Good morning, all! Happy Tuesday!
How is my tournament bracket doing? I break it down in the video and audio podcast.
Here are some other thoughts on this last Tuesday in March:
The undefeated UConn women’s basketball team continues its dominance. The defending national champs destroyed Syracuse last night, 98-45, in the second round of the NCAA tournament, on legendary coach Geno Auriemma’s 72nd birthday. The Huskies had a 53-point lead at the half. UConn is going to the Sweet 16 for a Division I record 32nd consecutive season. A number one seed, the Huskies will play number 4 seed North Carolina on Friday.
Well all those clickbait stories that came at the end of the NFL season, highlighting the end of Travis Kelce’s career were a bit premature now, weren’t they? Kelce, who was going to be a free agent after 13 seasons with the Chiefs, has inked a three-year deal worth $54.7M to stay put in Kansas City.
The ticket site TickPick (Who knew?) reports Opening Day game tickets for the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks are selling at an average purchase price of $392 on the resale market. Heck, that is more than twice the subscription price for an all-season pass on MLB.tv.
It will be interesting to see how highly-touted Mets prospect Carson Benge does, after a strong spring training that has earned him a big league roster spot. I saw Benge at AA Binghamton last year, and he looked like the real deal.
Talk about a natural fit. New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice has signed a deal with Ben’s Original Rice. As someone wrote on X, “What took so long?”
NESN, the cable and streaming home of the Boston Red Sox, has announced a complete technical overhaul of its telecasts, including a new graphics package. Unfortunately, I will not be able to see it, as my cable company (Optimum) and NESN have failed to come to an agreement to continue carrying the channel. My cable bill, hasn’t dropped, however.
Jessi Pierce, 37, a renowned hockey writer, covering the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, and her three young children, died in a house fire on Saturday. Say a prayer. According to The Athletic, Pierce’s husband Mike Hinrichs was out of town at the time of the fire, which remains under investigation.
Nielsen is reporting CBS and TNT Sports shattered ratings records for the first day of the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament on Thursday. The 16 games televised that day averaged 9.8M viewers per game, up six percent from last season.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing and have terrific Tuesday!
DAN
