Rewind 03/29/2026 - MLB, UT Basketball, WNBA

accurate!

Been a minute since we checked in.  

Jamie's Birthday

It was Jamie's birthday.  We have done nothing for it.  We're 51 now.  It is not exciting.  We'll have dinner with the parents tonight, and dinner with Steanso's family on Tuesday.

Baseball Starts

It's opening weekend for Major League Baseball.  Cubs have a really good lineup, and despite Opening Day jitters and a loss to the Nationals, I'm enthusiastic about our chances - especially as we bounced back and beat them 10-2 in the second game.  Bats are looking good, fielding shouldn't be a problem, and then it's up to the pitcher rotation.  

It looks like The Cubs org is also not being weird, and went ahead and locked up two favorites with 6 year contracts - Centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and 2nd Baseman Nico Hoerner.  Both produce on defense and at-bat, and are fan favorites, so its nice to not worry about contract nonsense through the season on two key players.  

I expect Happ will also retire a Cub one way or another, and I'd love to see Suzuki remain a Cub as long as he's playing the US.  

In addition to baseball, it's good to have my imaginary friends back for the post-game show.  Cliff, Elise and Cole.  And Anthony Rizzo seems to be living part time in Chicago, so I imagine he'll be on with other analysts like Dexter Fowler and Ryan Dempster.

  

Texas Basketball

Both Longhorn Basketball squads made it into the tournament this year!  Hooray!

The men's team played really well, but lost to Purdue after a close game, going down by two points in the last seconds.  No shame at all.  I'm excited about UT men's basketball for the first time since high school.

UT Women, however, have progressed to the Elite 8.  So far they beat Missouri State 87-45, Oregon 100-58 and Kentucky (who I thought of as a really good team this season) 76-54.  

This team is really, really good - and what's nuts is that as good as our seniors are, things look equally (or more) bright for next year based on our lower classmen and recruits.  

While we have our stars in Rori Harmon, Madison Booker, Kyla Oldacre, et al...  Sarah Graves is UT's secret weapon as someone who doesn't just ride the pine.  She's maybe the most enthusiastic player and has become an avatar of the positive vibes of the UT team - leading the bench in enthusiasm for her teammates.  Plus, when she comes off the bench it's a sign from coach Schaefer we have this locked up.  To top it off, Graves has scored multiple times in the tournament after coming in.  

 

WNBA

Sounds like the Connecticut Sun has been purchased as an organization and is headed to Houston.  Houston did have a team years ago, and it sounds like the Sun will reclaim that old team name - The Houston Comets.  No other word on what this means, but I am excited as the trip to Houston is easier than heading to Dallas.  

The contract negotiations are done, the players and WNBA both getting something, and I think it looks like the WNBA players will finally have real pro-athlete pay.  It's now tough to look back at the women who played in the league the past 30 years and know what they did so all of this was possible, but looking forward, it's going to be better for both players and the league. And maybe mean a longer season.

Venezuela WBC Champs, 2026 / UT men in the NCAA Tournament

Venezuela Takes Gold

Well, after many, many hours of watching baseball, Tuesday night I saw Venezuela beat the USA in the World Baseball Championship Final.  And, to be honest, I was kind of rooting for Venezuela.  It clearly meant something to them that it didn't to our squad.

Look, Venezuela was playing like their lives depended on it, and with joy.  The US was playing like they had to knock this out and get back to Spring Training.  If there had been a sense of fun to what they were doing, after the loss to Italy, the US had sort of lost the plot.  

Still Watching Baseball, The Oscars

Emmylou enjoys some fake corn

Baseball

Well, to my surprise, the US beat the Dominican Republic in the semifinal game of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, and now we're going to see if they face off against Italy or Venezuela.  I'm done making predictions, as I assumed Japan would sweep this year, and they're out.

It is very, very strange to watch what feels like play-off baseball in March, but it's also a heck of a warm up to the season.  Getting to see all the DR players pop off against the US was oddly satisfying, even if they lost (only 2-1), knowing the Dominican Republic has a population under 12 million, and a GDP of about $130 billion.  

World Baseball Classic in ON

If soccer has the FIFA World Cup, baseball has the World Baseball Classic.

The tournament started this weekend in four cities across the globe.  Houston, Miami, San Juan, and Tokyo.  There are twenty teams from 20 countries participating - so if you ever wanted to see how Czechia would stack up against, say, Aaron Judge, this is your tournament.

No, I am not sure why they aren't playing in Europe, because the aforementioned Czechia as well as the Netherlands, Italy and England are in the tournament.  I assume its because they know Americans and Japanese fans will show up, and aren't sure about the people in Brussels or whatever.  

But hear me out - Mexico is insanely good.  Let them play at home.

It is *a lot* of baseball to try to watch - so we've been watching Japan, Puerto Rico, USA and - last night - Mexico.  No, I don't know exactly why Puerto Rico has their own team, nor why Chinese Taipei has its own team, but not China.  

