Spring Training Begins, Round 1: Pitchers and catchers report for the teams opening the regular season overseas.
Spring Training Begins, Round 2: Position players report for the teams opening the regular season overseas.
Spring Training Begins, Round 3: Pitchers and catchers report for the whole league.
Spring Training Begins, Round 4: Position players report for the whole league.
Spring Training Begins, Round 5: The first spring training game happens, but it happens between the teams opening the regular season overseas.
Only one round to go.
The Dodgers won their spring training opener today, 1,000,000,000–1, and Joe Kelly didn’t even pitch (hence, the 1). Why do we talk about this? Because my phone started blowing up with pitching updates. It’s happening! Spring is here!
I love spring training’s first game. It sneaks up on you more than any other opening day, and I say this as a man who’s made a habit out of missing the NHL’s first night of action every…October? I find out about spring training because my phone starts buzzing.
My phone’s usually in Do Not Disturb, which means the only things that get through are spam calls, Amber Alerts, and updates on Dodgers pitching changes. I like this setup because it invites a scenario in which a loved one is trapped by a madman and is frantically texting me to get help, but because they can’t call I am blissfully unaware, and in fact rising from my desk and turning on the television as I receive word Joe Kelly has entered for the fourth inning of a Cactus League split squad tilt. When the phone starts buzzing on some February Thursday? I know spring’s really on its way. Joe Kelly might not have pitched today, but soon, he will, and there will be birds and mud and 100-mph fastballs thrown by a guy wearing number 99.
Punxsutawney Phil didn’t miss.
“Universal Concern Is the Pant”
I love this line from MLBPA executive director Tony Clark:
“Universal concern is the pant.”
The fact he didn’t say it in a complete sentence makes it even better. No time for articles, folks. We’re speaking in noun phrases only.
We’re getting to the point in spring training where pictures are being taken (I like to think of this happening off to the side while the game’s going on, and that it’s the real reason the starters don’t play all nine in February or March). This year’s highlight? We’re seeing more of players than ever before.
Literally.
Someone who works for the Giants posted a picture of the outline of Casey Schmitt’s nuts.
The issue is that in addition to looking sloppy, casual, and like they belong on the 47th field at a grifty 11U tournament near Cooperstown, the uniforms Fanatics is providing Major League Baseball this season also come with see-through pants. Very, very see-through pants. See-through enough that we aren’t even linking to them here.
I hope they have to do the blur boxes on MLB broadcasts until they get this fixed. Actually…hold up. Someone please remind us to do that tomorrow afternoon. It’s time for The Barking Crow to earn the viral moment we’ve long coveted.
Rick Pitino and Alfred Borden
Rick Pitino walked back all the mean things he said about his basketball team after they…narrowly beat Georgetown? That doesn’t make sense. I would say way meaner things about my basketball team after that if I was him!
To be fair, Pitino was consistent in his rhetoric. “I have failed them,” he said, which can still be construed as meaning, I should not have brought these players to play on this team. Still, he walked stuff back. Which leads one to wonder:
Is Rick Pitino actually two twins living one shared life? Two twins with vastly different opinions of Jordan Dingle’s guarding capability??
Andy Enfield and the Future of USC Basketball
Jeff Borzello published a Hot Seat primer today, and I’m going to estimate that this is the year and college basketball is the sport in which “Are we gamifying people losing their jobs?” becomes a bigger talking point. Remember: Assistants get fired too! And they don’t make as much money! (The son of a Big 12 coach pointed this out to me at a New Year’s Party and it has been haunting me ever since.)
Anyway, Borzello thinks Andy Enfield is sticking around at USC. At least for one more year. Sorry, USC fans. Congratulations to Enfield’s assistants, though. Happy for you guys.
Etc.
The NIT:
- Penn State will never die. The Nittany Lions knocked off Illinois last night, and we can confirm: They’re on our NIT radar. We don’t yet know how the committee will treat sub-.500 teams aiming for at-large bids, but if Penn State can go 3–2 or 4–3 from here, that won’t be a relevant question. (I don’t think Penn State’s going to go 3–2 or 4–3 from here. I think it’s going to be a relevant question even in the good case for Penn State.)
- LSU’s climbing into the thick of NIT contention, following up Saturday’s win in Columbia (the South Carolina one) with an upset of Kentucky last night back in Baton Rouge (the Louisiana one, in case there is another). Very fun finish. Tyrell Ward with the one-timer. You know you’re an NIT contender when even your buzzer-beating upsets are ugly and comical.
- Providence shot itself in the foot, arm, and face with that win over Xavier in Cincinnati. Mississippi kept its chances alive, losing in Starkville. Indiana had a good few minutes but was mostly used to wipe the Assembly Hall floor by a Nebraska team simply trying to keep the place clean. Memphis showed life. Miami did not show life. Cincinnati went from “Oh I think they’ll figure it out” to “NIT, BABY!!!!!!!” with their loss to Oklahoma State, an Oklahoma State who now might not be entirely out of the race for a Big 12 automatic bid.
- Tonight, I’m excited for: Ohio State/Minnesota. Oregon/Stanford. SMU/FAU. Grand Canyon/Tarleton State (in theory—doubt I go to the trouble to find that on the television). NOT Michigan at Northwestern, because Dug McDaniel has one game left in that road–games–only suspension.
Shaka Smart:
- Tyler Kolek set a Marquette record for most assists in a game, and while the game was against DePaul, I’m told it still counts. You know who else played a little point guard at Marquette? Dean Meminger. (Dwyane Wade never won an NIT.)
Chicago:
- The Bulls play the Celtics tonight, and I have an NBA idea: What if teams could form alliances? How NBA would that be? Jaylen Brown’s beefing with the Heat, so the Bulls become a Heat proxy for the night and commit to hazing Brown. In return, we get one Jimmy Butler game in a Bulls uniform before the end of the season.
The Ottawa Senators:
- The Sens play the Stars, but it’s in Ottawa, not here in Texas. I missed the game in Texas. I always miss the game in Texas.
