My Unhealthy Obsession With Detroit Sports

Painting the basketball world crimson

2012-02-10T09:08:00.001-08:00

Sometimes choosing Harvard isn't the smartest move a man can make.

Particularly a man seeking the school's vacant basketball head coaching position, after he had spent the past decade establishing himself as a bonafide major college coach on a national level. But to Tommy Amaker, taking over the Crimson men's basketball program was a challenge too good to pass up. The prestigious Ivy League university had not so much as sniffed the NCAA postseason tournament in 65 years. To them "March Madness" is the unbearable anticipation before the release of corporate first-quarter earnings reports.

But the man who took down the "Help Wanted" sign five years ago is fixing to change the mindset of the nation's brightest minds. After an 8-22 campaign in '07-08, Amaker's boys are now the talk of virtually every reputable dining establishment in the greater Cambridge area. The Crimson are currently ranked 21st in the nation, with an overall record of 20-2 (6-0 in the Ivy League) and a resume that includes an impressive win over #20 Florida State. Their two losses were to #9 UConn (understandable) and Fordham (inexcusable).

Not many schools bring up FDR when referencing their most recent postseason history. So what Amaker has done is nothing short of historic. At the very least, it should earn him a New Deal (couldn't resist).

In fact, if the Crimson hold on and win the Ivy League championship, it could be the first time in NCAA history that three teams with former Wolverine head coaches have made the tournament. The 13th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs, led by the almighty coach Steve Fisher (left), are currently 20-3 and a lock to make it to the dance.

The only other former Wolverine coach who’s still actively coaching is Brian Ellerbe, as in “poor Brian Ellerbe. Remember him? His 1997 Wolverines beat top-ranked Duke and went on to win the first-ever Big 10 conference basketball tournament. He went on to coach Michigan until 2001, when he was released of his coaching duties amid the infamous basketball scandal that ultimately let to the forefiture of every game in his first two seasons. (Ellerbe was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing, as the violations occurred prior to his tenure as coach.) Ellerbe is currently an assistant coach at Depaul, and unless they make a run of historic proportions to win the Big East Tournament, the 11-12 Blue Demons need not cancel their plans and clear their schedules for NCAA basketball postseason travel.

As for the current Wolverine coach (right), he's got his team at 18-7 and while that doesn't ensure him a postseason berth, no one's gonna tell this man that he can't dance.

AMAZING CORRELATED FACT: Harvard holds the distinction of being the only college basketball team with more tournament losses than tournament appearances. How can that be, you ask? Back in 1946, the NCAA regionals had consolation games. So after Harvard lost to Ohio State in the regional semis (which was a first-round game back then), they still had another game to play. And lose as it turned out, as the Crimson fell to New York University in the third-place game.

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Tide Up in Texas

2012-02-08T23:28:00.003-08:00

For those who felt Brady Hoke's resurrection of the Michigan football program was moving a tad slowly, this is for you. On September 1, the Wolverines will start the season in the NFL's Big House—Cowboys Stadium in Dallas—as they take on the likely #1 team in the nation, Alabama's Crimson Tide.

Just a year away from having the worst defense in school history, Michigan will face arguably the nation's most grueling road schedule. After withstanding the fury that is "Bama", the maize and blue will travel to such places as South Bend, Indiana; Lincoln, Nebraska; and a certain central Ohio city from which I'm wriitng this very post.

Like pops used to say, you don't grow up by reading about it.

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Yet another "Here's my college football playoff" article (but you'll like this one...really)

2012-01-17T23:58:00.001-08:00

At some point, even the ones who benefit from a broken system must admit it's broken.

Something has to be done with the way we determine major college football's champion. After the almighty LSU Tigers—against which no team could even take the field much less compete—were flat-out embarrassed by the conference's third-place team (see coach hoisting crystal at right) in last week's BCS Championship, SEC commissioner Mike Slive now admits (reluctantly, of course) that there may be a better way out there, and has begun discussions on an alternative system. Most likely it will be some form of a BCS-controlled "plus one" format, with an extra game being played after the BCS bowls, with teams being determined by the BCS. "The NCAA major college football title game. Brought to you by the letters B, C and S."

It's 2012, and it's time for the injustice to stop.

NCAA major college football is the only men's or women's collegiate sport on any level where a school can win every one of its games and not be allowed to even play for a national championship. It's the only men's or women's collegiate sport on any level where the teams who play for its national title are determined by a vote rather than direct competition. And why is this? Because the people who are in control happen to be the people who benefit from the revenue it generates. So getting them to open their minds about an actual on-field playoff much less change them? About as likely as getting Egypt's royal family to embrace democracy.

There's a simple, fair and exciting option out there. A real playoff, to determine the division's first true national champion. A system that, if executed the way I propose, will cause nary a disturbance to the present state of the college football postseason. In all the debates and microanalyses, that's one factor most playoff proponents ignore. The trick isn't merely creating a flawless, utopian playoff structure. The trick is building a system that appeases the various unyielding forces who are in charge. The forces who want the bowl system to remain intact. The forces who want the Rose Bowl tie-ins to remain intact. The forces who don't want the season to go any deeper into January. In the end, the ultimate answer won't come to fruition through the science of statistical perfection but rather, the art of negotiation.

One guiding principle drives the solution I am about to present: minimize the words and maximize the deeds. The difference between games and polls is that polls can be manipulated. Just ask Michigan. In 1997 the unbeaten and top-ranked Wolverines won the Rose Bowl (left) and DROPPED to #2 in the USA Today coaches poll. Second-ranked Nebraska had been campaigning for a share of the title as a going-away present for a retiring Tom Osborne, and it was revealed that a number of coaches had to drop Michigan to third on their ballots for it to happen.

A similar fate awaited the Wolverines in 2006 after their heartbreaking 42-39 loss in Columbus to #1 Ohio State, twenty-four hours after the sudden passing of coaching legend Bo Schembechler. While remaining #2 in the AP, the maize and blue ended their season ranked third in the BCS poll behind USC. One loss by the men of Troy was all they needed for a national championship rematch. When UCLA shocked the heavily favored Trojans, the title shot was seemingly theirs--until the nationally televised pleas of Florida coach Urban Meyer (right) after their convincing SEC championship win over Arkansas, convinced voters to move the Gators ahead of Michigan. Despite not playing, the 11-1 Wolverines fell out of contention for the BCS championship.

That wasn't right. It wasn't right when Oregon got the shaft in 2000, when Auburn's undefeated War Eagles were stood up in 2004, when Oklahoma State got left behind this past year, or when Boise State was passed over... perennially. A change is needed. So, in my humble opinion, I hereby submit the best idea out there: presenting The People's Blogger's Playoff!

CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK (on the first weekend of December)

The point where it all begins, the championship games of all six Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences—Pac 12, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big 10 and Big East. Six of the NCAA college football national playoff's eight berths are at stake.

This is exactly what the conferences need. Enthusiasm has leaked from these games like so much air from an over-used spare. So much so that LSU prepared for last month's SEC championship game in Atlanta knowing they could lose and still play for the BCS title. They could actually rest their starters if they wanted. Oregon entered their PAC-12 championship "battle" with UCLA as a modest 31 1/2-point favorite. Absolutely ridiculous. Given that the Bruins were 6-6 and coming off a 50-0 loss to cross-town rival USC, the Ducks—who were also playing at home—should have been given the respect of a 35-point spread.

In my proposed playoff system, Championship Week would be transformed into the college football equivalent of six Game 7s. Each game inside a packed house, each at a neutral site, with the whole nation watching. Win and you're in, guaranteed. Can you imagine the excitement? The ticket demand? The TV ratings?

Then, once the six conference champions have been crowned, the two "at-large" berths can be awarded. These bids would ideally go to an undefeated or one-loss non-AQ (automatic qualifying) conference champion or independent. But a highly ranked FBS school who didn't win their conference for one reason or another could qualify as well (such as 11-1 Alabama from this past season). This may be the one instance where the polls could come in handy. The berths could simply go to the two highest ranked non-invites. Or there could be a threshold imposed (example: a non-AQ conference champion would need to be ranked in the top 10). I would give priority to any major college team who finished their season undefeated, but that's just me.

BOWL SEASON (mid-December through New Year's Day)

Here's where many of the massive playoff overhauls miss the boat: YOU DON'T NEED TO CHANGE THE PRESENT BOWL SYSTEM. I'd prefer to have less than the current number of bowl games—a staggering thirty—but that's for others to decide. In my proposed playoff system, the bowl system remains intact. In fact, they culminate with The Granddaddy Of Them All, the Rose Bowl (left), which would STILL feature teams from the Big 10 and Pac 10. Once a team makes it to the conference championship, they know they're guaranteed of at least a trip to Pasadena. I'd like that.

THE NATIONAL QUARTERFINALS (the weekend closest to Christmas)

We have eight qualifying teams, with eight dissimilar paths to the national playoff. Much like the College World Series, these teams need to be re-seeded. The polls can be used, but I think this would be better handled using a more analytical basis. The NCAA basketball selection committee hems and haws and wrings their hands every March without much rancor, and that's a 64-piece puzzle they're building. Seeding eight teams, each of whom have played no more than a dozen or so games, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

At any rate, the significance of getting these seeds right cannot be understated. Why? Because the top four seeds will host each of the four national quarterfinal games.

Imagine this scenario. Top-seeded LSU hosts Virginia Tech in Baton Rouge. West Virginia travels to Tuscaloosa to take on the Crimson Tide. Oklahoma State welcomes Boise State and Kellen Moore (right) to Stillwater. And Wisconsin battles the mighty Ducks of Oregon. Yeah I know. But this time it's IN Oregon. Nothing beats the excitement of a football Saturday on a high-energy college campus, particularly when it's a matchup of highly ranked teams, right? Now add to that the specter of a berth in the national semifinal game. Then picture four of these games on the same weekend. Yeah, like that.

[For those who think winter weather would be too much of a factor, a solution could be to hold these games at the nearest professional football venue to the home school's campus. These stadiums typically have heated fields and are otherwise equipped to handle the more severe seasonal effects. Anyway each FBS school would have a "playoff venue" assigned to it, should the team ever make it into the national playoff.]

THE NATIONAL SEMIFINALS (the weekend closest to New Year's Day)

Four teams have emerged from the quarterfinals. They have a week to get ready for the semis, which will be held at either the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl. These were the venues for the other three BCS bowl games (in addition to the Rose Bowl, which we've already discussed), which will host the national semifinals and national championship game on a rotating basis. So, not unlike the current system, every three years one of these bowls will host The Big One.

These games could be played much like they are played now, with the first semifinal immediately following the Rose Bowl and the second the next night. It may seem like Pasadena is being put on the undercard, but they've played that role for decades when the Orange Bowl was in its heyday.

THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (the second week of January)

The winners of the two national semifinals will get set to play their third game in as many weeks. But this time its for the NCAA national football championship. And when we're talking NCAA college football, the next national championship will be the first. This would be a true national championship game. There's nothing to be "shared". No split polls. No qualifying acronyms like AP. UPI. Or BCS. This belt's for the undisputed title.

The game is played after the first full week of January—pretty much the same time the BCS championship is currently played. I'd push for the second Saturday in January to be exact. The BCS title games get lost on a Tuesday, especially when they don't kick off until 9:00 or so, and continue long into the night. Play it the day before the NFL's conference championships, so there's no overlap. Drive the ratings through the roof. Get the world watching like they do for the Super Bowl. Or better yet, like Canada does for the Stanley Cup (left). Give them the chance to watch at least. I guarantee it would outdraw the current title game.

So there it is. A system where the champs aren't chosen. Where the votes and voters vanish. Where a three- or four-loss school could win it all, but they'd have to put together a string of monumental upsets to do so... and each would be a classic, an indelible piece of college football history. The fans are ready for it. The schools are ready. The conferences are ready. The NCAA is ready. The world of intercollegiate sports is ready. But most of all, I'M ready!

Indianoplace like it

2011-12-04T23:55:00.001-08:00

Okay, forget the elephant in the room. I'll go to the obvious question. Why did it take until 2011 for a Big 10 Championship Game?

As two dead-even teams traded touchdowns and their fans took turns taunting each other, the one thing fans from both party schools could agree upon, was that this was one hell of an evening. The well-deserved rematch between #11 Michigan State and #15 Wisconsin didn't end on the booth review of a Hail Mary pass, but it was just as captivating.

In a town seemingly created for an event like this, in a stadium that resembles a super-sized basketball arena more than anything football related, mighty Monte Ball was at his prolific best with four touchdowns, the last a seven-yard run (see my pic) that all but delivered his Wisconsin Badgers The-Trophy-Formerly-Known-As-The-Paterno-Championship Trophy with a 42-39 victory. Roses are red once again, as they are found in nature. And they are currently flying out of florists' front doors all over the city of Madison.

The last-second gift this time went to the Badgers, but with nearly two minutes left. After the Spartan defense stiffened and stopped Ball on a critical third-down run, Keshawn Martin took the Wisconsin punt and cut swiftly to the right before bolting and bouncing his way to the Badger 2-yard line. Were it not for the presence of a tiny yellow handkerchief in the center of the field, the MSU faithful would have been calling travel agents and booking flights to Los Angeles for the holidays.

Yet there it sat, burning a hole in the field turf and through the hearts of all who bled green and white. Roughing the kicker on the defense, fifteen yards, first down Wisconsin. Coach Mark Dantonio called for a punt block and Isaiah Lewis streaked past Badger punter Brad Norman. He appeared to make contact in the replay, and Norman dropped like a drunk coed to erase any doubt in the mind of the back judge behind him.

Two schools partied, tailgated and traded compliments all afternoon and into the evening, packing every pub within a country mile of Lucas's oil farm. Representation from other schools was scant and fleeting. More like fleeing, in the case of a lone Wolverine fan who brought green- and red-clad supporters together and generated a mutual taunt worthy of an opposing player's trip to the penalty box inside Yost Arena. Two Nebraska jackets were spotted among the crowds, as was a purple Northwestern hat.

One thing is certain: anyone who wasn't there to watch his team that night, wishes he was.

Good 40, Evil 34

2011-11-27T18:32:00.005-08:00

From Bad to Ill

2011-11-13T23:10:00.000-08:00

The sun disappeared behind the closed end of Memorial Stadium, sending an explosion of color into the darkening Champaign sky, it seemed to take the the recent perception of Michigan football with it. Each week the Wolverine offense grows more confident, more lethal. Each game the defense has grown more durable, more resilient. And the results are becoming more evident, at the very point in the season where the wheels have come off the other three teams of the post=Lloyd Carr era.

On this evening Michigan took care of business, defeating Illinois by a very football-like 31-14 score. Whereas last season's 67-65 double-overtime victory required Yost-like point-a-minute proficiency to overcome an equally porous point-a-minute defense, this win featured smothering defense, plain and simple. On the scoreboard alone, it translates into a one-season, 51-point improvement.

That alone is cause for a spit take.

The Wolverine defense, ranked in the triple digits overall just a year ago, is now ranked in the top ten nationally in scoring and rushing yards per game. Aside from a garbage-time touchdown in the final minutes, this suddenly savage and swarming machine commandeered by former Florida Gator and Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison had shutdown mode fully engaged, surrendering a mere seven points. On the road.

I must say, this game was a treat for me to attend. First, because it allowed me to cross off yet another Big 10 stadium from my bucket list. I've now seen Michigan visit every conference opponent except Penn State, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska; I've been inside every stadium except those at Penn State, Indiana and Nebraska; and I've visited every campus except Bloomington and Lincoln.

But mostly because, if all goes according to coach Brady Hoke's plan, if this team goes on to finish the season on a high note and maybe even win a New Year's Day bowl game, if next year's team takes it up a notch and not too far down the road, and if the University of Michigan once again restores a century-long tradition as a perennial national power, we could look back to this game as the point where it all began.

And when the question arises in some midwestern sports bar, or some spectator in the row in front of you asks, "Remember the point where it all began? Where our defense flat out shut down the mighty Illini" You can proudly say, "That was ILL!"

Four? For the love of cool unis

2011-10-16T23:59:00.001-07:00

Could it really be? Could a group of football players graduate from the University of Michigan without beating their in-state rivals even once?

Well, unless there's a red shirt or med school involved, the answer is an unfortunate "yes".

Yesterday the Wolverines tasted defeat for the first time, in the most hospitable of confines, smoke-stack-less Spartan Stadium. Under-rated and under-appreciated #23 Michigan State used two key mistakes to turn a stalemate into check mate and ink a fourth straight "L" into the Wolverine record books with a 28-14 win over 11th-ranked Michigan.

For the second straight season the Spartans did what few defenses have been able to do even once: make laceless quarterback Denard Robinson look like a typical quarterback. The junior blur was held to just 165 yards of total offense, barely more than half his season average of 308. Michigan State nearly equalled Robinson's numbers in penalties alone, getting flagged 13 times for 124 yards--including an alarming six personal fouls.

But what did in the white-on-white Wolverines, who wore white pants for the first time in 36 years (see photo of freshman Rick Leach, who also spent an afternoon eluding Spartan defenders during Michigan's 16-6 win in 1975) were two costly errors at two key moments in the contest. First, an ill-executed and questionable fourth down play inside the MSU 10-yard line. And second, a play in which quarterback Denard Robinson succeeded to make something happen, just not for the maize and blue. And white.

In Mistake #1, the Wolverines trailed 14-7 early in the fourth quarter and faced fourth and 1 from inside the Spartan 10-yard line. Michigan State cornerback Johnny Adams blew up the play, first timing the snap, then seeing through Robinson's fake handoff and dropping Michigan's signal-caller for a 10-yard sack, one of seven for 62 yards on the day.

As deflating as that was, Mistake #2 was downright demoralizing.

With less than five minutes remaining and the Wolverines within seven, a scrambling Robinson was met by Allen and his sophomore counterpart, linebacker Max Bullough. Just beforehand, he dished the ball into the awaiting arms of Spartan safety Isaiah Lewis, who never broke stride as he sprinted 39 yards for what would become the final point os the day.

Spartan stalwart Edwin Baker was the star on this sunny afternoon, blasting for 167 yards on 20 carries as once again, the school with the advantage on the ground (MSU, 213-82) emerged victorious. enior quarterback Kirk Cousins (see my pic) outperformed his modest statistics with touchdown passes on third downs, the second a 13-yard strike to wideout Keshawn Martin to grow the MSU lead to 21-7.

On a day where the most visible clash was Nike Combat versus Adidas Classic Throwback, the school in the strange green, gold and black unis took care of the school in the all-white, blue and yellow striped unis. Underneath it all, unfortunately, the result on the field wasn't all that unfamiliar. From where I sat in the stands, I could swear the wooden likeness of Paul Bunyan is even wearing combat green.

Who's Your Triage?

2011-10-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's been said that the best way to overcome one's fear is to immerse one's self in the source of it. If this is true, then Jim Leyland may have cured an entire city's case of believeinmephobia last night.

In an act described as anything from desperation to stubbornness ot insanity, the Detroit Tiger skipper [left] told a media gathering yesterday afternoon that he would not be using his two top closers in Game 5 of the ALCS against Texas. To his point, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde were at critical mass with extensive duty for two consecutive games, each having experienced his highest pitch total of the season over the previous 48 hours. But if announcing their day off with such certainty was a surprise, his next revelation was the stuff triple-dog dares were made of.

"Who do you plan to use tonight?" a reporter asked. Leyland replied without hesitation. "We're going to try to get through the game with (Justin) Verlander and (Phil) Coke." Silence. A room full of loud-mouthed beat writers and international sportscasters weren't ready for what they just heard, not in the idea of JV throwing deep into the game, but in the only other name Leyland mentioned. Coke was one of two pitchers in the eighth inning of ALDS Game 4 whose appearanced failed to generate as much as an out. So instead of the impulsive "No, really?" follow-up, they observed unplanned moment of utter speechlessness.

Hours later, Verlander used his legs and once again lifted the franchise onto his shoulders, in a somewhat shaky yet nonetheless dominant 132-pitch effort that carried the Tigers two outs into the eighth inning with a three-run cushion. Just enough comfort for the often hurl-inspiring relief hurler as it turned out. Buoyed by Leyland's confidence, Coke fought through a trio of Texas hits and mowed down the heaviest part of the lineup in the ninth to close out a gutty 7-5 win, closing the Rangers' lead in the best-of-seven series to three games to two.

With every spin, twirl and plunge of this team's postseason thrill ride, we're all getting to know more about Leyland, the smoking gun behind the explosive ball club. First of all, we can see that he's having the time of his life. There's no bitterness, no profanity-fueled tantrums at home plate, and no hand-wringing at the collection of wounded soldiers within his ranks. When asked if he was worried about taking the field without Delmon Young, Magglio Ordonez [above] and the newly injured Delmon Young in the lineup, Leyland gave his questioner a look of chagrin. "Worried? I'm excited. We're in the American League championship series. We just went to New York and beat the Yankees, and now we're playing for the pennant. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity."

An opportunity that's equally stimulating on an intellectual level. Consider the considerations he's had to consider. First there's the mysterious case of the disappearing right-handed outfielders. Brendan Boesch, who in his first full major league season was hitting .306 with 44 RBIs before the All-Star break, sprained his thumb in August and underwent season-ending ulnar collateral ligament surgery (ouch!) last month. Young, the free-agent pickup from Minnesota that exploded his way into the playoffs, suffered a pulled oblique muscle after his heroic home run in the series-clinching win over New York. Then, at some point during the rain-soaked first game of the ALCS, Ordonez fractured the same ankle that ended his 2010 season.

As if that weren't enough to make one question the notion of fairness, Martinez [left] pulled an oblique muscle of his own, during his swing that sent a Colby Lewis pitch deep into the Comerica Park bleachers in the Tigers' game 3 win. Who knew hitting a homer could be such a health risk?

Most of us find fascination in things like sportfishing or . Skip finds it in the intricacies of manipulating the fractured elements of his team. Victor's oblique muscle isn't quite as immobilizing when he bats right-handed; however, his knees won't allow him to play catcher any more this season. Despite what's being called a "minor patella" issue, catcher Alex Avila is the only option behind the plate, his defensiveness and pitch management being central reasons why anyone batting .080 in the playoffs (and falling!) would remain in the lineup. And Delmon Young's oblique injury seems to affect his ability to throw more than his ability to hit. "Hmmm... [deep Marlboro inhale]... what if I make Young the DH, bat Victor against lefties and pinch hit with Don Kelly?" There's costumes in the barn and dad knows music. What if we put on a show?

The details of each injury are merely clues to Leyland, as he tries to solve the puzzle of how to win the American League pennant. While his colleagues are playing chess in the park, Leyland is playing chess IN THE PARK. Perhaps the most important piece of all may be Avila [at right, consulting with Verlander], arguably the team's most valuable player on a team that also happens to have the AL batting champ, the soon-to-be Cy Young winner, and a closer who's saved each and every one of his 52 opportunities.

Avila re-aggrivated his damaged knee during Game 3 of the ALDS, when he stepped on Yankee first-baseman Robinson Cano's foot while attempting to beat out a bunt. The knee is now grotesquely swolen, to the extent that Leyland will only refer to his pregame training room regimen as "unbelievable." It has started to affect his other knee as well, and as that knee goes, so goes the fate of this team.

But don't tell that to Jimmy Smokes. He's too busy creating a world champion. One man's M*A*S*H unit is another man's masterpiece.

His following includes family, friends, fans and Doppler Radar

2011-10-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Detroit Tigers' ace pitcher has a dark cloud following him everywhere. While this may sound like the bad depression analogy in a Prozac ad, it's taken on a very literal sense during this year's American League playoffs. First there was that unsettling one inning of work before the rain hit in New York. Followed by his start-stop-wait-dry-off-then-start-and-stop-again washout performance in Texas. And now, as the clouds swirl above our heads, his next appearance in game 5 tomorrow is already shaky. Like the horse's whinny at the mention of Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, the mere mention of his name is met with a thunderclap.

It's a phenomenon that deserves recognition, and I'm not the only one who feels this way. So in the spirit of naming hurricanes, here's an informational message just released by the National Weather Service:

This is a Noreaster, centered just off the coast of New England.

And this is a Verlander, heading ENE toward SE Michigan tomorrow afternoon.

Here We Roar Again

2011-09-30T07:17:00.001-07:00

So here we are, Detroit baseball fans. The same place we were five years ago. Our Tigers fresh off a 95-win season and a nice shiny trophy for that Verlander fella, on their way to New York to face the Yankees in the ALDS. Then, like now, the Bronx Bombers at 97-65 were just two games ahead of Detroit. Yet everyone picked them to win.

