Four Things I'm Looking Forward to in April

#1 – The Pitch, a new series from AMC

A solid wink, nudge and point to fellow TV Junkie and office glue guy, Brice Kattner, for alerting me to this gem set to premiere on Monday April 30^th on AMC. If you couldn’t tell from my plea for you to watch Shark Tank, this is my kind of TV – I LOVE shows that go in-depth on aspects of business. In this case, that business is the top ad agencies in America where they’ll pit two agencies in a head-to-head presentation know as The Pitch where the winner takes all. Here, check this out…

AWESOME? I KNOW, RIGHT!

#2 – Chicago Cub Baseball

(Ron Santo Voice) This…Is…The…Year! Probably not, but what do you expect from a Cubs fan? With a new brain trust in the front office and coach in the dugout, my beloved Cubs appear to be in rebuilding mode with a firm eye on the future. Some of that future is here, with shortstop phenom Starlin Castro back for his third major league season. He’s been legitimately fun to watch grow up in cubby blue and hopefully we can say that about some fellow youngsters (Brett Jackson, Wellington Castillo, Josh Vitters, etc) during the season.

I’m still hopeful that a serviceable starting rotation can keep them competitive and expect a bounce back year from our bullpen (especially Carlos Marmol). The lineup appears to have a little potency with the aforementioned Castro alongside Marlon Byrd, Geovany Soto, David DeJesus and Alfonso. Assuming we can get some production out of the corner infielders (Bryan LaHair and newbie Ian Stewart) we got a little bit of everything (but not a ton of power).  If the pitching is there, the division is somewhat open w/ Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder leaving gaping holes at first base for our divisional rivals.

I plan to breakdown the Cubs in further detail with a podcast (because I know you’re clamoring for it), so stay tuned.

#3 – Game of Thrones

HBO’s Game of Thrones became one of my Sunday night favorites early in Season 1, more accurately would be in the first few minutes of Episode 1.  Season 2 should stick us back in the middle of the Stark / Lannister feud with the realm seemingly destined for war. I’m most interested in seeing which characters step to the forefront after last season’s upheaval. Since last season seemed to focus on strong male leaders (Ned, Robert, Drogo, etc), I’m guessing we’ll see the ladies do much of the ‘shot-calling’ early in this season.

If you need to catch up on Season 1, or (gasp) somehow missed it the first time HBO is running a marathon on Sunday, April 1^st starting at 9:30am on HBO 2.

#4 – Golf
I feel like I should have been golfing for the past month, but for the record that has yet to happen. I plan to make my maiden voyage for the year in early April to see if I still have it. Judging by my past results, ‘it’ refers to bogey golf with a birdie putt each round. I’m so Jacked!