Chalk Talk and Torpedo Bats
The Key for the week of March 31, 2025
All Chalk on the Riverwalk
So, you laughed at the person in your office who picked all number one seeds to make it to the Final Four, did you?
Well, laugh again.
For only the second time since 2008, all four top seeds made it to the final weekend of the college basketball season in San Antonio. And, frankly, the Elite Eight games for the most part were hardly barn-burners. With the lack of Cinderellas (and thanks to the transfer portal, we may never see them again after the first weekend) it’s the four teams who have been at or near the top of the polls all season, slugging it out for the championship. Are you happy with that? Ben notes that with a few exceptions, these are the four best teams that money could buy. Should be a slugfest, especially on Saturday. Grab the popcorn.
Meet the new Reds, same as the old Reds?
Hope springs eternal at the beginning of baseball season, and nowhere has hope had more room to grow that in Cincinnati, where new manager Terry Francona brought his World Series rings and considerable credibility to a young Reds team, talented but undisciplined. Opening Day, though, showed that not everything can be fixed with a new skipper. Baserunning blunders (rampant last season) and lack of a closer spelled a first game loss, and a nasty throwing error by De La Cruz gave the Giants the lead, and ultimately the series, on Sunday. Francona says he’s not panicking but with the Cardinals jumping out of the weekend on a 3-0 start, there’s not much room for error.
Man the Torpedoes!
That’s exactly what the Yankees are doing, to the tune of a record-tying 15 home runs in their first three games of the season. Several of the Yankees are using so-called Torpedo bats, with the sweet spot of the bat moved down a bit, so the greatest concentration of wood on the bat is centered where the batter is most likely to hit the ball, according to analytics. (Thank you, former M.I.T. physicist Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees staffer now working for the Marlins) The bats look similar to the old wiffle ball bats, and are perfectly legal, according to MLB. Either every club will embrace the new technology, or a group of clubs will try to get them banned. Stay tuned..
Ben’s Best Bet..
So you say your bracket is busted, hey, Bunky? Well, there’s a new game in town, and it’s called College Basketball Crown. UC is part of that 16 team field, along with other teams from the Big 12, as well as the Big Ten and Big East. This week’s Crown is being played in Las Vegas, with the finals on Sunday. Why play in this tournament, you ask? Well, because the winner gets $300,000 in NIL money. Runner-up gets $150,000 and the two semifinalists get $50,000 each. The Bearcats play DePaul in the first round, and could play the winner of UCF and Oregon State. But don’t expect many of these teams to have a lot of familiar faces—last week UCF had eight players in the portal, Oregon State three. Feeling adventurous? Cincinnati is a 9.5 point favorite over DePaul, according to BetMGM, and UCF is 4.5 points up on Oregon State. Ben says good luck reading the tea leaves, and the rosters, on this one.