Anna told me I had to post the following image:

Since no one else had any points in the Final Four she is going to win. For the record, she picked UCLA like I did, but I had Memphis washing out in the Sweet 16.

I think Anna has beaten me in the last three pickem games we have played. Whats going on?

 
I thought it would be over when I went to sleep Monday night– it was not.
My dreams have been filled with yellow flags being thrown for personal fouls against my Buckeyes
Loose balls being covered up by LSU linemen
Dropped balls in the end zone
Blocked field goals
Boeckman being swarmed by purple and yellow jerseys
Receivers in diamond formations putting four feet between themselves and their defenders
Jacob Hester submarining ahead five yards carry after carry
And finally, those perfect tight-end passes to the end-zone
So my friends, the colors on my of scarlet and gray flag have faded and now I just stand waving my white flag.

Every few years, fans of a particular sports team are privileged to have this experience. At first, the sensation is so sweet and wonderful. Like taking a bite out of a dark red strawberry picked right from the patch. Soon this sweet sensation turns into something bitter and later into utter horror. Akin to when you turn over that deep red strawberry to find a worm crawling through it. The moment is when your team turns from victors and almost on their way to the big one to big time losers.

Certain sports teams are more apt to experience this sensation. Red Sox fans were until 2004, Cubs fans, any Cleveland sports fans, and now those loveable Astros. Albert Pujols hit a three-run homer last night to sink, at least for now, an Astro World Series trip.

Growing up in Cleveland, I had many sports sucker punching experiences. “The Drive” came first. On January 11, 1987, John Elway led his Broncos 98 yards and to the tying touchdown against the Cleveland Browns in the AFC Championship game. “The Shot” followed in 1989 when Michael Jordan hit a winning shot over Craig Ehlo, in game five of their playoff match-up. The worse part about both these incidents is people like to replay them over and over as motivational pieces. “The Shot” and “The Drive” invoke ill memories in my own mind.

The Indians blew their chance in the 1997 World Series. Game 7, extra innings, and the Indians couldn’t put it away at home. In all reality that was the worse sports sucker punch ever.

Maybe Albert Pujol’s homerun will be known as the “The Swing”. Regardless, it sucked the life out of Houston Monday night and Tuesday. The city and its fans were on the verge of tasting all kinds of victory and suddenly those dreams came crashing down. Astro fans had once again felt the pains of the sports sucker punch.

Last night, Anna and I went out to dinner to celebrate receiving a job offer for next year. I saw images of the Pacers-Pistons game flashing across a television noting how the game had been called due to fighting. I was shocked. Fighting? What was going on the west side of Lake Erie?

When we returned home eager to watch Sports Center, even Anna was interested in what happened. I was appalled by what happened on the court. I think I was even more appalled by ESPN’s Shoot Around team. This collection of former players essentially defended what the Pacers did. They said they were not making excuses for the players but they made every opportunity to blame everything on the fans and protect their NBA buddies. It was a sick situation.

Most of the analyst kept repeating how a person has the right to defend himself and to retaliate yet. Tim Legler, of ESPN, goes as far as saying the fans on the floor deserved the haymakers thrown at them. Apparently for Legler, the sucker punch thrown by Jermaine O’Neil was well deserved. What would have happened if the guy was knocked out and died? Legler would say “Hey the guy was on the floor, that is a no-no. He deserved to die.” It was apparent that these guys were already trying to run damage control for a sport they loved, they were protecting their buddies.

I don’t pardon the fans for their rude and intolerable behavior, but I do blame the players. NBA players are paid millions of dollars and they apparently need it all to feed their families. This is not the first time that a player has had beer thrown on them. This is not the first time a player has been heckled. However, the players did break the cardinal rule this time, they crossed the line. They went up into the stands to beat down the fans. Player apologetics would suggest that Stephen Jackson and the other players that followed did so in self defense. I forgot how hard it is for a 6-11, 242 pound man to defend themselves when they go to attack people. The whole act was classless, disgusting, and pitiful.

The worst is yet to come. Saturday morning, I went to play basketball with some college friends. A friend of mine told me, “That was awesome!” I was shocked. Appalling was more like it. This is the legacy of this incident. Kids around the world are going to believe you are entitled to wail on hecklers in the stands. The NBA apologists have done at great job defending the Mosaic eye for an eye concept. Instead of being the bigger man and walking away from an altercation, kids are going to have the impression that defense to rowdy fans is to go up into the stands and beat the lights out of them. There will be repercussions for this incident far beyond the suspensions, criminal charges, and lawsuits that will be filed in the next few months. We will mostly never hear of those repercussions, but their occurrence is assured.

– Bob