IT'S FINALLY TIME

***YANKS & RED SOX OPEN IT UP***
In their final warm-up game, the Yanks managed to eke out a 9-6 win over 'themselves.' But they are ready: Sabathia is ready to resume his role as the ace of the staff, A-Rod is calm & relaxed (so they tell us), Jeter is confident and the ageless Rivera looms in the shadows to close all the doors. Just to complete the picture, Nick Johnson has come down with the first knee injury, as expected. Bosox manager, Terry Francona hopes the Yanks aren't as good as expected (Really?). A few faces new to the rivalry: Mike Cameron of Boston & Curtis Granderson of NY.

For all the whining about having these two powerhouses in the same division, MBL couldn't wait to get this rivalry into the spotlight once again. Long ago, Cincinnati used to have the honor of the Opening Game, by virtue of them being the oldest franchise in the Majors, but now, we go with the $money$. The sports pages and ESPN are full of stories about this game. It was originally scheduled for Monday night, but it was moved to Sunday so as "not to compete with the NCAA Final Four Championship game." Yeah, right. I don't think ESPN was unhappy with having the spotlight all to themselves.

***LETS NOT FORGET THE WOMEN***
The semifinal for the Women's championship is also tonight, with the Connecticut women going against Baylor at 9:00 PM. Oklahoma & Stanford start at 7:00 PM. Connecticut will be going against Brittney Griner, Baylor's 6'8" shot-blocking freshman center. She has an NCAA-record 35 blocks in the first 4 games of the tournament. Baylor thinks she can control CT's AP Player of the Year, Tina Charles, freeing up the rest of the team to concentrate on All-American shooting guard, Maya Moore, who is shooting 70% on 3-pointers in the tourney. This could be v-e-r-r-r-y interesting!

***FROM JANICE HOUGH***
"Congrats also to the Cal women, who won the NIT women's basketball title game 73-61 over Miami. So what do you yell when you win the NIT? "We're number 65?!"

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

CP-