March Madness With a Toddler

Today starts one of the least productive work weeks of the year in America. Thursday and Friday will be stalled due to massive live streaming of NCAA tournament games in offices nationwide.  Some die hard fans may even choose to take vacation days so they can substitute cold beer and wings for TPS reports.

The lack of production starts today, however, not Thursday. All around the country right now people are filling out their brackets. Workers are meeting at the coffee pot to argue who is the better upset choice, Sienna or Murray State. Which 12 seed will beat a 5 seed this year? Can Kentucky's freshmen carry their team to a title like Carmelo did back in 2003? The discussion rages on.

Since I am a lowly worker bee I don't care about lost production. I love March Madness. The first weekend is quite possibly the greatest sporting event of the year. It has always provided me with a lot of enjoyment, and I expect more of the same starting Thursday.

This year, however, I find myself with different priorities as the tournament approaches. Last year in my March Madness post I shared a video of my Arkansas Razorbacks winning the National Championship in 1994. At that time this was the most important and relevant basketball video in my life.

This year there is a much more relevant basketball video that I would like to share. I hope you enjoy this video of my all time favorite slam dunk artist.

Developing Sports Related Skills

Braden is old enough now that he has basketball goals, a tee ball set, and about 43 other balls of various shapes, sizes, and colors.  All boys that I know like balls.  Many of them choose to make it their first word. That is one of several words that Braden currently spews forth from his toothy grin.

He constantly pics up a ball, or says ball, or points at a ball, or does all of these at once.  Usually when I say throw it to Daddy he winds up and gives his ball of choice a toss.  Sometimes it comes to me.  Sometimes it just trickles in front of Braden's feet. Other times it goes backwards.  But this is just the beginning.

It will take a while before Braden develops his pitching and/or quarterbacking skills.  In the meantime he is working on developing other talents.  Basketball was his first love.  He has had a small goal for nearly a year now.  When he was big enough to sit up we started working on the dunk.  Eventually he would get the ball and dunk it home when asked.

Now we have a little Winnie the Pooh basket ball hoop in the tub.  When I say give me a dunk, Braden searches out a floating ball and turns to throw it down.  He can go either left or right.  Sometimes he can dunk without even looking.

More exciting for me as a huge baseball fan is his new love of his plastic baseball bat. Granted he uses it most often to hit things other than his baseball, as I detailed in yesterday's post.  He hits people, which is bad.  He hits toys.  He hits balls on the ground ala a little Tiger Woods. Once he even whacked a ball right off the Christmas tree. Sometimes though he puts the ball on the tee and takes his cuts.  Braden does not have the technique of an Albert Pujols, but he is able to make contact with the ball.  Eye hand coordination....Check.

I certainly don't want to be a stage dad if that is the right term. I won't be putting videos of his baby sporting prowess on You Tube (at least not yet). Braden can take up whatever interests he chooses. But as a die hard sports fan it sure is comforting to know that he is developing the skills necessary should he choose any athletic pursuits.

Sports in a Marriage

I am a bonified sports junkie. I love the big three baseball, basketball, and football. I have followed a team in each of these sports ever since I was a kid. I still do that today, but some other things have changed. I once heard Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio say that as you get older you have to trim your sports tree. I don't always agree with him but he definitely has this one right on. When you are younger and single you can follow every sport you want. You have no real responsibilities so you can spend every night watching TV. As you get older and have other duties with family and work you have to cut back on following some sports. For instance there might not be time to watch the random Saturday afternoon badminton match any more.

There was a time in my life, during college and shortly after I graduated, that I absolutely watched every single Cardinals game. This was before the advent of Tivo mind you. Every summer night during college you could find me sitting on the couch with a cold one tuned into the game. After I graduated I usually took my party to the bar at Applebee's. There I got control of the TV from the bartender and watched the Cards like it was my own personal viewing room. Everyone else had to watch or go somewhere else.

Those aren't the only sports freedoms the younger man can enjoy. I also watched nearly every single college basketball game on TV. I love college hoops so I would watch Big Monday, Super Tuesday, Whatever Wednesday and so on. I was a little over the top with sports, but if I was home that is what I was watching. I didn't watch TV dramas. I either watched Sports, Seinfeld, or maybe a movie. Now with a wife and kid things are different.

