PLAYTIMES It’s awesome April, baby—or so the colorfully alliterative Dick Vitale might say if he were to sum up this month’s sports lineup. Start in the Alamo City, which hosts this season’s marvelously maddening men’s NCAA Final Four. Sure, the semifinals on April 3 and the championship game on April 5 have been sold out for ages, but you can still catch the fever on April 2, soaking up team practices at the Alamodome, a pep rally along the River Walk, and a showdown between collegiate all-stars and the Harlem Globetrotters at the SBC Center. On April 4, get your motor running to Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway, where NASCAR’s best will go round and round during the Samsung/Radioshack 500. But don’t cruise out of the Metroplex too soon—you’ll want to stick around for the Dallas Cup, the premier international soccer competition in the U.S. for boys between the ages of twelve and nineteen, which runs April 4-11. As for the second half of the month, plan on spending it in the Bayou City, where Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Mardy Fish will make a racket April 12-18 at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships and University of Houston alumnus Fred Couples will hit the links to defend his title at the Shell Houston Open beginning April 19. Now that’s a Dipsy-doo Dunk-a-roo, baby. (See Dallas: Sports; Fort Worth: Sports, Houston: Sports; and San Antonio: Sports.)
