Continuing fallout in baseball

I have been surprised how much coverage the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal has received, and how vocal some of the other players have been about it. Unfortunately, I fear this will be the biggest story in baseball until opening day on March 26. This is one of the earliest starts in recent times.

I feel bad for Major League baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. He decided not to suspend any of the Astros players for their roles in the matter. Had he tried to suspend some of the players, he was probably going to have to fight them in court. Now he’s getting a lot of pushback for not suspending any of them in the first place. I think in order to end this whole saga, he needs to announce from this day forward, that if you are caught cheating as a player using any technology, you will be suspended for at least a year, if not longer.

The reason why nobody gambles on baseball while holding current player status is because of the possible lifetime ban. Nobody wants to join Pete and shoeless Joe Jackson in the lifetime ban club.

Enough negative talk. Here's to some better stuff. College basketball is coming down to the wire, and it looks like the playoff bracket might be wide open this year. There are no dominant teams to bet on. Right now, Baylor University is the number one team in the country, but the number one ranking has been a revolving door this year.

For the first time in a very long time, North Carolina will probably miss the NCAA tournament, unless they can win their conference tournament coming from back in the pack. Duke and Kansas are pretty good, but they have been more inconsistent than usual. It will be quite difficult to predict who is going to cut down the nets this year.

See you on the sidelines!