As you can see from this link, I was one of the very few to pick the Tigers to shock the world and upset the Yanks back in '06, in four games at that. Splitting the first two at (then the old) Yankee Stadium, and sweeping NY in both games in the D. And shock the world they did, winning in four exactly as I predicted. (Just to add a bit of perspective, I was on record as saying that Ryan Leaf was a better, longer-lasting choice than that Peyton Manning kid. Nonetheless.)

So unplug your ipod and zoom ahead five years to 2011. Same situation awaits this ball club. So who goes on to face the winner of the Texas-Tampa ALDS? Now, like then, the pick is Detroit. And although I'm tempted as hell to say kitties in three, I'll give the Yankees a win before the door shuts on their season.

Why Detroit in four? For too many reasons to mention. But I'll try.

1. Justin. Verlander. Forget his poor playoff outings from years past. This year he's 24-9, a lock for the Cy Young award and a legitimate candidate for the AL MVP. If the Yanks hope to win this series, they'll most likely have to get to #35 at least once, as he's the likely starter for a deciding game 5.

2. Doug Fister. The freaking kid is like one of those Japanese knives on TV that keep getting sharper the more you use it. Every outing is more commanding than the one before. He's the guy the Yanks aren't waiting for. And if JV picks up win #25 in game 1, Douggie may be the one to push New York to the brink of elimination, before the series really gets underway.

3. These ARE your father's New York Yankees. In 2006 the names to watch on the New York side were Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Pasada. All of them are still playing on the 2011 squad, each five years older than they were before the '06 ALDS. The two notables missing from the list this year are former Tiger Curtis Granderson and former Indian C.C. Sabathia. This is a team about to undergo a major transition. A transformation, if you will. And nothing would kick-start that process than a sound defeat of the pinstripes over the next week.

4. Jim Leyland. He has all the pieces needed to out Fisher Joe Girardi's Spasky. The New York Yankees don't scare him, didn't then and don't now. He's done a masterful job of getting by for the majority of the season without long relief. And now must get his kids believing that this year's edition of the Detroit Kitties aren't about to be stopped just yet. Not for a series or two.

5. Our 9th inning is better than theirs. One converted more save opportunities in one season than anyone in major league history. The other has more career saves than any other pitcher, ever. Mariano Rivera was once the light's-out closer for the ages. But he's aged as well, and every year takes another mile per hour off your fastball. And although it's generally been a rarity, he has been hit and hit hard. Of the two, the edge has to be Tiger stopper Jose Valverde, Mr. Perfection is a pristine 49-for-49 in save opportunities, and no one in baseball is more automatic at nailing down those final three outs.

6. Pitching aside, the teams are pretty much even. Forget the two extra wins on New York's part. these cats is practically interchangeable in terms of talent. The Yankees are the stronger team defensively, but Detroit has the better bats in their lineup. If it all comes down to pitching, the edge in this series heads north a few hours. The way Fister's pitching of late, the Yanks must face the reality that in three of the five games they will be facing Verlander, Fister and Verlander. And the other two games are in Detroit.

7. Miguel. Why he wasn't a regular part of the AL MVP talk, especially in September, is beyond me. But in the four out of five games that Verlander doesn't pitch, Cabrera is the team's most valuable guy.

So there it is. Tigers in four, then off to play one of two smoking-hot teams, either Texas or Tampa Bay. Unless their series goes five and needs extra innings, the Tiger dream will most likely end in the ALCS and one of those two organizations will head to the Fall Classic. But given the way the games played out yesterday, we're all better off just waiting until the ALCS comes.

Ja That's Him

2011-09-23T23:56:00.003-07:00

Leaving his "party in the back" along the trail of his multiple East coast stops, Jaromir Jagr made his debut this week as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. The 39-year-old Czech is taking a chance at another year in the NHL, but not as big a chance as the Flyers, who signed him in July for $3.3 million in an off-season transformation of the 2010 Eastern Conference champions. GM Paul Holmgren cleaned house by sending center Jeff Carter to Columbus and forward Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings, in return welcoming Jagr, former Red Wing defenseman Anders Lilja and a trio of forwards, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and Jakub Voracek, to The City That Booed Santa. Before all the moves, the Flyers appeared to be a front runner again in the East. Now they're a fascinating mystery, a quickly gelling force for the next few years or a black and orange implosion.

Philly, we know what you did last summer. The question is, will they know what they've done next May?

O-H-I-AM-ON-THE-50!

2011-09-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of my current employment is the occasional "team building" event. A day where we put the big projects and hot deadlines aside and travel to an undisclosed off-site destination, you know, to help us grow together as a unit.

This past week we had one of our team-building events, and it involved a trip to The Hoss-Shoe. Ohio Stadium. The silver fortress nestled along the banks of the Olentangy River, as Keith Jackson used to say. In all my lifetime, through four decades of season tickets in Ann Arbor, I've yet to have the honor of a facility tour. But here, in my first year in Columbus, I am being guided through every nook and cranny of the old stone edifice. The former home of Hopalong Cassidy and Jesse Owens. The field that Woody wore thin every fall, working out his soldiers to the point of exhaustion, so they'd always be ready to defeat "that school up north".

The meeting rooms and private suites really give one a glimpse into the world of the fortunate few who foot the bill for the football program. We were escorted into a suite that we were told costs its owner $75,000 a season—and this doesn't include actual tickets to the game. That is simply the fee for the right to view the game from that location, once tickets are purchased. Comparatively, Ohio Stadium itself was built in 1922 for $1.3 million, or the cost of 20 of those suites for one season. Without tickets.

We soaked up the view from each layer of the press box before being escorted onto the field. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be sure. But for the enemy, especially an enemy who was tipped off the night before, it proved to be an ideal chance for a long-held goal: a photo on the 50-yard line, standing in the scarlet "O" wearing maize and blue!

I waited till the small crowd we were with trickled away before popping off the neutral hoodie to reveal my true colors. A co-worker (whom I had already asked to snap my image) captured several pictures, but only one of me all alone, dotting the "O" as it were. As you can see it turned out quite well.

We then toured the band room, an expansive area whose far wall bears a large oil painting of John Phillip Souza. Every band member's sheet music was out, as if they had momentarily stepped out of the room. In the long lecture about the history of the Ohio State University band and all of its traditions, not one word about how "Script Ohio" originated from the Michigan Marching Band during the school's visit to Columbus for a football game. The M Band scrawled out the four-letter cursive word as a tribute to their opponents on that day, and as you can see (left), crude is an understatement. The OSU band has tightened it up since then and made it a timeless tradition of football Saturday. But there's no debating where the custom came from, no matter how much they think they can bury the facts.

.

Michigan 34, WMU 10: But it felt so real...

2011-09-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

I had the strangest dream.

It involved University of Michigan football of course, being that we're in the late summer. And being that U-M football has been a part of the last 41 autumns of my life. So I was going to a Michigan game. But it wasn't just any Michigan game.

For one, it was the single hottest Michigan game I can remember, ever. And I'm enough of a geezer to remember the 1983 home opener against Washington State, where the aisles between sections became as busy as the hallways of an emergency health care clinic, with paramedics carrying heat exhaustion victims up and out, one after another. Today the mercury approached 100 degrees and the fiery maize ball sat alone in a deep blue sky.

My friend called and had me on the invite list for a radio station's pregame party. An endless buffet of wings, rib sandwiches, you name it. All on the house. Open bar, too. It is a dream, right? Then, armed with sunblock, we headed off to the stadium in time for all the pregame traditions. "Band, take the field!" Fanfare. The thing where the drum major bends backward and touches the ground with his hat. The M Club banner. Brady Hoke's first run through the tunnel as coach. And finally, game.

Western Michigan was the opponent as I recall. They had this quarterback, I think his name was Carder, who led them down the field with relative ease. Suddenly, quickly, Michigan trailed by seven. Then--and this is how I know it's a dream--Denard Robinson was ineffective. He ended up with just 46 yards rushing and less than 100 yards through the air.

This can't be happening, I thought. Not on a day like this. The thought had yet to settle in my slumbering brain when, at the Wolverine five yard line with the score tied at seven, Carder was hit as he threw the ball and his fluttery pass was snared by Brandon Herron. The senior linebacker ran through several WMU players and a number of missed blocks on his way to an inexplicable school-record 94-yard interception return.

And like that, the game turned. Everything seemed to turn on that play in fact, as clouds began to fill the sky. Still warm, still sunny. For the most part. But the air was getting thicker for all of us, particularly those wearing the gold and brown. Western could only manage a field goal the rest of the half as Michigan held a 20-10 lead at intermission. By now the wind had picked up, and clouds moved at a Denard-like pace over the rapidly darkening Big House.

The second half began and no sooner did the Wolverines receive the kick when the skies opened. A sudden storm whipped through the bowl, shooting rain sideways and sending crashes of thunder throughout the area. Referees ran onto the field and, for the second time in Michigan Stadium history, stopped the game due to weather delay. The teams scurried into the tunnel as 110,000 fans ducked into the 60 tunnels that surround it. Yet even as they left, even as sheets of rain continued to pelt the field, the skies above were blue. Players covered their eyes from the sun as they left the newly brightened green field turf.

Details are a bit fuzzy but I swear, it felt so real. I remember huddling next to a rail under the south end zone stands, watching fans escape the downpour, young and old, male and female, as soaking wet as if they were running ashore. After a half hour, the rain stopped and the game was back on. Three quarters of the crowd decided to stick it out and returned to their seats, drenched yet eager to see what will transpire down below.

Michigan took control when play resumed. Carder dropped back to pass and was met full-on by Jordan Kovacs. He never saw the blitzing Wolverine safety and lost the ball upon impact. From the left side of the line burst who else but Brandon Herron, who picked up the gift in stride and ran a dreamy 28 yards into the end zone. No Wolverine has ever scored on both a fumble and an interception return in the same game. Were I not experiencing this moment in the midst of REM sleep, he would have ran his way into the Michigan football record book on this day.

Then, after Denard rose from the dead and scrambled for a hard-earned first down, Michael Shaw took a handoff at the WMU 44 and hit the goal line in a dead sprint, untouched. 34-10 Blue. Seemingly back to normal. Until the kickoff. A deep purple wall formed in the skies over the northwest end. This is where it gets really sketchy.

Fitzgerald Toussaint took a handoff from Robinson and the entire field became awash in heavy sheets of water. A brilliant flash of lightning blew up just above the north end zone. A thunderous boom pounded into our chests an instant later. An eclipse of darkness engulfed the field as players disappeared. 70,000 fans disappeared in a matter of minutes. We huddled inside the M Den as a sales associate hung up her phone and informed us that a severe thunderstorm with 70mph winds was minutes away. We extended our welcome with strategically planned merchandise purchases but were ultimately told to evacuate the tiny blue trailer.

One more look into the section 15 tunnel. The stadium was dark and empty, ordered evacuated for the first time ever. The new lighting system illuminated the field, giving me what would be my only glimpse of what prime time would look like inside the stadium, as I would be at my brother's wedding in Minnesota the following week and not able to attend the historic Notre Dame night game. I remember the only other light coming from the new scoreboards at each end, displaying satellite images of the angry red and yellow circles that swept one by one, directly over Ann Arbor. All other neighboring areas were clear. My friends were boating in sunny Pinckney, stunned to hear that it was even raining at the stadium.

Guards escorted us back through the tunnel. Then we were running, running through the violent storm. Lightning crashed to either side of us, each blast closer than the one before. Still we ran, for miles it seemed, until we reached our car. They said they cancelled the rest of the game. Yeah right.

We made it to a local sports bar and grill when the winds hit with full force. The lights of the parking structure cut out. We dodged cans, signs and trash cans to get to the door of the establishment. The Tiger game was on one of the satellite TVs, they were down by two runs to Chicago in the ninth inning with one out when lightning struck the building, knocking out power. A couple fought through class-one hurricane winds to enter the building. He wiped his wet face and headed to the bar. A fierce gust of wind pushed the door closed and pinned his wife at the waist. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her through the threshold.

Back at the table, a woman sitting next to us hung up her phone. Her husband just told her the Tigers won. Weren't they down 8-1? The dishes re-callibrated and screens alternated between images of empty Michigan Stadium and empty Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish were losing to South Florida 16-0. I know right? South Florida!

I awoke with a shudder and sat bolt upright in my bed. What just happened? Where am I? And why am I soaking wet? Enough with these crazy dreams already. When for the love of God will the football season start?

Enough about the Cy Young

2011-08-27T23:39:00.001-07:00

Justin Verlander deserves better.

MVP! MVP! MVP!

What's it feel like to play right field for the Cubs?

2011-07-25T00:57:00.001-07:00

This week I took my son to his first baseball game at Chicago's storied Wrigley Field. What he didn't know was that he was taking his dad to HIS first game at Wrigley as well.

As cool as the experience was, nothing beat a sneak peek through an open fence just below the right field foul pole. Which enabled me to capture the feeling of standing on the green grass yourself (see photo). You can practically taste the Copenhagen dip in your left cheek.

Vrabel jumps on the C-Bus

2011-07-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Former Ohio State linebacker Mike Vrabel has agreed to return to his alma mater and join coach Luke Fickel's staff. It's good to see people passing up the money and going back to help fix problems the schools they used to play/coach for are facing.

Coach Vrabel should take heart in the fact that the same storyline is playing out at that school three hours to the north. Greg Mattison gave up the defensive-minded coach's dream job - running the defense of the Baltimore Ravens, and coaching the best defensive player in pro football, Ray Lewis - to come back and remedy what that used to be the cornerstone of Bo Schembechier's Big Ten championship teams. Last year the Wolverines defense ranked 110th in Division 1 (yes, there are that many D-1 teams). Coach Matt used to be Lloyd Carr's defensive coordinator in the 1990s, and built the defense into the wall that ultimately shut down twelve straight opponents and won the national championship in 1997.

Vrabel is coming back to help something that has yet to be completely defined: the level his beloved Buckeyes will have fallen once the NCAA lowers the boom on the program. Not a power move, be sure. But an easy choice for someone who bleeds scarlet and gray. He's still a Buckeye, but he's a good man in my book.

The Death Penalty? Why not?

2011-06-08T10:49:00.001-07:00

Here's what wiki states regarding the Death Penalty's "repeat violator" rule: "The NCAA has always had the power to ban an institution from competing in a particular sport. However, in 1985, in response to rampant violations at several schools, the NCAA Council passed the "repeat violator" rule. The rule stipulates that if a second major violation occurs at any institution within five years of being on probation in the same sport or another sport, that institution can be barred from competing in the sport involved in the second violation for either one or two seasons."

On March 10, 2006, the OSU basketball team received a three-year NCAA probation and vacated all accomplishments from 1999-2002, including their 1999 Final Four appearance. We are still within the five-year period of the hoops team's probation. So how is this NOT a Death Penalty scenario?

Right now tOSU apologists should refrain from calling anyone else dumb.

A State Of Bliss

2010-11-27T23:56:00.001-08:00

Marques Stevenson waited in the set position, his eyes darting away from the hole he would soon hit. In an instant the senior tailback launched himself forward, took a handoff from quarterback Cole Schaezer in stride, cut briefly to his left and gave eleven Plymouth High School defenders a glimpse of what twelve other opponents had seen all season long. The fascinating blur of number thirty-one shooting past them, then growing smaller and smaller as it approached the goal line.

On this day, that familar routine had grown exponentially. On this stage, in front of the populations of two cities and a state-wide TV audience, Stevenson's burst downfield led him to a place he and his teammates had never before been. As Stevenson crossed the goal line and turned to wait for his teammates, and as they added their third extra point, the Ford Field scoreboard added another seven points that grew the Lake Orion High School lead to an improbable 21-3. And with three minutes to go before halftime, the Dragons had all the points they needed to make the biggest point of all.

This year, there was no better team in all of Michigan.

Today Lake Orion is home to the Michigan High School Athletic Association District 1 football champions. The Dragons exploded early and held on late to defeat the upstart Plymouth Wildcats, 21-13, bringing home their most cherished wooden hardware of all: their first-ever state title.

And despite another dizzying assortment of big plays and offensive highlights, the defense is what rescued Lake Orion in the second half and carried them to the promised land. Time after time the Dragons' offense stalled. Time after time the weary defenders in white were asked to keep Plymouth out of the end zone. Yet this collection of teenagers battled again and again, stopping a Wildcat offense that had worn down the likes of Rockford, Catholic Central and #1-ranked Canton over the previous month. In the end, Plymouth managed just one touchdown and one field goal the entire second half.

The Dragons' immortal and improbable ride began on a steamy hot August night with a 45-6 drubbing of their neighbors from Oxford, in the schools' first meeting in 27 years. The ride gained momentum as Lake Orion decimated the Oakland Activities Association's Red Division with alarming consistency. Rochester, who would eventually qualify for the MHSAA playoffs, fell 36-7. Then newly consolidated Pontiac High School crumbled, 44-13. Then West Bloomfield (56-14), Royal Oak (42-7), Troy (45-0) and Troy Athens (45-7).

Farmington Harrison, the ultimate Division 2 state champs, put the brakes on things a bit by handing the Dragons a 28-6 defeat. But head coach Chris Bell pulled his team together the following week, and Lake Orion delivered an inspired and emotional 28-7 victory over arch-rival Clarkston at home on Senior Night, locking up their second conference championship in three years and sewing up home field advantage throughout the regional playoffs. And for coach Bell, the regionals have been as familiar a setting for his teams as Dragon Field itself.

Even as junior quarterback sensation Sean Charette twisted and fell under a blitzing Utica Eisenhower defense in the regional final, breaking his right ankle, Lake Orion showed no signs of slowing its trajectory. Even as Charette's backup, platooning senior wideout Cole Schaenzer, guided the team against undefeated PSL champion Cass Tech, somehow the ride seemed destined to pick up steam as it turned and pointed itself toward downtown Detroit.

Now, that one frontier of state championship glory has been conquered. Now the green and while has entered the fraternity of the elite. Now these seventy high-school kids have immortalized their football program, creating an indelible story to share with their kids and their kids' kids whenever, wherever Lake Orion is mentioned.

To a brilliant coach, a fearless team, a loud student body and a proud community: this time the ride didn't just take you up the mountain. It took you right to the top.

Gee... ya think?

2010-11-24T18:26:00.001-08:00

The good ol' boy network of NCAA major conference football has decided not to wait for Auburn or Oregon to slip up. The war against the two unbeaten schools from non-BCS qualifying conferences--Boise State University from the Western Athletic Conference and Texas Christian University from the Mountain West--has officially begun. And yesterday Ohio State University president Gordon Gee (see dorky photo) fired the first salvo.

"Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football," said the school's leader, shockingly. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there's some reason to believe that they may not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame."

Sure, Gee has enough background in two fat-cat conferences to merit some attention. But anyone with a sniff of objectivity can see the bias behind his words. He's pandering to the BCS brass on behalf of his conference, and more specifically his beloved Buckeyes.

As far as I'm concerned, he disqualified himself in his first-sentence admission that he doesn't know football. Really, Gordie? We had no idea. There's enough evidence in that place called reality to debunk the old man's nonsensical drivel: first, the "murderer's row every week" comment, Gee's insinuation that the undefeated teams from non-BCS qualifying conferences--Boise State in particular--don't play the high level of competition that the Big 10 and SEC face every week; and second, his "Little Sisters of the Poor" reference, a suggestion that Boise has weaker opponents on its schedule than those teams from the "murderous" Big 10 and SEC.

To test Gee's theories, let's consult the best known source for measuring a team's relative strength, Jeff Sagarin's NCAA Football Ratings. The Sagarin Ratings (also known as the Sagarin Power Ratings) weigh a number of factors and collectively rank all college football teams based not on the biased opinions of writers and coaches with a stake in the poll results, but on the strength of the teams themselves.

According to the most recent Sagarin scale, which covers games played through 11/20/2010, Ohio State is eighth while Boise State is #4 (one spot ahead of Auburn). Against the top 30 teams in the nation, the Broncos are 2-0 and the Buckeyes are 2-1. Should Boise take care of #19 Nevada on Friday night, they'll bump their record to 3-0.

Breaking it down further, if we compare Boise State's top games with that of Gee's Buckeyes we get the following (the opponent's Sagarin rating is in parentheses):

BSU = @ Virginia Tech (18), vs Oregon State (22), vs Hawaii (32)
tOSU = @ Wisconsin (14), @ Iowa (21), vs Miami-Florida (30)

Remember that this doesn't include Boise's upcoming game at Nevada (whose Sagarin rating is 24). Now if we look at the other end of the Sagarin scale we also see that Ohio State and Boise State will have each played four "gimmie" games (against teams with rankings above 100):

BSU = @ Wyoming (107), vs Utah St (115), @ San Jose St (157), @ New Mexico St (164).
OSU = @ Minnesota (104), vs Indiana (105), vs Marshall (109), vs Eastern Mich (167).

So Dr. Gee, would you care to retort? This looks pretty even to me. Based on this objective analysis, how can you conclude that Ohio State plays "fine schools every week" while Boise State plays the "Little Sisters of the Poor"? How is one schedule considered a "gauntlet" and "Murderer's Row" while the other is not? Could it be that you've been stuck in that isolation chamber called Columbus, Ohio for a bit too long?

Three more things need to be considered:

First, a team has to play its conference schedule. If Gee wants to criticize Boise State for playing WAC opponents (as if they have a choice), then he must criticize his own school for not playing two of the strongest teams in the Big Ten: 10-1 Michigan State (Sagarin rating of 20) and 7-4 Northwestern (Sagarin rating: 64). So either Boise padded its league schedule with cupcakes, or Ohio ducked the Sparties and Wildcats. Can't have it both ways, Poindexter.

Second, the teams' choice of out-of-conference (OOC) competition. Free to select any school in the nation, Ohio State boldly chose Eastern Michigan University, at #167 the weakest opponent on either team's schedule. And the Eagles still hung 20 points on the Bucks (see pic). They also added Marshall (Sagarin rating: 109) and Ohio U. (Sagarin rating: 75) along with their only worthy opponent, Miami-Florida (Sagarin rating: 30)--all home games of course. In contrast, Boise State chose to play Oregon State (Sagarin: 22) and gave up a home game to take on Virginia Tech (Sagarin: 18) 2,500 miles away in Landover, Maryland.

And third, given all of the above points, Gee's Buckeyes have lost a game, while BSU's record is spotless.

The bottom line is this: BCS schools like Ohio State pad their OOC schedule for easy wins and added home-game revenue, while schools from non-AQ (automatic qualifying) conferences like Boise State book the best competition they can find to boost their credibility. BSU president Bob Kustra put it this way in his sharply worded response to Gee's comments: "I don't mind somebody stating that they don't think we ought to be in the national championship, but to do it with such erroneous information as Gordon Gee has used, gets under the skin of all of us who thought university presidents were supposed to be standing for fairness, equity and truth in how we portray our universities."

Truth be told, Boise State has tried desperately to schedule top-shelf opponents but keeps getting shut down. "It's easy for the presidents to talk, but ask the ADs when's the last time that they seriously entertained taking requests or inviting Boise State to (play them)," Kustra said. "If you're Boise State or TCU, they're going to want to steer way clear of you." Asked to respond to Gee's assertion that Ohio State doesn't play the "Little Sisters of the Poor" that certain undefeated non-BCS teams face, Kustra glanced at the Buckeye's past two schedules and added, "If they're not playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, they're playing the Little Brothers."

TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte preferred a more succinct rebuttal. "We only worry about our house and what we do at TCU. I'll put our record up against anybody." In the past two seasons combined, TCU and Boise State have each lost just once--to each other. The Horned Frogs downed the Broncos in the 2008 Humanitarian Bowl, and BSU returned the favor this past January in the BCS's Tostito's Fiesta Bowl.

After being beaten each of the last two seasons--in Boise and in Eugene--top-ranked Oregon is anything but eager to face the Broncos. But IF Auburn loses, and IF BSU passes TCU in the rankings (as most feel they'll do should they beat Nevada) and IF the old boys network doesn't take over as it has in the past (for example, coaches agreeing to vote 11-0 Boise State as low as fifth to manipulate the system), that's exactly what the Ducks will get.

