#25, what have you done?

I haven't been following most of the drama about steroids recently in baseball. Basically, I think my sister Lynn puts it best. Congress should have a lot more to spend precious time and money on than this. But with that said, I couldn't help but feel a wave of despair upon seeing that McGwire chose to plead the 5th all the way down the line. Since 1998, I considered one of the most memorable moments of my life the experience of being at the game when he hit #67 and 68 at Busch Stadium. Jim Caple at ESPN pretty much summed up my feelings on the Congressional hearings yesterday.

If you are in the states then you know, March Madness is here. I paid even less attention to college basketball this year than I normally do. I followed the Billikens' disappointing season, but that was about it. However, I was very surprised and delighted to see the Washington Huskies get a #1 seed. They are of couse led my SLU's former head coach Lorenzo Romar. In his debut season coaching the SLU Billikens in 1999, he was responsible for yet another pantheon moment for me. The Billikens entered the C-USA Tournament that year with a record near .500 and low expectations. Here's what happened (from espn.com):

Twice during the 2000 regular season, Saint Louis got crushed by Cincinnati -- including, about a week before the Conference USA tourney, an 84-41 pasting against the then-No. 1 Bearcats.

But when Saint Louis -- 15-13 in the regular season and 7-9 in the conference -- faced Cincinnati again in the tournament quarterfinals, they won 68-58, a huge upset even when you take into consideration that Cincy's Kenyon Martin went down in the game with a broken leg.

Then the Billikens won two more -- four wins in four days against higher seeds -- to gain the conference title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, I was the Billken Mascot for those 4 frantic games. After Cincy's upset and the win in the C-USA Final against DePaul the band and cheerleaders rushed the court. I was in the middle of it, of course. Proudly, it was the closest I have ever come to hyperventilation/asphyxiation. So good luck to LoRo and the Huskies!