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Springtime means a return of increasingly warm temperatures (ugh), pollen galore (yuck), and a very eventful initial weekend of sports.
Major League Baseball’s 2026 season opened as all 32 teams began tied for first place with a 0-0 record
After this past weekend of opening games, it should come as no surprise that the homeless “Athletics” are off to an 0-3 start. Voodoo dolls in Oakland seem to be having their desired effect on this wandering baseball franchise!
The former Oakland Athletics vacated the Bay Area last year and temporarily moved into a minor league baseball stadium in Sacramento. This team is simply known as the “Athletics” today.
They will remain in Sacto for 2026 and 2027. A new indoor baseball stadium is under construction in Las Vegas and is expected to become home for this downtrodden franchise starting in 2028.
The UFL returned, too. It’s a good thing St. Louis still has their team!
Spring professional football’s UFL began its third year with four games played over the weekend. The St. Louis Battlehawks attracted more than 31,000 fans to watch its 16-10 win over the defending champion DC Defenders on Saturday in the Battledome.
Three other UFL home teams failed to attract even 15,000 patrons for Game #1.
The new Louisville Kings franchise were welcomed by 14,000 fans in their inaugural game being played in Kentucky. They watched the Birmingham Stallions rally to score the game-winning touchdown with two minutes left in a 15-13 victory over the hometown Kings Friday night.
A Sunday night gathering of 11,000 cheered as Orlando “Stormed” to a 23-16 victory over the Columbus Aviators. The Dallas Renegades pulled a quaint crowd of less than 9,000 fans to its debut game in Frisco, Texas on Saturday.
As stated in my league preview last week, the UFL continued to have problems getting most of its teams to score points. Only two of the eight teams in Week #1 tallied 20 or more points.
Are the NFL referees going on strike soon?
An under-the-radar story this weekend involved the growing tension between the NFL and its referees union. The NFL Referees Association may be recommending a strike soon. The current collective bargaining agreement between the refs and the league is set to expire on May 31.
NFL owners have angered the referee union by wanting to raise the probationary period from three years to five and make playoff assignments based on performance rather than seniority. As you might expect, the referees union looks at those issues differently.
A referee strike last occurred in 2012 and lasted three games into the NFL’s regular season.
After several botched calls during the opening weeks of the regular season, the owners and referees finally reached an agreement in late September, 2012.
This weekend’s news indicated that the NFL owners are preparing to move forward if there isn’t a new deal soon. They are compiling a list of possible replacement referee candidates from the ranks of college football. If a new deal with the NFL referees’ union is not reached by May 1, the football league may be planning to hire and train a set of new referees for the upcoming football season.
Golf – first, let’s have some good news!
PGA golfer Gary Woodland’s last professional victory came at the 2019 US Open.
About three years ago, the golfer underwent a very delicate surgery to remove a lesion from his brain. Just two weeks ago, Woodland told the media that he had developed PTSD during his difficult recovery from brain surgery.
Sunday’s final round saw Gary Woodland holding a one-shot lead starting the final 18 holes at the Texas Children’s Hospital Houston Open. He raced out to a 4-under par 31 on the front nine in posting a final round 67 to win the event by five shots.
The Houston crowd chanted, “Gary…Gary…Gary!” on the closing holes as Woodland tried to remain focused on the task at hand.
Woodland once played on both the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and on college golf team. He wisely chose to play professional golf for his post-college career. Now 41, Gary Woodland picked-up his fifth career PGA win in Houston and a paycheck for nearly $1.8 million.
His emotional win in Houston also came with an invitation to play in The Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia in just ten days.
Golf – Tiger Woods flipped his SUV and earned a DUI charge in Florida
Now 50 years of age, Tiger Woods captured the spotlight once again on Friday. Golf’s biggest name since Jack Nicklaus was placed under arrest near his home in central Florida after flipping his Land Rover vehicle at a high rate of speed.
Tiger Woods’ SUV quickly came upon a truck which was slowing to turn into a driveway. Woods lost control of his vehicle. The SUV flipped onto its side and Woods safely crawled out of the passenger-side window. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic around when the accident occurred.
Woods agreed to a breathalyzer test for alcohol, but he then refused to submit to a lawful test for DUI.
He was briefly taken into custody late Friday afternoon and released on bond after several hours at the local jail.
I was a bit surprised to learn that Tiger Woods still had a valid driver’s license after having more than one past issue involving driving while impaired.
This might be a good time for Tiger limit his future driving to the tee boxes at the golf course.
NCAA Basketball – March Madness Mauls SwampSwami’s men’s bracket
I don’t know which game surprised me more over the past few days.
The #2 seed University of Houston faced #3 seed Illinois on Thursday night with the game being played in the Cougars’ home city of Houston at the Toyota Center.
The Cougars were playing in their seventh year of making it to the Sweet 16 round or further.
Houston clanked three-pointers, two pointers, and hardly ever shot a free throw in losing to the Fighting Illini 65-55. The Cougars shot only two free throws in the entire game.
This game was U-G-L-Y from start to finish. The halftime score was Illinois 24, Houston 22. Coach Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars again failed to bring the school and their long-time coach a first national championship trophy in men’s basketball.
And, yes, ol’ SwampSwami picked Houston’s Cougars to win it all this year. Drat!
Congratulations to Illinois and coach Brad Underwood! After knocking off Houston, the Fighting Illini downed upstart #9 seed Iowa 71-59 on Saturday to advance to the Final Four on Saturday in Indianapolis. It will be Illinois’ first trip to the Final Four in 21 seasons.
The 62-year old coach Underwood was a longtime assistant coach who received his first Division I coaching job at Stephen F. Austin.
He took the Lumberjacks into the NCAA March Madness field twice in three seasons while in Nacogdoches, Texas prior to joining Illinois in 2017.
Yet another head-scratching game in this weekend’s NCAA March Madness men’s tournament was Sunday afternoon’s massive collapse by #1 East seed Duke in losing at the buzzer to #2 UConn 73-72.
Duke led by as many as 19 points in this game before committing a turnover and allowing a 30 foot 3-pointer by Huskies guard Braylon Mullins (his only made 3-point basket of the day) with less than one second remaining.
Duke’s first three games in the NCAA tournament were closer than most of us expected. The Blue Devils struggled against #16-seed Sienna (71-65). Third round foe and #5 seed St. Johns kept Duke off balance until a final minute surge lifted the Devils to an 80-75 win.
Duke had no shortage of high school All-Americans on its team again this season. A few of these “rentals” move onto the NBA later in the spring. Duke’s starting five featured one senior, one sophomore, and three freshmen.
Contrast that to UConn’s starting five which included two seniors, two juniors and just one freshman.
When Duke had Connecticut down by 19 points, the Huskies played like a veteran group and kept fighting hard until the end of Sunday’s game.
As for the Dukees, the coach’s inability to keep his team together from one year to the next has kept this fading basketball powerhouse out of the winner’s circle for ten straight seasons.
Regional furniture seller could lose a millions soon!
Both the Connecticut Huskies men’s and women’s teams have advanced to their respective Final Four national semifinal games at the end of this week. Jordan’s Furniture (a New England based chain) stands to lose millions of dollars if both Huskies teams should win their Final Four opening games later this week.
The regional furniture retailer offered customers a full rebate for merchandise purchased between January 20 through February 16 if both University of Connecticut basketball teams advance to play in this year’s NCAA title games.
A representative for the furniture store said the company had purchased some form of risk insurance in the event the company needs to pay off millions to its customers soon.
No matter how they “couch” it, Jordan’s Furniture may want reconsider promotions which involve “bedding” against the state’s favorite college basketball teams!