You think your school might want to schedule the Broncos, Dr. Gee? You know, a home-and-home series, one game at the Horseshoe and one game on the blue turf? Or maybe a two-game series against the Horned Frogs, with a game in Dallas-Fort Worth (they've got big stadiums out there too)? I didn't think so. Kustra said it best in his description of major conference scheduling: "The formula these days for BCS teams is get seven or eight home games, play one non-conference game against a team from another BCS league, schedule three or four patsies and try not to leave the state if you can help it." So it's ironic justice when a conference like the Big Ten goes so far as to drop conference match-ups from their schedules in favor of yet another $50-per-ticket home game against the Mid-American Conference. Had Ohio State and Michigan State actually played each other this year, the winner might still be in contention for a spot in the BCS title game.

Rather than tearing down other schools for winning every game they play, Dr. Gee, why don't you focus on your own school instead? And while you're at it, how bout dropping the procession of fine MAC schools that parade through the 'Shoe each September in favor of a Boise or TCU matchup--you know, something to gear you up for that "Murderer's Row" of Purdue, Indiana and Minnesota.

Till then, we'll go back to assuming you don't know an X from an O. Even though you did a fine job of removing all doubt.

To Ford Field, and beyond!

2010-11-20T23:16:00.001-08:00

The man-child quarterback who kept an entire defense catching, grabbing air and wondering which way he'll turn, twist or take off, faked a handoff and turned to pitch the football to his tailback. That's when he hit the wall. The wall by the name of Andrew Shafkalis.

The ball bounced playfully along the Athens High School FieldTurf as Cass Tech's Keith Moore landed and watched helplessly. Ultimately it landed in the arms of Shafkalis's teammate Tyler Misiak at the Dragon 25-yard line. And in a moment, the Lake Orion sideline and the western grandstand exploded in joy. A game that seemed destined for overtime at best or a crushing, season-ending loss at worst, fell instead into the waiting arms of a hungry band of Dragons. The 24-21 defeat of the previously undefeated and favored Cass Tech Technicians officially punched Lake Orion's ticket to Ford Field. And next Saturday afternoon they will seek to travel where no LO team has gone before: the Promised Land.

As Misiak lept over the pile still scrambling for the elusive pigskin and face planted, only to re-emerge with the ball safely in his hands, the Cass Tech players dropped to the ground as if their legs had been taken out by an automatic weapon. They were safely in range for a game-tying field goal, and had enough momentum to carry into overtime. In fact, with the ball at Lake Orion's five-yard line, the kick was little more than an extra-point's distance, a kick [name of CT kicker] had made dozens of times this season.

Nearly as unexpected as the turn of events was the play call itself. The Dragons' defensive line had spent most of the afternoon in Cass Tech's backfield blowing up plays. Yet as vulnerable as Moore was in his own backfield, he was just as lethal once he crossed the line of scrimmage.

What was expected, however, was the resolve of a battered Lake Orion team who once again elevated its level of play to assuage the loss of junior quarterback Sean Charrette, who suffered a severe sprain to his left ankle in the first quarter of last week's win over Utica Eisenhower. Charrette's multi-talented wide-receiver-turned-backup-QB Cole Schaenzer (see pic) has stepped in since then, and while unafraid to drop darts downfield on third down, he's careful not to put his team's success squarely on his shoulders.

"Everyone knows we’ve got one of the area’s best quarterbacks (in Sean Charette)," coach Chris Bell said after the win. "But we weren’t worried when he went down because we know we’re very lucky to have a guy like Cole to keep this thing rolling."

By "this thing" Coach Bell could well be referring to tailback Marques Stevenson (see my pic). The one-man lightning bolt followed up his other-worldly 14-carry, 290-yard detonation of Grand Blanc in the Region 3 final with a merely sensational 190 yards on 25 carries, including a sprint up the middle that resulted in a 42-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 in the first half. Danny Ney added 82 yards on a workmanlike 16 carries. Cristian Burks led the Technicians attack with 142 yards on 18 carries, including touchdown runs of 15 and 46 yards in the first half.

One more challenge awaits this dream team, a dream date with the real Division 1 Cinderella. Plymouth High School, who dropped the state's #1 team, Canton, in the Divisional round, crushed Rockford's title hopes Saturday afternoon 20-17, scoring the winning TD on a 26-yard pass with :11 left on the clock. Pumpkins anyone?

What can you do when you can't do any better?

2010-11-14T23:35:00.001-08:00

Imagine your major college football team winning its first game and sitting at #3 in both major polls. Imagine your team winning its next eight games while the two schools ahead of and behind you lose multiple times. Can you imagine your unbeaten team atop both polls and likely the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings as well?

Well, you can't if that major college football team of yours is the Boise State University Broncos. In an act of either coordinated sabotage or collective incompetence, neither the writers nor the coaches have moved Boise State up into the top position at any point during the season. Not even for one week.

While the 9-0 Broncos have managed to maintain the number three ranking, three teams (Auburn, Oregon & TCU) have already passed them in each poll--despite the fact that the Broncos have done nothing to justify being passed by anyone. Nine games under their belt, and not a single underwhelming performance on their resume. Yet they've actually lost their position twice in the AP (writer's) poll and three times in the USA Top 25 (coaches) poll. They even dropped in the rankings after a 63-0 victory on the road.

BSU is currently one of four BCS unbeatens, along with the three aforementioned leap-froggers. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Boise is at most two upsets away from playing for a BCS Championship. As we have seen time and time again, however, conventional wisdom--or wisdom at all for that matter--has no place in the BCS, much less major college football. Just as Oklahoma and Oregon and Auburn appeared out of nowhere to jump over the Broncos, you can bet that some one-loss flavor of the month would do so as well, if our hand-wringing media friends have anything to do with it.

No other varsity collegiate sport allows one of its teams to win every game on its schedule and not even compete for a national championship. So how do you explain the blue-horse hatred? Is it simply a fear of bad TV ratings come bowl time? Is it a money thing? Is Boise seen as the major college equivalent of a ladder-climbing female executive in an old-boys-network corporation? I wish I knew.

In rationalizing their discrimination, NCAA power brokers and media "experts" contradict themselves with the effortless frequency of an election-year politician. Here's a sample of what's been said and why it's either untrue or mysteriously not the case with other schools:

1. Boise State hasn't played anyone. WRONG. First off, they gave up a home game to travel 2,500 miles to Washington, D.C. and beat Virginia Tech, who was #10 at the time (and have since climbed back to #16 in the BCS Standings). They defeated #24 Oregon State by double digits, and while the Beavers have hovered around .500 this season, they do happen to host #1 Oregon in their annual Civil War in a few weeks. I have a feeling Oregon won't have as easy a time as the Broncos did.

2. Yeah, but Boise State could never beat the top teams from the major conferences. You mean teams like top-ranked Oregon from the Pac-10, which they've defeated the past two seasons--including 2008's 37-32 victory at Autzen Stadium in Eugene (see pic), where the Ducks owned a 23-game home win streak from 1997-2001 and where they haven't lost since)? Or unbeaten TCU, whom the Broncos buried this past January in the Tostito's Fiesta Bowl? Or VaTech, currently the highest-ranked team in the ACC, who has already locked up a berth in its conference championship? Teams like that?

3. Yeah, but those wins over Oregon and TCU all happened last year, and have nothing to do with this year's team.Until Alabama fell last week at LSU, the Crimson Tide were poised to jump both Boise and TCU despite having one loss on their record. Why? Because they were the defending national champs. But wait, that happened last season right? See what I mean? Similar rationale has also been used to elevate perennial powers Ohio State and Oklahoma virtually overnight, and it may be used again soon to build Nebraska into the sexy, one-loss alternative. Like Boise coach Chris Peterson would stand a prayer against the likes of Tom Osborne or Bob Devaney. I mean come on!

4. Yeah, but since Boise State plays in a weak conference they'd better destroy the rest of their competition to be considered for the BCS Championship. Done, so far at least. In the five league games they've played this season, the average score is Boise 50, Western Athletic Conference 8. And one of those teams (Hawaii) had the second most votes of all teams not ranked in the polls at the time they played. Not to mention the nation's top passing offense. The Rainbows averaged 394 yards through the air entering the game but were held to 196 yards of total offense, nearly 300 yards less than their average. Boise State QB Kellen Moore, on the other hand, set a career mark with 507 passing yards while the rest of the offense rolled up 737 yards, shattering the school record. So should they beat their last three conference foes decisively as the haters have insisted (including #19 Nevada on the road), then strength of schedule is officially a non-factor, right? After all, you can't do more than beat everyone you play right? RIGHT?

5. Yeah, but Boise State has to play at a consistently high level for a number of years to be considered worthy of playing for the BCS Championship. This is what people said last season to support their lack of even considering the Broncos as national title contenders. Umm okay. While the hand-wringers keep inventing reasons, Boise keeps rolling. A win this Friday at home against Fresno State will give the winningest school of the past decade their fifth straight 10-win season.

6. Yeah, but until Boise State plays more quality teams they won't get my vote. Ironically, the people saying this are the coaches. Not only do they vote in the USA Today poll, a major contributor of the BCS formula. But they can schedule their teams to play any non-conference opponent they want... including Boise! So why won't they? Most likely because they know they'll lose. Truth be told, the Broncos just can't find schools willing to play them. It's gotten to the point that they're giving away home games for the chance to schedule and beat worthy opponents. Like Virginia Tech.

7. Yeah, but... Give them a minute, they'll come up with something.

Exactly. Should the Ducks or Tigers or Horned Frogs fall, expect the media to start beating the drums for a procession of one-loss schools like Nebraska, or Stanford, or Ohio State, or Wisconsin, or Oklahoma State, or someotherschoolI'mmissing, or one of the very teams who just lost. Doesn't matter, so long as it's not that dadgum college from Idaho with the funny blue field.

That's how the BCS works. It's not about putting the best two teams on the field. It's about crafting a matchup of two fat-and-happy teams from two of the six behemoth conferences so they can laugh, gorge themselves and split their Brinks-truck-sized BCS bankrolls. The only time "the system has worked" is when there have been exactly two unbeaten teams at the end of the regular season. Well their days are numbered. Soon we'll look back at the fraud that was college football's Bowl Championship Series and wonder what the heck we were smoking.

If you've read this blog before, you know how I feel about the concerted effort to drop Michigan out of the 2006 BCS Championship. Despite finishing the season ranked second in the BCS rankings, and despite their only threat (USC) being upset in their final game, the maize and blue were passed by Florida with the help of the Gators' intense lobbying efforts which persuaded the coaches to drop the idle Wolverines to third in the USA Today poll.

Even Auburn hasn't been immune, as they were snubbed by the BCS in 2004 despite the Tigers' flawless 11-0 record in that oh-so-tough SEC. It seems like one of the berths in the title game is automatically reserved for the winner of the SEC championship. Meaning Auburn could lose to Alabama (not entirely unlikely), then beat South Carolina to win the SEC, and even with a loss they're in.

The idea that Auburn and Oregon could each lose a regular-season game thereby setting up a third straight post-season meeting between unbeatens Boise State and TCU (see pic), this time for the BCS Championship, actually makes people angry. Does it make the coaches angry enough to vote the nation's only two undefeated teams third and fourth in the nation? Does it make those in the media angry enough to actively lobby the coaches to do this? Yes and yes, if history is any indication.

I'm pulling for Boise State because I like Coach Peterson and the juggernaught he's built up there in Idaho. I'm pulling for them because I still remember the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, where the Broncos tied yet another team they supposedly couldn't keep up with (Oklahoma) on a last-second hook-and-ladder touchdown and beat them with a statue of liberty play in overtime, after which their tailback heaved the football into the jubilant crowd before dropping to a knee for a marriage proposal (see pic). Most of all, I'm pulling for Boise because I feel they're the best team in the nation this year and they deserve a shot.

But even if I didn't, I'd pull for them for the sheer enjoyment of watching that old boy network known as the BCS implode. Get your popcorn, kids.

Denied Robinson

2010-10-10T23:57:00.001-07:00

It seems immovable objects can stop unstoppable foes after all.

The human element of the University of Michigan's 2010 football success, quarterback Denard Robinson, proved to be merely human, mortalized by--of all opponents--their green-and-white rivals to the northwest. In handing the Wolverines their first defeat of the season, Michigan State kept their unblemished record pimple-free for another week. And put the Heisman hopes of their fleet signal-caller on dry ice.

From the moment the dread-locked torpedo launched an ill-advised first-quarter pass into the arms of Spartan DB Trenton Robinson, something wasn't right. The 18-year-old phenom who single-handedly beat two Indiana schools on the road was hounded relentlessly by endless white-jerseyed attackers, and the results were unusually unspectacular: 86 rushing yards on 21 attempts, 219 passing yards, and three costly interceptions.

No experience could have been more peaceful to the rehabilitating heart of MSU coach Mark Dantonio, who watched his team's masterful performance from the comfort of one of the Big House's brand new executive suites. The win keeps the Spartans unbeaten and on a course for double-digit wins, a Big Ten championship, their first Rose Bowl berth since the Reagan Administration--it's all up to them.

As for the 5-1 Wolverines, they must quickly lick their wounds and gear up for a battle with the ever-powerful Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday. They're still a win away from the postseason, and their coach has still won just one D-1 game in the month of October in his three years as the Wolverines coach.

Wolverines ready themselves for Operation Payback

2010-10-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

On the first day of 2008, the Michigan Wolverines football team gathered in front of their jubilant fans to sing a rousing chorus of "The Victors". Despite the turmoil caused by their recent coaching search, fortunes for the Michigan program seemed rock-steady after their 41-36 defeat of Urban Meyer's Florida Gators and Heisman-winner Tim Tebow.

It's 2010 now, and that moment in the late afternoon sun of the Capital One Bowl seems about as far away as a bike ride to Orlando. The Wolverine football program bid farewell to a 32-year Bowl streak and its string of 41 straight non-losing seasons, and last year's 1-7, 10th place finish in the Big Ten has pushed the most faithful of maize-and-blue backers to the brink of depression/madness/despondency (cross out one).

Hardest of all to stomach are the streaks that have emerged since 2008. Put aside the obvious ownership of Wolverine pride by the Ohio State University, who have won eight of their last nine meetings. Michigan is in the midst of a two-season-long tailspin against several conference foes they once dominated:

o two straight losses to Purdue, including the first home loss to the Boilermakers in over 40 years;

o two straight drubbings at the hands of Illinois and its petroleum-slick quarterback, Juice Williams;

o two woodshed-style beatings by JoePa's Nitany Lions--who had not defeated Michigan since 1996--in which they've been outscored 58-0 after halftime.

Humiliating as these streaks have been to college football's winningest program, none compare to the one administered by the school 90 minutes to their northwest.

Michigan State has its first football winning streak of any kind over the Wolverines in nearly a half century. And a rivalry that had grown dormant with whippings like the one in 2002 (see my illustrious scoreboard pic) has come to life. Since 2004 there have been three overtime contests, the most Michigan has played against any opponent. All but one game since 2003 has been decided by a touchdown or less, and that happened to be the Spartans' 45-20 torture of the Wolverines in their last Big House visit two years ago.

Sitting at 5-0, Michigan is just a win away from returning to bowl-eligible status and poised to commence Operation Payback. First this Saturday against an equally perfect Michigan State team whose coach may be watching the game from a room at the nearby University of Michigan Heart Center (see Schembechler, Glenn E.). Then, October 30 at Happy Valley opposite a good yet very beatable Penn State squad. Then a week later at the Big(ger) House when Illinois pays a visit. Then the following week as the team travels to Purdue for a healthy dose of revenge. And finally, phase five: the final week of the season at Ohio State.

If they get to Columbus having accomplished the previous four missions, they'd be arriving at the 'Shoe with no less than a 9-2 record. The next 40-year string of winning seasons has to start somewhere, right?

A hot-knife team in a stick-o-butter league

2010-09-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

They're not flashy. They don't attempt double-reverses or hook-and-ladder pass plays or Boise State statue of liberty plays. They go for it on fourth down, but it's more of a conservative move than you would think. A preference for field position and, more likely than not, the odds of a successful conversion, to a risky center snap, hold and field goal attempt.

This year's Lake Orion Dragons football team has the makings of being among the best in school history. Each Friday they've taken out their opponent with a lethal dose of venom and the oxygen-depriving squeeze of a python. The teams are lulled into the second quarter feeling like they're actually providing competition. Then a Dragon dive play bursts wide open and becomes a 40-yard touchdown run. A mishandled snap here, a misguided pass there, and turnover turns into points, a broken tackle turns into another score. And it's over by halftime.

Here's how the Dragons' season has gone so far. Their first game renewed a rivalry with neighboring Oxford after a 27 year hiatus. I've never seen so many fans gathered around the Lake Orion field; there was not one empty seat to be found anywhere. The "Battle Of Lapeer Road" reached 31-0 by halftime and didn't stop till the score hit 45-6. Lake Orion traveled to Rochester the following week and showed little mercy in drubbing the Falcons, 36-7. Lake Orion visited Pontiac the following week and blew open a tight contest for a 44-13 win. And tonight, the host Dragons sent West Bloomfield, well, west, with a 56-14 dismemberment and subsequent wood-chipping.

Four opponents. For embarrassments. I've seen cockroaches stand up to steel-toed boots more successfully.

The party rolls on, next Friday at Royal Oak High School, then a home-and-home with the Troy teams (hosting Troy High and travelling to Athens) before the "Cross-over Team To Be Named Later" and their final home game, October 22 against their other neighboring rivals from Clarkston. Expect an Oxford-like crowd.

See Denard Run

2010-09-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

See Denard run.
Run Denard, run.
Watch Denard get bigger and bigger.
Watch Denard get better and better.
Denard is going to run me right over.
Did you see Denard?

Don't bite the brand that feeds you

2010-09-12T14:22:00.001-07:00

It's official. The National Football League is a joke. And despite how he may appear in this picture, Calvin Johnson is not laughing.

How the Lions' all-pro wide receiver's touchdown catch--which should have won this afternoon's game against the Chicago Bears--was not a touchdown catch is beyond me. How referees watch that catch before huddling together to rule that it wasn't a catch is beyond me. How fathers try to explain to their sons that it wasn't really a touchdown is beyond me.

With :24 left and the Lions trailing the Chicago Bears 19-14 in that architectural disaster once known as Soldier Field, quarterback Shawn Hill lofted a pass toward the right corner of the end zone. Johnson out-jumped two defenders and pulled the ball down. Johnson landed with both feet in the end zone, still in possession of the ball. Johnson took another step as he fell to the ground and landed on his ass, STILL IN POSSESSION OF THE BALL. Johnson brought the ball to the ground with one hand, still in possession. Johnson pushed the ball against the ground and let go as he sprung to his feet, circling the end zone in celebration. The referee in the end zone signaled touchdown.

But in the 2010 version of the NFL, this is apparently not a touchdown.

According to league rules, the "process" of Johnson's touchdown catch is only completed after the ball hits the ground, and since he let go of the ball at that moment, the play was not ruled a completion. Hence, no touchdown. The rule doesn't state how long after the ball hits the ground the receiver needs to maintain possession. Still, no other rule in the sport uses a player's actions after a play is over to determine the outcome of that play.

It's football's equivalent of the five-second rule. Were it in place last season, it could have cost the New Orleans Saints a key two-point conversion and possibly a Super Bowl victory. Were it in place throughout NFL history, who knows how many legitimate touchdowns would have been disallowed.

For some reason, "the process" doesn't come into play when a player crosses the plane of the goal line with the football. In these situations the play is over the instant the ball crosses the plane. So if, for example, a runner dives into the end zone and a defender hits the ball out of his hands on his way down, it's already ruled a touchdown.

As for the ruling on the field... the official who was less than 20 feet away watched Calvin catch the ball, land with both feet in bounds and fall to the ground, still in possession of the ball, and signaled touchdown. Yet he was overruled. Though no other official was as close to the play as this official, someone decided the pass was incomplete and changed his call. The man in position--the man who saw the play and had been trained to make this call--his perspective, opinion, experience and expertise were nullified by someone somewhere else. So suddenly, the review of the play had to hold enough evidence to overturn the overruled ruling on the field.

There's only explanation for all of this: the NFL has jumped the shark.

The stats-loving, black-socks-wearing geeks have taken over, and they've micromanaged the game into oblivion. Things are no longer what they seem. Black-and-white facts now have gray area. Eye witness accounts are now open to interpretation. The rules have officially invalidated the reality.

What if Calvin Johnson had spiked the ball instead? What if he caught it, landed with both feet in bounds and chucked the ball into the stands in celebration on his way to the turf? Isn't that part of the "celebration process", thereby being accepted as a touchdown? Imagine sitting around the screen at Caesar's Palace, with thousands of dollars riding on the outcome of this game. When rules determine that plays like this are not touchdowns, someone needs to be accountable. And there's no accountability anymore in the NFL.

The call took a win away from one team and gave it to the other. A professional football team's fortunes can shift on the weight of a single game. As the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers showed us, a game can be the difference between winning the Super Bowl and not making the playoffs. The Lions lost a game they won. The Bears won a game they lost. So what would the league and all those who draw paychecks from the almighty shield tell us? "They made the right call." That's it. Nothing more.

Well I hereby issue a challenge. I dare the NFL's mediabots to stand up and say the rule is wrong. The touchdown we all saw on TV was indeed a touchdown--regardless of the geeky, fantasy-fooball-driven tweaks that are killing the once proud, once it-is-what-it-is NFL--and that this insanity must be stopped.

So far the only national sports analyst I've seen that's called the League out on the field turf has been Fox's Michael Strahan. The former Giant couldn't believe a catch they all knew was a touchdown was no longer so. But the others didn't follow his lead, opting instead for the safe, soft path to job security. Terry Bradshaw sped through the game's highlights and quickly changed the topic. Fox Football Sunday host Curt Meneffe shamelessly plugged "our Michael Guerrero" with man-crush vigor any time someone brought up the play. Guerrero is the network's NFL expert whose interpretation of the rule kept Meneffe and his team from risking reputation and employment with their own opinions. "He (Guerrero) was 2-0 today," echoed the once bold Howie Long, also muppeting the pro-NFL "no problems here, keep moving" stance.

These parasites are too fat and happy to consider hurting the host. Ultimately, the health and welfare of the NFL is more important than anything else. Like a meaningless September game involving the Detroit Lions. As any smiling face in front of a network camera would say, you don't bite the brand that feeds you.

The Green Half-Mile

2010-09-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

This week the other team KNEW what was coming. And they still couldn't stop it.

For an offense as wide open as the Michigan Wolverines offense, their primary weapon is no mystery. Two weeks ago Denard Robinson held his breath as coach Rich Rodriguez decided which of his three young quarterbacks would lead his team into the 2010 season. Yesterday 80,000 held their breath as Robinson darted left, right, over and through the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for 502 yards of total offense--258 of them on the ground. Both numbers set Michigan all-time records for a quarterback, the first of which broke his own record of 383 yards, set seven days earlier against Connecticut.

In just two weeks, this lightning bolt of 4.3 speed has already covered 885 yards--nearly nine football fields, over a half mile of real estate--and may not slow down until he reaches the Downtown Athletic Club in December and speeds off with Michigan's fourth Heisman Trophy.

Denard's inexplicable rise has carried him from prominence to dominance. Whether the Irish defense knew when he'd call his own number or not, had little effect on the result. difference. In the second quarter, pinned back on their own 13-yard line, Robinson once again called on Robinson to make something happen. The swift sophomore took the snap from center and rolled right, then cut to the left and dashed through a hole off his right tackle in a dead sprint. That was as close as any golden-domed defender came to #16, as the sold-out crowd at Notre Dame Stadium watched Robinson actually pull away from the Irish secondary as he soared into the north end zone.

World-class sprinting aside, perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Denard's upward spiral is the zip he's put on his own spiral. Robinson followed his near-perfect 18-for-21 performance against UConn with 24 completions in 40 attempts for 244 yards. Rarely did a ball get away from him, and only one of his passes even came close to being intercepted. The 87-yard sprint was impressive to be sure, but Denard's shining moment came on the first play following Jonas Mouton's first-quarter interception.

From the Irish 31 Robinson took the shotgun snap, faked a handoff to tailback Mike Shaw and rolled left, floating along the line of scrimmage, looking for an opening. Notre Dame's two linebackers read the play as yet another quarterback run and broke toward him. Denard took a step back instead and fired, hitting a suddenly wide open Roy Roundtree in stride. The sophomore split end scored easily, and Michigan had its first lead of the game.

The play was an absolute work of art. In fact, these two weeks have been an offensive masterpiece. Robinson's rating is a robust 138.3, his 70% completion percentage ranks 20th among division-1 quarterbacks and he leads the nation in rushing. THE NATION. In fact, Oklahoma State tailback Kendall Hunter and Kansas State's Daniel Thomas are the only players within a hundred yards of Mr. Robinson's neighborhood.

