Wednesday Morning Five-Pack

Need a break from work today? Try this 5-pack of sports goodness...

• Congrats to the 2010-11 Patriot League Champions, the Bucknell Bison. I don't want to sound too stuck-up, but it's about time that the trophy came back home. American and Lehigh tried to treat it well, but it needs to be in Lewisburg. With that being said, I am a little concerned about our game on Wednesday against Army (the only conference team to beat us) and equally concerned about either Holy Cross or American in the final. On paper we should win, but anything can happen in the tournament. If we don't win we still go to the NIT, but the NIT is the NIT...it's not the NCAA Tournament. We need to stay focused and get the job done. 'Ray for the Orange and the Blue!!
• In what can be considered a very pleasant surprise, Carlos Beltran has decided to move to Right Field. I know that I have been down on Beltran more than the average Mets fan so I am just very very happy with this development, especially since he appeared to be entirely selfish last year with his rehab. Now I am not naive enough to think that this current decision is only about the team. In fact, it is about getting a new deal. Beltran knows that his next contract will come as a DH so he needs to stay healthy and produce in 2011. His knee is totally shot. He is smart enough to know the strain playing Center Field will put on it. He needs Right Field and luckily the team needs him in Right Field too. It is a perfect match for both parties.
• FIFA awarded CONCACAF a 4th World Cup spot and I have to say, it's about time. I know that we are not the deepest confederation (their is a big dropoff between the 4th and 5th teams), but our top 3 teams have consistently outperformed (38% winning pct) their counterparts in Africa (35%) and Asia (30%) over the past 4 World Cups. Again, I understand that top to bottom Africa might be deeper (8 teams in FIFA Top 50) than CONCACAF (4 teams), but adding a 4th team to CONCACAF help improve the quality within the confederation. No longer will it only be the US and Mexico - now Canada, Jamaica, T&T, El Salvador and Guatemala will have a legit shot at joining those two and Costa Rica/Honduras at the biggest sporting event in the World. With that incentive within reach, their will be no excuse not to beef up the effort.
• Doug Gottlieb of ESPN has created a Best Sports Video game bracket. I'm not sure if it is because we are the same age, but I could not agree any more with any of his top seeds: Tecmo Super Bowl, Mike Tyson's Punchout, NBA Jam and NHL 94. Those are the original titans of the genre and deserve to be recognized as such. We have all played Punchout and NBA Jam, but they actually weren't my favorites fo the four. I loved NHL'94 and I still LOOVVVE Tecmo Super Bowl. I don't play any of these new fangled video games so I don't have too much authority on it, but in my mind there is no comparison between Tecmo Super Bowl and any of the current stuff. Some of my other favorites to make the list: Blades of Steel, Tecmo Super NBA Basketball and RBI Baseball. Just great stuff.
• In light of Monday night's game game against Phoenix, I was planning on writing an open letter to D-Will today, asking him to reflect on the potential that the Nets have. I didn't see the game, but the highlights showed one thing: the crowd was TOTALLY into it. They were going apeshit - something that hasn't been seen in Jersey since the J-Kidd days. I was going to talk about the building blocks, the draft picks and the cap space. Then I realized that Devin Kharpertian of TrueHoops did a better job, so I will point you to his stuff instead.