The Big Blog Roundup, March Metness Edition

Before we get to the links, let me share with you all the latest in Ballclub news. First up, we've set up a fledgling MySpace page, which we're told is where all the kids are hanging out these days. Want to be friends with us? Hit us up on our MySpace, dude.

Also, it's come to my attention that if you Google the word "ballclub" one of our posts is the fifth result that shows up. I mean, not that I'm constantly checking up on this sort of thing while I'm at work. It just came to my attention. Here's what's interesting: ahead of us are three (three!) Cubs blogs. The Cubs? Fuck that. You know what to do. Link us up. We will own that #1 spot by the end of March—that's my pledge to you. If you search "the ballclub"—with or without quotes—we own the first two spots. Again, this has just sort of come to my attention.

And now, this week's blog highlights:

• Didja know about this? Havya heard about this?
Mets Heads digs up the startling revelation that Jose Reyes was almost included in the 2001 trade that brought us The Robbie Alomar Era. As Kyle's mom would say, "Wha-wha-whaaaaaaaa?!" It's true. The Indians decided they didn't have enough scouting info on Professor Reyes so they elected to take Alex Escobar instead. I'd crack a joke here, but I feel too bad about the horrendous run of injury-related bad luck Escobar has had. Remember what a can't miss prospect he was once upon a time?

This little gem was reported by the Post's Joel Sherman on March 11, dropped into a little collection of notes. Joel, how can you be so casual about this? This is earth shattering! That sound you hear is the collective sigh of relief being breathed by Mets fans everywhere. That other sound is Mark Shapiro dousing a mountain of Jhonny Peralta bobblehead dolls with gasoline and setting them on fire.

• March Metness bracketology
In my favorite Met blog moment of the week, Faith and Fear in Flushing unveiled March Metness. Seasonally appropriate, no? A complete bracket of Met Memes that in the coming weeks will determine once and for all, as they put it, the "Quintessential Mets Thing." Round One commenced yesterday and continues apace.

Here's what I don't know: how are the matchups played out? Are they mapped to corresponding March Madness results? You guys want to fill us in? But if you'd rather keep it close the vest, if you're building a mystery, I can respect that.

Here's what else I don't know: where the hell is Shea Stadium Car Fire? Did that at least make the NIT or what?

• And now over to JackO and House for their thoughts
The original Friends of Bill join Simmons as he live-blogs about twelve total hours of NCAA Tournament action from yesterday and today. They started drinking beer at, startlingly, 9:33 AM (PT) Thursday morning and haven't stopped. Twelve hours of JackO and House! Does the fun ever start?! (I kid 'cuz I love.) I dug through quickly to pick a favorite quote and I'll have to go with this one:

9:51: Raftery calls Memphis "one of the great spurt teams … they have the ability to just explode from behind." It's like he's deliberately trying to get me fired.

Come on Bill, just leave ESPN and get on Blogger and and you can say whatever the hell you want.

• Our long citywide nightmare continues
And finally, over on Fortuitous Bounce we—okay, I—have pithy, snippy things to say about the multiyear extension given by the Knicks to Isiah Thomas. Allow myself to quote ... myself:

Pretty drastic indeed. If we haven't made progress, then oh my God it'll be sooo much work to, you know, fix it and everything. All that hiring a new coach, figuring out how to build a decent team with a future, making moves, what an effing drag, dude. Why don't we just extend Zeke's contract and hope for the best? I mean, fuck it, right? Okay, it's settled.

Why am I so much bitchier on that site? Oh, right. The team sucks.

Elsewhere:

• Shea Faithful interviews Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News to get the bad guys' side of things. Quoth Hagen: "I think getting Freddy Garcia was a great move for the Phillies and that the Wes Helms/Abraham Nunez combination should work well at third." I don't even have a joke here. You keep believing, Paul.

• The Eddie Kranepool Society helpfully offers suggested lineup to Omar Minaya. I have only a couple minor differences of opinion.

• Deadspin is already nineteen teams into their annual team-by-team baseball season preview. Deadspin editor Will Leitch, a Cards fan, affixes a particularly mean-spirited photo to the Mets preview article.

Update, 3/19: We're up to #4 on the "ballclub" Google search. We bumped out a Philippine news & sports site but we're still trailing those Cubs blogs.