Thank goodness the first round of the NBA playoffs are over! Listening to the media on tv or radio talk as if the world as we know was coming to an end drove me crazy. The fans? Maybe just as worse as the so-called experts. The panic of course was how the elite teams were all losing in the first round and how this is the end of the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs or how the young teams were overhyped such as the Heat, the Bulls and the Magic. Get over it already, we go through this almost every year!

It's a simple formula that one would think you would be used to not only from previous years, but even in the college basketball tournament every year in March, thus the "Madness." Look, let me tell you once and for all why you should not panic in the first round. Usually if you get an upset over a seven game series, it's going to be the 5 team over the 4 team. Sometimes it's 6 over the 3. ONLY once in awhile does the 7 beat the 2 or the 8 beat the 1 (in fact this year the 8, Grizzlies, did beat the 1, Spurs, but it was only the fourth time in history it's happened).

You see, the upper level teams (teams 1-4) usually take the first round as a cake walk and the bottom teams (5-8) are just happy to be there. However, the bottom teams go into the series feeling like they have something to prove and work a little harder than they usually do and often either surprise a better team or make them work for it. Happens every year. That's why we saw this year the Bulls struggle with the Pacers, the Heat struggled with the 76'ers, the Lakers struggled with Hornets, and so on. Only the Thunder had an easy time against the Nuggets, which was a little surprising and the Celtics had no real issues with the Knicks.

Now that we are going into the second round (as of today), the elite teams will begin to play their brand of ball and everything will be back to normal, again just like college basketball with the exception of VCU this year and Butler last year. Will the Memphis Grizzlies be this years version of VCU of the pro's? Who knows? Speaking of Memphis beating the top seeded team in the NBA, the Spurs, you didn't really think the Spurs were going to win it all based on their record did you? The opening round upset really wasn't all that of an upset. Their record was an indication of a great early start, but had to hold on the rest of the way.

Once in the playoffs, their age and injuries were exposed and the young guns of Memphis took no prisoners as they beat the Spurs in every facet of the game. Don't forget what I said about lesser teams working harder than the upper teams in the first round, plus Memphis played harder to pick up the slack when their leader, Rudy Gay went down for the season with an injury, the Spurs age and you got a recipe for upset.

Hang in there NBA fans and media, the wild, NORMAL first round is over. You can breathe now.

Ahhh, all is right with the world now that baseball 2011 is about to get underway. What should we expect? What should surprise? Oh so much to ponder. Let's take a quick jaunt around the league as I preview Baseball 2011 style.

Starting in the American League East, Baltimore finally got the old man to open up his wallet and spend some money and finally brought in some talent to compete in a division that includes the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and improving Blue Jays. Is it enough? The Red Sox did their best Yankee impersonation spending a boat load of money to bring in high caliber players. How will the Yankees react to being uncharacteristically shut out of the big free agent players? Lastly, will the Rays recover the loss of key personnel, only to replace them with aging Johnny Damon and Manny Rameriz (who has since "retired" for failing another drug test).

The AL Central will continue to be scratch and crawl baseball as these teams go at it yet again. The White Sox may have been the biggest spenders as they not only kept Paul Konerko, but also brought in slugger Adam Dunn. In the West, the Rangers reloaded, the Angels improved their bullpen with Scott Downs and the addition of Vernon Wells, replacing a bench player (Juan Rivera) and a player without a position (Mike Napoli). Watch the Athletics pitching staff as up and comers, yet not ready to be the best in the west as the Angels have the best starting rotation and outfield.

In the NL East the Phillies posess a tremendous starting rotation, but is their bullpen their achiles heel? In addition, with Jayson Werth leaving for Washington, who will protect Ryan Howard. Do they have enough to support the starters? How will the Braves fare without manager Bobby Cox? In the central, are the Reds for real or was it one and done? The Brewers are going for one last splash and gave up talent to do so in what could be Prince Fielder's final season with the Brew Crew. Lastly, what will happen in St. Louis? Injuries are already affecting the pitching staff and with Albert Pujols' contract unresolved (he's off to rough start), could this be the end of their run and his final year in a Cardinal uniform?

Finally in the west, the Dodgers go without Joe Torre as manager with rookie manager, Donnie Baseball, Don Mattingly. The Padres are hard to figure, losing Adrian Gonzalez, but good young talent. The Giants look to repeat their championship. Who will win it all? See my predictions to the bottom left of this page, but here's a hint who will win it all: think repeat. Now.... PLAY BALL!!!