I don't even like the WBC, but...
If you're like me, you stay up too late this time of year trying to gather all of the games and highlights you can to get as educated as possible in preparation for over-thinking your bracket. One bonus of staying up too late is you get to see stories like this before the highlights have been over-produced and there's still some drama to the story breaking.
The second Dutch oven...errr...upset (and subsequent elimination) of Dominicana is as astounding (to me at least) as the Miracle on Ice of 1980...but in a much-less important event. To put it in perspective, the Netherlands' players make about 1/160th in professional baseball salaries of those on the Dominican squad.

Granted, I probably still won't watch more than an inning-or-two straight of this made-for-TV event, but the highlights are awfully fun.

Speaking of Bad TV
I have owned my own business for about 10 years...and one of the many advantages of being your own boss is you don't get yelled at for watching sports in the middle of the day. Whether it's the Masters, NCAA tourney or anything else that tickles my fancy, it's an all-around good deal. But yesterday, it backfired.

At around 2:00, I figured I should check on the mid-major games and see if anything had tipped off. Well, the programming sadists at EsPN decided to waste everyone's time with soccer...and WBC games. What the heck, yo? They have taken the most wonderful time of the year and perverted it with over-acting, silky-shirt, short-short wearing, grainy coverage of the ugly game.

Thanks for nothing.

Hey, that reminds me...
Like most of you, I watched the over-rated Butler Bulldogs play last night...and I was pulling for them. I like their coach and their players, it's their fans that I struggle with. One of my brothers graduated from BU, and my parents lived a short bike ride from the campus, so I know the place well.

But, last night's game, especially the second half, was eerily similar to Purdue's performances versus Northwestern and MSU. The Bulldogs couldn't score for a large span of time and seemed to wait too long to try to close the gap (though it wasn't too sizeable).

Plus, like Purdue, Butler has a good Soph. big man and a shooting forward who's a string bean who grew up a Purdue fan. When I watch Butler, I can't help but think about how fun it'd be to have Howard and/or Heyward playing for Purdue...*sigh*

My next thought though, is I want Purdue to play Butler in the tournament and make those two regret their choice of where they ended up...If not regret it, at least think- "man, Matty's handsome and tall...I wish I was playing for him."

Butler's loss surely doesn't help the many bubble-sitters in the Big Ten...but it probably all but kills hopes for teams like Davidson (Steve- you should have gone pro last year).

Fair is Fair...
Alright, in the interest of fairness, I must do this...A few months ago, I gave a shout-out to Scout.com's Purdue site Boiler Sports Report and said everyone should give them a chance. Well, their effort reminds me a lot of my three year old son- They tried hard for about 15 minutes and seemed to have given up. Their Purdue coverage seems to be nothing more than copied and pasted links from other sites...Even when Purdue beat MSU in basketball...and whipped aOSU, the articles had a noticibly opposing-team-slanted spin.

Plus, as signing day approached and passed, they didn't report anything more than one-line blurbs about what was going to happen...and most of the time they were wrong. In fact, the "insiders" on their message board who are just schmoes like me seemed to be right more than their reporters.

They seem like well-intentioned, nice guys...but they also seem to be either A) In over their head or (more likely) B) Completely disinterested in Purdue sports as West Lafayette is second-fiddle to the big programs, in their collective minds. Plus, their interface/site design is bad-looking, cumbersome and out-dated.

I think a quarter of a year, especially in a news-packed period of time, is enough of a trial...Scout.com is overwhelmingly un-noteworthy. While the KHC board is worth little-more than used Charmin, the writers on GBI are good at what they do, and get this- they care about Purdue sports. If you've got $10.00/mo. burning a hole in your pocket, either get a subscription over there or send it to us via PayPal (we can give you our account e-mail if you'd like!!).