973, 1986 and 2000 when The Amazin's live up to their name and actually win.  I've read, repeatedly, that the new 2nd wild card would have gone to the Met's if MLB had it in 2007 and 2008 but they didn't have it then and the Mets wouldn't qualify now.  No matter, they're my team, and I love'em.

Now onto Golf.  I actually play the game.  Granted, I play poorly but I play the game.  During the Spring, Summer and into Fall, if the weather's good, I'll try to get out and hit the little white ball.  If I'm lucky, and that's not too often, I'll make it through a round without losing too many balls.  If I'm really lucky, and that's even less frequent, I'll hit the ball well more often then not.  One thing about golfers, we always remember the good shots and try to forget the bad ones.  When I come home from a round, Elyse will ask my how it went and I'll tell her about some shot that I hit off the tee on the 15th hole that went where I wanted it to go. I won't tell her about the next shot that miraculously went backwards 20 yards, I'll have forgotten all about it.

So what ties all of these together?  2 things really, Spring and Optimism.  Every year, I say to myself, "This year I'm going to (pick from the list) A) Win the NCAA Pool B) Watch the Met's win when it counts and C) break 100 regularly.  Does it happen? No, but when it's in the 60's and 70's and the Sun is out, life is good and I'm happy and optimistic.  Isn't life great?