To Pay or Not to Pay?

     The term “economics” is a word that seems very wide open. It has to do with money and finances but can relate to anything that occurs in our everyday lives. One of the more notable and even recent topics in economics has two key parts: equal pay in sports, as well as collegiate athletes being compensated being paid for participation in athletics from within their university.

            The first part of economics to bring up is equal pay in sports. It is a hard topic to discuss because of the number of athletes we have participating in sports, as well as being paid because of their talent level. The top 10 athletes in the world are as follows, according to Forbes: Barcelona star soccer player Lionel Messi at $127 million, Juventus star forward Cristiano Rinaldo at $109 million, Paris Saint-Germain star forward Neymar at $105 million, star UFC boxer Canelo Alvarez at $94 million, star tennis player Roger Federer at 

$93.4 million, Seattle Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson at $89.5 million, Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers just behind Wilson at $89.3 million, LA Lakers star player LeBron James at $89 million, Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry at $79.8 million and Curry’s former teammate Kevin Durant, who is now a player on the Brooklyn Nets at $65.4 million.

            These athletes just mentioned are all star players in their own respective sport. However, a lot of other players that play in the same sport as most of these athletes want to be paid around the same amount and even more eclipsing some of these star contracts. Major League Baseball players are starting to request to be paid more. For example, star outfielder Bryce Harper signed a 13-year, $330 million contract with no opt-outs throughout the duration of his contract. There are other athletes coming up during this MLB offseason that are either unrestricted free agents with their contracts ending, like Houston Astros star pitcher Gerrit Cole, whose contract just ran out this season and also World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg, who opted out of a contract with 4 years/$100 million remaining to seek a deal that pays quite a bit. “No player is worth that much money like the contract Bryce Harper signed,” a fellow baseball fan said.

Now that is not to say these all these athletes mentioned are not talented. They absolutely are some of the most talented individuals in their sport. However, there are some that play outstanding in their sport that are not paid like some of these star athletes that really want to be paid a lot. This topic has created quite a controversy both in the sports world and politically and it has to do with women not being paid up to the level as these male athletes. Abby Wambach, star player for the United States Women’s Soccer Team, has continuously voiced her opinion saying women need to be paid more than they are currently being paid because of their talent level. Other athletes, including Washington Wizards star players John Wall and Bradley Beal, are calling for women to be paid more. Wall and Beal were in attendance during the Washington Mystics WNBA Final title runs and they both witnessed firsthand how talented these players on the Washington Mystics rosters are.

I feel that if athletes are performing at a high level for their team, then absolutely, they deserve to get paid. However, it really should not be in these ridiculous amounts some of these other athletes have signed contracts, like Harper and Machado for example. In 2012, the Los Angeles Angels were one of the first teams in all of sports to sign a player to a crazy contract. Longtime first baseman and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols signed a 10 year/$240 million contract and so far, he has not really lived up to it because of him not being healthy throughout the duration of his contract, but that has to do a little bit with him approaching 40 years old. On top of that, the Angels have not really been a competitive team, but they will go into next season under high expectations to compete and in order to do that, they need to pay some players on the free agent market that can help them make their team better. Bottom line, think long and hard about a particular player and their overall talent level before you “back the Brinks truck up”.

            Moving on to another topic relating to economics in sports: the compensation of college athletes. It has been a huge argumentative topic for many years that can really be argued whether college athletes should be compensated or not for playing a collegiate sport. According to NPR, it was just recently announced that the NCAA would be compensated for using their name and image for collegiate athletic participation. One former player that says that college athletes should not be compensated in any way: former Florida Gators star quarterback Tim Tebow, who played quarterback years ago and was a very talented player in his own right also. On an interview with ESPN’s  “First Take” recently, Tebow stated his jersey was one of the top selling jerseys in sports and didn’t want to be compensated for it because just the overall experience of being in college and playing college football made him feel great and gave him such motivation to be successful. He also says it is all about the team and not yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKpm4jwMi8o 

            The topic of students being paid is an ongoing topic at universities around the country, but the question is, is it significant here at George Mason University? Ronald Shayka, the Associate Athletic Director at Mason, says that this entire topic has not been a huge discussion so far but can be down the road depending on how the media frames it. He added that if athletes become paid to play in their respective sport, then they will become “employees” of their respective university. If you think about it that way, then absolutely, paying an athlete will make them an employee of the university, so that is definitely something to consider down the road.  "I believe paying student athletes is even more drastic and may be the first step of bringing the whole house down,” Shayka said.