Arica is very understanding. She finds other ways to busy herself when I must watch sports. I have trimmed my tree back to the Cardinals and the Razorbacks. For some people that would still be a ton of sports but not for me. That is the bare minimum. I am not complaining. Spending time with my family is much more important than watching total strangers play games inside the television. I am writing about this today because it is one of the great sporting days of the year. Today is opening day of the baseball season. There was a game last night but it doesn't count as opening day in my mind. Today the St. Louis Cardinals will start the season in pursuit of another pennant. If you are unaware of my love for baseball you can read about it here. Being opening day I am sitting at my desk wearing my bright red Cardinals T-shirt today. I may be a grown man, but much like David Puddy, you gotta support the team. I don't know if many of my readers are baseball fans. I do know that my friend over at Daddy Files is a big Red Sox fan so he is probably excited today too.



Later tonight the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship will be played. I haven't missed a championship game in forever. Now the trick for me tonight is to watch these events while still maintaining my duties as father and husband. It is a tricky thing to pull off but I can do it. I am thankful that I cut back on so many unnecessary sports events. Doing that makes nights like tonight possible.

March Madness with a New Dad

Let me join the millions of other budding basketball geniuses who will use their personal space this week to write about the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. I hate to be a follower, but the tournament is way to important for me to skip over. So for this week you can call me a sheep. I will watch as closely as possible with a 4 month old child even though my beloved Razorbacks had the worst season in team history and will be watching like me. I can still find rooting interest in the tourney by rooting against some bad guys like John Calipari or the more popular rooting for my bracket.

With or without the Razorbacks the NCAA tournament is one of my favorite events of the year. I actually think it is the greatest sporting event of all. The Super Bowl is the bigger one day affair, but the opening weekend, Thursday through Sunday, of the big dance can't be topped for excitement. When you follow that on through to the final four you have a recipe for a great sporting event. To be more precise it is a great sporting month.

Much of the interest in the tournament is because of how well it sets up for gambling. I am not a gambler outside of a few hands of poker and betting on the ponies. I do however enjoy picking my brackets and comparing with friends. I have been doing this as long as I can remember. I remember back before the Internet my Dad and I tracked the tournament using the brackets in the newspaper. We would keep copies on the back of the couch so we could easily reach them and mark the latest winners and losers. It will be loads of fun to pick brackets with Braden some day. I'm sure he will enjoy keeping up with it as a child just like I did. This year he will certainly watch with me even though he has no idea what he is seeing. Arica has noticed that basketball is one of his favorite things to watch on TV. I guess all the people running around give him a lot of movement to focus on.

Starting this weekend the NCAA Basketball Tournament will be a part of Braden's life. I hope it will be something we enjoy together for a long time. More than that I hope he gets a chance to enjoy the ultimate thrill of the tournament like I did back in 1994. That wonderful tournament 15 years ago gave me the thrill of seeing my favorite team, the Razorbacks, win a National Championship. I sure would like to experience that kind of fun again with my son.

Arkansas Beats Texas

I know this is a new dad blog but I had to write about my beloved Hogs beating arch rival #7 ranked Texas last night. Arkansas basketball had been largely irrelevant for some time but this year's team is trying to change that. Arkansas has now beat 2 top 10 teams in a week (Oklahoma and Texas). This team under Coach Pelphrey plays with an intensity and toughness that hog fans have not seen since the days of Nolan Richardson. Most of that is due to Coach Pelphrey's own personality. He recruits players that will play with the same fire that he played with and currently coaches with. After sleepy Stan Heath and his band of care free knuckleheads it is a treat to watch a team that plays as hard as this one. The Hogs have 2 stars in freshman point guard Courtney Fortson and Junior post player Michael Washington. Fortson makes this team go. Without him they would not win anything. His toughness and leadership sets the tone. He has amazing ball handling and passing skills. Whether he scores or not he is making this team better by setting up his teammates and handling the ball about 90% of the time. He is a true leader and will be a star. Washington sat behind a big group of upperclassmen post players for his first 2 years. He never found a roll with that team. Now he is the entire inside game all to himself. He has good size and great quickness for his size. He has proven to be a difficult match up for everyone we have faced including player of the year front runner Blake Griffin. Washington is currently putting up 20 points and 10 rebounds a game which is enough to put him on the short list of best players in the SEC. This team has proven it can beat anyone at home but the true measure of their success will be determined by how they perform on the road. With the effort and toughness they have displayed so far I would not bet against them. GO HOGS!