Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008

Four Corners: The best sporting event is ...

March Madness

March Madness is like a box of donuts ... I wish I could have it every single day, but I can't, because that would be too much goodness and I believe in balance.

So the Madness is resigned to March and the donuts to an occasional breakfast (or a thoughtful send-off).

But I digress. No sporting event can touch the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Not the Super Bowl, not the Daytona 500, not The Masters, not even a baseball player telling the truth about using steroids.

I admit Eli Manning to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII is the epitome of why I fell in love with sports in the first place, but there are a dozen of those moments every March.

Besides donuts (Mmmm ... donuts), March Madness is a lot like life, too.

The beginning and end is kind of inconsequential. It's the journey that matters.

It's Princeton beating UCLA in '96, Bryce Drew and Valparaiso beating Mississippi at the buzzer in '98, Steve Nash and Santa Clara upsetting Arizona in '93 and the Weber States of the world beating the North Carolinas.

But best of all, Kobe Bryant never tainted college basketball, so it's still pure.

I'll see you soon, Mr. Bean.

Opening Day

Here's a vote to make Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season a national holiday.

My world doesn't stop for the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Daytona this or Indy that, and seldom does the World Series capture and maintain my interest. But life comes to a complete standstill with the arrival of Opening Day, a time when every team and every fan has hope that this will be the season even when reality says otherwise.

Opening Day is more fun than opening presents you've been staring at under the tree for weeks at Christmas time. And while you can tear through your presents in no time, Opening Day provides baseball from morning to night, on every other channel. It's the one day the kids know that Spongebob takes a back seat to Kruk and Kuip, Ray Fosse and Ken Korach, and Peter Gammons.

There are those who think MLB's 162-game schedule is 190 games too long -- and none of them will be invited to my Opening Day barbecue. In a perfect world, the season would last 300 games and 365 days. It might be run by morons and played by scoundrels, but baseball is still the best sport.

No phone calls will be accepted and yard will just have to wait on March 31. I'll be too busy watching ball, abusing the remote and loving it.

NBA Draft

It's where Hall of Fame careers begin.

Michael Jordan to the Bulls. Patrick Ewing to the Knicks. LeBron James (pictured) to the Cavaliers.

The NBA Draft is sport's finest day because every fan's team has the chance to greatly alter its future -- for better or worse.

It's a day filled with great anticipation, power-shifting trades and unrivaled anxiety and jubilation and for the selected athletes and their families.

What separates the NBA's draft from the NFL's is the impact on each franchise: Unlike football, which is more of a "team and scheme" sport, one impact basketball player can turn a mediocre team into a contender. This year's draft alone will feature four collegiate point guards (Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Darren Collison and Jerryd Bayless) capable of providing a fast-break presence to even the most sluggish of squads.

As fans, we sit and critique our team's terrible picks (Ike Diogu over Danny Granger? Joe Smith?! Todd Fuller!!??), or quickly research a foreign player from a country we've never heard of and with a name we can't pronounce.

And you'll never have a 55-10 blowout.

Super Bowl

It's one of the most watched sporting events every year -- even if it's just for the commercials for some.

Millions of dollars exchange hands, publicly and privately, with bets on everything from the final score to the coin flip.

It's the ultimate game in America's most popular sport.

With an event this big, it's no surprise that its name is "Super."

Ask the record 97.5 million viewers who watched the New York Giants thwart New England's bid to be the NFL's first 19-0 team.

Ask the Nevada sports books, who lost a record $2.6 million to bettors after Super Bowl XLII.

The Super Bowl is where good players become legends. Joe Montana. Terry Bradshaw. Adam Vinatieri (we all know he won those games, not Tom Brady. Notice who here has four rings).

Sure, there have been some duds due to blowouts or games not living up to the hype, but we still watch anyway. Advertisers still pay seven figures for 30 seconds of air time.

Besides, what other event draws attention from people who don't even like the sport?

When it comes to American sports events, Super Bowl is king.