How ironic is it that the kid who didn't know whether he'd be named the Wolverines' starting quarterback, now has his name mentioned as a Heisman contender, in the same breath as former Wolverine Ryan Mallet.

How ironic is it that the man who didn't understand what Michigan football is all about, now has lit up two favored opponents with none other than a triple-option attack? Remember the option, Wolverine fans? Remember the Bo Schembechler offenses run by Don Moorheaad and Dennis Franklin and Rick Leach? They've got nothing on Rich Rod and his six-point buck from Deerfield Beach, Florida, who cuts his way through opponents as effortlessly as he sprints down an open green field.

The coach now his ideal quarterback in place, the Pat White of the Big Ten. And football is once again exciting in Ann Arbor.

Team ACK

2010-08-11T21:42:00.001-07:00

The rumors are true this time. Tracy McGrady will sign with the Detroit Pistons, as early as Friday.

Is that a good thing? That is up in the air. When you lay the hoops cards on the table, you see a potential starting five of Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Teyshawn Prince, Ben Wallace and T-Mac. Or Rip, Rodney Stuckey, T-Mac, Charles Villanueva and Jerome Maxiel. Or...

Okay, it may not be get-your-playoff-tickets-today strong, but it's far from horrible. McGrady will be grabbed for one season, with an option for more depending on how well this year's experiment from team president/mad scientist Joe Dumars works out. Despite applying a semi-transparent coating over the Madison Square Garden floor last season, the former perennial all-star of the Houston Rockets still has enough talent and versatility to help a team that has been prone to injury of late.

And no, the irony is not lost, why do you ask? T-Mac has been knee-jacked most of the past two seasons, starting--and playing--just 24 games with the Knicks in 2009-10. But a star of his caliber is worth a one-year gamble. Beyond his talent, McGrady gives Pistons coach John Kuester match-up opportunities he sorely needed last year.

Now, when the situation calls for a bigger team, Kuester can pair his 6'8" newcomer with 6'5" point guard Rodney Stuckey and choose from a front-court forest: rookie Greg Monroe and Kwame Brown (all 6'11") at center; second-year Zaga grad Austin Daye, Charlie Villanueva (also 6'11") and Swedish Jiant Jonas Jerebko (6'10") at power forward. And if need be, he and Teyshawn Prince (both 6'9") can keep the three spot tall and strong. Whatever aircraft comes their way, the Pistons have the counterattack. Ack-ack knock 'em back, I say!

So what does all this mean? My guess is, it means they can play with any team on any given night. ANY team, even that one they assembled in South Florida. Yet as likely as they are to pull off the occasional stunner, they're just as likely to lose that very winnable game due to their inconsistency or inexperience as a unit.

There will be rough patches, and good quotes should be plentiful. However, they've got too much ability not to make it interesting. Should they avoid the debilitating injuries of recent seasons, .500 seems like a very real possibility. And that's generally enough for a team to sneak into the NBA playoffs.

He don't care any more

2010-06-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

So what felled Great Britain in the 2010 World Cup? It wasn't the blown call that denied them a first-half goal against the mighty Germans. It wasn't their goalkeeper's sloppily played fielding of that trickle of an American shot which resulted in a draw with the U.S. and ultimately kept them from winning their group.

Nope, what did the British in was the inexplicable disappearance of their all-everything striker, Wayne Rooney (see photo at right). The chap who not only led Manchester United, but led the European world with 30 goals in international competition this past year, came up empty in South Africa. Zero goals. Nada. Bupkis.

Members of the media and football fans alike could sense something wasn't right. As England fanatic Ian Simmington puts it, "I could feel it in the air tonight. Rooney misses again. Oh Lord." Tabloid reporters could not believe it was true. And despite repeated questions, Rooney himself had no reply at all.

The reason Wayne Rooney wasn't himself during the Cup, was because it wasn't him at all. Blame the British management and their last-minute decision to replace him with Phil Collins (see photo below).

As if no one would notice! Just look at the statistics. Last season Rooney scored 26 goals in 32 games for United. Collins, in contrast. didn't even enter a single Premier League match. FWA Footballer of the Year in 2009-10, the English striker has won three Premeir League titles, two League Cups and the 2008 UEFA Champions League trophy. Enough, one would think, to have been selected over the long-time Genesis drummer whose only substitution came in 1975 when lead singer Peter Gabriel removed himself from the progressive rock quintet.

Someone needs to take responsibility for this egregiously poor decision. If heads don't roll within England's football hierarchy, they can't expect success in Brazil four years from now. As Collins himself so aptly put it, "If you don't stand up, you don't stand a chance."

A Guaran-Sheed Thrill-Ride

2010-06-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

The announcement arrived with surprisingly little attention considering the person involved, a guy known for anything but his quiet nature.

Mr. T called it quits yesterday. Rasheed Wallace, the man who revolutionized the technical foul (they should rename it in his honor, just so we can say things like, "I can't believe Van Gundy got sheeded up for that!"). The human rallying cry, who--along with the coach he dubbed "Pound For Pound"--elevated the Detroit Pistons from perennial playoff team to World Champion, decided before taking the court for Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles that this game would be his last.

While referees everywhere may still be drinking to the news, the sport will miss him. We as fans will miss him too. We'll miss his heart, his dedication and his leaving-the-atmosphere level of talent--rarely does a seven-foot power forward come along who can stand at the arc and swish three-pointers with either hand. Mostly however, we'll miss his willingness to speak his mind. Never would he bring himself to mail in a presser. Rasheed would pour his thoughts out effortlessly, with a flow as continuous as a BP deep-oil line. Not because he cared about what others would think. But precisely because he didn't.

I remember when Joe Dumars announced the acquisition of Wallace from the Portland Trailblazers. Frankly, I thought the man from Shreveport was a crawdad short of a Cajun dinner. Mind you, we were but a mere few months into the Larry Brown Experiment (Joe D had fired coach Rick Carlisle after the previous season, which saw the Pistons reach the conference finals for the first time in over a dozen years). And now, to complement a mildly imbalanced (yet brilliant) head coach, Dumars brought in a surly (yet gifted) malcontent with anger management issues. In the process moving guards Chucky Adkins, Lindsey Hunter and Bobby Sura as well as a promising young center in Zeljko Rebraca.

It wasn't long before I was sipping the gumbo. Dumars' gamble ended up instilling a passion, a drive, a sense of perserverence the team just didn't have. At the time, the Pistons were nothing more than a collection of cast-offs from mediocre franchises. Before Wallace donned the red and blue, their most recognizable name was Corliss Williamson. Rasheed pushed this vagabond group of overachievers to do the unthinkable: win an NBA title without the presence of a superstar. A feat the league hadn't seen since the Seattle Supersonics of the late 1970s. Back when Magic was just Earvin, incoming Michigan State freshman. Yeah that long ago.

Wallace's Guaran-Sheed win at Indiana in Game 2 of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals led the way to their six-game win over the Pacers (who were led by former coach Carlisle). The series wasn't pretty, nor could it have been. But it was filled with heart and substance. By winning ugly, the Pistons assured themselves of being picked by NO ONE to defeat the mighty Lakers and their three-time-NBA-Champion nucleus of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. I didn't even hear a prediction of seven games, and I was paying attention.

Most said it would go five, tops. It did, only because Kobe caught fire late and led LA to a Game 2 overtime win. Otherwise it was a Detroit Pistons sweep. And the man who led them to the promised land, the one wearing the WWE title belt, was the one I pegged as the disruptive force. As it turned out, he was every bit the prototypical Piston. One part Isiah and one part Laimbeer with a dash of Mahorn. The third-millenium personification of basketball's baddest brand.

Sheed became my son's favorite Piston, and the Pistons became his favorite Detroit sports team. He ran into Wallace--literally--at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. We were hustling to our gate and he was deep into his ipod. My boy didn't even recognize him at first, until he looked up. And up, and up.

Winning over the kid's respect isn't an easy thing to do, but if anyone could do it, it was Sheed. His ability to change the negative perceptions about his character (particularly mine) led countless Piston fans to do the unthinkable: cheer for him as a member of the Boston Celtic (see my pic) during this year's run to the Finals.

It would have been fitting to see Wallace ride off with another gold title belt around his waist. But I'm sure he's satisfied with the belt he already has. The one he proudly displayed while riding down Woodward Avenue during the 2004 NBA World Champions' victory parade.

Pitch Perfect

2010-06-18T23:57:00.001-07:00

Had to wait two weeks till his next start at Comerica Park... but here's the wind-up of the man who threw the first perfect game in 109 years of Detroit Tiger history.

No bad call can erase that which is already done, Armondo. I hope you're proud of this tremendous accomplishment--it will never be forgotten.

Without the nation's punchline, the playoffs are a joke

2010-05-24T23:51:00.001-07:00

It's the easiest shot to take. The big Peruvian rock under the addict's nose.

Who can resist a good jab at Detroit, right? From an comedic standpoint, it's about as clever as mother-in-law schtick. Yet people who make a living looking into a camera and talking into a microphone rarely balk at the opportunity to make themselves feel better at the expense of Motown. All it takes is a smirk and an ill-informed "at least we're not in Detroit!" gasser. Pieceacake.

I use ill-informed not only because many of these quipsters have never visited the state much less the city. But also because they have no idea how much they really need Detroit until Detroit is not around.

No better proof exists than this year's NBA and NHL playoffs. For the first time since the start of the millennium, Detroit teams are not a factor in either sport's championship.

The Detroit Red Wings hoisted Lord Stanley's silver chalise in 2002 and 2008, missing another Cup by a single game-seven goal last year. The five-year span between those two Stanley Cups happened to coincide with the Detroit Pistons' rise to pro basketball's promised land. The 2002-03 NBA season began a string of six straight runs to the conference finals for the Pistons. Twice they reached the Finals, winning it all in 2004 and taking the San Antonio Spurs to seven games before falling in 2005.

But this year, poof. The Pistons didn't make the postseason for the first time since 2000. The Red Wings kept their playoff streak alive at 20 years, yet surrendered home-ice advantage in the opening round for the first time since 1991. They were extended to seven games by the Phoenix Coyotes and didn't survive round two.

These results may have given the talking heads all the set-up they'd ever need ("Poor Detroit, what'll they do now, with their economy and their sports teams in shambles? Ha ha ha..."). But it hasn't given much more to the rest of America. To put it in terms any D-basher can appreciate, this year's playoffs just suck.

What level of suck are we talking about here? Just look at the NBA. We're still a week away from the NBA Finals, yet the level of play is so pathetic that two of this season's most promising playoff teams have already lost their head coaches. In the case of Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown--who many viewed as a detriment to keeping #23 in Cleveland despite being the only professional coach Lebron's ever known--all he did was turn in the league's best record over the past two years, taking the team to heights no previous Cavs coach had ever reached. And Atlanta coach Mike Woodson--whose Hawks were swept by Orlando by an average of 25 points per defeat--just finished doing what no NBA coach had ever done, ending his fifth straight season with a better record than the season before.

Neither move will help make this year's two-month postseason any more bearable. Only one of the 14 best-of-seven series so far has made it to the deciding game. (For those whose TiVos still contain that pivotal Atlanta-Milwaukee first-round showdown, I won't ruin the ending for you.) All but one of the four conference semifinal matchups ended in a sweep, and the conference finals seem to be nothing more than an undercard for the inevitable Lakers-Celtics clash everyone wants to see. Particularly the Eastern Conference Finals, where Boston yawned its way to a 3-0 series lead before the Orlando Magic finally stepped up last night, winning Game 4 in overtime. The first overtime of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. The entire NBA playoff season. I'm fighting sleep just trying to finish this paragraph.

To say there's a lack of playoff excitement in the NBA is putting it mildly. The league couldn't generate interest if it offered rebroadcasts of these games to prison inmates in return for a commuted sentence.

And don't think the lack of "Deee-troit Baaa-sketball!" this past month is nothing more than coincidental. The Pistons are one of the few NBA teams with a bonafide I.D., a "brand personality" if you will. Detroit Pistons Basketball. A hard-core, hard-working team from the once-industrial midwest. An overachieving collective with a lunch-pail work ethic, an emphasis on team defense and a continual chip on its shoulder. This personality has been cultivated over decades, since the days of Isiah Thomas, Vinnie Johnson and a seven-foot-tall white center named Laimbeer. Much like Oakland Raiders football, the team's gritty "Bad Boys" image and "Goin' To Work" persona have remained consistent ever since. The net effect resonates with players and opponents alike.

When the Shaq-and-Kobe-led Los Angeles Lakers were on their way to a fourth straight NBA title in 2004, all that stood before them was a rag-tag group of free-agent journeymen, a team without an all-star much less a superstar, the latter being perceived as mandatory criterion for an NBA world champion. Many "experts" claimed the Lakers were far too talented and too powerful, and may predicted a four-game sweep. The series went five games, only because the Lakers stole game 2 with a furious late-game rally. The Detroit Pistons shocked the world and won the NBA world championship (their third) with relative ease. And in so doing, they effectively altered the balance of power for the balance of the decade.

The following season, Detroit pushed San Antonio to the brink before falling in an epic seven-game NBA Finals. To get there, the Pistons had to defeat Shaq once again, but this time as a member of the Miami Heat. They captured the Eastern Conference trophy, winning game seven on the road inside a hushed American Airlines Arena. They wouldn't make another Finals appearance, but the teams that did had to get through the Pistons to do it. This was just the roadblock Dwayne Wade and Lebron James needed to ignite their meteoric rise to superstardom. Each led his franchise to its first NBA Finals appearance--Miami in 2006 and Cleveland in '07--but the Pistons were the yardstick against which they ultimately measured themselves.

This year there is no yardstick. The Eastern Conference favorites from Cleveland proved to be one man deep, and when that man mailed it in, the rest of the team didn't have the ability to lick the envelope. Last year's champs from Orlando needed overtime and a call from the governor to avoid Boston's four-game death sentence. In fact, the Celtics' chief concern at this point is staying attentive long enough to win one more game. Somehow that doesn't seem to send America running for their flat screens.

As for that title that's being settled on the frozen surface, this year's NHL subtext is one of the unchallenged and underqualified. In the Eastern Conference--where top seeds advancing are considered upsets--the pattern reached epidemic proportions as we were treated to the first #7-vs.-#8 conference final in NHL history. The lower seed prevailed--I know, right?--as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens in five games, three of which were shutouts and none of which were watchable (despite such empty hype from the NBC announcers during the Flyers' Game-5 clincher as "You wanted a close game, fans? You've got it!"). Guess what? They didn't.

In the West, Chicago completed a four-game sweep of the suddenly toothless San Jose Sharks. Riveting. The Hawks' lack of a postseason challenge, or more specifically, the chance to earn their rite of passage by defeating hockey's gold standard, the two-time conference champion and perennial powerhouse Detroit Red Wings--the HATED Detroit Red Wings, their bitterest rival--can't help but drain a bit of satisfaction from their Cup run. The line of ascention has been severed. And while ANY Stanley Cup would be welcomed by an Original Six town that hasn't sipped from it in nearly a half century, beating the seventh-seeded Flyers in the Finals, and not even facing their mentor and defending champion to get there, will keep them from being considered among the better teams of the decade.

It's the regrettable consequence of missed opportunity. Not just for Chicago, but for America as well. Through its sheer absence on the grand stages of two major sports, we now can feel the true entertainment value a city like Detroit brings to the party. And it's far more than a quick laugh.

Let's call it what it is: Big Teen Football

2010-05-10T23:36:00.001-07:00

It's unofficially official. The conference that thrives in excess--from 100,000-seat stadiums to revenues that make member schools feel like big oil--will soon become the Granddaddy Of The Excessiest.

A Kansas City sports radio station is reporting that the Big Ten Conference, technically the Big Televen given Penn State University's inclusion in 1992, will add at least three more schools before month's end. And should they land the golden-domed Holy Grail of prestigous schools, which looks more likely than not, they will bring a fifth on board and become the Jabba The Hut of super conferences.

As many as 16 schools could call the conference home by the 2011 football season. Universities already on the "Where do I sign?" list are Nebraska and Missouri (see pic from their 1976 contest), the latter of which stands to triple its athletic revenue with the football team alone. Rutgers has also agreed, saying "yes" slightly faster than a heavy-set girl a the skin condition responds to a prom invite.

So 14 teams appears to be a done deal. What is anything but done is school in slot #15. That private school in Indiana with its own network-TV deal. Notre Dame has prided themselves in being an independent school, even after signing on with the Big East Conference for all those cute non-football sports. But the reprocussions of college football's plate techtonics may force the hands of Touchdown Jesus, who with each development appears more likely to have a gun in his back than six points on his mind.

The Big Ten's decision to forego the chicken caesar salad in favor of the entire right side of the menu, has started the ball rolling for other leagues concerned with their cash flow. The Kansas City Star and other sources report that the Big 12 Conference--that is, what will be left of the Big 12... heh heh heh--is talking very seriously with the Pac-10 about a merger of sorts, one that could unite schools representing six of the top 13 media markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle and Phoenix). Presumably, USC and UCLA, Stanford and Cal, Washington and Wazzou, and the two Arizona schools would join forces with the top eight remaining conference teams to form a formidable, football-friendly Sweet 16.

To say this will be a defining moment for college football would be putting it mildly. It's been speculated that the snowball effect could be cataclysmic. The SEC, strong on its own as it is, may suffer a case of the "me too"s and grow, with schools like Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami and the biggest trophy fish of all, North Carolina. Which would loot the ACC and Big East, leading to further speculation that Notre Dame would best serve Notre Dame as a member of the soon-to-be Big Teen. For conferences like our middle children from the Mountain West, this could all be a blessing since it may set the table for a highly coveted automatic BCS berth--which for schools on the outside, is the budgetary equivalent of hitting PowerBall.

On that greater topic, what will this all mean to the BCS? Could these gargantuan super-leagues fall in love with the potential windfall of a NCAA division-1 playoff and pull out--even if it means pulling out of the NCAA altogether?

For fans of college football, this will rock them to their fundamentalist core. It was only a few years ago that traditionalists insisted on keeping the bowl system intact and not tampering with things like the seven-decade-long Big Ten / Pac-10 Rose Bowl alliance (see photo of the 1965 Rose Bowl between Michigan and Oregon State, courtesy of the way-back machine).

While many speculated about change, the culprits were assumed to be the greedy bowls or the greedy BCS itself. Who knew the greedy conferences would be the temporal forces?

A Savant's Guide To Bemidji State Hockey

2010-03-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

Michigan's opponent in the NCAA Midwest Regional hockey tournament Saturday night is Bemidji State University. Until last season hockey world knew as much about them as they could Wikipedia. That's when they burst upon the major college hockey scene as suprise winners of the College Hockey America (CHA) tournament championship and the 16th overall seed in the 16-seed NCAA playoffs.

Then they captured the hearts of hockey America, not merely pulling off the biggest upset in NCAA Division I tourney history, but blowing away the #1 overall seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 5-1, on their way to the school's first Frozen Four berth.

But there's so much more to this modest northern Minnesota college than one would imagine. So here's everything you ever wanted to know about Bemidj... okay, maybe not much you wanted to know, but once you see how interesting the history of Bemidji State Beavers' hockey really is—and how much they have in common with the Wolverines—I'm sure you'll be the better for it!

BEMIDJI STATE HOCKEY TRIVIA (or "BEMIDJIVIA")

As storied a hockey program as the University of Michigan may be, the fact is that Bemidji State has more national championships in men’s hockey – 13 to the Wolverines' 9. Seven were won in the NAIA, with one NCAA Division-III and five NCAA Division-II titles to go along with it.

Each year from 1993-98 a men's hockey national championship trophy bore the name of either Michigan or Bemidji State, a string of six straight seasons one or the other captured an NCAA hockey title.

Bemidji State won its most recent national championship (in D-II) in 1997 by defeating Alabama-Huntsville, 4-2. 4 and 2 happen to be the seeds of Alabama-Huntsville and Bemidji State in this weekend’s Midwest Regional, Huntsville being the fourth seed (facing top-seed Miami) while BSU is seeded second. Should each win on Saturday they would face each other in the NCAA quarterfinals on Sunday night in what would be the first-ever playoff meeting of CHA conference foes.

Bemidji State and Miami are two of three teams from last year’s Frozen Four to earn berths in this year's NCAA playoffs. Vermont is the third; they lace 'em up against top-seeded Wisconsin in the West Regional in St. Paul, MN. Boston University, 2009 Frozen Four national champions, failed to qualify this year.

Four Bemidji State hockey players have reached the NHL, most notably Joel Otto of Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers fame. Although the list of celebrities and notable BSU grads is nearly non-existent, it did happen to be the birthplace of Jane Russel.

The Beavers hold two very impressive NCAA hockey records to this day, for most wins in a row (43, from 1983-85) and best season record (31-0, in 1983-84).

Bemidji State has a two-game winning streak in Regional play, with both wins (over Notre Dame and Cornell) occurring in the state of Michigan (during last year's Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids). They ultimately lost in the Frozen Four semifinals to the Miami Redhawks, 4-1. Barring yet another major upset, Miami will face the Michigan-Bemidji winner this coming Sunday.

The Beavers are 2-2 all-time the in the NCAA Division-I Regional playoffs. Their only two defeats were to teams who went on to win the national championship (in 2005 they lost to Denver 4-3 in OT; in 2006 they lost to eventual champ Wisconsin 4-0).

This weekend's regional semifinal will mark the first-ever meeting between Michigan and Bemidji State. In fact, the Wolverines have never skated against a team nicknamed the Beavers before. BSU hasn't played a Wolverine team in hockey before, but that probably goes without saying.

Bemidji State has, however, defeated a University of Michigan campus before—and in the playoffs no less. The Beavers defeated U-M/Dearborn 4-3 in 1980 for their seventh national hockey championship.

Michigan may be facing the Beavers on Saturday, but if Lake Superior State had any say in things, they would take on BSU instead. After all, they've got a bit of a score to settle. It seems that Bemidji State beat the Lakers in the national championship game three years in a row (1968-69-70).

In fact, Bemidji State won its first-ever national hockey title with a 5-4 overtime victory over Lake Superior State. The last time the Wolverines faced LSSU in the NCAAs was 1994, when they lost to the Lakers by an identical 5-4 score. And also in overtime. The previous week Michigan won the CCHA Tournament championship with a 3-0 victory over the same Lake Superior State team, earning them their first #1 national ranking since the days of Red Berenson. Red as Michigan's left-handed center, not head coach.

And lastly, had top-seeded Michigan not lost 2-0 to Air Force last year in one of the biggest upsets in NCAA hockey playoff history (aside from Bemidji State knocking off #1 Notre Dame), and had they gone on to defeat Vermont—who needed two OTs to beat the Falcons—in the regional final, they would have ended up facing the Beavers in the Frozen Four semis. Which means you would have read most of this article on my blog exactly one year ago.

There. Now go impress those other bar patrons!

From "Never Before" To "Once Again"

2010-03-21T07:34:00.001-07:00

They skated with thirty pounds of equipment on their bodies, and the weight of high expectations on their shoulders. A weight those who don't understand the importance of tradition will never bear.

They played four games in two weekends, facing teams among the top 10 in those all-important KRACH power rankings. Yet no opponent could rival the pressure they placed upon themselves not to be The Team.

The University of Michigan won a most improbable CCHA Tournament championship Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena with a run as inspiring as its motive. Each of coach Red Berensen's last 19 Wolverine teams had earned berths in the NCAA playoffs without the need for a post-season conference tournament championship. No school in NCAA hockey history--not even Ron Mason's Michigan State Spartans--had ever amassed such sustained success. And this year's team was determined not to be the one everyone would remember: The Team that ended The Streak.

The all began in March of 1991. The first Iraq War was in full swing, and it would be another three years before anyone knew what a world wide web was. Current Michigan defenseman and Columbus Blue Jacket draft pick Kevin Lynch, who scored twice in the Wolverines' 5-2 semifinal shocker over #2 Miami, was an eight-month-old embryo inside his mother's belly at the time. To lend further perspective, Red's 1991 squad started the string with a win over Cornell before being swept out of the NCAAs by Boston University. Leading the Terrier attack? A senior forward by the name of Tony Amonte.

Nineteen years later, the Wolverines entered the CCHA Tournament in seventh place, a second-division regular-season finish in the 12-team conference, with a 14-13-1 record, 19-17-1 overall. Losers of four of their last six, the maize and blue had also dropped six straight on the road. To call the season mediocre would have been flattering.