In my opinion, I think it is crazy for a university to even think about paying athletes for playing a sport while attending school. The schools should stick to improving classrooms and paying professors for doing one of the hardest jobs out there in the world today. You can argue that a scholarship is actually paying someone and when you think about it, it sort of does fall under that category. However, it is for a reward for doing hard work throughout your education, so that should stay the way it is. Shayka also stated if a university pays an athlete, then actually awarding an athlete a scholarship can be delayed because of the compensation of an athlete. In the end, schools need to focus on bringing in athletes that are going to graduate.

In my eyes, I think overpaying athletes is a huge issue when it comes to economics in sports, so be careful with the amount of money you spend on an athlete. In regard to paying student-athletes, stick to the scholarships. The main reason why someone attends a university is because they want to graduate and get a degree, not only to play sports.

External Links
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2019/09/13/college-athletes-tim-tebow-speaks-out-against-paying-players/2312200001/
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/student-athletes-should-get-paid-college-students-say.html
https://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/2019/06/11/5cffe3d3ca4741537d8b4574.html

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Deja Vu?

We are only one month into the 2019 MLB season and the Washington Nationals, in many people's eyes, were expected to be a very dominant team with free agent acquisitions, players returning and whatnot. Even with the loss of Bryce Harper, they were expected to compete.

Let's just say it has pretty much been the complete opposite of that. Injuries have plagued the Nats. Star shortstop Trea Turner has already been out for a month with a broken index finger, Anthony Rendon with elbow issues, face of the franchise Ryan Zimmerman with nagging foot issues and now to add it all, lost two key players, Matt Adams and Michael A. Taylor last night, and now Taylor is the latest Nat to go on the injured list.

It gets even worse for Washington. They were expected to be more competitive with their star pitchers, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and newcomer Patrick Corbin and of course, some really key bullpen pieces. To say their bullpen has been a dumpster fire has been an understatement to say the least. They have cost the Nationals a pretty good amount of wins so far this season and with all the pitching issues, it also cost the Nats' pitching coach their job earlier this week.

We will see if there are other changes on the horizon, but I'm sure if the struggles continue, we will definitely see more changes in the Washington Nationals organization.

More Shockers

After winning the best-of-7 series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to play the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The Islanders, led by former Capitals Stanley Cup winning head coach Barry Trotz, many were to say the Islanders would give the Canes trouble because of their coach and veteran leadership.

It was all but that. The first two games were relatively competitive. The Islanders had home-ice advantage for the entire series, but both home games were stolen by Carolina. Game was was scoreless throughout regulation, then Carolina goes on and scores the lone goal in that game, winning 1-0 in overtime. In Game 2, the game was tied for a good chunk of the way, until Carolina scores in the third period winning 2-1.

Games 3 and 4 shifted down to Raleigh, NC. If the Caps struggled because of PNC Arena's loud atmosphere, how would the Islanders take it? The answer: not so well. It honestly looked like another version of the Capitals playing down there, with loud arena fueling the players. Ironically, games 3 and 4 both ended in 5-2 victories for Carolina, which was also the same scored in Game 6 in the Capitals series.

Nevertheless, Carolina advances, sweeping the series against the Islanders 4-0 and will take on the winner of the Boston Bruins/Columbus Blue Jackets series, where the winner will be declared the Eastern Conference champion and will advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

There's A First Time For Everything

Let's go back in time, particularly to the early 1900s and before then. Women didn't play much of a role, expect for being housewives and mothers. 100 years later, women are now being represented more and more in jobs, especially in a league that is predominantly ruled by men.

There are two notable women that recently made history. Melanie Newman and Suzie Cool are the radio play-by-play and color announcers for the Salem Red Sox, the Advanced-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. They made history by being the first women to do both duties in the radio booth in all of professional baseball. There are still women that work in various roles in other organizations but these two are part of a really special type of history. Last Tuesday, I had the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview both of them for the NBC affiliate in Boston, as well as for NBC4 here in DC. 

