Day 23 without sports 🚀: Remember hating the Astros? This week would have been a big one

Among the many privileges of peace, prosperity and good health: Getting irrationally angry over childish things. 

This was to be the week the Houston Astros’ bill for cheating their way to a 2017 World Series championship came due. A six-game road trip to Oakland — home of whistleblower and former teammate Mike Fiers — and Anaheim would put baseball’s villains in front of blood-lusty sellout crowds. 

Friday night was the Los Angeles Angels’ home opener, like Oakland an AL West rival and among the Astros’ most strident critics this spring.

Yet, despite the Angel Stadium debut of $245 million man Anthony Rendon, the Angels’ home opener was going to get partially hijacked.

A group of Dodgers fans, still burning over that 2017 World Series loss, and a similarly aligned group of Yankee fans (their club lost the 2017 ALCS to Houston) planned to trek to Anaheim to boo the Astros at their first possible chance. 

And just consider the pure frivolity of that for a moment: Driving an hour or more to watch two teams you care little about, merely to settle (in your own mind, anyway) a years-old score. 

It seems all the more absurd now. But, as four more would-be home openers fall by the wayside Friday, it serves as a sobering reminder of the freedom we enjoyed and, hopefully, will again. 

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Sports video of the day

Another arena quiet on Friday night: Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, which was to play host to the women’s Final Four. Instead, no national semifinals Friday, no championship on Sunday. So let’s celebrate the three-year anniversary of the shot that changed the complexion of the sport: Morgan William’s drive and jumper over UConn’s Gabby Williams to beat the buzzer and snap the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak. 

What to watch

Major League Baseball

• 1992 NLCS Game 7 – Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Atlanta Braves, 9 a.m. ET, 2:30 p.m. ET, 10 p.m. ET, MLB Network

NBA

• NBA 2K Players Tournament, 7:30-10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

2017 Women’s Final Four

• Mississippi vs. UConn, 8 p.m. ET, ESPNU
• Mississippi vs. Notre Dame, 10 p.m. ET, ESPNU

Soccer

• MLS Cup 2018: Atlanta United vs. Portland Timbers, 4 p.m. ET, YouTube

Story time! Here are some of our best

• SAFE SPACE: Sean Payton breaks down Saints’ draft war room plan at brewery
• DAN WOLKEN: Cutting college coaches’ pay during crisis is right call
• LEBRON JAMES: We’d love director’s commentary on these defining games
• EX-MLB SLUGGER: ‘We cheated baseball’
• NFL POWER RANKINGS: Big changes after free agency
• MASTERS IN NOVEMBER?: It could happen. 

This day in sports history: April 3

1989: Michigan defeats Seton Hall, 80-79, in overtime, to win its only men’s basketball national title behind Most Outstanding Player Glen Rice. 

1989: Ken Griffey Jr. makes his major league debut, hitting a double off Oakland’s Dave Stewart in his first career at-bat. 

1994: Charlotte Smith’s buzzer-beating three-pointer gives North Carolina its first women’s basketball national title with a 60-59 win over Louisiana Tech. 

2006: Florida, behind Most Outstanding Player Joakim Noah, defeats UCLA, 73-57, for its first men’s basketball national championship.

Sports we are missing today

MLB

• Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers
• Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs
• San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies
• Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants
• Miami Marlins at Atlanta Braves
• Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers
• Houston Astros at Los Angeles Dodgers

NBA

• Miami Heat at Detroit Pistons
• Brooklyn Nets at Indiana Pacers
• Philadelphia 76ers at Washington Wizards
• Charlotte Hornets at Atlanta Hawks
• Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics
• Minnesota TImberwolves at New York Knicks
• Milwaukee Bucks at Toronto Raptors
• Dallas Mavericks at Memphis Grizzlies
• Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs
• Chicago Bulls at Denver Nuggets
• Cleveland Cavaliers at Phoenix Suns

MLS

• DC United v. New York City FC
• Nashville SC v. Seattle Sounders

NHL 

• Columbus Blue Jackets at Carolina Hurricanes
• Los Angeles Kings at Anaheim Mighty Ducks

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques on Twitter @GabeLacques.

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