PSoTD

I came of "football age" watching college and pro football in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember watching Notre Dame highlights - didn't everyone in Indiana except those cursed Boilermaker fans - and, of course, watching the big games on Saturday.

There are two voices I associate with this time. One is Lindsay Nelson, who was the voice of Notre Dame. The other was Keith Jackson, who's rumbling/stumbling/tumbling style of broadcasting was fun to mimic for any teenage boy playing or watching football.

Today Keith Jackson announced his retirement from play-by-play. He's 77, and I hope he has many, many years of joy in retirement ahead of him. Thanks for the fond memories, Keith, and keep yelling those "Whoa Nellies" in your private life.

I said earlier in the year that Rick Adelman was gone as head coach of the Sacramento Kings. And I'm still not a fan of Adelman as a playoff coach, his record of 0 championships with as many quality teams as he has had is underwhelming.

But give credit where credit is due - if you give him some talent, he'll put together a team that wins and gets to the playoffs. He's a great regular season coach. I'm impressed with Adelman's achievement in 2006.

I'm a big believer in the power of active team recreation as it benefits the body and soul. For me, at this time, it is my 35 and older basketball league, Wednesday nights. Sure, today, like almost every Thursday morning, I'm a bit sore and gimpy, but my mind is relaxed, and, if anything, I wish I could play again tonight... but the rest of my worldly obligations must be satisfied.

I think the power of active team recreation could also benefit our society as well if applied with intent. Take any major schism of philosophy and break it down into the common denominators of physical humanity. When I play basketball, I judge other people by the amount of effort they're giving, their sense of fair play within the rules of the game, and their control of themselves as they strain to perform physically against another. Yes, I like to win. But more importantly, I like to have a good time, I like to see everyone else have a good time, and most of all, I don't want to see anyone get hurt by the actions of another.

In basketball, you can have "good" players, meaning they can score, pass and defend, and they provide effort. Too much effort. They lose their sense of fair play and/or their control of themselves, and they end up edging up tension within the rest of the group, because they freeze out "lesser" players and they try to intimidate defenders with banging. They can become hotheads, getting angry at perceived fouls and the slights of not receiving the ball when they're set. Basketball isn't a game for the timid, but you have to recognize who you're playing with, and try to improve everyone on your team while finding an enjoyable level to play for yourself. You have to work within the realm of everyone's reality.

Almost everyone decries that our nation, politically, has fumbled its ability to work within the realm of the electorate's reality. What we have today in Washington has a corollary in basketball. We have two teams, relatively evenly matched, but one team has the ball. That team has a forward that can shoot and dribble but will very, very rarely pass. That player is continually trying to score, and the other team, knowing this, has set their defenses to stop that player. Every time the forward fails to score, he calls a foul. Ticky tack perhaps, but every time.

What you end up having is one team with the ball the whole time, an incredibly boring game for most everyone, and no progress in the score. Sound like Washington?

In the 1970s, ABC had a sports program called The Superstars or something like that, where it took the best athletes around the world from various sports and made them compete against each other in sports where they didn't compete.

America would benefit greatly if all members of Congress were taken to some remote spot of the country to do something similar today. Put them in a sports complex for three weeks, and have them compete at different team sports. NO PARTY TEAMS. All squads have Republicans and Democrats. Have them play softball, basketball, tag football, swimming relays, aquatic ballet, whatever, but they have to be team sports.

Make them play every day, and different sports.

Think the world would be better if this happened? I do.

Somewhere out there lurks a team or two that won 83 or fewer games last season that will make the playoffs this year. Bank on it. The sleeper team is no longer an anomaly but an October fixture in the wild-card era.

Is Kirk Ferentz, head coach of football at Iowa, really the state of Iowa's highest paid state employee?

Kinda funny. When people complain about the high cost of government, and wasted government money, you never hear them mention the price of football coach salaries.

That's why the NCAA really needs to spread this around. I know Indiana loves basketball, but there's no way Indianapolis deserves the Final Four so many times where there are so many other locations where it can be held. The NCAA needs to think about sharing both the tourism wealth and the basketball love of the game better than this.

While the University of Florida is celebrating its men's basketball's first national championship, the city of Indianapolis has reasons to celebrate too.

More than 80,000 people were expected to visit Indy during its fifth run as playing host city to the men's Final Four and spend big dollars. To give an indication of how successful the past weekend was, picture this: nearly 80,000 people packed downtown during the free My Coke Fest concert held on Monument Circle Sunday. The show, which featured Indiana's own John Mellencamp, "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood and R&B teen sensation Chris Brown filled several blocks with rarely room to breathe.

"We have reputation for being one of the best cities in the country for hosting events," said Bob Bedell, president of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association (ICVA).

Along with the 80,000 people on the circle, practically every one of Central Indiana' s 31,000 hotel rooms were full, Bedell added. Though no one may have known the names of the players for George Mason, LSU, UCLA and Florida, it didn't matter. NCAA officials said fans spent $45 million over the Final Four weekend. Prior to the weekend, ICVA officials calculated that the event would have a $40 million to $45 million economic impact on the city. Indianapolis previously hosted the men's Final Four in 1980, 1991, 1997 and 2000. It will play host again in 2010.

Share the wealth, NCAA.

This seems like one of those "sports league crapping on local fans" stories. What's the reasoning for the NFL wanting to ban local television cameras during games?

Time for prognosticators...

What will be the biggest surprise in this year's Major League Baseball season?

Bush throws out the first pitch today in Cincinnati.

Bush became the first sitting president to throw a ceremonial pitch in Cincinnati as the Reds took on the Chicago Cubs. The ball to catcher Jason LaRue was high and off the plate, but Bush called it "my best pitch, which was kind of a slow ball."

"Give me some tips," the president asked Reds pitcher David Weathers during a pregame visit to the clubhouse.

Bush received a loud standing ovation when he took the mound in this Republican-leaning city. He was accompanied by two injured soldiers and a father who lost his son in Afghanistan.

Everyone should applaud the soldiers and the father. So how many were really applauding Bush?

Maybe the NCAA doesn't have better basketball than the NBA. But their playoff setup - March Madness - is so many planes above the NBA's two month playoff slog that there is no real comparison. It seems that some in the NBA don't understand that.