Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. I’ve been away tending to some matters, and the moment I was back on board, I asked Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken if they had been keeping you, our gentle readers, abreast of the constantly changing world of sport …

I am so cutting off the fish cracker supply for those two jokers.

Anyway, a brief recap of what they missed, starting with the recently concluded NCAA college basketball tournaments. Heading into the championship game between Connecticut and South Carolina, the latter’s coach, Dawn Staley, complained loud and long about the amount of attention lavished throughout the tournament on Connecticut star player Paige Bueckers, believing it was somehow disrespectful to her team.

"Sometimes, we create these narratives about great players. Caitlin [Clark] was one of them; Paige [Bueckers] is one of them right now—and we tend to forget about the narrative about what our kids have been able to do, going for their third in four years," Staley said Saturday. "There's a sentimental narrative about Paige. Great freaking player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because of her efficient way of playing, because she's a winner, because cerebrally knows the game, just has an aura about her.

"When you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that, and it puts us at a disadvantage. Whether you want to believe so or not. Officials see it. It's all over TikTok. It's all over SportsCenter. It's all over all of that."

As it turned out, the only disadvantage was not being able to hear the basketball bounce during the championship game over the sound of dogs gnawing on chicken bones as Bueckers and her Huskies teammates chewed up Staley’s Gamecocks 82-59. Way to make that case for respect, ladies.

Meanwhile, the tournament people watched, i.e., the men’s, featured a slam-bang final between the Florida Gators and the Houston Cougars. Score one for Godzilla’s cousins as Florida gutted out a 65-63 comeback win. For those keeping score at home, the women’s championship game had a 54 percent drop in viewership from last year’s championship game which featured Caitlin Clark. Total number of viewers in 2025? 8.6 million. Total number of viewers for the men’s championship game? 18.1 million. But sure, keep telling us everyone watches women’s sports.

Turning to the pros, while the NBA postseason starts on April 15 with the NHL following close behind, the main note of interest has been the nascent baseball season and its plethora of surprises. The greatest surprise is that the Los Angeles Dodgers will not go 162-0 this year despite a lineup that, on paper, looks unbeatable. They are not. Going into tonight (April 14, 2025) Los Angeles is in third place in the National League West behind the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants. While even the most fervent Padres and Giants fans suffer no delusion of any guarantee things will remain this way, wouldn’t it be fun to see an actual division race in the Wild Wild West?

Finally, a personal note. Thank you to everyone who’s provided immeasurable support during the recent rough season. While I hesitate to say things are all better, signs point to the worst now firmly residing in my rearview mirror. This should mean more frequent posts, all hopefully centered on the principle that sports ought to be fun and, thus, discussed entertainingly. Now, if only Sammy and Karl would stop having quite so much fun and get some work done once in a while …

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