The Wild West

After the Nuggets victory over the Warriors on Thursday night, 2008's playoff teams are pretty much set in the NBA. Golden State is now one game out of eighth place but since Denver holds the tie-breaker, Golden State would have to finish a win up on them. Each team has three games remaining each but the odds of the Warriors winning all three while Denver only takes one seems a bit out of reach. The Nuggets do have a tougher schedule with Utah, Houston and Memphis remaining while the Warriors have the Clips, Suns and Seattle.

Now, the seeding is a huge jumble in the West. While New Orleans is looking like the King of the Mountain, four teams in the one and a half to two and a half games out. The last three games on the schedule are going to be very interesting seeing how a team like the Lakers could potentially drop from second in the conference to sixth. Utah seems to be the luckiest team in all of this, firmly locked into the fourth spot.

In the East, where nobody really cares, the Hawks have a two game lead on Indiana, seemingly clinching the right to be swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round.

Free the cheap seats!

It looks like the Toronto Blue Jays are on the road to eliminating their $2 Tuesdays offer and it's a crying shame. The promotion that lets fans buy tickets for the upper deck as well as the 200-level outfield seats for only two bucks is in danger of going the way of the dodo because some fans apparently can't hold their liquor very well. That and they're mistaking America's pass-time (Baseball) for Canada's game (the goon sport of hockey). Yep, mix alcohol and idiots with a lack of security and entertainment that is not so entertaining at times and you get fights. A lot of them too. Several broke out at Tuesday night 9-8 loss to Oakland before the flow of beer was cut off and security was positioned at every gate.

The first step that the Jays are taking is eliminating alcohol service in the entire upper bowl. Are you serious? Do they not realize that a large percentage of baseball fans may need a beer or two to enjoy the game? Also, not everyone who drinks gets belligerent after a few cold ones.

This decision may even hurt the bottom line for the organization. How much revenue do baseball clubs — or stadiums in general — make off of their over-priced beer. The fact that spectators are still willing to pay the exorbitant prices should be evidence enough that fans need a beer to loosen up.

It is not very hard to see this decision coming back to bit the Jays and any other team that tries ban alcohol. A lot of casual fans will be scared away.

Memphis blows it

I don't know how you a) win 38 games in a season and b) get to the national championship game and c) have a two point lead with 10-point-something seconds left while shooting free throws and lose a game. Memphis deserved to lose the game. Any team that cannot hit game-clinching free throws should not be a national champion. Even worse, after bricking two free throws, they were able to get the offensive rebound and draw another foul! And the consensus number 2 pick in the coming NBA draft could only hit one of his two tries. I would be remembering that sequence if I drafted Derrick Rose.

Then the Jayhawks Most Outstanding Player, Mario Chalmers, nailed a death-defying three to tie the game and send it to overtime — where Memphis never had a chance. Chalmers' shot, with two Tigers in his face, was about as clutch as you can get. Nearly Kobe- or LeBron-esque.

Now, in retrospect, despite the absence of a cinderella story or even a 2- or 3-seed making it into the championship game or even the Final Four, the fact that two number one seeds duked it out in the final makes both the tournament and especially pools, somewhat more interesting. I had figured it was going to boring for poolies, seeing that many experienced entrants would not go against history and taking four number 1s. But the most exciting part about your pool is now "who took the right 1s?" Anybody who wanted to go against the masses and picked against UCLA and UNC is obviously raking in the dividends now.

The other playoffs

While every sports fan waits in anticipation for the NBA playoffs to start, another sport is on the brink of starting their post-season. That's right, the red-headed step child of the sporting world, the NHL, is about to start its extended run towards the Stanley Cup.

So who're the favourites? Well you can start with last year's champs, the Ducks of Anaheim who have the fourth seed in the West but will have a tough matchup in the second round with the Red Wings — the best team in the league — if all four top seeds roll.

An upset wouldn't be out of the question as Colorado has a good chance of knocking off Minnesota and the Sharks could choke against Calgary if the Flames catch fire.

In the East, Washington went from the ninth-seed to the three seed with one win and will meet the up-and-down Flyers. It will be interesting to see who Philly sends out to try to injure Alex Ovechkin.

The struggling Senators who will be without their captain, Daniel Alfredsson and centre Mike Fisher for at least the first round and have to face Sid the Kid and Malkin in Pittsburgh. Look for an easy series for the Penguins.

The Canadiens are the first seed and deep enough to give a lot of teams fits. A concern about Montreal is that they're leaning on a rookie goaltender, Carey Price, to carry them.

As for the poor saps who weren't good enough to crack the NHL's top-16 teams, at least the draft lottery is today.