But that was the "before" photo, as Michigan proceeded to go Charles Atlas on the rest of the conference. After sweeping Lake Superior State in their play-in series--play-in series!--all this seven seed did was take down second-place Michigan State (twice, in their own arena), run top-seeded and #2-ranked Miami out of the Joe, and weather a well-balanced and equally well-coached Northern Michigan team for the 2-1 clincher.

If that alone weren't a Shawn-White-worthy turnaround, they pulled it off without their captain and starting goaltender, neither of which were in uniform for the final four games. Senior defenseman Chris Summers, future property of the Phoenix Coyotes, suffered an unspecified lower body injury in the opening round series against the Lakers, and hasn't played since. And starting netminder Bryan Hogan injured himself in the final series of the regular season against Notre Dame while defending a 2-on-1 Irish rush. He skated at Joe Louis Arena this past weekend, but is still less than 100% and listed as back-up to fellow junior Shawn Hunwick [pictured here rehydrating].

Making just his seventh career start since the injury to Hogan, Hunwick sucked the hope out of every sliver of Huskie momentum, allowing a single goal on 19 shots. In six CCHA playoff games Hunwick surrendered a mere nine goals. Exactly three per weekend. And won the CCHA Tournament's Most Valuable Player award without a second thought from the voters.

So now the Wolverines begin NCAA tourney run number twenty, this time enjoying the rare benefit of selection committee generosity. Michigam travels to Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the Midwest Regional's third seed, and will face 2009 Frozen Four semifinalist Bimidji State Saturday at 7:30pm. A win will score them a potential re-match with the Miami Redhawks, thirsting for revenge not just from this year's CCHA semis, but also from last season's crushing overtime loss in the National Championship game. The Redhawks had Boston University dead to rites by a 3-1 count with less than a minute to play before the Terriers tied the game, scoring twice after pulling their goalie and winning it in the extra period.

No team seeded higher than fourth had ever won the CCHA Tournament championship before the #7 Wolverines. But enough with the "never before". It's time for Coach Berenson to lead his white-hot maize-and-blue skaters back into the more familiar world of "once again". Hail!

A Stoops Family Christmas

2009-12-26T23:53:00.001-08:00

Nothing like the holidays to bring even the most divergent of families together. Take for example the annual Stoops gathering in Youngstown, Ohio.

There's Grandmama Stoops, sharing yuletide cheer with the wives and children gathered around her cracklin' fireplace. Eager hands empty platefuls of steamy gingerbread cookies, fresh from the oven, and hoist nutmeg-dusted cups of eggnog for yet another teary-eyed toast. Across the house the husbands sit in front of the big-screen TV, just like they always do, talking football.

It's just like any traditional family holiday. If family traditions include breaking down game film.

See, the Stoops family is to coaching what the Wallendas are to wire. Bob (above) is just finishing his 10th season as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. Bob's brother Mike (left), who was once Bob's defensive coordinator in Norman OK, now calls Tucson his home. He took over as coach of the Arizona Wildcats in 2004, leaving one brother and joining another by bringing Mark (below) on board as his defensive coordinator.

And what of Ron Stoops Jr. (below left)? Well, he fell closest to the Stoops tree. Literally. Ron coaches football a mile or two away at Youngstown's Cardinal Mooney preparatory school, as the late Ron Sr. had done for 28 years until his sudden passing in 1988 at the age of 54.

No fiction could better capture the events that occurred on that fateful October night. Cardinal Mooney was facing their arch-rivals from Boardman. The teams fought it out in a steady rain, dead even and destined for overtime. And who was up in the booth coaching Boardman's defense? Why Ron Jr., of course. Ron Sr. left the sidelines late in the game with severe chest pains, and with his son by his side, he took his last breath in an ambulance moments after Mooney's triple-overtime victory.

Ron Stoops' death rattled the Ohio rust-belt community to its very core. It was only natural that RJ jump sidelines, and that is where he's been ever since. Until his son--yup, Ronnie Stoops III--starts drawing up X's and O's and thinks he knows a thing or two more than his old man, that's where he'll stay too.

While these personalities are enough to make Christmas night anything but silent, this year in particular could well turn them into nail-salon regulars.

Mmmm-kay...'ssslike this: Bob's Oklahoma Sooners are gearing up for their New Year's Eve clambake with Stanford down in El Paso's Sun Bowl. And Mike's Arizona Wildcats--Mark's Wildcats too, for that matter--have a date with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in San Diego Wednesday night at the Holiday Bowl.

While Bob might not know the Cardinal like Mike does--or Mark, for that matter--Bob knows Mark and Mark knows Stanford since Mike's Wildcats--and Mark's too, for that matter--play them every year. Likewise, Mike and Mark may not understand the inner workings of your basic Cornhusker--but their brother Bob has a clear understanding of Nebraska, which is understandable since the Sooners tangle with them on a regular basis. Understand?

If ever there were a reason to work on Christmas Day, this family has found one. In lieu of making time and a half, they'll have to settle for shaving a point and a half off the Vegas books as they help each other improve his odds of emerging victorious. Talk about your insider information.

And despite the high school football season being over for more than a month, even Ron Jr. can't help but provide more engaging insight than the oft-forgotten and little-mentioned brother Zeppo (right), who toured with the Stoops Brothers for a season or two but ultimately chose to go his own way. Who knew the talkies were gonna catch on?

Finally! College Football's Biggest Rivalry Means Something Again

2009-12-11T23:47:00.003-08:00

This Saturday marks the 110th renewal of college football's greatest rivalry, Army versus Navy. And this time, there's something at stake besides military bragging rights.

Should Army snap the Midshipmen's six-game series win streak and avenge last year's embarrassing 34-0 defeat (the first shutout in 30 years of Army-Navy football), there's an open invitation waiting for them at the Eagle Bank Bowl December 29th in Washington DC to face Temple. A Navy win and UCLA will take their place, leaving the Cadets on the outside.

How significant is that? Imagine a scenario where all three military institions go bowling this season. I don't believe that's happened since the days of Doc Blanchard.

Navy is 8-4, and has already received an invitation to play Missouri in the Texas Bowl New Year's Eve. And as irony would have it, neither of these teams despite their 2009 success, was the pick to play in the Armed Services Bowl. That honor went to the Air Force Academy. And I use the term honor loosely here, since the Falcons will be traveling to Fort Worth, Texas, on New Year's Eve to face a heavily favored 10-3 Houston squad.

Oh, and if things weren't special enough, there's history between the two coaches. Army's coach, Rich Ellerson, was recruited to join June Jones' staff at Hawaii in the early 1990s by current Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo, who was an assistant.

At last, there's a bonafide reason to watch the Army-Navy game this year. Beyond the pageantry and the arrival of George W. Bush, that is.

Ndam That!

2009-12-07T05:01:00.001-08:00

If I were vice chairman and head of the invitations committee at New York's Downtown Athletic Club, I would prepare invites to this year's Heisman Trophy ceremony for one quarterback, two tailbacks and one defensive predator.

Predator? Ndam that!

Ndam would be Ndamukong. As in Ndamukong Suh (pronounced En-DOM-ah-ken SOO). As in, the defensive lineman from the University of Nebraska that is so dominating--or En-DOM-a-ken-ating if you will--that he has single-handedly transformed the Cornhusker defense from bottom feeder (they weren't in the top 100 statistically last season) to top-20 nationally recognized menace. The 6'4", 308-pound defensive end deserves a place (or two, or maybe even three) at this year's presentation alongside Texas Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy, Stanford University tailback Toby Gerhart and senior Alabama tailback Mark Ingram.

A late bloomer in this year's Heisman race, Suh was surely a sight to see on the biggest stage. The part-African (Cameroon), part-Jamaican phenom tossed McCoy around his backfield like a catnip mouse as Nebraska, two-touchdown underdogs heading into last Saturday's Big 12 Championship game, took mighty Texas to the very last second and then some.

Forget the set-up job at the end of the game. Never mind the heavy hands and wringing hands of the vested interests whose act of collective panic not only turned back time, it turned major college football into Saturday Night RAW! What they did to "ensure" a Texas-SEC BCS Championship will have to be the subject of a future rant... er, post.

I'd rather focus on the one player who by himself all but gave the BCS shaken-playoff-formula syndrome.

Ndamukong's interesting name belies a complexity of Heisman support points. (Evidently NCAA rules prohibit amateur athletes from buying a vowel.) Suh has scored twice in his career, two touchdowns off of five interceptions... mundane stats for a DB but extraordinarily impressive considering that he's a defensive tackle. As a down lineman he ranks among the nation's best defensive backs in passes defended. All told, after thirteen games, Suh leads the Huskers with 82 tackles (23 for loss), 12 sacks, 1 interception, 10 passes broken up, 24 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble and 3 blocked kicks.

Ndamukong is as unpronounceable as he is improbable. His statistics are like so many numbers of a connect-the-dots picture who on their own cannot possibly illustrate the degree of his impact. Stitched into the fabric is also the fact that each week Suh faces what no other Heisman Trophy candidate must face: the double- and triple-teaming of opposing offensive linemen and linebackers, not to mention the razor-sharp focus of thirteen offensive coordinators. Even with the lack of "sexiness" a lineman brings to the table, the endless multiple-teaming may ultimately serve as proof positive why that bronze running-back-with-stiff-arm award seems forever destined for skill-position players.

Next to Suh, Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson's 1997 Heisman stats ring clear as a bell. However, if you watched the Big 12 Championship game, you undetstand the Ndamukong Effect--though you may well be unable to explain it to anyone who didn't watch it.

Put it this way. Each year the race usually hinges on a candidate's performance vaulting him into the lead and leaving his competitors in the dust. This is the first year that I can remember where one Heisman candidate literally destroyed another's campaign through his play. McCoy was an erratic 20-of-36 for 184 yards with zero touchdowns and three interceptions. Suh sacked McCoy 4 1/2 times and although he didn't actually pick off any of his passes, he gets three assists just by being on the field. The Suh Ledger from Saturday's game: 12 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 4 1/2 sacks, 202 total yards allowed.

Okay, once more with feeling. 202 total yards allowed. 202 yards from a Texas Longhorn offense led by (until Saturday) the Heisman front-runner and two-time Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. In his previous 12 games McCoy had completed 3100 of 432 passes for 3,328 yards and 27 touchdowns. That's more than 277 yards a game through the air alone. Add to that another 368 rushing yards (30.6 per game), and you'll see that McCoy alone accounts for nearly 310 yards of Longhonoffense per game.

With Suh leading the Nebraska defense, McCoy and his Longhorns gained just 202 yards of total offense all night.

At season's end, Suh leads the Huskers with 82 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 1 interception, 10 passes broken up, 24 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble, and 3 blocked kicks. To me, it's hard to justify a claim that McCoy is the best player in the nation when he wasn't close to being the best player on the field yesterday. Now many experts say that Suh is clearly the most outstanding college athlete in the nation. Hey, doesn't the plaque attached to the Heisman Trophy say the same thing?

As for who's going to win the hardware then... I say Mark Ingram. Oops, sorry. I meant to say FLINT'S OWN Mark Ingram.

Why Ingram? First, his THREE rushing touchdowns and 189 all-purpose yards against the top-ranked Florida Gators, the biggest performance of the season's biggest game. Second, his 1,542 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns, which led Alabama to a 13-0 season, the nation's #1 ranking and a berth in the BCS Championship Game. Lastly, most importantly and most astonishingly, the fact that no Crimson Tide player has ever won the Heisman Trophy before.

Think about that for a minute. The crimson and cream has brought college football such superstar names as Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Don Hutson, Johnny Musso, Major Harris, David Palmer and Shawn Alexander, among others (and those "others" by the way include Lee Roy Jordan, Ozzie Newsome and Derrick Thomas, not to mention Steve Sloan, who quarterbacked the Tide to back-to-back national championships in the 1960s). Yet not one bust resides within the halls of the Downtown Athletic Club. No Alabama player has even finished runner-up (the closest was David Palmer's third-place finish in 1993, 'Bama's last national championship season).

Look for that trivia to be forever rectified Saturday night.

The perks of forced retirement

2009-12-06T19:42:00.001-08:00

How does a 6-6 football team get into a New Year's Day bowl? Disguise themselves as band members? Drop the name Salahi at the players' entrance?

Nope. All they need to do is have a coaching legend retire.

Florida State's Bobby Bowden (center, back row) announced Thanksgiving weekend that he will step down following the Seminoles' upcoming bowl game. To be technically accurate, the University "retired" Bowden, relieving him of his duties the way a family takes the electric knife and relieves grandpa of turkey detail. Just days earlier, the 80-year-old walking definition of Florida State football mentioned that he'd like the swan song of a final season to walk along the sidelines at Doak Campbell Stadium. Next thing you knew, the legendary coach was at his press conference, calling it quits with all the free will of an American hostage in Iran.

One more season? Hmm. Let's see...

o You've coached the Seminoles for 34 seasons, amassing a record of 315-97-4 while in Talahassee. That's a winning percentage of 75.9%. In other words, since you took over in 1976 your 'Noles have won three-quarters of their games.

o Your 388 career wins are second all-time in college football history to Joe Paterno's 393.

o You led the Noles to two NCAA national championships, in 1993 and 1999.

o You're already in the College Football Hall Of Fame.

o Since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991 you've won 12 of a possible 19 conference championships, including nine straight from 1992-2000.

Ummmm sorry, coach. Unrealistic request. But cheer up, dad gummit! You're still one of The Anointed Few... so a handsome retirement gift is right around the corner.

Remember how we took care of Tom Osborne? Forget the gold watch--he was given a share of the 1997 national championship. And while a few na'er-do-wells didn't appreciate such generosity (namely the Michigan Wolverines, who became the first unanimous #1 team ever to win their bowl game and drop in the rankings), most thought it was a fair and fitting present (in particular the two coaches who had to drop 12-0 Michigan to third behind your one-loss Seminoles to make it all happen).

You're in the same beloved fraternity as Osborne, Bobby. How else do you explain that Coupe De Ville of a 1993 national championship you received? Remember that? Florida State and Notre Dame each had a single loss, and you guys lost to them head-to-head that November. Yet you miraculously leapfrogged the Irish and unbeaten West Virginia for the chance to play for the national title.

So stop sniveling, geez. And no you're not being treated like a Big Ten coach, you're in good hands.

Being that you finished the 2009 season at 6-6, We just can't pull the strings and get you into a BCS bowl. The guys would really bust our balls on that one. Not that we wouldn't swap Florida State for Boise State in a heartbeat--trust me, you'd be unbeaten too if you played in that conference. It's just, you push it and pretty soon people start getting those crazy playoff ideas in their heads. Then you might as well kiss the whole old boys club goodbye!

Sewwwww... how bout this. New Year's Day. Sunny Florida. And a date in the Gator Bowl. Heck, Jacksonville is practically a home game for you boys. We've even found an opponent as winnable as any you could find: West Virginia. Remember? The team you once coached (see pic), decades before you leapfrogged them for the national title?

Oh, and just to show there are no hard feelings, we'll hand-pick your very own officiating crew, just the way you like it. What else could an 80-year-old retiree ask for? I know. Depends.

Michigan Football 2009: There's No Defense

2009-11-22T23:56:00.001-08:00

Three years and five days ago, on the eve of the most significant game of the greatest rivalry in college football, legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler passed away. At the time the maize and blue were 11-0 and ranked #2 in the nation, one game away from playing top-ranked Ohio State for a berth in the BCS championship.

In the three seasons and two games since his death, the Wolverines are 16-23.

Michigan's defense had given up 133 points in those 11 wins, an average of 12.1 points per game. In 39 games after Schembechler died it has hemorrhaged over 1,000--1,026 to be exact--or 26.3 points a game, 27.0 if you only count D-1 competition (and you should).

Maybe it's just the darndest of coincidences. Maybe it's a harbinger of the program's death spiral. Or maybe it helps explain why the winningest school in college football history just finished its second straight losing season, after going 42 years without one.

A Quick Reminder to the Lake Orion Dragons

2009-10-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Before the Lake Orion High School varsity football team boards the bus and heads to Clarkston for their second meeting with their bitter rivals in as many weeks, hopefully these reminders will provide some perspective for Coach Bell and his team.

Perspective cannot be found in last week's cyber-bullying at the hands of the 9-0 Wolves. What Clarkston did in their 42-13 soaking of the fire-snuffed Dragons on their soggy faux turf was extract demons. Demons of frustrated seasons past.

Last season at Lake Orion, the Wolves' were treated as such, held to a mere seven points until a late touchdown closed the margin of defeat. Instead of wrapping up a league title, their dreams were shattered, and their season ended a week later in round 1 of the playoffs.

And in 2006, two weeks after upending the Dragons on their home field for the for the OSA league title, they hosted their rivals again. This time for the district championshiop. The Dragons coasted to a healthy lead before Clarkston mounted an all-out assault in the fourth quarter, melting the lead away and putting the game in the hands of their prolific offense. Victory and a spot in the district title gam was in their grasp, until. Until fourth and one at midfield with two minutes left, they were denied, stoned for no gain and Lake Orion moved on.

In fact, Lake Orion has moved on to the district finals each of the last three seasons, losing to Macomb Dakota in '06 and '07, then stunning Stevenson in the single greatest high school game I've ever witnessed last season on their way to Ford Field.

But those demons are dead. Tonight we see if they still have gas in the reserve tank. Because there's one thing about Chris Bell's teams. They don't take losing lightly. Especially within their own league, where they hadn't lost in two seasons before last week.

If they want to repeat 2006 and pay back Coach Kurt Richardson's Wolves on his own field, Lake Orion needs to do two things.

First, shut down their talented quarterback, Tyler Scarlett. The senior had his way with the Dragon defense the entire game last week, doing everything but picking the score. The senior signal-caller is the engine that makes that team move. He doesn't have the rifle arm of the Dragon's Sean Charrrette, but he can see the field as well as any QB in the Detroit area. He reacts to the defense, all night long. He needs pressure. Constant pressure. He needs two people on defense with the sole purpose of following #10 on every play. Even if he dishes the ball off or tosses a quick timing pattern pass, that kind of defensive mentality will still pay off in making opportunities. Fumbles, penalties, broken up passes. Maybe even a pick six, being that he loves throwing in the flat. Quarterbacks aren't as productive when they're constantly rushed, it's a fact. The Dragons need to make that happen or it's over.

And second, CONTROL THE BALL. It doesn't have to be pretty. All it has to do is move chains and run time off the clock. The longer Scarlett stands on the sidelines, the more pressure he'll be under to score every time he touches the ball. Pressure on Clarkston would be good.

If they are to move on in the playoffs beyond tonight, both of those objectives must be accomplished. I have a funny feeling the Clarkston Wolves aren't all that impressed with Lake Orion based on last week's debacle. And I have a sneaking suspicion they'll be in for a big surprise. Defending district and regional champions do not disappear easily. Especially when they're under-estimated. Go Dragons!

Doin' The Hater Chop

2009-10-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

How much do I loathe everyone's number-one college football team? How much do I throw up in my mouth every time I hear some hackneyed reporter belch out one of their pre-scripted "you can't help but cheer for these guys" cliches about America's supposed darlings, the Florida Gators?

Let's put it this way. After today I will channel any and all available resources, human or otherwise, to make sure Florida doesn't reach the BCS championship game, much less win it. I'll drink the blood, sacrifice the appropriate fowl, what have you. Whatever it takes.

The Anointed Ones were tied with Arkansas 13-13 midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday when Razorback quarterback Ryan Mallet (remember that name, Michigan fans?) tossed a perfect pass to Greg Childs. The sophomore wideout caught it in stride, cut across field and scored on an electrifying 77-yard touchdown pitch-catch-and-run. Childs was hit as he crossed goal line, jarring the ball loose and knocking him to the ground. However he managed to jump back up, crawl across the end zone to fall on the ball. So even if he didn't score on the reception, he scored recovering his own fumble.

Yet the veteran CBS announcing team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson must have spent the previous commercial break scoring hallucinogens on a Gainsville street corner.

They gasped when the officials called for a review of play, each telling the nation how important a call this may turn out to be. Oh really? Is it really important to determine whether Childs gets credited with a TD catch or a fumble recovery for a TD? Frankly I don't know why the play was even reviewed, since it would have led to the same result in either scenario.

But tell that to Verne and Gary. The pair were either conjoined in some form of dual brain lock or busy doing a quiet Gator chop gesture in the press booth. Still immersed in self-created contraversy, Verne--a man with nearly a half century of sports broadcasting experience under his belt - suggested that the play may be ruled an incompletion. An incompletion! Childs caught the ball at the midfield, crossed the width of The Swamp to the other sideline, fought off a tackler at the 15, picked up a key block at the 10 and lost the ball upon reaching the goal line. That was one hell of a bobble, eh Verne?

Not to be outdone, Gary--who starred at Purdue before moving into the booth for ABC back in the 1980s--threw out this "possibility": should the refs determine that Childs fumbled before crossing the goal line, they may just rule the ball dead at the point of the fumble.

HUH?????? How can that possibly be? When is a play ever dead at the point a ball is fumbled? The closest I can come to the mid-fumble-whistle theory is a situation where a player either loses the ball and it travels backwards and out of bounds (whereupon the point he fumbles is also his forward progress)... or intentionally fumbles it forward, typically in an act of last-minute desperation. Neither applied to what Danielson runaway train of thought. The only situation here was one of two wishfully thinking announcers grabbing at straws. No matter how much you wish it to be, sometimes it just can't be.

As it turned out, the officiating crew led by Marc Curles ultimately confirmed the ruling on the field, giving Arkansas the touchdown. Had they reversed it, it would have given Arkansas a touchdown. Oooh such suspense.

The officials weren't finished. On the Gators' ensuing drive they flagged the Razorbacks for two phantom 15-yard penalties. The first was for pass interference on a defensive back who did nothing but play his position. The second, an undefined personal foul on defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard. All he did was put a hit on charging Florida lineman Marcus Gilbert.

How bad was THAT call? Even Danielson couldn't help but rip the refs for it. It wasn't after the whistle had blown. It wasn't at the head or knees. It was a chest-on-chest block against an on-rushing Gilbert. Gilbert was the one who was knocked to the ground, however. And in Gainsville, apparently, Gators aren't supposed to hit the ground. So Arkansas was given a personal foul for a really good hit.

The two gifts gave Florida 26 yards of its drive to the tying touchdown. Then in the final minutes NCAA-dream-date quarterback Tim Tebow (the dude with scripture on his cheeks) drove the Gators downfield again, as everyone expected him to do, for the winning field goal. The misty-eyed mediots have already started calling it Tebow's "Heisman Moment"--even though the kid hasn't thrown for 800 yards all season. Happy Sweetest Day, Timmy! Ur the gr8st, Urban! Love... the SEC, the BCS, the NCAA... heck, everybody!

I'll just say it: both calls were bullshit. In fact they weren't merely bullshit. They weren't simply two blown calls. These refs didn't miss anything. That would be excusable. They saw things happen that didn't happen. Which can't help but leave you with a how-come-I-had-a-straight-flush-and-still-got-beat feeling. It's as if there was a higher power involved. Maybe the BCS gods were summoned. Gee, ya think?

So everyone wants the Gators to win it all again huh. Well fine, then I'll be the one who doesn't. I think Florida is a bully. A football program that couldn't wait to pound their mighty chests the minute they dropped Miami and Florida State off their schedule. (Imagine Michigan ending their rivalries with Ohio State and Notre Dame because these opponents are deemed too "competitive".) A school so badass they haven't played a single regular-season football game outside of SEC territory in over a quarter century. A poseur of a team with a cry-baby a coach and an altar-boy do-no-wrong quarterback. Yes I'm admittedly biased, nonetheless I think they leap-frogged over #2 Michigan in 2006 by whining incessantly until enough voters dropped the Wolverines--whose season had already ended--to third in the BCS rankings. (The Wolverines have never lost to the Gators, beating them twice in Florida bowl games... and I'll never miss a chance to bring up this fact when it's relevant.)

They're a team that gets phantom calls on the field and cheerleader-worthy support in the booth because there's just too much at stake in December and January. Florida is the SEC flavor of the month so they have to be there till the end. And no upstart, upset-minded Arkansas team can change That Which Must Be.

Then fine, I say. Give Tebow the Heisman right now. Give Florida a free pass to the BCS title game, right now. But don't force this on us under the guise of legitimacy. Don't force us to listen to network apologists make up rules. Don't force us to watch as referees make up penalties. Have a little respect for the intelligent, objective football viewers out there--the ones who aren't wearing alligator heads.

There must be a few of us out there, right?

