- Less than a week ago, I was calling the NCAA Tournament "the best in the last 20 years." It's amazing how quickly things can change. Two duds of a game on Saturday have put this tourney in the position to have one of the most boring Final Fours in the last 20 years.
- The morning papers are going to be loaded with features this morning. I know the Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Red Eye all have special plans. I'm going to run to the local newsstand, pick up all of the local rags and read through them in the morning.
- I'll chime in with my thoughts on the Jose Contreras signing on Monday, when we're bored and the rest of baseball is doing the whole opening day thing.
- Just a reminder for those of you in Chicago and out-of-towner's with satellites, Comcast Sports Net will broadcast the banner ceremony. -- I hope Gene Honda makes it back to Chicago for tonight's game. He has to be back in Indy Monday night to be the PA for NCAA Championship game.
- Also from the NYT, here's an article on MLB.com and MLBAM. There were two things that struck me from the article. One, I was amazed by the relatively small capacity they had for streaming video.
Bowman said the company's broadband artery would soon be capable of handling far more concurrent video feeds (to 5 million from the maximum of 268,000 for March Madness). The Web site has become a platform to attract a variety of customers who then agree to profit-sharing deals with baseball's company.And two, the amount of revenue potential available for each club who invested $2MM a piece.This season, teams will receive their first financial dividend from mlb.com. Selig said the decision to reward the clubs, who invested $60 million in the company, was subjective. In the past, he said, "we wanted to plow all the money back into the company." He added, "Now, we've done so well."
- Finally, I hope you enjoyed some of the changes around here yesterday. I'll use any excuse to put Punky Brewster on the front page. I used to have a big crush on Soleil Moon Frye.