Okay, in the previous post I looked at the parity myth from the standpoint of who makes it to the Final Four.

Another way of looking at it is number of first-round upsets, again the reality explodes the myth. If anything, you could make an argument that parity has decreased.

Since 1985, there have been an average of 1.75 big upsets in the first round (a big upset defined as a 13-seed or higher winning).The last two years have seen 2 such upsets each year, but the average over the last five years is just 1.2 (there being no such upsets in 2004, and only 1 each in 2003 and 2002.

Two of the three years with no 13-or-higher upsets have occurred since 2000. There were 21 13-or-over upsets from 1985-1995, but only 17 from 1996 - 2006.

Looking at bigger upsets, 14 or higher, there were 12 from 1985 - 1995, but just 7 from 1996 - 2006.

So, if anything, the NCAA Tournament has actually has gotten harder for higher seeds in recent years.

I love Joe Herber's name. His last name is pronounced "Air Bear". He's probably glad his last name isn't Herbal. He probably belongs on the All-Time Great Sports Name list, along with I.M. Hipp, Sedale Threatt, and my personal favorite, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje.

That King went 8 for 8 in his prognostications over the last two days. Has he ever done this?

If he's not careful, he'll have to cut out the wisecracks about his lack of ability to correctly pick games.

By the way, King, why no What the Heck™ picks in the tournament?

This year, the cumulative seedings of the final four could be as high as 20, the third highest ever, or as low as 5, tied for the lowest ever. If Yukon beats General Motors, the highest total possible is 10, just under the average since 1979.

Ah, so it turns out that the so-called "attack machine" was right. Ben Domenech may have apologized for his "obfuscation", but he didn't apologize for his attacks against his critics in his defense, and his colleague is continuing in the attacks, even after Domenech has admitted that they were right.

The amazing thing about all this is that Domenech actually had to step down (he would have been fired if he hadn't quit). Wrong-wingers so rarely have to pay any price for their mis-behavior. Look at the records of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, et. al.--full of lies and distortions, yet they're still on the air.

It's misleading to talk about Doctor Who "from the 60's". Yes, the show started in November, 1963, but it ran until December 1989, and the most famous Doctor (played by Tom Baker, not Tom Brady--the Patriots quarterback wasn't even born until three years into Tom Baker's run as the Doctor) ran from 1974 - 1981.

I haven't been able to find out how tall Tom Baker is, but I don't believe he's short. I believe he's around 6 feet tall.

I actually haven't seen the new series. I saw the mid-90s movie, or rather, about the first third, when I turned it off, as it had it all backward--good special effects and a cheesy story, rather than cheesy effects and a good story.

I have numerous Doctor Who episodes on DVD, and I'm still impressed with the quality of the writing.

In Australia they also call it soccer. They sometimes call rugby "football", but football most often refers to "Australian-rules football", which is kind of a cross between rugby and soccer.

Okay, this isn't an original idea (I think I heard it on the Jim Rome show, of all places), but why would anyone pitch to Barry Bonds? If he can hit home runs, but he can't run, why not just walk him every time, then let him clog up the base paths--he'll turn doubles into singles.

The information I was able to dig up is that the Championship Game was first played on a Monday night in 1973 (Bill Walton's amazing performance with 21 of 22 shooting), and that the Third Place game was last played in 1981 (Virginia beat Louisiana State 78-74).

There also used to be Regional Third Place games. The last year for those was 1975.

cbssportline.com is a good source for this type of history.

Growing up in Portland, I was definitely a hockey fan. We had the Portland Buckaroos, and then the Portland Winter Hawks after the WHL (not the current amateur WHL) folded with the merger of the NHL and the WHA.

I got turned off when I went to the Memorial Cup tournament in 1983. I believe that it was the final game (but I could be wrong, and I haven't been able to confirm it on the the internet), but with just a few seconds to go in the game, with Portland leading, a big brawl broke out, and the fans we cheering on the brawl.

Now, either the Winter Hawks had just won the North American Amateur Hockey championship, or they had just won the right to play for the championship, and the fans were more excited about a silly hockey fight than their team's success.

I haven't been to a hockey game since.

I have never understood hockey fans' love for fights. They're watching the fastest-moving team sport in existence, and they're rather watch a bunch of people fight? And it's not even skillful fighting, it's usually heavily-padded men throwing haymakers at each other.

Now, I understand it's a physical game (so is football), and tempers will flare, but it's ridiculous how fighting is an accepted part of North American hockey.