Carl Edwards was penalized 100 championship driver points Wednesday by NASCAR for a rule infraction involving the oil tank lid cover on his car following his victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Edwards stay atop the Sprint Cup leader board was short lived as he went from a 21-point lead over Kyle Busch to seventh place following the penalties. Edwards also lost the 10 bonus points he would have gotten when the points are reshuffled for the Chase to the Championship should he be one of the 12 drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoff. It is the first time that NASCAR has deducted those points for winning a race since that bonus system was put in.

Edwards crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100,000 and was suspended for the next six races, while team owner Jack Roush was penalized 100 owner points. NASCAR discovered the infraction during post-race inspection that the lid from Edwards' oil tank had come off. NASCAR officials said that could create an aerodynamic advantage because it allows air to escape inside the car to create more downforce.

Rusty Wallace, whose Nationwide Series team was fined for a similar incident at Daytona before it was overturned, said that would create a minimal advantage at a track such as Las Vegas. The biggest difference between Edwards' car and Wallace's Nationwide team is that the lid came completely off the Sprint star's car. They were bent in several Nationwide cars.

Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith said that it is in the best interest of the team for Osborne to begin serving his suspension immediately starting with this weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Missing races earlier in the season would be better than and not be as detrimental as it would be closer to the start of the Chase. Chris Andrews, the head of the engineering department at Roush Fenway, will serve as Edwards' interim crew chief until Osborne returns. He will be assisted on top of the pit box by Robbie Reiser, Matt Kenseth's longtime crew chief, who was promoted to general manager of the race teams during the offseason.

Edwards will be better off getting this penalty out of the way this early in the season. Had something like this happened much closer to the Chase started, it may have had a major effect on whether or not he would be in the playoff. Even if what they were penalized for, at least in the eyes of some experienced racing personnel, only gave them a slight advantage on the track. Edwards has plenty of time to catch back up.    

Okay, really, we are almost finished. But it is in the final rounds when that one player is chosen that could really make a difference between fifth and second place. Sure, it does not look like it will be any of these guys, but you never know. Take a look:

ROUND  1 | ROUND  2 | ROUND   3 | ROUND  4  | ROUND  5  | ROUND  6 | ROUND 7
ROUND  8 | ROUND  9 | ROUND 10 | ROUND 11 | ROUND 12 | ROUND 13| ROUND 14
ROUND 15| ROUND 16| ROUND 17 | ROUND 18 | ROUND 19 | ROUND 20  

241) CLASGENS - Corey Patterson, OF, CIN

242) SIMONS - Ryan Theriot, 2B/SS, CHC

243) MURDICO - Melky Cabrera, OF, NYY

244) HUMBERT #1 - Geoff Jenkins, OF, PHI

245) FISCHER - Matt Diaz, OF, ATL

246) MUEHLENKAMP - Yunel Escobar, 2B/SS, ATL

247) DINSMORE - Mike Napoli, C, LAA

248) BARTEL - Luis Castillo, 2B, NYM

249) BOLTON - A.J. Pierzynski, C, CHW

250) WETZEL - Randy Johnson, SP, ARI

251) POLKING - Matt Garza, SP, TB

252) HUMBERT #2 - Shaun Marcum, SP, TOR

The Cincinnati Reds announced that the person throwing out the first pitch for Opening Day this season is none other than Hamilton County Commissioner, Todd Portune. All I have to say to that is, Are you freaking kidding me?! Opening Day for the Reds is considered a holiday around here. Everyone looks forward to the season starting, regardless of what the expectations are for the team. Throwing out the ceremonial first pitch is an honor, one that should be bestowed on someone that either means a great deal to the team or someone of high stature like a couple years ago when President George W. Bush was given the opportunity. The Reds handing the ball to Portune to throw out the first pitch is somewhat of a slap in the face of all the Reds fans as well as to the history of the franchise and those that played here in the past. Didn't they learn anything by giving the ball the Mayor Mark Mallory last year and the blunder it turned out to be?

If you ask me, there are a few other people the Reds could have offered the ball too for this great day. They could have offered it to someone in the Joe Nuxhall family. Nuxy passed away this past season and was a major part of the Reds organization for many decades. Honoring him by giving someone in his family the chance to throw out the first pitch seemed like the most sensible thing to me. If the Reds wanted to honor all of their former players that passed this past year, they could have offered the ball to a member of the Nuxhall family, someone in the Bob Howsam family as well as someone in the Sheldon "Chief" Bender family. Like Lance McAlister suggested on his radio show this afternoon, they could have had those three family members line up at the mound and simultaneously throw out a pitch to three different catchers. My last suggestion would be to give it to one of the fan favorites of the past. Someone like Chris Sabo from the 1990 World Series Championship team would have been great and would have been a much better choice than Portune. Any of these scenarios would cause the fans at GABP to go crazy and it would be something they could remember for many years to come, if not the rest of their lives.

I have nothing against Portune, don't get me wrong. But he means nothing to the Reds franchise. He doesn't have anything to do with the history of the Reds. Giving him the honor of throwing out the first pitch is just not right. Maybe the franchise will get things right next season. If they don't, they'd better get it right for the first pitch in 2010, the twenty year anniversary of the last time the Reds won a championship.

There's plenty of basketball to play before the NCAA tournament selection committee makes their final decision, but with this year's tournament seemingly wide open it makes you think - which teams will get the #1 seeds in the four different regions.

Here is a summary of what some of the web's top bracket prognosticators are saying:

ESPN Bracketology - Joe Lunardi
EAST (Charlotte) - North Carolina
SOUTH (Houston) - Memphis
MIDWEST (Detroit) - Tennessee
WEST (Phoenix) - UCLA

Bracketography.com
EAST (Charlotte) - Tennessee
SOUTH (Houston) - Memphis
MIDWEST (Detroit) - North Carolina
WEST (Phoenix) - UCLA

It is pretty much a consensus throughout the various blogs that North Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, and UCLA will be the #1's. Do they deserve to be? Will we be saying the same thing two weeks from now? Only time will tell.