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    Bracket Buster

    Billionaires-only NCAA Tournament bracket pool sees a Houstonian flying high — until Kentucky's comeback

    Clifford Pugh
    Mar 30, 2015 | 5:19 pm
    Tilman Fertitta, September 2012, head shot
    Tilman Fertitta was sitting pretty with his NCAA basketball pool until the final seconds of the Kentucky-Notre Dame game.
    Courtesy Photo

    Billionaires — they're just like us.

    Like thousands of basketball fans around the nation, Houston hospitality king Tilman Fertitta is taking part in a pool to pick the eventual winner of the NCAA Tournament. He was flying high, until the final seconds of the Kentucky-Notre Dame game, when the heavily favored Wildcats made two last-second free throws to nip the Fighting Irish and move on to the Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis.

    Fertitta picked Notre Dame to win it all.

    What makes Fertitta's pool unique is that 36 of the nation's richest tycoons each put up $10,000 in Bloomberg's Bracket For A Cause. The entire $360,000 pot goes to the victor's charity of choice. If Fertitta wins, which seems highly unlikely now, he has designated Houston Children's Charity as the beneficiary.

    Fertitta, who led the pack before the Kentucky-Notre Dame game, fell to fifth place, trailing Goldman Sachs president and COO Gary Cohn, Quicken Loans chairman and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, eBay president and CEO John Donahoe and Avenue Capital Management chairman and co-founder Marc Lasry.

    Cohn will be hard to beat, since he correctly selected all four remaining teams, Wisconsin, Duke, Michigan State and Kentucky. But he picked Wisconsin to win the championship instead of Kentucky, so there's still a ray of hope for the other billionaires.

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    Congratulations!

    Astros fan favorite Jeremy Peña gets engaged to soccer star Julia Grosso

    Eric Sandler
    Dec 12, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    Jeremy Pena Houston Astros
    Houston Astros/Facebook
    undefined

    An Astros fan favorite is officially off the market. Shortstop Jeremy Peña is now engaged to professional soccer player Julia Grosso.

    The couple, who have been social media official since last December, announced the happy news this Friday, December 12 with a post on Instagram.


    View this post on Instagram
    A post shared by julia grosso (@juliagrosso7)


    Peña is coming off an impressive 2025 season that cemented his status as the Astros’ best position player, hitting .304 with 17 home runs and 20 stolen bases — enough to rank as eighth most valuable position player in the American League. That enhances an already impressive resume that includes being named the MVP of the 2022 World Series as the Astros won their second title.

    Grosso is just as accomplished as her fiancee. Currently a member of the NWSL's Chicago Red Stars, she won a gold medal with the 2020 Canadian national team.

    No word on a wedding date or venue, yet. Although Peña reportedly turned down a $105 million contract extension last season, he’s still going to earn $9 million in 2026, so it should be a party to remember.

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