Approaching Tipoff

Good afternoon everyone.  There is a lot of housekeeping going on in San Marcos, America today at the home of 'Bikini Hill'.  Not your literal housecleaning, but preparations being made for future blogs and things of that nature.  With the NBA All-Star Game being played next Sunday on February 26th and the NCAA Men's Tournament Selection Show taking place on Sunday, March 11th, I am slowly but surely gearing up for MY basketball season.  I may have touched on this before, but for those of you who may be new to the blog, this is what my sports year looks like at this point:  Football Season; Basketball Season (beginning with the college conference tournaments and the NBA playoff run); Hockey Season (beginning with the playoff run); Baseball Season (picking up on the heels of basketball and hockey finishing).  I play fantasy baseball to get me through the summer and to September when the football season starts over again.  Intertwined in the sports year I will watch the Golf 'Majors', the big NASCAR races, various UFC fights, the World Cup every 4 years, the Olympics every 2 years, etc...  As I typed in a moment ago, the NCAA Men's Tourney brackets will be released on Sunday, March 11th.  I have decided to do my blog with various NCAA Tourney predictions on Wednesday, March 14th.  The tournament will actually begin on that day, so my blog will come out early to precede any action.  One of my predictions that was gold last March (I made the prediction on facebook because I did not begin writing this blog until September) was my call that NONE of the #1 seeds would reach the Final Four - NAILED IT!!!  ;)  Come back on March 14th and we'll see if I can get anything right this year...  Regardless of what I predict on that Wednesday, I will predict games up through and including the national championship game in subsequent Friday blogs.  By the way, if you are an NCAA hoops fan and a Las Vegas fan, the opening weekend of the NCAA Tourney each year (Thursday - Sunday) is the only event that rivals the Super Bowl in the desert annually for the amount of action that is wagered on games.  In a nutshell, it's a GREAT PLACE to watch basketball games for four days if you ever get the opportunity.  If you are a baseball fan, I will be releasing my regular season predictions for the upcoming MLB season on Friday, March 23rd.  This will include my guess at the records for each team this year, just like I did for the NBA regular season a few months back.  One of the predictions for the MLB season that I made last Friday is that the Philadelphia Phillies will win the National League's berth to the World Series this year.  They just have SO MUCH pitching.  For any of you who are looking for a place to play fantasy baseball, I play at www.cdmsports.com and have been playing there for years.  The league that I joined actually has eight spots left in it if you are interested in competing in the same league as me.  I am playing in a 25-dollar rotisserie league using players from the American and National Leagues (that's the cost for the whole season).  It is a 10-team league under the 'Draft & Play' option, and the draft is on Sunday, March 25th at 11:00 a.m. CST.  CDM offers various other options (AL or NL players only, different entry fees, different scoring types, etc...) if the framework of my league doesn't suit your taste.  If you do join my league, my team's name is the Bikini Hill Giants.  I am going to let you mark all of those dates on your calendars now, and I will see you again on Monday with my ramble.  I hope that you have a great weekend!