Part of the magic of the office  NCAA bracket pool is bracketology that goes on — the examining of the brackets and the predicting of where the upsets are likely to occur. At the end, a tip of the cap goes out to the one who boldly stuck with a darkhorse or two that carried them to the cash haul. Savvy players never stick with all four No. 1 seeds

This year, your office or household pool is looking like it's going to go to a first timer or the kind of person who bets a horse at the track because they like the horse's name or the jockey's silks, isn't it?

Any lay person who can understand that if you're a No.1 seed you must be pretty good and who filled out their brackets based soley on seeding has to be looking pretty good now after some early round setbacks, by virtue of the fact  that for the first time all four No. 1 seeds have reached the Final Four.

Neither my stepson Alex nor our  foreign exchange student Jihyun living with us had ever engaged in an NCAA bracket pool before and both are kicking my butt in a friendly family pool.  My only hope is that Kansas wins it all, after  both my darkhorses — Texas and Xavier — flamed out after reaching the Elite 8. Alex went with all the No. 1 seeds to make his Final Four and Jihyun went with three  - UCLA, N.C. and Memphis,  although to their credit they picked some upsets along the way, too.

Limit your upset picks to the first rounds, then go with top seeds - pretty good strategy this year.

In lieu of great giveaways, again, which you get from other minor league teams, including the Inland Empire 66ers owned by Elmore Sports Group of which Bakersfield Blaze owner D.G. Elmore is the vice president, the Blaze are ramping up what they must perceive local baseball fans want the most or need the most to endure hot summer nights of baseball at Sam Lynn Ball Park  —  cheap beer.

With cut-rate beer and cervaza available on Micro Mondays ($2 micros), Tecate Tuesdays ($1.50 Tecates) and Thirsty Thursdays ($1 domestics)  it'll  be possible during the 2008 season to get really drunk, really cheaply at 41 percent of all home games. What a family-friendly development this is!

Savvy beer guzzlers can push that figure to more than 50 percent by taking advantage of free tickets to non reduced beer nights, spending on beer what they would on a ticket. Just show up on Must Win Wednesdays and get a free ticket to another game if the Blaze lose. I'm not sure what this year brings in terms of Ranger farm hand talent, but judging from the last two years, there'll be plenty of freebies dolled out.

The choice is a tough one — cash in the freebie on a cheap beer night and get value! value! value!  or add a fourth power drinking night  and amortize the  cost of the regularly-priced beer over what you would have paid for the ticket.

I'm sure the cops along Chester Avenue can't wait to see which strategy fans choose.

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How Frugatti's restaurant owner Ralph Fruguglietti of Shafter must have enjoyed his daughter Katina winning the hammer throw event at the UCLA Invitational last Saturday, beating four Bruin thinclads in the process. Quite a birthday present for the restaurateur and former USC Trojan, who turned 53 Wednesday.

Ralph, the current World Masters 50-55 discus champion, won a pair of silver medals for USC in the discus at the NCAA Track and Field Championships back in the mid 1970s. Katina, a sophomore, is one of many promising throwers on the Cal State Bakersfield track team.

Another thrower to watch for CSUB is freshman Derek Johnson of Augora Hills. Johnson won the discus at the Cal State Challenge with a throw of 171 feet  3 inches and placed fifth at the UCLA Invitational with a 173-1, both NCAA Division I Championships qualifying distances. His 173-1 ties him for eight best all-time at CSUB.

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With all the cool stuff to see, thunderous noises to wallow in and colorful characters to rub elbows with each year at the March Meet at Famoso Raceway, it's easy to forget how dangerous top-fuel drag racing can be and what incredible guts it takes for anyone, let alone a 65-year-old man, to step into a front-engine top fuel dragster and rocket down a straightaway reaching speeds of 250-plus MPH, particularly when very little money and only pride and satisfaction are on the line.

Unfortunately, it took a violent accident and subsequent passing of popular  top-fuel driver and prolific car builder John Shoemaker last Saturday during March Meet qualifying to hammer it home.

The romance of the nostalgic dynamic to the March Meet almost lulls folks into such a sense of comfort that when tragedy strikes it's doubly shocking and seemingly unfathomable. Yet  the paradox is that the speed, the danger, the oft-chance of witnessing a violent mishap are the very things that draw fans to the March Meet and sanctioned drag racing in general.

The concern now has to be for Shoemaker's family, specifically his wife Judee, his racing partner for decades who witnessed the accident from the start line. Because it remains a mystery why John never let off the accelerator, why he didn't hit the engine turnoff or why his parachute didn't deploy or whether or not he blacked out  for whatever reason as he barreled down the race track, the accident will be talked about for some time.  It'd be nice to bring her some closure.

