Sports Thoughts

I know I have a daily sports show to talk and vent but if you don’t mind I’d like to share a few things with you this morning.

It looks it’s going to be another wild high school baseball season in Toms River and the North Mariners opened-up Wednesday with a 7-5 victory over cross-town rival TR South, who was the pre-season choice as the top-ranked team at the shore. Ryan Fontenelli belted a pair of two-run homers as North jumped out to a 7-0 lead and held on for the victory. They don’t get too much time to enjoy the win as they host Toms River East on Friday in what will be the Raiders season-opener. Fasten your seat belts because the three will certainly wear each other out before the spring is over.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has reached its Final Four and the last couple of weeks have been filled with highlights and heroes. However the game has a growing problem which you really don’t see during the tournament but rears its ugly head during regular-season conference play.

A few weeks ago “Sports Illustrated” did a story on the problems of fan abuse of visiting players in which students taunt and insult opposing players which has gone way over the top. The story included a picture of Oregon fans giving the business to highly-regarded UCLA freshman Kevin Love and it was not pretty. It was also not well received by the father of one of the Oregon students shown in the picture taunting and jeering. When his son returned home for spring break his father took his car away for the rest of the year and made him take a bus back to school. What’s more the angry dad wrote a letter to the magazine and apologized to Love and his family for his son’s boorish behavior. It’s nice to know someone out there gets it.

If 50 million people watch “American Idol” each week who am I to say anything bad about the show. I do know this…the show thrives only because of Simon Cowell who just might be the smartest Englishman to ever set foot on US soil. Paula Abdul should thank her lucky stars for the show because with little talent it’s made her a star.

I just said this to show I follow more than just sports.