FOLLOW-UP: Since my blog post the SEC has officially suspended Marc Curles and his entire officiating crew. The league said there was no video evidence to support the personal foul on Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard in the fourth quarter as the Gators were rallying to overcome a 20-13 deficit. Florida scored on the drive and eventually beat the Razorbacks, 23-20.

As it turns out, last weekend's Arkansas-Florida debacle is the crew's second controversial call of the year.
The same group worked the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month, in which the conference ruled an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the contest should not have been called. This is the first time in SEC history that the league's front office has publicly suspended a football crew.

"A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Wednesday. "I believe our officiating program is the best in the country. However, there are times when these actions must be taken."

The SEC says Curles' crew will be removed from its next scheduled assignment on October 31 and will not be assigned to officiate as a crew until November 14. The league said the crew's bowl assignments could also be impacted. Link to the complete story: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4583642

Manager Of The Yerrrrrrrr Outta Here!

2009-10-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

If ever a man could be asked to leave his own wedding reception, it would be Jim Leyland.

Seriously, what is it with this guy? He stirs this hybrid emotion in the Detroit Tiger faithful that toes the line between astonishment and despondence like some masochistic field sobriety test. He's the five stages of death all rolled into one. One big long nicotine stick of addiction, obsession and reckless abandonment, lit ablaze at one end and sucked on at the other.

Leyland took a team picked to finish sixth in the five-team American League Central Division and worked them like a rosin bag. By the end of Spring, this squad sprung to life as if touched by Geppetto himself. Pitchers acquired for utility infielders became All-Star worthy. Arms that lost 17 games the previous year were on a tear to win 20. Powerless infielders were adjusting their stances and putting up anabolic numbers.

This man took a pitching staff and--with a heavy hand yet a helping hand nonetheless--crafted it into one of the best IN THE MAJORS. Counting pitches, measuring tendencies, playing game #161 like game #16... all the things that make those who turned the turnstiles at Tiger Stadium gargle with their own bile, he done did.

The Tigers jumped into first place before we were halfway through May, and have stayed there, alone or tied, ever since. That's a span of over four and a half months. Why they can't fill Comerica Park without mentioning the word "bobblehead" is as much a mystery as the skipper himself. The Lions can't show you four and a half months of first place without pulling out VHS tapes of Billy Sims. Yet week after water-tortured week they sell out despite their failure.

So WHAT keeps our opinions vacillating between AL Manager of the Year and "Fire His Ass"? Is it that scent he wears, a mix of musk and dog chaser? What so intrigues and repels the push-me-pull-you in us? Furthermore, what makes me delve so deeply into this psyche for the ages right now? (It's more Unhealthy Obsession than Detroit Sports, that's for sure!)

I'll tell you what keeps me rubbernecked. The feeling I get that the guy's got another great big inexplicable surprise waiting for us.

The feeling I have that tomorrow he'll be turning the Metrodome into a hospital zone. I don't know what he's got up his sleeve besides a crinkled pack of reds. But by the seventh inning whatever it is may just have 50,000 once-screaming fans quietly reading Twin Trivia in their game programs. And none of this Miguel Cabrera nonsense will enter into it. (And I'm one of the only writers in this town who won't talk about it.) In fact, the distraction may help the rest of the team focus and play better. They may actually prefer not being in Detroit right now.

Call it a feeling. Call it vicarious detox tremors. Call it that numb sensation immediately after you strike your index finger with your hammer. But oh it feels good.

Maybe just call it Leyland's modus operandi: that which is earned is best earned when all else is lost. Remember the Marlins? [And no I don't mean some feel-good movie about football-playing fish.] Remember that ramshackle team he led to a most improbable World Series victory over the heavily favored Cleveland Indians? This is the guy who made a PERENNIAL PLAYOFF REGULAR out of the Pittsburgh Pirates, for crissakes.

Just look back three years. Remember what stood between the 2006 Tigers and a Banner-Raising Ceremony? I'll remind you: a weekend series with the lowly Kansas City Royals at home. A Tiger (Woods) tap-in. So what'd they do? They surrendered 29 runs in those three games, that's what! The Twins passed them (who'd've thought?) and claimed the title Detroit had been missing since the Reagan years of 1987.

And with the Twins' Central Division title came a comparably so-totally-easy ALDS with the Oakland A's, for which they would have home-field advantage. Detroit on the other hand had to regroup somehow and travel to the Bronx to face a Yankee lineup that all but literally awoke the Yankee lineup of '27. Despite taking the Tigers to their first playoffs in 19 years--in his first season as manager mind you--Leyland was suddenly in the hot seat.

So how'd that seat work out? The A's routed the Twins in straight sets. The Tigers brought a youngin named Zumaya to Yankee Stadium who threw a seventh inning of 102- and 103-mph heat that blew up the Yankee bats, and they finished the pinstripes off in four games. Then they swept Oakland and entered their first World Series in more than two decades. As it turned out they didn't need home field, playing equal amounts of both during the run. And Jim Leyland became a folk hero.

Well my stories are like arrows, they may be long but there is a point at the end of it. And the point here is that Leyland seems to thrive when nobody expects it. There's no more "let's win early so we can rest our pitchers" mentality. They're 1-0 so far in games they're playing with their last life. And right now everyone in the entire city of... wait, cities of Minneapolis are writing the manager and his team off. JL himself said about the one-game playoff, "Nobody will think we've got a chance. So let's just see what happens."

I'm getting visions already, coach. Visions of a victory, and not a close one either. Hey, I predicted the Tigers would beat the Yankees in four games no less back in '06. And how many others were by my side then? [Hint, it was a very, very small number.] I can't shake the image of Rick Porcello taking a few shots but otherwise stifling the Twinkies through seven. Or the image of Tiger lumber cracking the ball into those monstrous gaps in the outfield, leading the kitties to a resounding win--despite Cabrera, despite the "collapse", despite everything.

Or the image of their stoic manager when it's over and the division's been won, looking just like... well, just like he does on any other day. Dude's a freak job, remember?

How much don't they want it?

2009-09-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

So a day has passed, and with it two of the most important games of the season for the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins. Two games packed with five games worth of excitement. And now that the infield dust has settled, guess what? We're exactly where we were the day before, with Detroit hanging onto a two-game lead in the AL Central.

If you just read the box scores, it would look like nothing more than a simple split of a day/night double-header. What you don't see in all those numbers is the non-stop drama of two teams winning despite their best efforts to give the games away.

Take nothing away from the poise and perserverence of pitcher Justin Verlander [see my pic], who has thrown more pitches than any other major league pitcher and added 129 more tonight in his 18th win of 2009. Was it really just a year ago when he had 17 games in the loss column? Or the six-plus innings of one-run ball thrown by rookie starter Rick Porcello. Or even the clutch hitting of center-fielder and lead-off spark plug Curtis Granderson, whose four Tuesday hits included eighth- and tenth-inning right-field bombs--the latter by day and the former by night.

The heroes wore both white and gray to be sure, as each team played with the fire of opportunity burning brightly in the crisp September air. But for the most part, what 65,000 fans saw on the field was anything but heroic. No home team slamming the door, no visiting team making a statement to their hosts. Instead they witnessed an array of brain-dizzying performances that made the crisp air feel more like that of late February Grapefruit-League Florida:

1. Normally flawless second baseman Placido Polanco--who owns the longest errorless streak for a major league second baseman and currently leads the AL in fielding percentage at .998--flat-out booted a routine grounder in the first game, putting a Twins runner in scoring position.

2. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire called for a suicide squeeze with one out and the score tied in the ninth inning of the early game (the batter, Nick Punto, needed only to put the ball in play for the winning run to score). Instead Punto popped his bunt attempt to pitcher Brandon Lyon, who tossed to Brandon Inge doubling up the runner on third.

3. Not to be outdone, Lyon threw consecutive wild pitches in the tenth inning that allowed Denard Span to move from first to third. (He had thrown just one all season.) Span ultimately scored on an Orlando Cabrera hit to break the 1-1 tie and key the Twins' 3-2 win.

4. In the second game Tiger skipper Jim Leyland brought in the speedy Wilkin Ramirez to pinch-run for Marcus Thames. A drifting Ramirez was picked off of first base without even intending to steal second on the play.

5. Granderson misjudged an outfield pop-up that would have been the final out of the nightcap. The ball sailed over his head for an RBI double, putting the tying run on second base.

6. And Fernando Rodney did what he does best, saving the second game after letting the tying run reach second and in so doing, inducing another 30,000 cases of acquired arrhythmia.

While both games were riveting, down-to-the-wire contests, they won't be remembered for their high caliber of play. Two circus geeks may make for an evenly matched forensic competition, but that doesn't mean they'll be debating neo-Marxism.

Nonetheless, the Tigers now sit at 84-73 with three games to go, the magic number for clinching their first-ever Central Division title (and first division tile of any kind since 1987) down to four. Their worst case scenario at this point would be losing three of four to the Twins and entering the final weekend series in a first-place tie. (Detroit hosts the Chicago White Sox, while Minnesota hosts Kansas City.) And their best-case scenario? Winning the final two games against Minnesota of cours, since the second of those wins would clinch the division Thursday afternoon.

The more likely scenario is that the teams split their final two games, and the four-game series. Minnesota has the pitching advantage (Twins veteran Carl Povano faces rookie Eddie Bonine on Wednesday, while Scott Baker goes for win #15 against the Tigers' Nate Robertson Thursday afternoon). But Leyland has the edge in the bullpen with more fresh arms, having used a total of three relievers in the first two games after Verlander and Porcello threw 14 1/3 of the 19 innings.

Minnesota will score early, Detroit will score late. If the Tigers can force the Twins starters to throw 20-pitch innings, or if Leyland can effectively maneuver his well-rested relievers, their chances for a sweep increase dramatically. If the Twins can jump to a sizable lead and ride their starters through seven strong innings, they can put their fate in the hands of stopper Joe Nathan to shut the door as he has all season.

A split would leave the Tigers two up on the Twins, putting their magic number at two. So with three games to go, a single Detroit win (or Minnesota loss) would lock up no worse than a tie and one-game playoff on Monday in the Twin Cities. Two Detroit wins, however--or two Minnesota losses, or one Detroit win and one Minnesota loss--and corks will be popping all over as the Motor City braces for another World Series run. Got riot gear?

How big a deal would it be to beat Michigan again?

2009-09-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

Put it this way. The last time the Michigan State beat the Wolverines in consecutive football seasons, MAN HAD YET TO WALK ON THE MOON.

4 games in 49 hours. It's baseball's lightning round.

2009-09-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

After being rained out last night, the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins will now take the field today for a day/night doubleheader (fancy way of saying "no, you can't see both games with one ticket"). They play again tomorrow night and wrap up the series with a Thursday matinee.

So two days or roughly 52 hours from now, this race could be over. Or it could be just beginning.

One doesn't have to turn many pages in the way-back book to find the last instance of the Twins coming from nowhere to win the American League Central Division. Three years ago, the Tigers held the top spot, as they had for virtually the entire season. All they had to do was beat the Kansas City Royals at home in the season's final series. Win once and force a one-game playoff. Win twice and the championship banner goes to the printer.

Of course we all remember what happened. Detroit was swept in four ugly one-sided games, and Minnesota cashed in, winning the division and a much-easier AL Divisional Series match-up with the Oakland A's. In losing the gift given them, the wild-card Tigers had to travel to the Bronx and take on the Yankees, possessor of the league's best record and a lineup many were comparing to 1961.

Fans look back fondly at 2006 and conveniently forget that the kitties' playoff run began with an utter collapse. A choke-job the likes of which this baseball-mad town hadn't seen since the Toronto Blue Jays lost a 3 1/2-game lead to the Tigers in the final seven games of the 1987 season.

Coincidentally, seven games remain in 2009. And although Detroit's hairline lead is but two games, the tailspin--should Minnesota overtake them to win the division--will have officially begun three weeks ago. On September 6, the Tigers had a SEVEN-GAME lead on the Twins. And by the end of the day, they could be tied.

Here are the scenarios the Tigers face as they enter these four games--their most crucial series in years--with a magic number of six:

1. WIN THREE OF FOUR. Paaaaaar-ty. Division champs. On-field celebration Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon. A lap around the field. Champagne poured on the heads of policemen. Let the fun begin.

2. SPLIT THE FOUR GAMES. The Tigers remain two up and the magic number drops to two, as the teams enter the final weekend of the season. Detroit hosts the perennial thorn in their side, the Chicago White Sox. And Minnesota welcomes Kansas City to what could be their last three games at the Hefty Bag. UNLESS... they end the season tied with Detroit and force a one-game playoff, which would be held Monday afternoon in the Metrodome. Gulllllllp.

3. WIN ONE OF FOUR GAMES. This would result in a tie at the top of the division, with three games to go and the magic number at four. In this situation the Twins would seem to have the edge. Zack Grienke would surely pitch against them. Assuming he picks up where he left off on Sunday when he stymied Minnesota's bats on the way to a 4-1 Royals win, the Twins have a very good chance at winning the other two games. Which leaves Detroit facing the White Sox needing to sweep for the title, or win two to force a most inhospitable playoff game.

4. MINNESOTA SWEEP. The Tigers would enter the final weekend trailing the Twinkies by two full games. They would need to sweep Chicago and hope for the Twins to lose at least two games, or Detroit's next game will be in Lakeland next February.

THAT is how important this series is. And for the Tigers, the first game is most important of all. Win it and the Twins take the field tonight three games back, facing a magic number of four and a gunslinger named Verlander on the mound. Lose it and the Twins, who know they have favorable pitching matchups on Wednesday and Thursday, come back tonight down a single game and trying for a tie in a game many say they can afford to lose.

Don't you just love a pennant race in this town?

The Boys Of August

2009-09-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Another successful pre-season has ended, and while they failed to match their spotless 4-0 record of 2008, the Detroit Lions nonetheless delighted their fans, winning all but one game of this season's August slate.

The glow on the faces of Lions backers everywhere wouldn't be diminished by Sunday's 45-27 pounding at the hands of the New Orleans Saints. Most who follow the Honolulu blue and silver understand not to get too caught up in their team's performance during the sixteen meaningless games that remain. Leave those to the teams who feel the need to prove themselves on a snowy day in some frozen stadium. The focus for these Lions, as it has always been, remains the four-game stretch in the sweltering heat of August. Crunch time as it were.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw six touchdown passes during a 26-for-34, 358-yard afternoon. But as strong as Brees performance may have been, it couldn't erase New Orleans' 10-7 loss the previous week to the Miami Dolphins, a loss that crushed their chances at a perfect pre-season and dropped them into a tie with Detroit for "pre-champs" in the league.

Lions running back Kevin Smith put it best when he said he'd rather win the pre-season games than the first regular-season game. Smith almost got his wish, were it not for Detroit's most unfortunate loss in Cleveland in pre-week 2. No matter. This Sunday the Lions return home to face Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, as they continue their three-month tune-up for August 2010.

These Lions won't change their stripes either

2009-05-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

There’s the National Football League. And then there’s the Detroit Lions.

Few understand what drives an organization toward such consistent and unwavering failure. The Lion's historic 0-16 record last year was anything but a fluke. In fact, they’ve been working toward that mark for as long as I’ve been around.

It’s a commitment that extends beyond “that piece-of-BLEEP quarterback”. Although it's hard to top Dan Orlowsky scrambling out of his own end zone--literally--then staring in disbelief at the whistling referee, as if about to contest his indisputable misjudgement.

It goes deeper than “that BLEEP-ing BLEEP-hole coach”. Despite the fact that no Lion head coach in my lifetime has ever been hired as head coach of another NFL team. Or that the one future Hall of Famer in their midst had to bolt to Miami for a head coaching opportunity (and the chance to coach a Super Bowl team, which Don Shula did five times, winning two Super Bowls). Ironically Shula's 1972 Dolphin team is the last to finish with a perfect winning record.)

We can’t even stop at “that stupid BLEEPER-BLEEPER Millen”. Though it bears mention (and once-over with bright fluorescent highlighter) that the man brought on to “fix” a 9-7 team started his regime with 12 straight losses and ended as guiding force behind the 16-beatdown season that set the NFL all-time record for futility.

It begins and ends with Chairman-Of-Board William Clay Ford, otherwise known as "that BLEEP of a BLEEP owner" or more succinctly, "the head BLEEP." A man incapable of succeeding as an executive in his grandfather's automotive corporation, yet deemed competent enough to take ownership of Detroit's professional football franchise in 1960.

When Ford inherited the role of team president in 1959 the Lions were the team of the decade, with NFL titles in 1952, 1953 and 1957 and five championship game apperances. But one man was about to change all that.

WCF?

In a year’s time he peddled star quarterback Bobby Layne—the pre-Joe Montana Joe Montana—for a guy by the name of Milt Plum. A year after taking sole ownership of the club in 1964, he terminated the services of coach George Wilson--the man who led the Lions to their last league title. The NFL's most successful team of the 1950s would go the entire decade of the 1960s without a single playoff appearance. Not till the AFC-NFC structure was formed and wildcard teams were added to the playoff format in 1970 did the Lions even reach a postseason game. And even then they found a way to embarrass themselves, losing at Dallas 5-0 in the NFL's first playoff game without a touchdown.

But the most visible imprint of the Ford regime, appropriately enough, would be cosmetic. Stripes were added to the helmets, shirt sleeves and pants of the uniforms during the first year of his ownership. A symbolic move to be sure, but one that follows the team's misfortunes to this very day.

So when the owner's son, Bill Ford Jr., "unveiled" their new exciting uniforms for the upcoming season--at a suburban sporting goods store, conveniently enough--was anyone surprised to see those stripes still prominently in place? The scarlet letters of mediocrity no one dared remove, lest they face the fate of the kings royal guillotine themselves. As long as the Lovable Loser is calling the shots, the team will carry his monogram.

It's not exactly like people need a program to spot the ineptitude of this franchise. Ford has hired 14 coaches since replacing Wilson with Harry Gilmer in 1965, a turnover rate of roughly 3 1/2 years. Only two of those 14 left with a winning record--linebacker-turned-Hall-Of-Famer-turned-head-coach Joe Schmidt, the most successful Lions coach I have known (which, being that he resigned 37 years ago, speaks volumes) and Gary Moeller, who walked the sidelines a mere seven games. Even the winningest coach in team history, Wayne Fontes, left with a sub-par 67-71 record. The franchise has had seven head coaches since 2000. By comparason, the Pittsburgh Steelers have had three head coaches since 1969.

Mr. Ford is also proud caretaker of first NFL team to make the playoffs despite having a losing record. He un-retired Schmidt's #56 jersey--and gave it to Pat Swilling. I saw his Lions score a touchdown late in a game to draw within four points of an opponent, then elect to go for two. I watched them win a coin toss in overtime and take the wind instead of the ball.

Even with this half-century-long chinese dragon of mediocity, his infamous 2008 Detroit Lions dropped the bar low enough to hit magma. They surrendered more points than any in NFL history. In fact you can't even point to any game and say that the outcome could have gone either way. If ever an 0-16 record is an accurate reflection of how a team played, it's this one.

It takes quite an individual to do what Ford has done to the Lions. They've had two Super Bowl coaches. One died of a heart attack in his yard after one season. The other quit in the middle of the season--with a winning record. They've had three "franchise" players, all Heisman Trophy running backs from Oklahoma. The first two (Steve Owens and Billy Sims) blew out their knees four years after being drafted. The third, quite possibly the greatest back in NFL history, lost his desire to play after nine seasons.

And now their lone tradition--the Thanksgiving Day game--has been so one-sided of late that they're in danger of losing that too. Only leadership as profoundly clueless has that of WCF can drive a team this far into the ground. Yet eight times a season 70,000 blue-faced idiots plop their carb-filled butt cheeks into $100 seats and boo for three hours. Some have done this since the team played at Tiger Stadium. That'll show the owner!

And all the while, they've worn those stripes like silver banners. In the Olympics, it's the symbol of not winning gold. In this town, it's the symbol of not winning period.

And the award goes to.. Lebron's coach

2009-04-26T03:27:00.001-07:00

How on earth did Cavs head coach Mike Brown NBA Coach of the Year honors?

Honestly? Pull all-everything league icon Lebron James out of his lineup and he’s got himself a .500 team. Maybe. Cleveland's defense has stepped it up a notch, same with the offense, but neither due to anything radically different from the coaching staff. It's better explained by the evolving, ever-broadening talents of #23. Lebron is bringing a more aggressive nature to his game, and his teammates are dialing up their intensity to keep pace. Plus, LJ is quicker on transition and recovery, encouraging everyone around him to take more chances on the perimiter. As a result, turnovers and transition baskets are up, while the added pressure has helped cool opponents' shooting.

And give an assist to star treatment, which has finally shone down upon the Lake Erie shoreline. It's hard to believe these are the same two teams who played in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals. This year's Cavs-Pistons series more closely resembles '91 Bulls-Pistons--the year the "automatic" whistles started going Michael's way. Friday's game 3 saw one of the worst no-calls on a blatant goaltend that I have seen. It saw Danny Crawford give Rasheed Wallace a T for calling him "an idiot" while sitting on the bench. Lebron carried the ball but the ref defended the deep-throating his whistle with a "it's not walking; he was bobbling it" gesture. And Crawford counted Zydrunas Ilgauskas' last-second shot although the ball was clearly in his hands when the backboard lit up (it was later overturned). The Pistons had 14 team fouls at intermission, and would go to the line just 12 times to Cleveland's 30. Lebron--who finished with 0 fouls--is a smart man, and will take whatever he's given. So he's taken advantage of the star treatment like no one since that other guy in the red #23 jersey. And well he should.

Which brings us to coach Brown. His most important attribute this season is the fact that he's liked by Lebron. And I'm being sincere here. There is absolutely no disharmony on his team. Sure they're all on LB's back, going for the ride. But they all pretty much started at the same time and have all grown together, figuratively and literally. So if the NBA ever has a mock election, he wins "Most Popular Coach in his Class" hands down. But COY? Sorry, Mr. Congeniality. Even with two monstrous Ilgauskas steps in the paint I can't go that far.

Off the top of my head I can think of four coaches--FOUR!--who are equally if not more deserving this season:

• Nate McMillan (Portland was the league’s youngest team and also happened to turn in the biggest one-season turnaround, going from "Playoffs-DNP" to "home-court advantage in round 1".)…

• Jerry Sloan (This guy’s never had less to work with at Utah. Yet this year's 48-win result looks like those of the Stockton-Malone days)…

• Rick Adelman (He got the Houston Rockets to elevate their play for an entire season, even though he rarely had his team intact and injury-free. 53-29? Are you kidding? This is perhaps the greatest coaching feat of all)…

• And Phil Jackson (yes, Phil Jackson. After the 2004 Finals meltdown and Shaq’s departure, everyone thought the Lakers were done. And as strong as last season’s Western Conference champions were, this year’s team plays even better. This may be Jackson’s best coaching performance yet.).

All but one of the above names have proven themselves in years past. This is where Brown's lack of big-game success would seem to be the biggest cause for hesitation. In this rarefied air he's still wearing the proverbial breathe-rite strip.

What if the Cavs get to the Finals and repeat their embarrasing four-and-out 2007 NBA Finals performance against the Western Conference champion? What if they don’t even reach the Finals? They still have to go through Boston. And whether or not the Celtics have Garnett in the lineup, they’re still the defending champs.

The Bulls fired Doug Collins after successive trips to the conference finals. The Pistons let go of Rick Carlisle AND Flip Saunders despite each having just reached the NBA’s final four. Jeff Van Gundy ring a bell? He was dismissed and all he did was bring the Heat within two minutes of the Finals.

To date the biggest games of the Mike Brown era are games 5 & 6 of the 2007 conference finals against Detroit. In the former, LJ scored 29 of the team’s final 30 points; in the latter a steadily depreciating and easily defeatable Pistons squad melted down inside Quicken Loans Arena. If there were a test to prove one’s untestedness, the Cavs wouldn’t have even been there to take it. I hope that’s clear.

Bottom line is, the coach could lose his job at the end of the season. So how can he possibly be named NBA Coach of the Year? If Brown doesn’t keep the Cavs from underperforming in the playoffs for the third year in a row, the club must do whatever is necessary to reach the next level.

If they don’t, you can bet King James will.

20-20 foresight

2009-03-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

According the the "experts" - the people who have nothing better to do but sit around projecting the fate of NCAA bubble teams, in itself enough to disqualify their credibility yet I digress - Michigan's victory at Minnesota this afternoon has enabled the school to earn its first tournament berth since 1998. That's eleven long, agonizing seasons.

