Morning Musings

Some tragic baseball news to start this post.  As you probably have already heard, Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver just hours after his first start of what looked to be a promising year for the young pitcher.  Adenhart tossed six shutout innings, and was surely in high spirits when some moron got behind the wheel and prematurely ended his life.  I'm sure there will be many pieces covering Nick's life in the next couple of days, so I won't go too much into that.  My experience with Adenhart hearkens back to MLB 08' The Show, where he was often coveted in the later rounds of Franchise Mode fantasy drafts due to his high potential rating.  Adenhart looked to be on the road to fulfilling that unlimited potential this year.  Now we can add Adenhart to the list of athletes that passed away much too soon: Lenny Bias, Pat Tillman, Korey Stringer, Sean Taylor etc.  R.I.P Nick Adenhart.

Now, onto less sombre subjects.  

The first round of The Masters is in the books, with Chad Campbell jumping out to the early lead.  If you haven't read The Swinging Gates' debut blog on this subject, I suggest reading it before you read on here.  The one thing that everyone dreads, Tiger being out of it, did not happen on the first day.  Tiger shot two under par, leaving him five shots back and within striking distance.  Barring a Roy McAvoy breakdown, he should be in the hunt come Sunday, making The Masters must-see-TV.  Perhaps the biggest travesty of this year's edition of The Masters has been the lack of coverage afforded to Padraig Harrington, winner of the last two majors.  Had Tiger won the British and PGA Championship successively, all we would be hearing about would be how he has a chance at the slightly-cheapened-but-still-other-worldly-impressive feat of the Grand Slam.  However, since Harrington is is still not Tiger (and still only equally as famous as his poker playing cousin Action Dan Harrington) he does not get the hype that he deserves.  As it is, Harrington is four shots back at three under par, well within striking distance to add the third notch to the grand slam.  

This Saturday, the trek will be made with some com padres' to Ann Arbor, Michigan to partake in the Spring Game for the University of Michigan football team.  Word out of spring practice is that the offense is showing much improvement over the "offense" (with emphasis on the quotations) that was fielded last year.  Much of that will be due to an improved offensive line that is very deep with competition.  The running game figures to improve, and the passing game can do nothing but improve with Tate Forcier under (or behind, in this case) center.  Early reports say that Forcier is impressive throwing on the run, and is improving every day.  On Saturday, I will attempt to decipher if Forcier is actually a pre-pubescent boy trying to play QB for a Division 1 football team.  Even with Forcier impressing this spring, expect to see Florida QB Denard Robinson take some snaps for the Wolverines this fall.  Robinson is becoming a legend before he ever steps foot on campus as he breaks of some freakishly fast times on the track.  Robinson's 10.28 100m (or is it yard? I always forget) is the 2nd fastest in the nation to this point.  The thought of him pulling the ball out of Minor's belly and zipping past a defensive end stuck in cement brings a chubby to my pants.  Look for pictures to go up on the blog sometime in the days following Saturday.

Until then, never run the toss sweep.

Coach Deuce