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Not only was another lousy turnout for Cal State Bakersfield basketball Tuesday night a witness to almost certainly an NCAA first, but it bore witness to the second most exciting 10 minutes of basketball all season (falling just short of the Fresno State game) and the coming out of junior forward that provides added hope for next year.

CSUB, certainly 6-6 swingman Donald Lee, left about a 1,000 or so faithful wanting more in an 84-80 loss to a possible NCAA tournament team, Cal State Fullerton, which quite honestly didn’t play its best basketball. But as fate would have it, there is no more to the 2007-08 season, CSUB posting a moderately respectable 8-21 record in its first year playing a full Diviision I schedule. You can only hope that folks who were there will go out and spread the word that there is heart, soul and talent on this young Runners team worthy of better support than its been getting.

I want to see what Lee can do as an encore to his 20-point, 15-rebound effort, all in the second half Tuesday night (he had six boards in the final 48 seconds), as the Runners rallied from 20 down in the final ten minutes to put a significant scare into the Titans, a Big West Conference title contender. It was Rodman-like effort on the boards, without the rainbow hair and nose rings, and a Walton-like effort in the block, kissing one shot after another off the glass (he missed only one of 10 shots). So good was Lee that there was no place on the floor for Demarcus Hall who up until his departure from the game with 8:15 to play for presumably a quick blow, had scored a career high 25 points. Hall never returned as Lee, who had been averaging just 9 minutes, 2.3 points and 2.5 rebounds a game, took over.

It was an almost inexplicable performance considering the season the junior transfer from L.A. Pierce had had to that point, yet it appeared so natural as it evolved. Unfortunately for the Roadrunners, they couldn’t follow Lee’s effort on the boards with clutch shooting.

Lee, a junior, will return next year, giving CSUB two (Santwon Latunde being the other) strong left-handed players in the low post.

NCAA history? CSUB senior Rick Robinson scored two points last night, his final two points in his college career, but he never touched the basketball during the scoring of the field goal, as he was credited with a basket early in the game that was tipped in by a Fullerton player attempting to grab a rebound. Robinson, being the closest player, got credited with the basket.

If he’s not the only player to have never touched the basketball during the scoring of his last collegiate basket, then he certainly has to be the only one from Jamaica to do it.
 

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The Green Bay Post-Gazette published on Tuesday a 12-page special section “tab” on the retirement of Brett Favre from the Packers. That tells you just how big of a deal Favre is in Green Bay.

That leads me to wonder who in Bakersfield would command that kind of treatment in a similar scenario?

That’s actually pretty easy to answer — The Buckster, no doubt. When Buck Owens passed a couple of years ago, the Bakersfield Californian responded with a 24-page special section tab. But unlike the Green Bay Post-Gazette, the Californian doesn’t have to worry about Buck coming back.

I am among many who believe that Favre is not done playing football for the Packers, that come about August he’ll have rethought the whole retirement thing and will make the announcement that he’s coming back for at least another season. Except I’m not convinced that everyone in Packerdom will whole heartedly welcome that comeback announcement.

The decision to memorialize Buck with a special section was a no-brainer, but who or what will be the next to get the Buck treatment, or even the half-a-Buck treatment when they (it) retire, pass on, or just goes away? Joey Porter? David Carr (better get the presses ready?)? Bill Thomas? Annette Funicello? Pro baseball? High speed rail? Pot holes?
 

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The recent overplayed drama over the whereabouts of Rowdy the Roadrunner leads me to this question: Did anybody ever try to rip off Roger the Dodger (or was it Rodger?) and if not, why not?

For those who haven't been around for more than about 15 years, Roger the Dodger terrified children as the mascot of the Bakersfield Dodgers up until 1994 when the Dodgers dropped Bakersfield as its Cal League affiliate.  He was basically Salty the Mariner in a Dodger uniform — Salty the mascot fort the Bakersfield Mariners prior to the Dodger affiliation.

Nobody could clear out a section of the bleachers like Roger.

The way things are going, I wouldn't put it past the Condors to concoct  the sudden disappearance of Colonel Clawd, to take some of the attention off the last place team and the trades that came down Tuesday, which figure to be very unpopular with fans who just  don't know or don't want to know the whole story behind the departed Todd Griffith and Evan Kotsopoulos.

"Colonel Clawd has vanished, leaving poor Baby Cal without a mother. Please, please  help us find him. It's likely you'll find him at any one of our fine sponsors. Reward is two tickets and a goalie tryout with the Condors."

Scroll through the slide show and tell me: Which of the mascots pictured would command the most ransom if kidnapped?  I'm thinking Colonel Clawd, followed in order by Baby Cal, Swish, Rookie, Rowdy,  Roger the Dodger and Crusher, the Blitz mascot, because there ain't no reason to bring back him, er it.