They are both still relatively young and just starting the opening stages of their careers. They both had really good stories and show really great passion for the game of baseball not only in their careers, but also in their personal lives. I wish them nothing but the best and hope this takes them farther into their careers for years to come!

Defending Champs Go Down

What do you think of when you hear the words "Game 7"? Are you excited, stressed, a little bit of both? For most Capitals fans, hearing those words more than likely stresses them out.

After leading the first round series against the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0, then losing 2 in a row in Carolina, winning Game 5 at home in dominating fashion, then losing in Carolina AGAIN, the Caps went into Wednesday's Game 7 hoping for the Capital One Arena faithful to give them a spark leading into the next series against former coach Barry Trotz and the New York Islanders.

After a pretty dominating 1st period leading 2-0 and then leading 3-1 for part of the 2nd period thanks to the first goals of the series by star players Andre Burakovsky and Evgeny Kuznetsov, Carolina rocked the Caps like a hurricane, scoring 3 unanswered goals and ended up winning the game and the series 4-3 in double overtime on a Brock McGinn goal and the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the second round against the Islanders, while the Caps were eliminated in the first round for the first time in a few seasons.

We will see if the Caps can rebound and have better success next year, but it looks like the Carolina Hurricanes are an up and coming team for years to come.

Big Sparks

After a tough two games in Raleigh, NC, the Caps came back to Capital One Arena last night hoping their fans would power their confidence towards a victory after the Carolina Hurricanes, who haven't hosted and even been in the playoffs since the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, absolutely dominated the defending champs in their home arena.

Reports over the weekend came out that TJ Oshie will miss the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after undergoing surgery to repair a broken collarbone. That didn't stop the star player from cheering on his team from outside the arena, tweeting to his fans to be loud and root on the home team.That motivation from Oshie seemed to really help the Caps and their fans.

The player that took Oshie's spot on the roster was Devante Smith-Pelly, one of the heroes from the Stanley Cup run last year. He made his return to the lineup for the first time since February, after being sent down to the AHL because of somehow struggling this season. That was another sort of a spark.

Spoiler alert: with both of those things mentioned, the Caps really played a dominating game in their return home last night, winning by a 6-0 score. Nicklas Backstrom was a big reason for the win, scoring the Caps' first 2 goals and assisting on 2 more.

Game 6 will take place tomorrow night back in Raleigh. Let's hope the Caps can close it out. Otherwise, they will be back here Wednesday night for Game 7.

Struggling Champs

After winning the first two games at home, the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes moved down to Raleigh with the Caps up 2-0 in this best-of-7 series. After a 10-year drought without playoff hockey in the Carolinas, the crowd at PNC Arena at Raleigh was expected to be loud. Well, it was just that and then some.

After sweeping the regular season series from Carolina 4-0 and winning these first two playoff games in DC, momentum was expected to be in the Caps favor shifting to another location, due to their extensive history of playoff experience. It looked like the complete opposite of that. Game 3 was absolutely dominated by the Hurricanes by a 5-0 shutout led by two goals apiece from third year player Warren Foegele and veteran Dougie Hamilton, along with a very underwhelming 18 shots by the Caps, in which all of them were saved by goalie Petr Mrazek.

After Game 3, the Caps had two days off between games. The first day off, they didn't even hit the ice, which was a good thing for the team to recharge their batteries for a day before hitting the ice for practice the next day in preparation for Game 4.

Speaking of Game 4, the Capitals played a lot better than Game 3, but still struggled a little bit. The aforementioned Warren Foegele scored only 17 seconds into the entire game, then Caps Captain Alex Ovechkin scored to tie it in the second and then at the end of the second period, Carolina took the lead and never looked back, winning 2-1 and evened the series 2-2 going back to DC. It also got even worse for the Caps, as star right winger TJ Oshie broke his collarbone in the 3rd period of Game 4 and will miss the remainder of the playoffs.

Stay tuned for a recap of Game 5.

Back On Top

I am not much of a golf fan at all. In fact, I don't really watch it because it is one of the slowest paced sports out there, even though some people put up arguments for baseball being really slow. One of the more notable individuals that plays golf is Tiger Woods. He has been back and forth in and out of golf for personal troubles, as well as some issues with being healthy.

