Curing a bout of Madness

Been light on the blog, but with good reason. The first two days of the NCAA men's basketball tournament should be national holidays. I spent Thursday and Friday sitting on virtually the same bar stool at Bru's Room in Delray Beach, Fla. Any bar that allows you to control four TVs at once can't be all bad. (Yeah, I've been there before).

I'm watching Saturday’s games from home. Delray is holding its annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which turns Bru's into chaos. May try to get there for the night games, but don't have much need to get pushed around by drunken green people who aren't interested in the ball games.

Caught up with Chris Ashby, whose story about being hated in Norwich, Ct. was the inspiration for The Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen. He's in camp with the Marlins (Jupiter) and hopes to start the season with Triple-A Albuquerque. I'll keep you posted.

Next week looks like a good one for baseball. I'm planning to spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Fort Myers talking with minor league players from Minnesota, Boston, and maybe Pittsburgh. Thursday features trips to Lakeland (Tigers), where I'm interested to see the complex's makeover, and Winter Haven (Indians), a complex I have never visited. Friday should be Kissimmee (Astros) and Orlando (Braves). Saturday stops in Melbourne (Nationals) and Vero Beach (Dodgers) complete the trip.

As an added bonus, Jason Ross and Thomas Juliano (Seven Mary Three) and Ben Nichols (Lucero) are playing together at the opening of an art gallery. Two greatly underappreciated bands.

Planning to post a story about Australian baseball players on MinorLeagueDugout.com by the end of the weekend.

More soon.