The make-up of the teams is fascinating.  Baseball is a big concern in some of the participating/ qualified countries, and less so in others.  The US has good participation from top-tier players, so look for Bregman, Schwarber, Bryce Harper, etc...  There's issues with getting pitchers to play, but one thing we have a lot of in this world is pitchers, so we're covered.  But, yeah, apparently there are insurance issues, etc... by saying you'll play a tournament before the official MLB season starts.  

You'll also see familiar players from, say, Mexico (Kirk is Mexican, for example, which I did not know).  

Japan has MLB marquee talent - you're going to know these guys.  Ohtani, one of the best to ever pick up a bat, is there.  My guy Suzuki from the Cubs is there (and hitting dingers).

But who are the players from Australia?  Italy?  Who picks up a baseball in Brasil instead of a soccer ball?  I know one team I watched play, they had a 17 year old kid out there pitching - and he was *good*.  Talk about getting scouted.

The mood in the stands is celebratory.  In Japan, between the acoustics of the Tokyo Dome and enthusiasm for the sport, it sounds more like a futbol game than a Sunday at the ballpark.  In Houston when Mexico was playing, it was a raucous crowd.  Italy has an Espresso maker in the dugout?  Everyone is bringing their own vibe to the games.

If you happen to see this on March 9th - you're going to want to tune in for the US/ Mexico game on Fox at 8:00 Eastern.  I promise, it'll be a good time.

Dodgers Win World Series in 10 innings in Game 7

After the Cubs lost out to the Brewers in the NLDS, I wasn't sure if I'd stick with MLB through the post-season (but I always do these days).  

As a Cubs guy, I mostly follow National League, but was vaguely aware the Blue Jays, over in the American League, were having a great season.  I was also aware the Dodgers had loaded themselves up with talent valued the highest in the MLB and some of the best players plucked from Japan on their roster.  

You can choose to be jealous of other teams having Shohei Ohtani or enjoy watching one of the best to ever do it get to do his thing.  And that's true now of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound as well.  But the team came in at a highly respectable .574 entering the playoffs in a competitive NL West.  

Cubs 2025 Season Ends

Well, dang.

The Chicago Cubs made it to the 2025 National League Division Series versus the Milwaukee Brewers - something that hadn't really occurred before.  We lost two games, then won two games, but lost the fifth game in Milwaukee.  

But I'm calling it a great season.  

We started with the Tokyo Series, and then played lights out through the All-Star Game.  The back half of the season was more uneven, but we pulled out of a nose dive to make the play-offs.

Our Wild Card round was against San Diego, and I wasn't sure how we'd do, but the answer was "just fine".   I guess we had never played the Brewers before in the NLDS, so that's neat.  And we did pretty good against a team who had a lot more rest than the Cubs did coming in.

The team this year was so much fun to watch, which, really, is all you can ask for.  Pete Crow-Armstrong (PCA to fans), and my guy Seiya Suzuki, were in a weird pairing as the two outfielders wound up with dozens of home runs each, often keeping up with one another in the homerun count.  Pete would get one, then Seiya would get one the same game or the next.  Crow-Armstrong wound up with 31, and Suzuki ended up with 32 - not exactly Roger Maris, but pretty good!  

Dansby Swanson was phenomenal as Short Stop, and we got lucky with Michael Busch at first base.  Work horses Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ produced consistently all season on offense and defense.  Kyle Tucker was solid as both a fielder and at bat.  Carson Kelly delivered as both catcher and at bat, too.  And having Justin Turner in the dugout and playing sometimes was really cool.

Pitching could be spotty.  We lost Steele immediately.  Imanaga suffered an injury that he didn't fully recover from.  And the rest of the rotation was up and down and unpredictable.  But, hey, they got us where they got us.

Anyway, great season, Cubs!  Would have been fun to have made the NLCS, but I'll take a 3-2 game NLDS series against a team as good as the Brewers are this year.  

WNBA, NWSL and Cubs - Summertime Sports

Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries

I don't really think of myself as a "sports guy", but it is true that I watch *a lot* of sports.  Apparently I am that guy, in my way.

Cubs Baseball

PCA bringing the Mariah Carey magic

The Chicago Cubs have had a good spring, and as we roll into summer, if injuries don't diminish the roster too much, we could be quite good this season.  While acquired talent like the Astros' Kyle Tucker have been huge boons to the team, our returning roster is looking better and happier than the past two or three seasons.  Pete Crow-Armstrong in Center Field is batting like crazy, Seiya Suzuki is batting a reliable .262 and has at least 13 home runs.  Both of our catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, can hit, so it doesn't matter who is in on any given game day. Seiya also looks to be the lead for .RBI's across MLB at the moment.

I know the season is a grind, but it's fun while it's fun.  

Cubs Baseball Has Wildest Game

I love a box score that tells an insane story.  

I was not watching yesterday, just checking the score online, and things were getting nuts.  So while I worked on some things, I noted that the game was going bananas and tuned in.

But that box score couldn't tell the whole story.  From @OptaSTATS

Condensed game from Marquee Network below: