MLB
Phillies release Dontrelle Willis
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Great time!
Photo Gallery of the show
Big thanks to everyone that joined us for our special “ESPN1530 Killian’s Kickoff to Madness”. What a great crowd at 10am!
It was a blast talking hoops with Terry Nelson and Steve Wolf.
Big thanks to Holy Grail, Killian's and Hometown Sports and Collectibles.
Follow for show and guest updates, breaking news and my random thoughts.
I'll also re-tweet the stuff from around Twitter that I think you might find interesting.
Follow @lancemcalister.
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March Madness
Vasectomies up during March Madness
USA Today
According to the esteemed medical center, men are scheduling vasectomies so they can recover — it's usually just a day or so of resting and ice packs — in front of the television, watching March Madness.
"I'm doing them every 15 minutes tomorrow with no holes. It usually won't be that full," Dr. J. Stephen Jones, chairman of the department of regional urology at Cleveland Clinic, said Thursday. He said he noticed a couple years ago that vasectomies increased up to 50% during the NCAA basketball tournament.
He added that about half the patients he sees say they've timed their procedures to college basketball.
Xavier tries to heal a self-inflicted wound
NY Times
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Xavier Coach Chris Mack is fond of telling his team that the games everybody remembers most are the ones played in March. That may be true, but it’s going to take quite a run in the N.C.A.A. tournament to make people forget about the game that has already defined the Musketeers this season.
UC, XU get past December brawl, go into NCAA's together
AP
CINCINNATI — Three months after they traded punches and sullied reputations, the city’s two Division I teams had reason to be proud.
Cincinnati and Xavier overcame a scarring December day in their own way and at their own pace, fending up in the same place. They’re both going to the NCAA tournament.
Early woes behind ND, Xaiver
AP
Neither the Fighting Irish nor the Musketeers looked like they'd make it back to the NCAA tournament this season. Yet they're meeting in today's South Regional, proof that they were tough enough to figure out a way to regroup and salvage a season that was going nowhere two months ago.
"We've definitely had our bumps in the road," Xavier senior Kenny Frease said, "But as a team, I think we've been able to really come together the past few weeks."
He could've been speaking about either team.
Why Kentucky needs to lose
The National Review
His freshmen-centric teams have fizzled in the tournament, none more dramatically than his previous Kentucky teams. Anything short of a national title for this year’s highly favored team will further advance the conventional wisdom that leadership from upperclassmen is necessary to win national championships. It also will put a lot of pressure on Calipari from within the Kentucky basketball community to keep his players in school longer so they can bring the old alma mater some hardware for the trophy shelf, which has been awaiting its eighth resident since the last one arrived in 1998. But it will also do something more important. It will put more pressure on the NCAA and the NBA to change the rules or the incentives, or both, so that players either cannot leave after their freshman year or have less incentive to do so
Calipari offers solutions to "one and done"
Huggs backslide?
West Virginia lost 77-54 to Gonzaga last night.
Bob Huggins is in year five at WVU. He took WVU to the Final Four in his third season. Last three seasons:
Year.........Overall record/Big East/Big East finish/tournament
2009-10: 31-7/13-5/T-2.....Final Four
2010-11: 21-12/11-7/T-6....lost in second game
2011-12: 19-14/9-9/10th....lost in opening game
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Bengals
Colts sign Bengals OL McGlynn
Free Agents: 62 of the Hot 100 remanin unsigned
Mock Madness
Geoff Hobson, Bengals.com
The Bengals.com Media Mock Draft, and, yes, that does sound a little redundant, makes its first foray into the wilds this spring and with six weeks to go until the real thing there'll be a few more where this came from.
On Thursday night we'll mock all the way down until the Bengals first pick in the first round at No. 17 and see who's left. Then we'll come back this week to mock down three more to get to No. 21 and huddle with some draftnicks to see where it all could go.
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Reds
(Getty Images)
Chapman fastball losing its zip
Yahoo
GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Two years into the Aroldis Chapman experiment and it’s still just that: an experiment, full of potential and pratfalls, of amazing moments and even more confounding ones. The hypothesis was that the Cuban kid who throws a baseball harder than anyone alive, and maybe anyone ever, would be a star. And he may yet be. For now, he remains little more than an enigma wrapped in a Cincinnati Reds uniform.
The topic that continues to linger..........
Enjoy Brandon Phillips this year. Next year? well...
The Broo View
“I’m happy for Sean Marshall, very happy for him,” Phillips continued. “He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball, in the bullpen. He’s a great guy. But for them (the Reds management) to sign him before signin’ me, I feel that was a slap in my face.”
For Phillips it's what the money means
Paul Daugherty, Enquirer
It’s not the money. It’s what the money represents.
Phillips has seen other Reds get theirs. Votto, Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto. He noted the signing of Ryan Madson. Phillips doesn’t begrudge his peers their “respect.” He just wonders why he hasn’t gotten his. “A slap in the face,” Phillips calls it.
Reds to the rescue
In the spring of 2006 Brandon Phillips was designated for assignment by the Indians. Phillips had hit .206 in 135 games with the Indians from 2002-2005. The organization had given up on him and had 10 days to trade, release or send to AAA. On April 7 of 2006 the Indians traded Phillips to the Reds in exchange for a player to be named later. That player later became pitcher Jeff Stevens.
On February 15, 2008 Phillips avoided arbitration and signed a 4-year $27M contract (plus '12 option) with the Reds and avoided arbitration.
Here is his salary as a Red:
2007 26 Cincinnati Reds $407,500
2008 27 Cincinnati Reds $2,937,500
2009 28 Cincinnati Reds $5,187,500
2010 29 Cincinnati Reds $6,937,500
2011 30 Cincinnati Reds $11,437,500
2012 31 Cincinnati Reds $12,000,000
Career to date $38,907,500
(Baseball-Reference.com)
Cueto feels good after third spring start
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Stuff
Can't wait
I'm taking Casey to his first NBA game Saturday night. We are headed to Indy for the Pacers vs Knicks at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Conseco). It's my first NBA game in the arena. I did see UC play OSU there. I found this video tour. Have been to Bankers Life for a Pacers game?
Hard times for Ex-UK Wildcat Antoine Walker
Little league gives back $1,200 donation from strip club
Keifer Southerland furious as Fox pulls plug on "24" movie
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