For all of the crap that Richie Sexson gets here in Seattle, Thursday’s home run was his sixth of the season and 100th since becoming a Mariner. Richie hit the century mark in 463 games, that’s the fastest in team history. Alex Rodriguez reached 100 Mariner home runs in 470 games. I am a huge fan of Big Sexy, but I never thought I’d say that Richie was a more successful Mariner than A-Rod in any category. Nice work Richie, forget about the boos, and the strike outs, and just bask in the glow of 100. But not for too long. Your team needs you. And remember Richie, don’t swing at sliders in the dirt… they eat you up.

There is some good news and some bad news.

Good news first:

• If Memphis could hit free throws, I would have locked up my second consecutive Vigilante Sports contests

Now for the Bad news:

• Memphis cannot in fact hit free throws when it counts
• Mario Chalmers can drain a prayer of 3 pointer to tie the game

All that to say (through gritted teeth), congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks who picked up the 2008 NCAA National Championship. Also congratulations to Mark Smith, who bested everyone in the 2008 Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge.

I do have to say that Mark and I both picked 45 games correctly. His counted for more and he picked up the win. I will definitely be back to bring the still non-existent trophy back to it’s rightful owner… ME!

It’s Mid-March and the brackets were released today. It’s time for the Third Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. We’ve have 2 great years, let’s make it 3. Last year we doubled the amount of entries in our Challenge. Let’s do that again. If you’re interested please post a comment. It will submit your email address to me, but not show it to the public. I’ll take care of your email address (ie. not share it with anyone else). So, submit a comment and I’ll get you an invite to the greatest (or at least the most fun) bracket challenge around.

There hasn’t been any money on the line and there still won’t be… but fame and glory will be yours as you might add your name next to mine on the non-existent Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge Championship Trophy. And that’s not too bad.

If you participated last year, you should have already received an email inviting you back.

Lance Briggs signed a 6 year, $36 million contract to stay with the Bears. Bernard Berrian was signed by the Minnesota Vikings.

The signing of Briggs helps ease fears about the Bears defense. He has been consistently one of the best outside linebackers in the NFL. Especially with Brian Urlacher’s back and neck issues, the Bears had to hold onto Briggs.

Berrian on the other hand would have been a luxury. The money needs to be spent elsewhere. With no proven quarterback to throw him the deep ball and no other receiver to take away the double team, Berrian was bound to be under utilized at best.

The Bears front office did the right thing in both situations. Something that must feel so out of character. Let’s see if that continues as they prepare for the draft.

The games are over, the chips stale, and the victory is oh so sweet. Once again, I came out on top. I was successful in combining correct picks with my confidence in those selections. Congratulations to Mark Smith who picked 24 of the games correctly (Derek McCarthy came in with 23 and myself and my sister scored 22 correct picks). But folks, it wasn’t just about picking the games correctly, they needed to be weighted correctly to score you enough points to dethrone me… and no one was able to do that.

Below are the final results. There will be another chance to knock me off my high horse. There will be a March Madness tournament here on Vigilante Sports. So come on back for that. I certainly plan on taking that contest too.

A bright 46 to you. Some buddies and I are competitively prognosticating how many points the Patriots will dump onto the Jets this Sunday. Following are our geusses (at first I was going to omit the names to protect the missed guessers, but since everyone still carries a nickname in their back pocket, they are the only ones who will know who’s who). See predicted number in ‘bold’ font…

Pats Points Versus Jets
Feef - 70 (love that one)
Hoom - I can’t drive 55
Shafular - How many days does Kiefer get to spend in the clink?… 48!
Ritzer - Go ahead, I dare you to play it with The Wizard of Oz, for a ‘Dark Side of the Rainbow’ experience: Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is exactly 43 minutes long.
Tomes - Waving his home run fair to win the game… 27!
Jedi - Wants to wake up to a score of 33. Wants to wake up to a score of 33. Wants to wake up to a score of 33 (Groundhog Day is the 33rd day of the year).
Bushes – 38 Shill’s number & the number of slots on an American Roulette wheel
T.H. - John Steinbeck dubbed it “The Mother Road’. What is Route 66?
Stoit - The Stoner 63 is a semi-famous machine gun used by the U.S. military from 1963 up until about 1971. I believe a Stoner 63 is what the Jets will need this Sunday to pull off what Stoit predicts — a win in which the Jets score seventy points of their own (or the JPVP ratio).
Eh-Prop – Because 46 in Japanese can be pronounced as “yon roku”, and “yoroshiku”（よろしく） means “my best regards” in Japanese, people sometimes use 46 for greeting.