This weekend, Woods participated in this year's Masters Tournament at Augusta National and had a really successful weekend. In fact, it was so successful, Woods won his first Major golf event since 2008 and his first Master's since 2005. It was long overdue for the longtime pro and when he sunk that last shot at the Master's, the crowd went absolutely wild, as well as his family, who were in attendance to cheer them on.

There are individuals that dislike Woods because of his personal issues. From cheating on his wife, to being arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, a lot of people were done with him. He also had a lot of nagging back issues that weren't helping at all. Now, that has all come to and end and he is now back on top of the golfing world for the first time in a long time. Congrats to Tiger!

Defending Champs Are Rocking!

For the first time in franchise history, the Washington Capitals enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the defending champions! It was something long overdue for the team from the capital of the United States. As legendary NHL broadcaster Mike "Doc Emrick" said when the Caps clinched the cup in Game 5 of last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, "The capital of the country is the capital of the hockey playoffs!"

The Caps' first round opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2009, when they lost to the then-eventual champion Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals. There is no current player on Carolina's roster that was on that playoff team. However, their coach, Rod Brind'Amour, was. In his first year as an NHL head coach, Brind'Amour led Carolina to a 46-29-7 regular season record and the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

 As for the Caps, their head coach, Todd Reirden, is a former assistant of Stanley Cup winning head coach Barry Trotz. Reirden was promoted to head coach after Barry Trotz became the head coach of the New York Islanders this offsesason. As for Reirden, he lead the Caps to a 48-26-8 record, good for first in the Metropolitan Division.

After the first 2 playoff games in this series, the Caps have won both games. Game 1, they won 4-2 and yesterday in Game 2, they won 4-3 in OT. Both games have been very competitive and physical on both sides so as this series shifts down to Carolina, it will continue to be very competitive.

To the Ice Round 1

It is hard to believe it has almost been a year since the Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup! We are 3 days away from the start of this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Caps however, will start on Thursday night.

Here is a look at the First Round Matchups. In the Eastern Conference, the President's Trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets, the defending champion Capitals will take on the Carolina Hurricanes, the Boston Bruins will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in a rematch of last year's opening round and the New York Islanders will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In the Western Conference: the Calgary Flames will take on the Colorado Avalanche, the Nashville Predators will take on the Dallas Stars, the Winnipeg Jets will take on the St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks will take on the Vegas Golden Knights.

Here are my predictions:

Eastern Conference
Lightning over Blue Jackets in 4
Caps over Hurricanes in 5
Maple Leafs over Bruins in 7
Islanders over Penguins in 7

Western Conference
Flames over Avalanche in 5
Predators over Stars in 5
Blues over Jets in 6
Golden Knights over Sharks in 7

Unpleasant Return

When Bryce Harper made his return to DC Tuesday night as a member of the Phillies, the big question was would he get cheers or would he get booed? Especially with him signing with one of the Nationals' biggest rivals about 3 hours north.

To answer that question, mostly boos, from the Nationals fans. However, there were a great amount of cheers, but it was from the busfuls of Phillies fans that made the trip down to see Harper's return to DC in person. To me, it didn't seem like an early season game, it felt like an early October game being played in April because of how loud the stadium and fans were! It was so loud, everyone could hear how loud the boos were in the press box!

I got to witness everything in person as part of the media and it was fun. I went to Harper's press conference, which seemed pretty heartfelt to me, from him talking about his memories in DC, to going to his favorite restaurants when he got back into town. After the press conference was over and shadowing 3 different sports segments, while toughing it out in the rain wearing my brand new suit, I made my way up to the press box to watch the game. What an experience! I saw a great game until I left in the 6th inning and that was when the good stuff occurred. Harper homered against his former team and the Phillies blew out the Nats in the end.

If this is a sign of how this season is going to go, imagine how it's going to be over the next 13 years under Harper's contract in Philadelphia.

Baseball's FINALLY BACK!!!

I have been waiting for the return of baseball since the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in Game 5 back on October 28th. This first week was pretty much what I expected, with some surprises along the way. but My main storylines: Bryce Harper's first series as a member of the Phillies, my Rays taking on one of the best teams in baseball in recent years, the Houston Astros and of course, the Nationals post-Bryce Harper taking on the New York Mets.

