Sports News

It’s that time of year again and no, I’m talking about your
bi-yearly visit to the dentist, tax time or even an oil change. No, this early
spring when the sun starts to shine a little brighter, each day gets a little
bit longer but most importantly, baseball season has arrived in full fashion.

I spent most of last week in
Phoenix mostly to escape the snowfall of Colorado and grab some sun but I was
also treated to a little of America’s past time. Watching and observing each
inning not only brought me to a perfect and much needed place of relaxation but
brought me to a point of rejuvenation. That’s when I realized that in a place
where so many come to retire, to live out their second lives if you will, while
at the same time many others travel to the vaunted vacation destination in
looks of a second chance themselves.

Rookie ball players come from
around the world in hopes on etching their name in the lineup. In some cases
most players are looking just to sign a contract no matter the price while
others are looking to sign the big deal. Veterans enter the likes of Goodyear
and Phoenix Municipal ballpark in order to give one last shot at a title. No
matter the player, no matter the team, no matter the age, each has spent his
life striving for excellence season after season but it is in spring when every
player still has hope.

Hope also lives in the hearts of
the fans. Each individual fan realist or optimist has a glimmer of hope for the
upcoming season, even if you’re a fan of the Seattle Mariners. They spend their
March afternoons counting each pitch, recording each strike, marking every
error and chalking up every win with a positive attitude.

With opening day tomorrow and each
prayer for a good season in the air from players, managers and fans alike,
April brings a new hope and a new season along with it.

-Thomas Hoffman

I had a teacher in High School once tell my class, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” He was referencing the history of politics and war. And as with most things, you can relate them directly to the wide world of sports. This pre-season’s men’s basketball top 25 rankings almost mirrored that of two or three decades ago. With Indiana at the top, Duke just behind, UNLV cracking the top 10, Michigan, Kentucky, and Arizona all with strong programs to start the year, sports enthusiasts across the nation might have thought the was the sequel to Hot Tub Time Machine 2. We’d picture Bobby Knight throwing chairs, Jalen Rose trash talking, Christian Laettner practicing turn arounds, maybe even Adolph Rupp walking out onto the floor instead of Calipari, which I’m sure would be welcomed by most of the nation. At the beginning of the year you could be asking yourself which team would prove to be dominant?

With only a month left until the madness, we’re still asking ourselves the same question, but it’s a question that most of us are glad to be asking. Ratings have declined substantially in the last ten years with so many youngsters fleeing the books and class rooms to the night clubs and team planes. We’ve been missing great rivalries that we were used to seeing year after years. In past years, you could walk into the Bellagio and place a bet at the beginning of the season on Kentucky to win the National Championship and you would almost have a 50/50 shot of being right. People were getting bored of watching freshmen and sophomores struggle through tight situations. No one was developing skills under some of the greatest coaching in the world...