As a Giants fan, please forgive my long and rambling homage to the beautiful home of the SF Giants. I tour the outside of the park (Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T?) and make a few stops along the way at the statues of Willie Mays and Juan Marichal and even the Acme Chophouse. I then make my way along McCovey Cove and then try and poke my camera inside the right field fence to get a glimpse of the field (which is now set up for the Emerald Bowl).

As my wife said, “This is the earliest I’ve ever gotten to a game.” Yeah, like four months before the gates open.

Editor’s note: I incorrectly state in the video that Juan Marichal was #17 in his playing days. He was #27.

My only question is, “What took them so long?” No one does sports like ESPN.

Cool move by CBS to put March Madness on the Web. Advertisers will be lining up.

It's the fourth year that CBS Sports will offer the mostly regional games--ones that wouldn't appear across the whole network. Beginning with the first games March 16, there will be up to 56 NCAA men's tournament games available on the Web through the regional semi-finals. For the first three years, including last year, it was a premium service through the college sports site CSTV.com.

This year, CBS has shifted NCAA March Madness on Demand to an ad-supported service in an effort to gain more viewers. The move is in line with CBS' online strategy in news and elsewhere.

"We felt it was time to continue the evolution to an ad-supported free model that will be the biggest growth down the road," said Michael Aresco, senior vice president of programming at CBS Sports.

In addition to the games, there will be streaming video available of news conferences before and after the games, as well as interviews with players and coaches. Games in the Web viewer's local markets will be blacked out, much as the NCAA tournament coverage on a DirecTV subscription package.