Going Bananas

Some people like to snuggle up with a good book when it's snowing outside, some people re-watch the first four seasons of The Sopranos when the temperature dips to below freezing, and some people go to Mesa, Arizona, to watch the Cubs spring train.

For me, March is the month where I'm kinda in a funky limbo. Indoor soccer would have just ended (we bowed out of the league in the first round of playoffs this year, the first time ever for the Red Devils -- perhaps our season mirrored the true Manchester United's one of despair?), and softball wouldn't start for a few weeks. In addition to wondering why I ever came back to Chicago from Singapore after Chinese New Year, Kevin "Sun Devils" Kelly and Edgar "Smokin' Bandits" Rico and I booted SportsMonster out of Seward Park on Tuesday nights, and started our own non-profit league: www.oldtownsoftball.org.

But, the true existence for the month of March, besides Julius Caesar and the Ides, is the NCAA basketball tournament. Not being good at basketball, I don't watch the sport either, NBA or otherwise. But the Koh gambling bug in me loves March Madness, and inspires the brackets I draft every year. I've typically run office pools but being out on the street this year, decided to open Bracketology 2006 to all in my email address book. With 40 bracketeers signed up, we've had a lot of fun so far this weekend. Thanks to Joe's on Weed Street, Cody's and Justin's for hosting me and my scoring duties. The following is an update I sent to my bracketeers after the first two rounds of play:

Dear Bracketeers,

The wonderful thing about going to a school with a god-awful basketball program is that I never have to worry about willing it to win the NCAA tournament, despite conventional wisdom. Condolences to Hawkeyes, Buckeyes and Jayhawks, especially those who picked their teams to win it all -- were all teams with "eye" and "hawk" in their names jinxed this weekend?!

After the second round of play, with scoring doubled to two points per pick, some Bracketeers found themselves quickly moving from back to front in 24 hours. Of special note is Finlay, who is distancing himself from last place one point at a time.

Congratulations to the Beta/Fernandez household, which produced the only three brackets to pick the Bradley win today. Sanchez 1 wins a Corona at the ballpark for the highest round two score (24).

Dennler 2 continues sole possession of first place (46), with Fernandez 2 (45) in second place and Forrest and Koh 3 (44) tied for third. Fei 4 remains at the tail.

Sweet Thursday can't come soon enough. Good night, and good luck.