Random Thoughts from all over the Sports World

Trying to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time....

I saw where the players and the owners might announce a tougher stronger policy on steroids and drug use in baseball. I'm all for that. Wouldn't be surprised if it also gives the players a chance to come clean and admit past wrongdoing and they won't be punished for that. That makes it possible that guys like Jay Gibbons and Jose Guillen and the like, who are supposed to start the season suspended, wouldn't have to serve the suspension. But I think all future positive tests, plus any player who didn't fess up to past issues, would face some severe penalties.

Anybody care about Canseco's allegations regarding ARod. All I really care about is whether or not he was succesful in his pursuit of Mrs. Canseco. And whether or not ARod's pursuit came before or after Mrs. Canseco and Mrs. Clemens displayed their goods at the Canseco's party that Mr. Clemens did not attend.

Guess things are finally settling down in Emmitsburg. Great run for the Mount, and now we're already looking ahead. I'm interested who the Mount may play next year. This year's schedule was overloaded with home games, and I fear that November/December next year may put the team on the road too much. You'd expect they have return games at American, at Lafayette and a road trip to Lasalle to complete the three-year agreement. Plus the annual rivalry game with Loyola will be in Baltimore next year. On the other side of the coin, I expect we can see Navy at the ARCC for an early season game. But the rest of the schedule would be guess work at this point. Quite possibly with the Mount's solid play at the end of the season, they can draw into one of the exempt tournaments, but that isn't likely to bring any home games. I'm sure there will be some BCS conference opponents as well (money games as they are referred to) but those will be on the road. I think they have three they could replace from last year. UTEP, was rumored to want to play the Mount a year ago, but not sure if there is still an invite. That of course wouldn't be a BCS school, but would be a money game. I think that would leave them with three home and home series to be scheduled. I like the idea of one of those being from the Colonial Conference - and might we suggest Delaware, and one from the America East - Stony Brook would be a good team to get to come to the Mount and travel there next year, and then I'd love to see the Mount continue to play a top teams from a mid-major conference. So if they play at UTEP, why not schedule a trip to Stephen F. Austin while they are at it and have SFA return the trip the following year - or maybe schedule a trip to Washington or Washington State and play Portland State (another #16 seed) while you are out west.

I think that would give the Mount a chance to win most of its non-conference games and have a respectable record and maintain a decent RPI as well. This is going to be key if the Mount wants to return to the tournament as something other than a 16 seed.

Speaking of doing well in the tournament. Remember when we told you Xavier would crush your bracket if you ignored them in March. We told you they had the perfect team to make the second weekend. Well now we go one more weekend and say they play in the Final Four. Actually, we said the championship game. But Kansas is still our winner.

133 days til the Summer Olympiad. We are big fans of the games. Belgium is talking about boycotting. They will be missed. Never saw a Belgium beach volleyballer.

Speaking of international sports. Is it really an upset when the US soccer team wins in Poland. Sure the Poles qualifed for the Euro Championship, but is it really an upset. Winning at Wembley in May over non-qualifier England may qualify as an upset, but I expect us to beat Poland.

So are you enjoying the Major League Baseball season. Two decent games in Japan. But now this break. Then the Braves and Nats play that one-game series Sunday night to open Nationals Park. Going to have to get there this year. Maybe we should have a FanBlog night at the Park this summer. Anyone interested? If too many folks want to come, we might have to go to Camden Yards, where I'm sure we can get seats.