Trietley: Deadlines, A-Rod and Super Bowl predictions

Did you see that awesome catch last night?

I know I did. Or maybe I didn’t, because… Did you see that awesome catch last night?

I know I did. Or maybe I didn’t, because maybe there wasn’t an awesome catch. Since my deadline for this column falls before the Super Bowl, I, through this article, am the most ignorant person in America as to what happened yesterday.

I’m pretty much in limbo.

Yeah, that one commercial was hilarious. And what a great comeback that was by the … Colts?

Hey, I’m just guessing here. Future Greg, did Drew Brees throw for 300 yards? I can start to write a game recap four minutes into the game, but my prognostication prowess is only slightly better than Chris Berman’s.

Luckily for me, there’s news outside of the Super Bowl. And double-luckily for me, thanks to the Super Bowl, that news will be buried deep down on all the big websites and most of the big newspapers. These stories are something I can talk about.

Take, for example, baseball. Remember baseball? I recollect the gist of it. It’s the busy season, with teams filling out their rosters with free agents. The off-season corresponds with the NFL playoffs so you don’t notice that the Pirates signed Octavio Dotel, who is ready to save his eighth major-league bullpen.

Off the field, “Alex Rodriguez” and “way too much money” found themselves in the same sentence again, as Alex Rodriguez’s 500th career home run ball sold for way too much money. $103,579, to be exact. The buyer chose to remain anonymous. The ball will reportedly rest on the top of a Plasticine mountain built as a metaphor for man’s hubris.

All this baseball talk — and all that beautiful snow outside, reminiscent of a mid-April American League Central Division game — makes me antsy for the upcoming season. It’s two months away, which means fantasy baseball is a month away. Disappointing fourth-place finishes all around!

Meanwhile, tomorrow — er, today — is a rare reprieve from the Pitt-Big Ten rumors. Be grateful. Your Monday-night lab may be the last class for weeks that will not feature some guy checking his cell phone after class and shouting to no one in particular outlandish, Onion-like breaking news.

So far, I’ve heard “Pitt and Syracuse to the Big Ten” and “Pitt to the Big Ten for football and Purdue to the Big East in basketball.” I also heard that West Virginia was included on Pitt’s out-of-conference schedule next year.

The more subtle text-shouters simply say “Pitt to the Big Ten! It’s official!” It’s just believable enough to earn a quick Google search to deny its accuracy.

Of course, nothing will get done in all this snow — except college basketball games. Pitt had almost 7,000 in attendance for its game against Seton Hall, even though the school told driving season-ticket holders to stay home because of poor road conditions.

Georgetown faced similar problems, as some sort of The Day After Tomorrow-type storm dumped several feet of snow on the nation’s capital. The Hoyas, too, won their game, beating No. 2 Villanova, 103-90.

Meanwhile, where snow didn’t cancel weekend bingo, No. 1 Kansas came from behind to beat Nebraska in a rivalry that goes all the way back to 1850s legislature. If any school is a lock for the Final Four, it’s the Jayhawks, who are now 22-1.

There were also a few wonderful, carefully-scheduled-as-to-not-conflict-with-football hockey games over the weekend. The best game featured Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins — but that game ended after my deadline, too. Did Washington make it 14 in a row? [Editor’s note: Yes, unfortunately.]

The Atlanta Thrashers played their first post-Ilya Kovalchuk game Saturday night, beating Florida, 4-2. Oddly enough, it was the highest-attended game of the season for the Thrashers.

Speaking of Kovalchuk and speaking of snow — double tie-in, boom — the Olympics start up Friday. I’ll be blogging about all the Olympic hockey action on pittnews.com as Kovalchuk tries to lead Russia to its first gold medal since its Soviet Union days.

Though I’m not great at predictions, I like the United States’ chances to outdo expectations and earn a medal. Goaltending wins games, and America has the NHL’s top goalie this season in Michigan native and Buffalo Sabre Ryan Miller.

And although it might seem a little bit late for you, I have one more prediction to make: Indianapolis, 31-21. Was I right?