Winner of this contest gets unmitigated bragging rights for 48 hours, to be scrupulously timed, immediately following the conclusion of the football contest.

Loser gets to step to the plate against Clemens with a cracked bat and take their chances battling the lesser known HGH-rage as he flings your shattered stick back at you on your weak nubber to the mound.

So, 46 to you and have fun watching…

I wrote extensively about my distaste for the NFL Network and the general crappiness of charging extra for games.  Turns out, The NFL wants it’s service bundled within standard cable packages, and many (most?) cable, satellite, etc., carriers are doing just that.  In this area, Cox Communications and Verizon FiOS both offer the NFL Network as a standard bundle.  It’s neither higher nor lower than having ESPN.  Since ESPN carries every Monday night game, I cannot carry that grudge.

 So, from my perspective, my ire is turned towards the growing behemoth that is Comcast — but, before shaking this giant, I’m going to do a little more research on the ongoing dispute between the NFL & Comcast — for it is upon this dispute that the pass to play service is being instituted by Comcast.  For now, I’ll have to just say, ‘Booooooooooooo Comcast’ and change my cable subscription.

Gonna try something new around here. Gonna run a College Bowl game pick’em contest. We’re gonna use ESPN’s “College Bowl Mania” application. Click here to fill out your entry and join our Vigilante Sports group. We’ll have a banner on the sidebar here to click through to the contest page. Share this with your friends.

Let’s see who really knows what they’re talking about this College Bowl season.

I know he emphatically said that he was the coach at LSU, and the he would be the coach at LSU, and that the media was doing him and his team a disservice by reporting that he would take the job coaching the Michigan Wolverines. He also said that he felt bad for Michigan fans because of the rumors. Blah, blah, blah.

LSU won the SEC Championship, and earned a spot in the BCS National Championship game. Good for them. Sunday Michigan AD said that he has not spoken with Miles about the position. I’m not sure that he has to. I’m pretty sure everyone is aware that Miles is the leading candidate. It seems that the job is his for the taking.

Will Miles stand up in front of the media, and his team, and the LSU chancellor and say that he can’t wait to get to Ann Arbor? Hell no. What he will do is go through the back channels, let Bill Martin and all involved at Michigan know that he is very interested. They’ll keep the seat warm. Trust me. Les Miles is the guy they want. He’s a Bo guy. He’s a Michigan guy.

It will take some deep pockets to secure Miles, but Michigan is consistently at the top of the list of NCAA merchandising, and licensing. So money isn’t the issue. They have it. They may need to wait until January 8th to spend it. But they will.

Pats/Giants game will be on the NFL Network.  The ‘Network’ folly began Thursday and it was bound to happen - games that we care to watch are out of the ‘free’ (because we do pay cable bills) TV’s sphere of influence.  If it was on regular TV, the Pats’ last game of the season, the Giants game, (if their season continues on its current path) would likely break viewership records for in-season, and some postseason, football games.

They are cutting out the casual fan in an attempt to convert them to zealous fans.  They may not be cutting off their nose, but they are appearing pretty ugly, with a shaved eyebrow or two.  In this ADHD world of a million different media outlets, I’m saying their strategy will have the opposite effect and they will lose more than they gain (although, possibly increasing bar & pub attendance on these gamedays).  This will in effect cut out literally millions of the casual fans.  130 million watch the Superbowl - 20 million watch in-season games. 

It seems, the NFL would make more money with all its future contracts (TV, licensing, etc.) if it could show the increase in viewership for in-season games; now two of the mostly likely games to help that cause have been taken away. 

It’s all marketing and numbers of impressions for the companies connecting themselves to the game, and now the number of people watching - at the perfect time to market to the widest audience - will dwindle.  If the NFL isn’t careful, that may not be the only thing that diminishes.

There may be some NFL dollar-in/dollar-out formula that steels itself against this argument, but for longevity, between absolute dollars and absolute people numbers, I’ll always take the fans.  Everything else will follow.