Missing Link Is Key to This Tournament

For those worried that this year’s Final Four matchups may be boring, the Baltimore Sun’s John Eisenberg offers a new game plan.

“[A] way to add enjoyment to the event,” Eisenberg writes, “would be to play that favorite basketball parlor game, ‘Who Wants to be Incredibly Wrong?’

“Here’s how you play: Everyone in the room Scotch-tapes together the office-pool brackets they tore up after the second round, and then you take turns confessing where you had eighth-seeded North Carolina, eighth-seeded Wisconsin and fifth-seeded Florida going out. Whoever had them losing the earliest has to put on bowling shoes and imitate Dick Vitale. Zany fun! (In the interest of full disclosure, I had Carolina losing to Stanford and Wisconsin losing to Arizona in the second round, and Florida losing to Duke in the Sweet 16. Got all three wrong. Top that.)”

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Final Four follies: How surprising is this year’s Final Four field? The four teams have set an NCAA record at 22. That is the total when the seedings of the four teams--Michigan State (1), Florida (5), North Carolina (8) and Wisconsin (8)--are added up.

It’s the highest total since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979.

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Trivia time: Which major league team plays in Comerica Park?

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East meets West: Announcer Brent Musburger, commenting on ESPN radio about the Chicago Cub-New York Met games in Tokyo: “It’s too bad ol’ Harry Caray himself didn’t sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’ Can you just hear the Japanese saying, ‘They have an announcer named what?’ ”

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Joe’s Golden Gate? San Francisco, Joe DiMaggio’s hometown, is putting on hold a plan to name a playground in his honor after the late baseball star’s executor wrote a letter rejecting the idea along with a threat to sue.

Morris Engelberg told San Francisco City Supervisor Gavin Newsom that DiMaggio’s family would prefer having a bridge or airport named after the former New York Yankee superstar, who died a year ago at 84.

Nothing less will do, Engelberg insisted.

Maybe they could compromise by naming one of the boats in San Francisco Bay the Yankee Clipper.

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Trivia answer: It’s the new home of the Detroit Tigers.

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And finally: Columnist Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune, upset with the opening of the major league baseball season being held in Japan, writes, “The second greatest unofficial holiday in America is opening day, this after the Super Bowl, of course. And although the Super Bowl always has been for sale, so far it has been restricted to this country, and occasionally Atlanta.”