Morning Ramble for March 14th, 2017: #2017MMM The Incredible Robbery

I have to say this year’s March Mammal Madness has been a fun ride with ups and downs, wily underdogs and dominant favorites, that is until the incredible robbery that occurred last night. Sure, most of the battles resolved themselves in a reasonable method with the animals, environment, and instincts of the creatures playing into glorious matchups that had clearly and scientifically derived outcomes. All made sense until the refs decided to interfere and rig the results. Read on to experience the tragedy…

2017 March Mammal Madness: Coulda Shoulda Results

OMG! My bracket is really messed up and I’m pretty sure this grouping will be the death of me. Somehow, I didn’t recognize that the Dire Wolf of this tournament was a benign wimpy wolf that would rollover when challenged by a cat. This isn’t the real Dire Wolf I’ve seen cause serious damage in Game of Thrones protecting Jon Snow and the other Starks.

According to the Game of Thrones Wiki, the adult Dire Wolf is a large as a horse…how is this Tiger 3 times the size of a horse?

I cry foul!!! The fix is in and I’m pretty sure these matches were set up by Tom Brady!

Anyway, I suppose the battles are over and even though they slipped some sort of Chihuahua that looked like a Dire Wolf into the arena to surrender to the Tiger, the deed is done.

In the other battles, my selections for the Neanderthal Hunting Party, the Pegasus, the Short Faced Bear, and the Greek Sphinx move on even though the Pegasus was an upset over the 7th seeded Irish Elk. The Giant Armadillo should have learned how to scream like it’s smaller cousin in the Adjective Mammal bracket, but it lost to the Leopard Seal. My pick of the Fossil Baboon was a failure as he attacked the baby Giraffes instead of the adults and got chased away by the towering parents. Finally, the Sabertooth Cat easily took out the wildcard winner and is looking for a real meal…I think the Greek Sphinx better look out.

For a blow-by-blow description of the battles, check out Storify.

2017 March Mammal Madness: Two Animals, One Mammal Preview

Later tonight is the round one battles for the Two Animals, One Mammal bracket. These critters were just too good to only represent a single animal and instead need to be described using two different creatures.

For this group, I’ve only picked 2 upsets in the first round and since I’ve had a pretty bad run of selections, I don’t have much faith that they’ll come through for me. I’ve got the Raccoon Dog over the Tiger Quoll (9 over 8) and the Squirrel Monkey over the Hog Deer (10 over 7). The other battles, for me seem to be pretty much easy victories unless the environment is favorable to one animal over the other. In any case, though, I’ve got the #1 seed making it though to the Final Four so I certainly don’t see much in the way of close matches.

You can follow the battles on Twitter with the hashtag #2017MMM or @2017MMMLetsgo and be sure to check out the official site at Mammals suck…Milk.