Ignore this hideous weather, folks. It’s just a product of the place you live and will have no bearing on the pure joy heading your way (and, for the record, we are still very much glad that the new Twins stadium will not have a roof. End of story). Because the doldrums of February and the warm-up of March are giving way to the pure love that only the next month can bring. In the spirit of all that is good, we are going to rank our favorite sporting events of the next month:

1) Baseball’s back: Yeah, they played in Japan last week, which was cute. But if you live in Minnesota, chances are the season doesn’t really start until Torii Hunter takes his rightful place in centerfield at the Dome for the Angels. Because baseball has such … a long … season, the first 30 games or so are really the best time in terms of optimism ruling the day. Enjoy it. While it lasts (that message brought to you by an inexperienced starting pitching staff and a shakier-than-usual defense).

2. NCAA Final Four: We were rooting hard for Davidson, which looked to be at the skill level of a No. 3 or 4 seed instead of a No. 10, but we’ll take all four No. 1 seeds advancing. Should be some epic games.

3. Playoff hockey: We don’t need to explain, but it is going to happen for sure in Minnesota (just like we did not predict). The Wild took another huge step toward its first division title last night with an OT win over Colorado plus a big loss by Calgary.

4. NFL draft: The RBBH once described an NFL game as being 10 seconds of action and two minutes of glorifying the quarterback. Wait, we think she was talking about the NFL. We hope. In any event, she hasn’t seen anything like the NFL draft — even with the mercifully reduced time between rounds. Nonetheless, it’s a good excuse to hang out on a Sunday weekend.

(Sweet mercy, it is really coming down outside. Ignore! Ignore!)

5. The Masters: The placement of the ol’ golf tournament is certain to draw the ire of one Sassbottom, but sorry. It’s just golf.

6. NBA playoffs: These won’t heat up really until May, though this year in the West will provide fantastic matchups all the way through. So we take that back. It’ll heat up in April. There, one big contradictory paragraph.

7. What did we miss?

Fasola-link! (We’re told the Youtube glitches are fixed. Fingers crossed …) nope.

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