Friday Five, 4/23/2010

Much to the enjoyment or disappointment of a handful of individuals out there, next week will not feature a Friday Five. I'll be in New Orleans for the week, and doubt that I'll have the time to post it. If you are really missing it, then you can just come back and read this one again.... or maybe I'll put together a "Best of Friday Five" for next week.... Congratulations, you have just been privy to my thinking process.

5) Ubaldo Jimenez pitches a no-hitter

Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first no-no in Colorado history when the Rockies played the Braves on Saturday night. Of course, it was lost in the fact that the Cardinals-Mets played a semi-marathon that same day (see below).

4) NCAA Tournament expands field, but not as much as originally thought

The NCAA has decided to expand the tournament field to 68 teams for next year, instead of th 65 that currently play. Most likely, all 16 seeds will have a play-in game now, which will allow for more sub-par teams from the major conferences to enter the field and quit their whining.

3) NFL Draft produced some unexpected results for its 1st round

The NFL Draft had its first round in prime-time on Thursday night because the NFL hasn't done enough damage to America's love for baseball. Sam Bradford went #1 overall to the St. Louis Rams. A couple other notable notes: Tebow was drafted by the Broncos, which led to all sorts of "a mile closer to heaven" jokes, and Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen wasn't drafted at all in the first round, which was quite the surprise.

2) Cards-Mets play a marathon... well, almost.

The Cardinals and Mets hooked up on Saturday afternoon for an epic game. This game was scoreless after 18 innings. You didn't read that incorrectly, 18 innings of scoreless baseball. In the end, it can't be called a marathon because it didn't go the required 26.2 innings; however, after 20 innings of baseball, the Mets pulled out a 2-1 win. Congratulations, Met fans, you just had your highlight of the season - a win in a game where 2 position players pitched 3 innings. How bad is it that the Mets had to score twice of an outfielder in order to win a game? Almost as bad as the Cardinals not scoring on the Mets bullpen.

1) Cardinals begin their season by winning first 5 series.

You have to know that if there's anything remotely interesting in the Cardinals' season, it automatically jumps to #1 on my Friday Five. However, this actually is historic. For the first time in their entire history, the Cardinals have taken 2 of 3 in all five of their series to start the season. It's not like the Cardinals are the Rays or Rockies here, they've been around literally for over a century. That's awesome. They are sitting atop the standing in the National League right now with some great pitching, and some good hitting.