My girlfriend woke up this morning and told me she had a dream where she played for the Knicks with Spike Lee. I told her I've heard that the Knicks are pretty bad, so maybe they'd take her.

Bunch of basketball games today, but we've reached the point in the tournament where there aren't a whole lot of underdogs to cheer for. I'll probably keep cheering for the lower seeds (especially in the Ohio St. game) but ultimately when the teams get to be closely matched, it's not even a matter of who the lower seed is, it's who is actually behind right at this moment. I'm not interested in blowouts, except maybe over number 1 seeds.

An interesting article by Geoff Baker in the Seattle Times today about how tricky it is to evaluate players from their spring training numbers and performance. And an interesting kneejerk response to it at the USS Mariner blog. Apparently those guys can't handle: 1) any use of the word grit in conjunction with the game of baseball 2) any possible suggestion that intangibles might mean something.

Never mind that the article seems to me to be completely in line with the USS Mariner way of thinking, meaning that it takes fans to task for trying to draw ridiculous conclusions based on the small sample of spring training games.

I liked this bit about yesterday's game in particular:

Batista's stats will show he allowed 11 hits and four runs in five innings. They will show how all the runs came in the third inning, along with seven of the hits.

What they won't show is how that inning was prolonged by hit balls, which would have normally resulted in outs, being blown beyond the fielders' reach by the wind. Or accurately portray how Batista somehow adjusted to conditions that initially had his sinker bouncing a foot in front of its target, toughing out two more innings and keeping his team positioned for a comeback.

"It was pretty uncomfortable in the beginning," said Batista, who had to squint to keep the sand from blowing in his eyes.

Hargrove came away impressed by what he won't see in Batista's stats, including an ERA that jumped from 3.00 to 4.50. Plenty of pitchers would not have recovered from Batista's third inning.

It's games and stuff like this that helps make baseball worth watching. Players overcoming difficult situations. Things that have nothing to do with numbers. These things are worth talking about.

One more article: Putz has twins! Just when you think our closer can't get anymore awesome.