Minnesota Twins catcher, Joe Mauer, who is on the final year of his contract, went through the entire off-season and more than half of Spring Training wondering when he was going to receive a contract extension. Yesterday he finally got it. The Twins and Mauer agreed to an eight year, $184 million contract extension, making it the fourth highest contract in Major League Baseball history. Mauer has won three batting titles and won the MVP award last season with a .365 average, 28 home runs and 96 rbis while he missed the first month due to lower back pain. The timing of the contract extension is impeccable because the Twins found out that their closer, Joe Nathan, has elected to have Tommy John surgery and will be out for the season. Also, their new stadium, Target Field, an outdoor stadium, will open this year. This is great for baseball because Mauer is deeply loved in Minnesota and losing him to free agency would have been devastating. He is such a hard core Minnesota native that he lives in a cabin. That's so manly. As much as I wanted the Red Sox get him, it is better for baseball to have a small market team sign their best player to a high contract.
Is it me or did the NCAA tournament get more interesting? Kansas, a #1 seed in the Midwest, lost in the second round to #9 seeded Northern Iowa. Kansas was heavily favored to win it all for the second time in three years. There are three teams in the Sweet 16 that are a #9 seed or higher (Northern Iowa, #10 St. Mary's and #12 Cornell). Cornell has been the most impressive lower seeded team thus far. Not only did they beat Temple and Wisconsin, they torched them, winning each game by 13 and 18. Three #1 seeds, Syracuse, Kentucky and Duke remain. Every year, March Madness brings upsets and makes everyone tear up their brackets before you say "go". No one has every had a perfect bracket and never will. The NCAA Tournament is the most unpredictable thing ever known. Anyone who actually thought that Kansas was going to lose in the second round or Villanova losing in the second round is lying. There were rumors that the tournament should expand to 96 from 65. All I have to say is screw that. The claim is that teams who were good enough to make it but were snubbed will be able to play. All I have to say is, if you don't make it, that's just too bad. You may have been good enough, but either your team was in a bad conference or just had bad losses. Leave it at 65 teams. It is shorter and it is more competitive. I am pumped about the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8.
The Bruins had a good 2-1 win yesterday against the Rangers on NBC. I still think that are way too conservative offensively, but they get the job done defensively and goaltending. I think as long as they continue to play stout defense and goaltending, they have a chance to hang in with anyone. They have a test against the Atlanta Thrashers for a eighth place in the Eastern Conference, they are one point behind the Bruins.
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