The 2019 Regular Season actually kicked off back on March 20th with a 2-game series between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's in Tokyo, Japan. The OFFICIAL start of the season occurred this past Thursday and after the conclusion of some of these games today, I realized that I'm back in my happy place.

To recap some of the notable series, my Rays took 3 out of 4 from the Astros. Game 1, they started off the game with a lead-off home run by newcomer Austin Meadows, but gave up multiple home runs and lost 5-1. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Rays looked like a totally different team, winning the final 3 games of that series and took 3 of 4 from Houston. The Nats struggled their first two games but avoided the sweep by beating the New York Mets on a walkoff home run by shortstop phenom Trea Turner.

Now about the Nationals' ex, Mr. Bryce Harper. He went 0 for 3 in his debut on Thursday, but on Saturday, he hit his first home run in a win over the Atlanta Braves and his home run was a BOMB!!! Harper makes his return to DC on Tuesday as the Phillies battle the Nationals in what is going to be a big night and we will see how he is going to be welcomed. Bold prediction: it ain't going to be pretty.

What an Elite 8...on to Minneapolis!

The caption says it all: this Elite 8 in this years' NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was one to remember, with all four games having close finals and two of them going to overtime to decide which team would move on to Minneapolis' US Bank Stadium to play in this year's Final Four.

Texas Tech, who was the 3rd seed in the West, defeated #1 seed and heavily favored Gonzaga 75-69 on Saturday. Also on Saturday, #1 seed Virginia defeated #4 seed Purdue 80-75 in OT in the South region. Today, in an all SEC battle in the Midwest region, #5 seed Auburn beat #2 seed Kentucky 77-71 in OT and in the East region, #1 seed Duke fell in a close game to #2 seed Michigan State 68-67.

The Final Four begins next Saturday in Minneapolis. Auburn will take on UVA at 6:09 and Texas Tech will take on Michigan State soon after, where both winners will advance to the National Championship on Monday, April 8th. Virginia will play in their first Final Four since 1984, Texas Tech in their first ever, also the same with Auburn and Michigan State's first since 2015.

If these Elite 8 games were good, one can only imagine if the Final Four will as well!

America's Pastime is Almost Here!

One day, a student asked one of my former professors how he was doing that day. His response: "It's a great day in America. Baseball is back!"

To this day, hearing that quote totally relates to me. Thursday will be the official Opening Day for all 30 MLB teams and a lot of high expectations are in place for some of those teams! 

Here are some questions going into this season. Can Bryce Harper live up to his $330 million contract? Can the Red Sox defend their World Series title? Can the Nationals return to the playoffs after not making it last year?

Some will argue the Nats are actually better than the Phillies because of their experience and amount of talent. One person can't make all the difference (Bryce Harper). It has to be done with the entire team working together. 

With that being said, here are some of my predictions. I do, in fact, think the Nationals will be fine without Bryce Harper because I have them not only making the playoffs but defeating the Houston Astros in the World Series in 6 games. How bold is that?! Juan Soto will become the new face of the Nationals post-Bryce Harper and Harper will become the new face of the Phillies. Speaking of the Phillies, I have them making the playoffs but losing to the Nats in the first round. 

March Madness...Literally

Yesterday, I saw one of the craziest endings to a game I have ever seen for as long as I have been watching March Madness! Counting the ending to the UNC/Villanova National Championship game a couple years ago, this one is definitely going to be up there!

It took place yesterday between #1 overall seeded Duke and #9 seeded UCF in the East Region Round of 32 in Columbia, SC. The winner of this game would advance to the Sweet 16 here in DC, getting closer to their goal of advancing farther in the tournament. This game also featured a coaching legend (Coach K) and one of his former players and assistant coaches (UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins), as well as one of the greatest players to ever play college basketball.

This game was back and forth throughout the entire game but the real action happened in the last minute of the game. With 14.1 seconds remaining, Zion Williamson was at the free throw line, misses his second free throw, and then fellow teammate RJ Barrett rebound the miss and laid it in, giving Duke a 77-76 lead.