In anticipation of the win I was ready to write about the team, about their newfound leader Manny Harris, about coach Jim Beilein taking twelve kids to unthinkable heights. But I was struck by a comment I heard during the broadcast that was too good to ignore.

One of the announcers stated that Northwestern, who beat #20 Purdue on the road last Wednesday ruining Senior Night for the Boilermakers, was clearly "the best ninth-place team in the nation." I had a good laugh at that comment, then I started thinking about what the man said.

Michigan's win put the Wolverines at 19-12 overall, 9-9 in the conference, with the Big Ten postseason tournament yet to come. Thanks to big wins over UCLA and Duke (see my pic) they're considered in, without having to win 20 games. If the Northwestern Wildcats win tomorrow at Wisconsin, they will sit at 18-11 overall and 9-9 in the conference. A strong tournament run, not entirely out of the question, could easily vault the team in the cute purple unis to their first-ever March Madness experience. That's right, they've never made it to the round of 64 in school history.

Such is the crazy world of Big Ten basketball, 2009 edition. In fact, with three games remaining to be played the league could find itself with a five-way tie for fifth place - and fifth place earns a first-round bye next week in Indianapolis's crazy 11-team party.

But the potential for craziness doesn't stop there for me. Okay my potential for craziness has never fully been tapped, yet I digress. There's a not-so-implausible way that nine Big Ten teams could finish the season with 20 wins. Imagine nine conference schools making the NCAA tournament. That's unprecedented for the Big Ten, for college basketball and for the whole of college sport. And this so could happen.

Assume the five-way fifth-place scenario I mentioned earlier becomes a reality. In other words, let's say Northwestern goes to Columbus and drops the Buckeyes, and Wisconsin gets caught paying more attention to brackets than Hoosiers and falls to Indiana. (In the third regular-seson game, let's say Michigan State, who has already wrapped up an outright league title, loses to Purdue, who needs the win more. Each already has 20+ wins so the result is insignificant to my point.) The five-way knot sets into action several tie-breaking formulae, resulting in the following seed breakdown for next week's tournament: 1. Michigan State (14-4 in the Big Ten and 24-5 overall); 2. Purdue (12-6, 23-8); 3. Illinois (11-7, 23-8); 4. Penn State (10-8, 21-10); 5. Wisconsin (9-9, 18-12); 6. Northwestern (9-9, 18-11); 7. Michigan (9-9, 19-12); 8. Minnesota (9-9, 21-9); 9. Ohio State 9-9, 19-10); 10. Iowa (5-13, 15-16) and 11. Indiana (2-16, 7-23).

As I said earlier, the top five seeds get first-round byes. So on day one, 6 plays 11, 7 plays 10 and 8 plays 9. If Northwestern beats Indiana, Michigan drops Iowa and the Buckeyes beat Minnesota (all three resulting from the better team winning in my opinion), that creates the following quarterfinal matchups: Michigan State vs. Ohio State; Purdue vs. Michigan; Illinois vs. Northwestern and Penn State vs. Wisconsin. MSU takes care of business, Purdue outlasts Michigan, Wisconsin stops Penn State and Northwestern pulls off a mild upset over their in-state Illini rivals. That puts the Spartans in a semifinal matchup with Wisconsin, while Purdue faces Northwestern.

If the Badgers do to State what they've done 9 of the last 13 meetings and defeat them, they would become the ninth Big Ten team to hit the 20-win mark.

The bar for the major schools has been .500 or better league record and 20 wins overall. You hit those two marks and your ticket's stamped. So if it's impossible for the selection committee to fathom giving one conference over an eighth of its 65 invites, what will they do?

Will they say "no dice" to a 20-13 Michigan team with the nation's 11th toughest schedule; who took on all comers all season long, beating two top-five teams out of conference - one of which (Duke, see my pic) they actually played twice - and lost by single digits on the road at then-#1 UConn?

Will they give the heave-ho to a 20-11 Ohio State team two years removed from the national final, a team who crushed the Miami Hurricanes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish in consecutive games - both on the road?

Do they deny a 20-12 Northwestern squad who won more games against RPI-top-50 teams than any of these Big Ten teams, who reached the conference semis (in my scenario), their miraculous ride to the school's first-ever NCAA berth?

Would they dare cut the legs out from the 21-11 Penn State Nitany Lions, who despite their early conference tourney exit has had an at-large berth seemingly locked up for weeks?

Might they say "no mas" to 21-10 Minnesota - winners of their first twelve games, including a neutral-site victory over then-#9 Louisville - and Tubby Smith, the only Big Ten coach not named Izzo with a national title on his resume?

Or do they give the boot to the Badgers? Remember the Wisconsin Badgers? The team with the nation's sixth toughest schedule? Last we heard, they were 20-12 and waiting to play for my hypothetical Big Ten tournament championship. If they were to defeat the winner of my Purdue-Northwestern semifinal, it wouldn't matter what teams they played last December. They're in with the win.

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has four Big Ten teams with their bags already packed, and five more holding their cell phones and waiting. Each of those five teams has a virtually identical story: fifth-place finish in the league, .500 or better conference record, 20 or more wins overall.

How bout we settle it with a game of H-O-R-S-E?

It's just a feeling, okay?

2009-03-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

The quote of the World Baseball Classic (so far), from one of today's heroes.

Adam Dunn, who hit the 2-run HR that ended up being the difference in Team USA's thrilling 6-5 win over Canada, was asked what it feels like to play in the World Baseball Classic as opposed to spring training. He answered, "It's a playoff atmosphere... even though i've never been in the playoffs."

Dragons at an exhibition

2009-02-14T09:11:00.001-08:00

Coach Bell--soon Mr. Bell, associate principal, as my son enters ninth grade this fall--it was a pleasure meeting and chatting with you at the Welcome Night last week. And congratulations on the successful program you've built with the Lake Orion Dragons.

Since football guys like you tend to have little if any appreciation of the arts, the "finer things" as they say, I've amassed a gallery of scenic photography that may be more to your liking. Feel free to break out some Bordeaux and a brie wheel.

Here's a picturesque scene overlooking the Lake Orion High School field turf, just after the Dragons scored the only points of their first-round game against Utica Eisenhower with less than two minutes to play. Good use of minimialism.

This dramatic setting paints the portrait of utter despair. Sterling Heights Stevenson is pulling away. Time is running out. A coach, a team, the dreams of a city... all hopes are in the hands of a fifteen-year-old kid. Our poor little protagonist has no chance at all. Ummmmmmmmmm, right.

The following two frontier landscapes evoke past, present and future.

The first, captured above the bitter-cold tundra of Troy Athens, captures the formerly immovable object, Dearborn Fordson, being moved backwards for sixty minutes by the unstoppable force.

The second, while similar in appearance, is even more breathtaking in its contrast. Both real and surreal, it fills one with optimism, giving us a feeling of what we can all accomplish when we have the dream and the desire.

So who's got the Utes to do what's right?

2009-01-02T23:52:00.001-08:00

NCAA division I college football has no national champion.

Oh it used to, back when all the writers and coaches were free to vote for the team they felt was the best. And it will someday soon, when the power brokers come to their senses and scrap the seven-figure ceremonies in favor of an actual playoff system.

But right now, there is no true champion. Merely a collection of pre-selected post-season games called the Bowl Championship Series--college football's answer to the arranged marriage--whose "champion" is only called the "national champion" because this collective body of greed mongers secured the rights to associate the term with their endeavor. In case the irony escapes you, let me put it this way. A sport as balls-out brutal and violent as major college football not only determines its national champ by way of popularity contest, but is unusually proud to do so. Miss Freaking America runs a more legitimate competition, for God's sake.

Look at this year's BCS farce. Assuming Texas does to the Ohio State University what Florida and LSU have done in previous years, it's entirely possible that the nation's top two teams won't even be playing in the BCS championshhip game. And the one team who has done all that was asked of them? As it turns out, they never had a chance to make it into the BCS championship game to begin with.

The Utah Utes are the only major college team with a perfect record. They rolled over--and I mean ROLLED over--the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. 'Bama, to refresh everyone's memory, was the nation's #1 team for the majority of the season, losing their shot at the BCS championship in their final game when the Gators rallied to beat them for the SEC title.

So on January 8, you had Florida--who hung on to defeat the school Utah just blew out of the building last week--playing Oklahoma, on whom Texas hung 45 points in their double-digit win.

The fact that this is pure injustice doesn't seem to be the point. What needs an enthusiastic response is this: when will anyone care? How many more years of "the system works, it just needs fixing" can the college football fans take? How many schools need to get impregnated behind the middle school before someone stands up and demands a true champion?

Just look at the mess at the end of each season this millenium, and you can see that in almost every instance, the best team in the nation may not have even played for the BCS Championship:

2001--Oregon finished with the #2 ranking and wasn't invited to the party.

2002--Nebraska, ever the darlings of doey-eyed pollsters, won the BCS swimsuit competition and was chosen to play Miami in the Rose Bowl--ooooh what an attractive matchup THAT would be huh?--despite losing at the end of the regular season to Colorado 62-28 and not even making it to their conference championship game.

2003--USC finished the regular season unanimous #1 yet they weren't even invited to PLAY in the BCS championship game. For some reason the computers picked Oklahoma over them, even though the Sooners were blown clean out of their conference championship game by Kansas State, 35-9. They even snowed the Heisman voters into giving quarterback Jason White the trophy, a player so powerful, so dominant, he wasn't even drafted by the NFL. He played part of one season on the practice squad of the Tennessee Titans, and currently owns an OU memorabilia store and an Athlete's Foot.

2004--this was the year of the Auburn Tiger. Their magical unbeaten season is the main reason why their defensive coordinator was just hired to replace Tommy Tubberville. So why didn't they play for the national cham... sorry, BCS championship? The almighty computers felt they weren't as strong as--surprise!--Oklahoma, who managed to get pansed, swirlied AND taped to their lockers by the Trojans by a 55-19 count. Critics cite this as the point when pageant officials determined that henceforth, no SEC team with an argument will ever be denied a chance to play for the BCS title.

2006--Ohio State and Michigan finished #1 and #2. They played each other in an epic battle of national powers (much less bitter rivals) which the Buckeyes won by three points. Michigan so impressed the pollsters that they remained the unanimous #2 team in the nation afterward. Yet the public outcry--and by "public" I mean the crying of one Urban Meyer specifically--forced voters to manipulate subsequent polls in such a way as to allow Florida to leapfrog the idle Wolverines into the second BCS spot.

Then there was last year. When Ohio State finished its regular season they were ranked seventh. They not only ended up in the BCS championship game, but they landed there as the nation's #1 team. What's worse is the fact that they played a two-loss LSU team--a team who happened to leapfrog a one-loss Kansas team because--surprise!--they didn't play in their conference championship game.

The only season that seemed to be in the clear was 2005, when unbeatens Texas and USC faced each other in Pasadena. Despite the fact that ANY system short of "prettiest helmets" would have placed them at 1 and 2, the BCS braintrust (as oxymorinic a term as "convenience fee") fell over patting themselves on the back and saying, "The system works!"

This year, it appeared to me that the best two teams were Texas, whose only loss came by a point inside a Texas Tech stadium that frequently approached the threshold of pain, and Utah, the nation's only perfect team and one who proved their worthiness by thumping the Crimson Tide and ending the season ranked #2. Why couldn't we have seen one if not both of them? What made freaking Oklahoma a better candidate, for the love of annual humiliations?

I'm absolutely mystified at the almost mystical powers held by Ohio State and Oklahoma. They get embarrassed, flat-out throttled every year, yet they continually jump more deserving teams for a chance at the farcical national title. Even this year, the also-rans of the supposedly weak Big Ten--who are 0-9 all-time in bowl games against the SEC don'tcha know--earned a BCS berth with a 10-2 record, while 11-1 Texas Tech, from what was supposedly the nation's toughest conference, gets shut out.

And all the while the BCS keeps carrying around this illusion that they're legitimate. Amazing. Almost makes you pine for the days when coaches would use their retirement as a plea for number one votes, huh?

But I have faith. I'm a big believer in change, as you could tell by my Barack Obama blog (the link is on the right side of theis page). In fact, here's what our new president-elect said about the farcical gridiron ceremony known as the BCS, during a 2008 interview with 60 minutes:

"I think any sensible person would say that if you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner; that we should be creating a playoff system. Eight teams. That would be three rounds, to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m gonna throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do."

If Mr. Obama wants to throw his weight around in this arena, he's more than earned the berth.

The pictures are in (finally!)

2009-01-02T23:51:00.001-08:00

In this day and age, we're able to use technology to recover photos of our great grandparents. We can restore faded color from Polaroid pictures from the '50s and '60s. So long as they aren't photos on the obsolete memory stick of my son's five-year-old digital camera, who knows what we're capable of.

Well this personal mystery-of-capone's-vault caper is officially over. I found a capable person at a photo studio in town who had a compatible driver and a DV-to-USB fire wire that connected to my kid's camera output.

In short, I now have access to my photos from the greatest football game I've ever seeen.

If you were reading this blog last fall, you'll recall my post on the Michigan high school regional final between Lake Orion and Sterling Heights Stevenson. (If you weren't you can access it through the archive on the left.) I had left my camera at home but I didn't want to miss what I felt was Lake Orion's best-ever chance to reach the state semis (they had lost in this round the last two seasons). So I happened upon my son's old outdated three-point-two-megapixel digital camera in the back of my Xterra. Even he has moved on to a more advanced camera!

Anyways I had enough batteries for the job, but the card only held 30 or so pics. That plus the camera's limited ability to capture images at night virtually guaranteed my effort wouldn't be Pulitzer-worthy. But who knew what I would end up capturing.

So here they are. The first photo is of "The Kick": Jeff Heath's miraculous last-second 49-yard field goal that won it.

The next few here are basically just post-game mayhem, as we ran onto the field and joined in the impromptu celebration.

That's Heath proudly holding the Michigan Region 1 Championship trophy. The look on his face is priceless.

I was lucky enough to be a part of Coach Bell's post-game speech, and even luckier to have captured it.

And the last two pics here? In all the excitement I momentarily forgot that I'm just a peon with no authority to be there or do anything I was doing. But I commandeered the team to pose with the trophy in front of the scoreboard for me, which still showed the improbable final score.

The second shot doesn't happen to have the scoreboard in it, but it's the best of all the team shots I took, with the most kids frame.

So embrace the wonder of technology with me, and enjoy!

It ain't roses, but...

2008-12-28T23:48:00.001-08:00

How long was the drought again? Eleven years?

Hard to believe after watching the University of Michigan hockey team glide to its second straight 2008 GLI championship with a 5-1 win over a less-than-bitter Michigan State rival. Yes, it was the weakest field in recent memory. But so what? A yard sale is a yard sale (see my photo below). The equipment flies just as high no matter what your opponents' records may be. And on this holiday, the once humdrum hockey tournament is all Wolverine fans have, after being liberated from that whole New Year's Day bowl game thing.

Since Jason Botterill's last-minute goal rallied the then-top-ranked Wolverines over fiesty Lake Superior State for the 1996 GLI title (their ninth straight at the time), Red Berenson's team has watched five different schools raise their banners to the top of Joe Louis Arena. Their futility was matched only by host school Michigan Tech, who hadn't won the championship since 1981 (their fifth straight at the time, as irony would have it) and whom Michigan defeated 1-0 in last year's thrilling GLI final to end the drought.

But talk about turning famine into feast. In these last two GLIs the Wolverines have allowed a total of one goal. One goal. They've outscored their opponents 17-1 over twelve regulation periods and a double overtime. Their dominance has been such that last year's tournament MVP, Billy Sauer, watched from the bench as Bryan Hogan did the shutting down. Imagine standing tall between the pipes and allowing one measley goal over an entire two-game holiday tournament and not winning MVP (the honor went to captain Louie Caporusso, who led the team with four goals).

That dominant.

Given the drought of the word "dominant" as a descriptor for any aspect of Michigan athletics these days (short of the #4-ranked swim team... who needs Michael Phelps!), the GLI champs gladly accept the adjective on behalf of the entire program.

One step shy of the goal

2008-11-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

Andy Roddick will one day enter the Tennis Hall Of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. A first-ballot automatic, no doubt about it. He's that good. Yet if there's one sentence that best captures his footprint on the landscape of the sport, it would be this: he was the best player in tennis not named Federer.

Allow me to apply this description to the 2008 MHSAA Division 1 football season: The Lake Orion Dragons were the best team in the state not named Rockford.

This year's version of coach Chris Bell's perennial powerhouse reads a perfect 12-0—twelve handsome-looking volumes to display on the mantle, to be sure—were it not for those God-awful bookends. A pair of losses at the hands of the mighty Rockford Rams, the first to open the season in August and the second, today's sobering 26-14 defeat on the grand stage of Ford Field, to earn the Rams their third state title in five years.

Branden Oakes (see my pic) gained 107 yards on 16 carries, but his biggest contribution never materialized. That's because his number wasn't called on a crucial third-and-two call at the Ram 11-yard line during an electrifying Dragon drive that chewed up half the third quarter. Instead, quarterback Sean "I'm Still Just Fifteen... Hello" Charette rolled right and forced a throw into dense short-side coverage, where Gabe Speirs caught it in stride and brought it back past midfield.

Lake Orion was trailing 20-7 at the time. They had belly-crawled into the locker room but emerged with a swagger--taking the kickoff down the field, converting multiple third-down opportunities (even a fourth down) while wearing the Ram defense two-ply thin. The feeling among the white-out faithful was, we score here from the two, then hold Rockford to a three-and-out, and we're in the lead. One only needs to travel back three weeks to find the Dragons in a 13-point hole at intermission, 23-10 to Romeo in the District finals. Wow. The Romeo game was just three weeks ago?

Yes, this tiny slip of momentum was quickly assuaged by a Rockford fumble the very next play. Lake Orion turned that gift into points, with Oakes jamming it in from a yard out to cut the deficit to six, 20-14. Less than a minute remained in the third, and Rockford had the ball for exactly one play.

That drive, however, should have been for the lead.

The Dragons stopped the Rams cold on third and inches on their subsequent possession, and began moving again. Jeff "I’m The Reason Why We're Here At Ford Field In The First Place" Heath hauled in a Charette pass over the middle for a first down, and lost the ball after being hit at his 45-yard line. Rockford cradled the little bundle of joy and took it from there, driving the proverbial stake to the Dragons' hearts with a 4-yard Darby run for the game's final points.

Watching each unfortunate event unfold gave me the sensation of heading uphill on a mountain bike and repeatedly missing the gear each time I down-shifted. While I can simply quit mountain biking, the task for coach Bell is more substantial. He brought his team through districts, past the regional final and all the way to Ford Field. His team then played toe-to-toe with the team who put the only blemish on their record, virtually dead-even in total yards (263-248 Dragons), first downs (13-12 Rams), total plays (Lake Orion by a 59-53 score) and time of possession (24:46-23:14, a 92-second edge for Rockford).

But in situations such as this, when two teams who look similar on paper play a game where you need DNA samples to tell them apart, something unforeseen typically decides the outcome. For the Dragons, those somethings included, in order: a mental meltdown in two-deep coverage (leading to Ram quarterback Tim McGee’s 47-yard scoring strike to Nick Stokes, who was extended-holiday-hours open along the right sideline and scored without the need for express checkout); a blocked punt in the final minute of the second quarter (leading to Rockford's one-play, six-yard drive and a 20-7 lead at the break); Charette's aforementioned Big-Mo-sucking end-zone INT; and Heath's aforementioned hemorrhage of a 20-yard pitch and run (leading to receipt of aforementioned stake).

Even those five somethings cannot dull the brilliance of something as shiny as Lake Orion's 2008 campaign. All game I sat in my $100-if-it’s-a-Lions-game seat, thinking, 'they're really here, playing for it all.' Yet it never once felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Frankly, it felt a lot like a first-of-three-straight-trips experience.

After all, Roddick did win a U.S. Open. And he was the world’s top-ranked player for three months. And three months does span the length of an entire state-championship football season. I can keep going with this. Suffice to say, they’ll be playing for it all at Ford Field again. If not next year then the one after that. In fact, if they don’t win THE title in '09 I may even bring a bitter tone to the recap.

Deal with that, Andy.

[By the way--fear not, Dragon fans, the state title will be ours in the courts if not on the field. Soon the MHSAA will sanction Rockford for using an ineligible player. See their right tackle? Did he look familiar? Don’t tell me I’m the only one who knows what Jake Long looks like. They even gave the guy #77. Real smart move.]

The Night Before the Finals

2008-11-28T23:51:00.001-08:00

'Twas the Night before the Finals, and all through the town
Not a player was worried--not even one frown.
The cleats were all hung in their lockers with care,
Awaiting these Dragons, whose footsteps they'd share.

The townfolk were nestled all snug in their beds,
As visions of championships danced in their heads.
Moms slept in green jerseys, while zebra-striped refs
were resting their heads upon yellow 'kerchiefs.

When out at the high school there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter!
Away to my minivan I flew like a flash,
Warmed up the old engine and made a mad dash.

The lights of the stadium with their thousand-watt glow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to the field turf below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But eighty-five warriors--all clad in full gear!

With a bright firey leader, so lively and well,
I knew in a moment it must be Coach Bell!
The team couldn't sleep, too amped up for the game,
So he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Branden! Now Marques! Now Nay, Bruce and Lott!
On Charette! And Charles Fleck! On Heath and Knoblock!
To the top of the mountain! To the top, proud and tall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
Coach read from the playbook his plans of attack
for the twelve-and-one heroes he'd flung on his back.

They'll soon face the one foe they couldn't survive--
with a QB who's not old enough yet to drive!
But a wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

Coach spoke not a word, but went straight to his book,
And filled all their heads up, then turned with a look.
Then pointing his finger to the sky with a pose,
He gave them a nod--toward Rockford they rose!

We've all seen a miracle, and it wasn't St. Nick.
'Twas the spirit that lifted that 49-yard kick
High over the crossbar, between the uprights,
and lifted Lake Orion to unheard-of heights.

Swarming onto the field as the clock showed all zeros
We all celebrated these newly crowned heroes
Win or lose they're immortal, they've made history
Nonetheless, "Here's to you boys, and ONE MORE VICTORY!"

Mighty Dragons Stop Fordson Cold, 38-0... next stop, Ford Field!

2008-11-23T14:43:00.001-08:00

"Destiny" has become a popular explanation for that which cannot be explained. Largely because the term itself isn't easily explained.

Yet with each successive victory, we're left with fewer ways to make sense of the Lake Orion Dragons' improbable run through the 2008 Michigan High School playoffs. From a long touchdown run in the final minute of a scoreless tie with Utica Eisenhower in round 1; to the rally from a 13-point halftime deficit against Romeo the following week; to the 9.2-second drive and 49-yard game-winning field goal last Friday against a Sterling Heights Stevenson team who had come back from a 28-point third quarter hole.

Add to the list last night's astonishing 38-0 dismemberment of Division 1's Goliaths from Dearborn Fordson on the frigid field turf of Troy Athens High School, and even the thinnest traces of reason go "poof!"

A team so youthful its starting quarterback barely qualifies for a learner's permit, the Dragons drove over top-ranked and seemingly unbeatable Fordson the way monster trucks would drive over traffic. What's ironic here is that the team nicknamed the Tractors happens to be the one with tire tracks on their chests.

The tone was set just moments after the pre-game coin toss. On the game's first offensive play, Lake Orion's John Chanthakhot stepped in front of a hurried Ali Baidoun screen pass and returned the interception 26 yards for an instant 7-0 lead. Moments later the Dragons forced a Fordson fumble (see pic), leading to a nine-play scoring drive capped by Branden Oakes' two-yard plunge. Hypothermia had barely set in, and already the Dragons were up 14.

That was all the stingy Lake Orion defense needed in recording their second shutout of the playoffs. Truth be told, the 38-0 final doesn't reflect how severely Fordson's once-prolific offense had been dominated. Even the zero seems generous. The Tractors didn't so much as threaten to score all evening, any brief sign of momentum thwarted by friendly fire--five turnovers in all, compared to Lake Orion's zero. Halfway through the third quarter, most of their fans had already abandoned the icy aluminum grandstands and headed back to Dearborn, freeing themselves from the dream that had stuck with them since the sweltering days of late August.

So now, one more challenge stands before the Lake Orion Dragons. One to be faced at room-temperature, thankfully, on the biggest stage of all: Ford Field. Awaiting them is a rematch with the Rockford Rams, the only blemish on Lake Orion's 12-1 season. This Saturday at 1:00pm, they will have the opportunity to settle the score and avenge their only defeat by winning their first-ever state championship.

