Has so much ever happened in one month? March is always an exciting month for sports, with the NBA and NHL playoff races heating up, baseball starting spring training, and, of course, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The past month, however, has surpassed all expectations in terms of excitement and sheer volume.
First, we have the NHL. Now, although the Capitals are obviously out of the playoff hunt (but very much in the hunt for the No. 1 draft pick), it's been an exciting month on the rink. With the return of the Olympians, the teams have been gearing up for the playoffs.
At the trading deadline we also saw a record number of deals, with some major trades taking place. Montreal sent standout goalie Jose Theodore to Colorado, obviously not learning from the Patrick Roy trade.
Meanwhile, Boston continued its descent into the dregs of the league by inexplicably trading the talented Sergei Samsonov to Edmonton and then firing its general manager shortly after.
Of course, it is impossible to ignore March Madness. March is synonymous with college hoops, and this month in particular will be remembered for years.
With the sound of brackets (strictly for entertainment purposes, of course) being busted everywhere, the mid-major conferences stormed through the opening rounds -- much to the chagrin of Billy Packer and Jim Nantz -- and upset some of the powerhouses, giving hope to small schools everywhere.
Emerging from the pack of one-round wonders, the 11th-seeded George Mason Patriots have battled their way to the Final Four by defeating top seeded U-Conn., a team many picked to win it all, in the most improbable upset in years. Can they continue the run and defeat Florida to advance to the championship game? Either way, I think that we can feel better about the 75-35 loss AU suffered to Mason in the BB&T Classic a few months back.
Finally, with an eye to April, baseball returned in the form of spring training and the inaugural World Baseball Classic. Spring training has been fairly boring -- with the exception of the Alfonso Soriano fiasco -- but the WBC was a rousing success.
The United States came into the tournament with the expectation of cruising to the finals. These plans were interrupted, however, when it lost to Canada. That's worth repeating. The United States lost to Canada, in baseball. Not hockey, mind you, that was a few paragraphs ago, but baseball. After that, it was only a matter of time before they were eliminated from the tournament, losing to Mexico and South Korea in the second round.
I suppose it was to be expected though, seeing as how Alex Rodriguez decided to play for the United States. The sheer unpredictability of the tournament befitted the month of March, with an improbable final between Japan and Cuba, who had upset the Dominican Dream Team earlier, with Japan emerging victorious. All the tournament's critics were proven wrong, with tremendous fan support across the world and much more exciting baseball being played there than in a split-squad game between the Royals and Devil Rays.
All in all, March provided us some of the most exciting sports action that we have seen in a long time. If you weren't lucky enough to travel to Costa Rica, Florida or some other warm-weather destination, you could have planted yourself in front of a television over spring break and enjoyed almost non-stop sports. Not that that's necessarily healthy for you, but it was an option.
I think it's safe to say that it's for this reason that we love March.
