The Front Row: The snooze button

WAY TOO EARLY: I am not a morning person.

Don’t think I ever will be, either.

I prefer sunsets to sunrises, and I’d give 10 percent of my annual salary if I never had to set an alarm clock for the rest of my life.

With that said, I (obviously) missed baseball’s “opening day.”

For the record, I’ve never missed an opening day. For me, it has taken on a national holiday-esque level of importance on par with Labor Day.

But there is simply no way I’m getting out of bed at 3:10 a.m. to catch the first pitch between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A’s.

Apparently, there were problems with the ESPN2 broadcast for some sattelite subscribers. I wouldn’t know, because I was sound asleep.

Word has it Manny Ramirez had a big game, and Daisuke Matsuzaka received a rousing ovation from the Tokyo faithful.

Oh, well. There will be plenty of chances to watch baseball between now and October.

I’m glad the good people of Tokyo got the opportunity to experience opening day, but I’m just a little bummed out that the first official pitch of the 2008 season came and went while I was sleeping.

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TOURNEY UPDATE: I’m sure I’ll get over my disappointment with baseball in a matter of seconds, especially with the second week of March Madness on tap.

What have we learned through the first two rounds?

First, I knew Stephen Curry was good, but not this good. He might be the most entertaining individual player left in the tournament.

How does a native of Charlotte, N.C., with an NBA veteran for a father slip past North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, N.C. State and the countless other elite programs in the area and end up at Davidson? We’ll never know.

Second, the Pac-10 looks to be a little overrated. Arizona, Oregon and USC each bid farewell in the opening round, and UCLA and Stanford survived second-round scares. Only Washington State has been consistently impressive (even though I still think UCLA wins it all).

Third, no matter how many sleepers I get right (Davidson, Villanova, Western Kentucky) my bracket always ends up looking lousy by the time the Sweet 16 rolls around.

Thanks a lot, USC and Baylor.

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