Strike one!

Yes, I know. I made a serious error in yesterday's blog entry, and I blame it on the brain freeze I got last night while drinking a tropical fruit milkshake (which, I must admit, was quite tasty). I promise I will be more careful next time!

By the way, the error I made does not change my stance on Billy Donovan's future. I know I had said in an earlier post that it was 75%-25% will bolt for the Kentucky job. I'd like to revise this slightly: if Florida's stars all declare for the NBA draft, I'll say there's a 75% chance that he'll go to the NBA, a 24% chance that he'll go to Kentucky, and a 1% chance that he'll stay at Florida. I really see no reason for Donovan to stay at Florida, when his "dream job" is available, as well as the millions of dollars available with an NBA job. Besides, Donovan is young enough to try his hand at the NBA, and assuming he doesn't succeed, he can return to the NCAAs and still have time to build another "dynasty."

Now, this may be blasphemous to say, as I am a UCLA fan, but I'd really like to see Florida's "Fab Four" return and make a run at a three-peat, for two reasons. One, I want the Bruins to have another shot at downing the defending champs, and two, I would love to see Florida do something that only one other team has ever done--win three straight NCAA championships.

- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is mulling lifetime bans for players that commit "serious criminal incidents." He adds that he has no intention on levying lifetime bans on Cincinnati WR Chris Henry or Titans' CB Pacman Jones. I can't say I blame the Commish. The NFL is seriously going down a slippery slope (*cough* Cincinnati *cough*), and how much more is the league going to tolerate before someone throws down the hammer? As far as the two players mentioned above are concerned, if I were the Commish, I would make examples out of these two guys and suspend Pacman for the 2007 season, and Henry eight games . Why the harsh punishments? At last count, these two guys were involved in a total of fourteen incidents--to be fair, Pacman was involved in ten of them.

Let's talk some baseball! I'll start with my AL East (aka the "We Get Way Too Much Attention" division) predictions:

- As it has been for the last several years, the AL East is a two-team race, between the Red Sox rotation and the Yankees' bats (sorry Toronto). Boston's bullpen got strenghtened by Jonathon Papelbon's return to the closer role, and Dice-K looks like the real deal. The Yankees lost Gary Sheffield, but they still have Jeter, Giambi, Abreu, A-Fraud, Matsui, etc. That being said, how can I pick against the Yankees? Schilling is aging, Beckett isn't the pitcher he was in Florida, the bullpen is still suspect, at best, and Andy Pettitte may prove to be one of the more underrated signings of the year. There's also that Roger Clemens fellow floating around...(and if you expect me to believe that he's going anywhere besides the Yankees, you must be smoking something awfully potent! Could I have some?)

- I'll leave the all-out slugfest that is the AL Central for a later post, and move on to the AL West. Again, I see this as a two-team race (no, Texas, Eric Gagne will not bring you an AL West championship, and Seattle, be prepared to lose Ichiro after this season). The Angels desperately needed a bat to protect Vlad, and all they got was Garoid Matthews, Jr., who's a leadoff hitter, by the way. Oakland lost quite a bit this offseason--Zito, Big Hurt--and yet I've seen some experts still pick Oakland over the Los Angeles Angels not of Los Angeles. If Oakland has to rely on Rich Harden leading them to the AL West crown (and I think they may), I'm going to have to pick LAAnoLA to win the AL West.

Next time, I'll talk about the NL East and NL West, and save the two Central divisions for a future post.