All the good blog topics were already taken, so.....

There is a side of the street nobody else is working. The retro blog. Just go back 20 years, add text, and stir. Best served cold. Real cold.

Let's see.

Knicks lost (sounds familiar). Bird got 31 and the Celtics won 118-106. At least there was some scoring. This year it's Celts 3 Knicks 0, the high (low) light being a 104-59 mugging in Boston.

Bill Robinson wanted to be a manager. The highly respected ex-Yankee player and Mets coach was quoted as saying. ''The only thing I ask is that instead of people having their eyes closed, their eyes be open a little bit,'' he said. ''I'm qualified. I can manage.'' Robinson, an African-American at a time when doors were still mostly closed to black managers, never got that chance. He passed away last year, but not before picking up two world championship rings serving as hitting coach for the Mets and Marlins.

All was quiet with the Yankees in spring training. Billy Martin was making another comeback (which turned out to be his last). ''The way you play in spring training can carry over,'' Martin said. ''Winning or losing isn't important, but the way you play is. And we're playing good baseball.'' Steinbrenner is keeping quiet this year, hanging out with Donald Trump. Of course, he fired in mid-season and replaced him with Lou Pinella. After all, Steinbrenner did have $15 million in salary sunk into what was to be a 5th place team.

The number one team in the country got knocked out of the final four. By those upstarts from Duke. Temple lost a chance to give coaching legend John Chaney a capstone for his career, losing 53-63. Duke was a decided underdog, led by young coach and aspiring stand up comic (you read that right) Mike Krzyzewski. Referring to Duke's 6-5" center (you read that right, too) Robert Brickey suffering through repeated blocks by Temple center Tim Perry, Krzyzewski said, "Robert was playing catch with Perry. He would toss it and Perry would catch it and throw it back.''

Rollie Massimino put Villanova into the four corners to start their game against Oklahoma. It didn't work. Oklahoma 78 Villanova 59. Billy Tubbs' offense came in averaging 104 points a game. Twenty years later college players are bigger, faster, quicker and often can't stand on the beach and hit the ocean.

Tennessee won the women's East regional 84-76 against Virginia. Coach Pat Summit of the Vols said she was worried about maintaining the intensity. I can report that hasn't been a problem for Summit since.

Down four the Rangers tied the Red Wings with three goals in the final period, including one with a minute to play. Coach Michel Bergeron said, ''We worked hard, took one goal at a time and came back.'' Not sure what happened to Bergeron after that, but I suspect the Rangers made him V.P. in charge of cliches.

Calvin Peete was three back of Payne Stewart at the Player's Championship. The tournament was up for grabs, what with Tiger Woods only being 13 and all. Stewart, one of the most charismatic players of all-time, won the PGA championship the next year and died in a plane crash in October of 1999.

What else? Hershel Walker dancing with the Fort Worth ballet. (Yikes!) Gene Mauch retired as manager of the California Angels. He was manager of the 1964 Phillies, now known mainly because of the thousand or so references made to them during the 2007 Mets folderoo.

And finally, a New York Times reader wrote:

"Being a loyal Met fan, I am sick of hearing about who said what about whom, and who apologized to whom first. I'd be delighted by some pertinent spring training information, maybe even a statistic or two, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

Some things never change.