It gets better. With under 5 seconds remaining, UCF's BJ Taylor missed a layup and also the coach's son, Aubrey Dawkins couldn't tip in the rebound, which was literally inches from going into the rim and that would've won the game for UCF! Some would argue that UCF should've won and I was one of those individuals!

Duke wins 77-76 and will play #4 seeded VA Tech in an ACC rematch in the Sweet 16 this coming Friday night here in DC.

John's 2019 March Madness Predictions

I may not be the best at predicting some of these March Madness games but it is so much fun! With no further ado, here are my predictions for the tournament from the Sweet 16 and beyond! A picture of my bracket will be shown at the bottom too.

East Region (Washington, DC) - Duke over Virginia Tech, Yale over Michigan State in the Sweet 16. In the Elite 8, I have Duke and Michigan State with Duke winning and advancing to yet again another Final Four,

South Region (Louisville, KY) - UVA over Kansas State and Purdue over Tennessee in the Sweet 16. In the Elite 8, I have UVA meeting up with Purdue and Purdue pulling off the upset over the 1 seeded Cavaliers to move on to Minneapolis.

Midwest Region (Kansas City) - North Carolina over Kansas and Houston over Kentucky in the Sweet 16. In the Elite 8, I have North Carolina meeting up with Houston and the great Roy Williams will find a way to coach his Tar Heels past Houston and into the Final Four.

West Region (Anaheim, CA) - Gonzaga over Florida State and Michigan over Buffalo in the Sweet 16. In the Elite 8, Gonzaga meets Michigan and Gonzaga will move on to another Final Four.

Final Four Semifinals - Duke vs. Gonzaga and Purdue vs. UNC. Winners: Duke and UNC

National Championship Game - Zion Williamson and Coach K's Duke Blue Devils take on coach Roy Williams and his North Carolina Tar Heels in the greatest rivalry in College Basketball for the fourth time this season! In the end, North Carolina will be cutting down the nets in Minneapolis in what I feel will be a really great game!

Happy March Madness, everyone!

The Two Great M's: March Madness

Well, it's that time of year again, my friends: MARCH MADNESS! A time of year that brings coworkers and/or friends together. Some people have great knowledge of College Basketball, while some have no darn clue about it as well.

To recap, the four #1 seeds in the tourney this year are Duke, Virginia, North Carolina and Gonzaga. Duke, led by their star player Zion Williamson, were the overall #1 seed and will play in the East Region, going through the great city of our nation's capital. Virginia, the #1 seed in the South Region, will go through Louisville, North Carolina is the 1 seed in the Midwest and will go through Kansas City, and the #1 seed in the West Region is Gonzaga, which will go through Anaheim.

Every year on Selection Sunday, one can put up arguments for any teams making the tournament and some being a #1 seed themselves. However, it all depends on team's overall schedule, as well as good wins and good losses being put into affect. For those teams that were close but not close enough to make it into the tournament, they can be selected to play in either the NIT or the CBI, which are still good tournaments, but just not the big dance.

My predictions and my bracket are coming up soon! 👀

The Best Environment in a Sporting Event? College Basketball

I am intrigued to see everyone's reaction for those that read this and hear that last Wednesday, I attended my very first George Mason basketball game as a student. Yes, I know. As a huge sports fan like I am, I haven't attended a Mason game as a student and after I left the game that night, my immediate thought was, "Man, I have really missed out!"

It wasn't my first time attending a college basketball game. I have been to a Mason game before, but it was over 10 years ago and really wasn't too familiar with it. I also attended a Georgetown/DePaul game about 8 years ago and attended the Men's Atlantic 10 Championship here in DC last year after winning tickets.

What made attending the Mason game even better was going there as part of shadowing a feature story for my internship that is being aired at a later date on NBC4. I was given an all-access pass so I was able to go on the court, sit on the media sideline and even better, went to Coach Paulsen's postgame press conference. It was such a phenomenal environment by not only seeing Mason beat Richmond by a pretty wide margin, but just the overall environment. The fans, the Green Machine, the passion of the fans. In my opinion, that is what makes attending a college basketball event in person one of the best in the world.

Former Nat Moves Up North

After former Orioles star Manny Machado signed the biggest free agent contract in MLB history last week with the San Diego Padres, attention immediately turned to how much fellow free agent superstar Bryce Harper's contract would be whenever he would sign with a new team, since it had been said, according to reports, Harper wouldn't return with the Nats. Yesterday, that entire speculation came into an end.

Yesterday afternoon, Bryce Harper agreed to a 13 year/$330 million contract with the Nationals' NL East division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. With that contract, Harper not only has the biggest contract in free agent history, he also now has the biggest contract in all of sports. His contract includes no opt-outs and a full no-trade clause, according to reports. He will take a physical today with the team and will be officially introduced in a press conference on Saturday.

It just adds to the amount of players Philadelphia added to their roster this offseason: Andrew McCutchen, Jean Segura, JT Realmuto, and of course, Harper, just to name a few. The Phillies now have 10-1 odds to win the World Series now that they have signed Harper, so it remains to be seen if this team can pull all this chemistry together and be successful.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Not Christmas)

February to October is the most wonderful time of the year, in my opinion. Why is that? Baseball season. I always love when baseball season rolls around because it brings a lot of people together. It also means my favorite time of year, summer, is soon-to-be approaching.

Yesterday, I watched my first full Spring Training game of 2019. The Nationals took on the Cardinals and it was a blowout in favor of the Nationals. I was clipping highlights of that game as part of my internship and throughout the game, I was starting to transition back into my happy place, knowing the 182 regular season games were almost upon us.

Most people argue they don't like baseball because it is so slow. Yes, it is slow, but you just never know what is going to happen. There are so many superstars in the game of baseball that always try to give 110% each time they participate. Why do I love baseball so much? Not only does it remind me of summer, I just love the enthusiasm of the fans at baseball games and it also occupies a lot of time in my family's personal life because my youngest brother participates in travel leagues. Baseball is just amazing. That is why it is known as America's Pastime because it brings people together and it is just amazing to watch. 

The Centennial Anniversary

2019 is the 100th Anniversary of the great professional sports league known as the National Hockey League, or the NHL. To honor the Centennial Anniversary, the Canadian Embassy, located in Northwest DC, is holding an event that honors not only the anniversary of the league, but the 100 Greatest NHL Players of All Time, as well. The event has most recently been sold out.

As part of my internship, I had the great opportunity to cover this event. It was amazing! There was a little room on the bottom floor of the Embassy that held 100 paintings all painted by a renowned Canadian artist named Tony Harris. There were paintings of various famous hockey players, from Wayne Gretzky, to DC hero Alex Ovechkin, and of course, mortal enemy Sidney Crosby.

Not only were there paintings of players, there was also the chance for hockey fans to see the Stanley Cup in person, as well as take a picture with it. As part of the assignment for my internship, I interviewed different Caps fans, but one Caps fan told me this was one of the greatest things she has ever seen. Also, she told me the Caps gave her one amazing birthday present last year: winning the Cup on her birthday! "I couldn't have asked for anything else," she told me.

Both photos taken by me 

About Me

I have been a sports fan for most of my life but I really didn’t get into it until my freshman year of high school. Watching sports on TV is something I feel like I always have to be part of because you never know what is going to happen, even though some passionate fans show extra confidence like, “Oh, we are going to blow you guys out of the water!!” As legendary NFL coach Herm Edwards says, “You play to win the game.”

         As far as my teams go, it really sounds like I am all over the place with the teams I support and a couple teams I happen to be a fan of may shock everyone. For the NFL, I support the Broncos because one of my favorite college athletes of all time, Tim Tebow, was drafted by them, even though he never had much success at all as an NFL quarterback. For baseball, of course I support the Nationals because of my family and it being a local team, but my main team I follow is the Tampa Bay Rays because I love almost everything Tampa Bay because it is practically my second home from going on vacation there many times to visit family and will eventually be my actual home after college. For hockey, I am of course a diehard fan of the defending cup champion Capitals, but when they aren’t playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, I’ll follow them too. Last year’s Eastern Conference Final was an interesting one when the Caps played the Lightning because no matter what the result was, I was going to be happy either way, but of course, I wanted the Caps to win. I’m not really much of an NBA fan but I follow the Wizards because of my internship and I’ll get into that a little bit later. For college football, I support University of Florida and college basketball, I follow quite a few teams like of course, our George Mason Patriots, the Florida Gators, a little ACC Basketball and Georgetown.