There's a word for that, isn't there?

[The ok-quality photos from these Lake Orion Dragon posts are mine. The spectacular quality ones come from MarkROakes, Nick Couretas and Studio C, and Photo Impressions. If you appreciate good photography from people who know what they're doing, I encourage you to look at their work, as it's pretty amazing. No plugging here--these are my words. Although these pics speak for themselves.]

GO DRAGONS!

2008-11-22T14:58:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Troy Athens High School to witness what I hope is the next chapter of the Improbable Journey. Hoping my next post will say something like "Wooooo-hooooo!"

Meantime, here's another pic from the field after last week's miracle win. The hardware would be the regional champions trophy, the school's second ever. Wish the boys luck--and magic!

The biggest game in Lake Orion history (until next week?)

2008-11-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

[Note: My blog has also embraced the Lake Orion Dragons, the high school of the city in which I live and the school my son will be attending next fall. They have built a high school powerhouse in northern Oakland County, having reached the MHSAA Regional finals each of the past two seasons (losing to eventual state champ Macomb Dakota each time). This year's squad followed an opening-game loss to Rockford at EMU's Rynearson Stadium with 11 straight wins, and sits two wins away from the school's first state title. So if you like reading my posts, I invite you to take this ride with us. If you'd rather focus on my posts regarding Detroit college and professional teams, there are plenty of those as well so allow me this high school thrill ride and skip ahead to further reading.]

Saturday night, 7:00pm at Troy Athens High School, the Michigan Region 3 champion Lake Orion Dragons will attempt to go where no Lake Orion team has ever gone before.

Ford Field.

More specicifially, the Division 1 Michigan High School football championship game. The miracle ride continues after Jeffrey Heath's last-second prayer of a 49-yard field goal (see pic) upset Sterling Heights Stevenson, 38-36, in the greatest football game I have ever witnessed (so great I'm still writing the blog about it... should be up by Monday). Already the winningest team in Lake Orion football history, they seek a date on Thanksgiving weekend to show the state's viewing audience what they're made of. And a chance to add to the school's three state title banners, for wrestling (1990), baseball and girls' golf (2007).

Only once have the Dragons ever reached the state semis, in 1999. So they've already made history. But this season's magic carpet ride almost conjures up that D-word. Not "DEE-FENSE" but "DESSS-TINY." Consider the details of the Lake Orion playoff run:

1. Game 1 - Region 3 Division 1 Pre-Districts vs. Utica Eisenhower. The teams remained in a scoreless deadlock until the game's final two minutes, when tailback Branden Oakes exploded for a 25-yard touchdown and the game's only points.

2. Game 2 - Region 3 Division 1 Districts vs. Romeo - Lake Orion trailed Romeo by 13 points in the third quarter but came back for an impressive and equally improbable 24-23 win, keyed by a momentum-shifting quarterback sack by LB Eric Knoblock as Romeo had driven to the brink of the red zone, threatening to increase the lead to 20.

3. Game 3 - Region 3 finals vs. Sterling Heights Stevenson - The Dragons flew to a 35-7 third-quarter lead, buoyed by the return of a blocked punt. Fans were leaving the stands before host Stevenson rode the rocket arm of junior quarterback Jason Fracassa--grandson of legendary Birmingham Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa--with 29 unanswered points to take a 36-35 lead. Lake Orion lost the ball on downs, then held SHS and got the ball back on their 40 with 9.2 seconds on the clock. 15-year-old freshman QB Sean Charette lofted a pass to Charles Fleck at the Stevenson 32. The defender pushed him out of bounds instead of tackling him in bounds, leaving 2.5 seconds on the clock. Out trotted Heath, for a moment as improbable as Kirk Gibson's hobbled body hitting the 9th inning home run in his only at-bat of the 1988 World Series. 49 yards later, the ball splitting the uprights, Lake Orion was bound for the semis with a 38-36 win.

Tonight at 7:00, they take the next unlikely step toward the summit of Mount NoFrigginWay. As I type this, Rockford has just beaten Livonia Stevenson in the other semi-final at Spartan Stadium. So a win tonight against Dearborn Fordson and the Dragons can avenge their only defeat of the season, on the biggest stage in school history. The table is setting itself.

I'll tell you what. I'm glad magic is on our side.

The losing fan's guide to watching Michigan-Ohio State

2008-11-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

Forgive me, I've only watched college football's biggest rivalry since 1970. So I've never watched the Wolverines go into their game with the Buckeyes when the maize and blue have a losing record.

But there you are. Michigan stands at 3-8. With a game in hand, they're already guaranteed to be the losing team in the 126-year history of Michigan football. Their defense has given up more points tan any Wolverine team ever has. Normally that would mean the offense is their strong suit. Except that the offense is currently 11th in the Big 10. They do have a damn fine punter though. So they've got that going for them.

Anyway, there are still a few Michigan football traditions worth clinging to. So here's my defensive viewing guide for today's game at Ohio Stadium:

1. Score baby score. Michigan's scoring streak is among the longest in the nation, if not the top of the list. They've put points on the board every game for a quarter century, last being shut out by the Iowa Hawkeyes, 26-0, in 1984 - their last non-winning season. And the last time the Buckeyes shut them out? 1962. Forty-six years ago. The Kennedy Administration. So yeah it's a big deal.

2. He's still a freshman, so pressure the hell out of him. Buckeye QB Terrell Pryor snubbed the Wolverines on the final day of the signing period, leading to a leaderless three-win season in Ann Arbor. Defense, let him know your true feelings. I know, "stop the running quarterback" is the decades-long battle cry of unsuccessful Wolverine teams past. But the longer they can stay in his head and keep him out of his game, the better off they'll be.

3. Please please please Lord, watch over the health of our quarterback. Stephen Threet, the backup-turned-starter-turned-injured-guy-with-headphones, didn't even make the trip to Columbus. So although I'm not entirely sure, I think Matt Sheridan is officially the backup QB on the 2008 depth chart. Rich Rod rotates them as he sees fit, but that's not possible. Michigan's fortunes rest on the shoulders of #8, essentially. Justin Feagin, a freshman recruit from Florida, is the second team signal-caller. He's been inserted into a few games toward the end of the season, mostly in the backfield. I think he even caught a pass. But he's just not ready for this.

Looking back, Michigan's most painful football moments occurred as a result of injuries at the quarterback position. The 6-6 season of 1984? The one dark spot of the last four decades of Wolverine football pre-2008? If you recall, that season started out with an upset of top-ranked and defending national champ Miami. The team was led by an upbeat sophomore named Harbaugh, who broke his arm in the second half of the Michigan State game. Michigan was 3-1 at the time. Last year's drubbing by Oregon was made possible in part by Chad Henne's disappearance during the second quarter. It wasn't known till after the game that he had been injured, and true freshman Ryan Mallet was forced to cut his teeth in the worst of circumstances.

Should Sheridan have a rough go, or should he go to the locker room wincing in pain, hundreds of thousands of maize and blue supporters will wince along with him.

4. Nobody routs the Wolverines...right? Michigan hasn't lost a game by five touchdowns in 40 years. Sure, it happened in the Horseshoe, 50-14 in 1968, the last game of the year 1 B.B. (before Bo). But the Wolverines have played almost 500 games since then. Only one team has beaten them by as much as 30 - Oregon, 39-7 last year. Only three times have they even lost by four touchdowns: Tennessee, 45-17 in the 2002 Capital One Bowl; Oregon last year; Penn State, 46-17 this year.

5. The wheels on the bus come off and off, off and off... This will be the toughest challenge of all. In the aforementioned Penn State game, the 29-point loss to Penn State, Michigan was actually ahead at the half, 17-14. In fact, the 2008 Wolverines would be in pretty good shape if they could make a rule retroactively ending all games at the half. (I'm not holding my breath on that one.) The disaster that is Michigan football 2008 is largely due to two things. First, horrid conditioning. In other words, the players are at three-quarter speed after three quarters. And second, nonexistent adjustment success by the coaching staff. Since the great comeback against Wisconsin that gave them 2-2 record--boy were those the days!--the Wolverines have been outscored in the second half by a whopping 134-40. One more time with that one. Opponents have outscored them by 94 points. That's nearly 10 points per game! And that's not counting whatever happens in Columbus. This may end up being the most telling statistic of all for this team.

So assuming they've scored points and things go the way they have against Notre Dame, Illinois, Toledo, Penn State, Michigan State and Northwestern - uh, safe bet - Wolverine fans will be in the unfamiliar position of cheering for garbage time. So save those timeouts, Rich Rod. You'll need them when you're down 40 with eight minutes left. Keep playing till the end. The school's very football pedigree is in the balance. Remember, a touchdown or two against the third-string Buckeye defense may not mean much to the fans streaming out of Ohio Stadium. But to students, alumni and fans watching all over the nation, it may be all we've got.

That said, it's worth noting that the Buckeyes have never beaten the Wolverines five times in a row. Also, no Michigan coach has ever lost their first Ohio State game. If Coach Rodriguez is eager to abandon Michigan tradition, he's well on his way.

One thing to remember. No matter how bad they lose today, NOBODY CAN TAKE AWAY THE JUG! IT'S OURS BABY!

The Lake Orion Miracle

2008-11-15T19:11:00.000-08:00

I saw three games last night. All of which occurred in the same sixty minutes. And none of which I believe.

The last of the three games--the one that lasted roughly 12 seconds--may not ever cross my threshold and enter the world of reality. When so many things that had to happen, happen--all in a certain way, and all in succession--you have to rule out simple coincidence. Then you rule out lucky chance. Then you rule out the refs, the partisan timekeepers, the crown of the field and finally, in the rare case of the Little Brown Jug, the likelihood that someone affiliated with the opposing team had contaminated your team's water supply with biological impurities.

You're left with only one conclusion. God wanted Lake Orion High School to win.

Sorry, Sterling Heights Stevenson. Feel free to bring your best counterpoint, but that's what you'll be up against.

Here's a recap of Game 1 and Game 2, to set the stage for Game 3:

GAME 1
Score: Lake Orion 35, Stevenson 7.
Duration: Opening kickoff to halfway mark of third quarter

The Titans raced to a quick 7-0 lead and were driving again before fumbling the ball over. Lake Orion's offense took over from there, grinding out 229 yards on the ground by halftime. Kim Bruce led the attack with 90 first-half yards, on his way to 147 for the three games, on 24 carries.

Mike Nelson hauled in a 4-yard pass from 15-year-old freshman quarterback Sean Charette to give the Dragons a 21-7 lead at intermission. One 32-yard gallop by Branden Oakes and one blocked punt return later, Lake Orion led by a staggering 28 points. 5:57 remained in the third quarter. And Stevenson fans began to exit the stands, unaware of the two games that would follow.

GAME 2
Score: Stevenson 36, Lake Orion 35
Duration: Six-minute mark of third quarter to final :12 of fourth

Jason Fracassa, Sterling Heights' laser-armed junior, was having as good a day as any quarterback at the short end of a 35-7 score could be having. He was hitting receivers, only to have passes dropped or broken up. He was airing it out, tossing long, tight spirals into the evening air when his line provided him the chance. Most notably, the 37-yard heat-seeking missle that landed in the arms of wideout D.J. Mershman for the first points of Game 1.

As Game 2 began, his opponent was ripe for the picking. And Fracassa, grandson of Birmingham Brother Rice's legendary coach Al Fracassa--no stranger to the pressure of state playoffs himself--went to work. He fired a 20-yard sling-shot to Thomas Beaurem to cut the lead to 35-13, then hit tailback Justice Wright for two points. 35-15. He found Mershman over the middle and hot-knifed the buttery Dragon defense for a 48-yard scoring strike. 35-23. After another three-and-out by Lake Orion, he led the Titans down the field, with Wright covering the final five yards off-tackle right. 35-29. Then, with the Dragons deflated and down, he finished a drive that started with an interception by sneaking in from less than a yard out with 3:43 remaining. The extra point sailed up and through. 35-36.

The stands erupted. The Stevenson bench erupted. Somewhere in northern California, the needle on a seismograph blipped. "Did what just happen, happen?" thought every player in a white jersey, as well as their parents, siblings, friends and fellow students.

The Dragons frantically tried to undo a quarter and a half of do, but the tank sputtered and officially ran out with 1:44 on the clock, as an errant fourth-down pass sailed into the ground. The Titans took over at the Lake Orion 44, with one Dragon timeout in their way. "It's over, they won't get the ball back," the guy next to me said as he left.

I bought into my friend's miscalculation, not thinking that it's virtually impossible for 104 seconds to come off the clock after two plays. I had figured that Stevenson would at least try for a first down (Thing That Had To Happen #1). But Fracassa took a quick knee on the first play, expending :01. The second play took about as much time, running the clock down under a minute. Then, on third down, Fracassa scrambled around in the backfield, chewing up as much time as possible, before being tackled for a substantial loss, surrendering massive amounts of field position (Thing That Had To Happen #2). By the time the play clock ran down and the Titans called timeout, only :12 remained. The Stevenson fans had emptied from the stands and began to line the cyclone fence in anticipation of the on-field celebration.

None of them knew there was still one more game to be played.

GAME 3
Score: Lake Orion 38, Stevenson 36
Duration: 12 seconds

The timeout (Thing That Had To Happen #3) allowed Dragon coach Chris Bell precious to rally his offense together and formulate a plan for their final one or two plays. Sterling Heights Stevenson was a squib punt away from a regional championship. Nothing pretty, just a wobbly, bouncing, rolling kick, the kind that eats up twelve seconds of clock.

Instead the punter popped it up (Thing That Had To Happen #4), allowing senior Charles Fleck to call for a fair catch (Thing That Had To Happen #5) with 9.2 seconds remaining. The punt that could have ended the game took less than three seconds off the clock. And Lake Orion had the ball on their own 40-yard line, just four yards from where they surrendered it moments before. Yet miles from anything resembling victory.

Charette dropped back and looked for Fleck. To his surprise, the Titan defense was spread down the field, protecting itself from what was sure to be a "Hail Mary" lob toward the end zone. In so doing, it was leaving the medium sideline routes to single coverage (Thing That Had To Happen #6). Getting sufficient protection from his line (Thing That Had To Happen #7), Charette planted and threw a dart to Fleck, who caught the ball (Thing That Had To Happen #8) as he turned toward the sideline. The Stevenson defender, who had the space and the wherewithal to bring the receiver down, instead pushed him out of bounds (Thing That Had To Happen #9), leaving 2.5 seconds on the scoreboard clock.

Fleck's progress was marked at the 32-yard line (Thing That Had To Happen #10), within the realm of a field goal try however unlikely. In fact, a long pass was only thought as my son and I watched from the Sterling Heights sideline (he had convinced me to leave and beat traffic, but just before walking out of the gate I convinced him to watch the last few seconds). The pass to Fleck put them close enough where they could put the ball into the end zone, and at least give them a chance.

Then Coach Bell trotted out senior kicker/wideout/cornerback/kickoff returner Jeff Heath and the rest of his field goal unit (Thing That Had To Happen #11). Although I had not seen them enough to pass judgement, I witnessed enough fourth-and-long situations where going for it was seen to be the best option. I didn't think the kid could hit the end zone much less the uprights. They at least had a chance with a thrown ball; this move was a waive of the white flag.

The holder was kneeling down at the 39 1/2 yard line. This was basically a 50-yard kick. A kick from that distance causes fans to hold their breath at NFL games. Unsure of the accuracy of their professional kicker. Many times, in the comfort of a domed stadium. This was a 17-year-old boy who didn't instill enough confidence in his own coach to be given the chance to attempt so much as a 40-yarder. A boy now being asked by his coach to kick a 49-yard, last-second field goal in a winter drizzle, to win his school's second-ever regional championship. Um, gulllllllllllllllp.

Pressed up against the cyclone fence, surrounded by giddy Sterling Heights high school students, we watched from about the 10-yard line as the ball was snapped, spotted and kicked. It was a mean-looking end-over-end ball, the type that go higher than long when I kick 'em. But this one kept going... and going. It wouldn't drop, it just sailed like a thrown tomahawk. I watched it clear the crossbar (Thing That Had To Happen #12). The referees looked at each other and threw their arms up in the air. Good. Good? Good... GOOD!

I went to scream and nothing came out. My son looked at me like, "Now what?" as if they still needed to do something else before the game ended. I looked up and saw the Lake Orion stands pour onto the field like a pitcher of cream tipping over. I grabbed my boy and headed straight for the gate that opened up to the field. We darted through fans that were still registering what they had just witnessed, whooping and hollering all the way.

The scene on the field looked as if I had ran onto the field with an AK-47 assault rifle. Stevenson players were scattered all over the artificial playing surface, some kneeling, others lying flat on their backs. And most of them sobbing uncontrollably. Lake Orion players took turns hugging each other, hugging anyone they saw. Tears streamed down their faces. Cheerleaders were weaping with joy. It took nearly five minutes for the team to regain its composure enough to shake hands with their opponents at midfield.

I ran into the kicker's parents and asked them if they'd ever seen their kid kick it that far. They said the coach doesn't like field goals so he's never had the chance. Heath himself claimed to have kicked a ball 30, maybe 40 yards before, but never 49. "I just tried to kick it as hard as I could. I've never even tried one that long."

The kids, their friends and their families remained on the field for another hour. They improvised a team photo at the 50. The coaches went from microphone to microphone, trying to capture with words what they're not entirely sure they just saw with their own two eyes.

I've been watching football for nearly forty years. I've never seen an ending like that. The '82 Stanford-Cal game comes close. I actually watched the Immaculate Reception live, which still stands as the single most improbable play I've ever witnessed. I didn't know what happened even after I saw it. But this one beats them all.

Nothing to play for? How about infamy

2008-11-01T15:33:00.001-07:00

Since head coach Rich Rodriguez landed at the University of Michigan this past January, he's made a point of not being all that impressed with the school's rich football tradition. To a point he was correct, insofar as a team can get complacent and comfortable with merely being good while riding on the shoulders of successful seasons past. But Rich Rod's ambivalence bordered on an arrogance that belied a man intending to make history of his own.

Well, coach is making history all right. Yesterday's 48-42 loss on the road at Purdue has perched Rich Rod on the precipice of Michigan football infamy:

o He now finds himself at the helm of the first Wolverine team since 1967 to post a losing record. That's 41 straight winning seasons. Poof.

o The loss also eliminated Michigan from bowl eligibility for the first time since 1974. 33 straight post-seasons, with the added exposure, the alumni travel packages, the extra practices, the recruiting. Poof, poof, poof, poof and poof.

That alone is enough to draw the ire of several hundred thousand alumni, students and fans. But the worst may be yet to come.

Momentum--especially the negative kind--is as hard to stop as that dreaded mobile quarterback. (see my photo from the Illinois loss.) As the former Mountaineer coach readies his team for a potentially gruesome homestretch, he'll need some source of motivation for his disspirited troops. How bout this, coach. You're on the verge of completing THE WORST SEASON IN THE HISTORY OF MICHIGAN FOOTBALL. In fact you've virtually achieved it already--and we're just one day into November. Here are some of the ugly details thus far:

o The 2-7 Wolverines have already matched the school record for most losses in a season, set in 1934 and tied two years later.

o The Purdue loss increased Michigan's current losing streak to six, the longest in a half century and one shy of the school's all-time mark, set in 1937.

o Last week's setback to Michigan State assured the maize and blue of its first losing season at the Big House in 41 years; furthermore, a loss to Northwestern in two weeks would give the '08 Wolverines five home defeats, the most ever witnessed at the Big House or any house before it.

o While we're on the topic, Michigan has also dropped seven home games over the past two seasons, tying the school's all-time mark.

Think the agony stops here, fans? We've yet to talk about the defensive side of the ball. As you know, Rich Rod warned us to be patient since his new spread offense would require a bit of a learning curve. What he didn't mention, however, was how his new defensive scheme would turn an already soft unit goose-down-filled-hypoallergenic-comforter soft. Consider these light and pillowy figures:

o Purdue's 48 points represent the fifth time an opponent has scored more than 30 this season, a new Michigan record.

o The 2008 Wolverine defense has allowed 278 points, one shy of the all-time record... and there are still three games left to play!

o Michigan's defense is allowing an average of just under 31 points a game, by far the most generous in the history of Michigan football. To lend some perspective, during Schembechler's salad days of the early 1970s, his prolific triple-option offense averaged just over 37 points a game.

o If this week's opponent (7-2 Minnesota) hangs more than 30 on the Metrodome jumbotron, it would be the fourth straight opponent to score 30+ points on the Wolverines, tying another all-time record.

These stats doesn't make for the most inspiring of pre-game pep talks, that's for sure. But they do underscore the notion that, despite the season being long gone, there is plenty for the team captains, the seniors and the brand-spankin' new coaching staff to play for. I understand Rich Rod isn't keen on pulling out the college football history books, but it's worth a look. At least enough of a look to understand that the aforementioned records tied or broken by the first team of the Rodriguez era cover 130 years. And 130 years goes back to the Rutherford B. Hayes administration.

A small pile of un-extinguished embers can take out ten thousand acres of century-old redwoods. And a coach who doesn't respect the pedigree of the institution he serves can take out a century of sequoia-solid tradition. All it takes is a few simple acts of arrogance. Such as downplaying the significance of its biggest rivals, for example. A nuance that helps explain lackluster Wolverine losses to Notre Dame and Michigan State (the former Michigan had beaten by 38 and 25 points the past two seasons, the latter of which hadn't defeated the maize and blue since the "Spartan Tom the clock-keeper" game of 2001). And one that may make sense of what will happen three weeks from now in Columbus (haven't lost all three rivalry games in the same season since 1987). A team as strong as the Buckeyes could really lay a whoopin' on the disspirited winged helmets, the likes of which hasn't been seen around these parts for generations (if we define a rout as a five-touchdown defeat, the last time Michigan was routed was in Columbus, exactly 40 years ago). Even this week, they have a very real chance at losing the 102-year-old Little Brown Jug to the Gophers (haven't lost in Minneapolis since 1977).

Yes, he inhereited a team with many holes to fill. But he did dig a few himself. After all, he had a receiver by the name of Manningham who wanted to return for his fourth year. As well as two projected starting linemen who ended up transferring after seeing the tradition they coveted fall by the wayside. And at the helm, a battle-tested, rifle-armed quarterback who had just finished an impressive freshman season (he also happened to be the nation's top-ranked high-school QB the previous year). Before anyone tells me that Stephen Threet is a stronger spread quarterback then Ryan Mallet could have been, just save it. Please.

The three teams that remain on Michigan's schedule have a combined record of 21-6, and two of them--including those lovable Buckeyes--will play the Wolverines at home. Michigan will have their work cut out for them just to avoid an unprecedented and equally unthinkable 10-loss campaign.

So Rich Rod wants to inspire his kids without using the storied tradition of college football's winningest all-time program. Okay then. Maybe he can gather the team together and tell them the story of the little mountaineer that could.

Michigan: nation's top party school

2008-10-31T23:50:00.001-07:00

Ann Arbor, Michigan is the number one place to party, according to a recent survey of random students from Big 10 campuses, as well as colleges from Utah, North Carolina and Oregon and an unnamed MAC school. By the looks of these photos, they seem to have a point. Party in da big house...

(November 15 update: Invite also extended to Northwestern after their 21-14 win. Party pic added below.)

Read on, if your heart can take it

2008-07-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

After last Sunday's Tigers-Twins game, the last game before the last All-Star Game to be played at Yankee Stadium, my son and I took a detour on our ride home. We wanted to hit The Corner and see the great ballpark once again. The great ballpark we had heard might be coming down at this very minute.

We took Fort Street west to Trumbull--the road this city has long known as the exit for Briggs Stadium, long before it was renamed for the team itself. Riding north from the Detroit River provides a wonderful build-up to the moment when baseball's grand cathederal comes into full view. Three blocks from Michigan Avenue its distant image appears as powerfully as if it were directly before us [see my photo]. And the old building, from that far away, still holds the majesty it commanded during its maiden World Series in 1935, through the second World War and amid the explosive race riots of the 1960s. When we reached Michigan and Trumbull, once Detroit's most famous corner, we now could see the evidence of decay from a decade of inertia. The outlines of missing letters are all that convey its mighty title. Rust swallows every corner of exposed metal, while weeds and tall grass envelop each crack in its concrete.

Yet amid the minute traces of negligence, we saw nothing of the demolition that had been mentioned in the papers. Then we walked along its perimeter. Down Trumbull we went, tracing the three-story white wall that borders the narrow sidewalk. All the while I felt the same way about this stadium that I always had. This was the ball park I knew growing up, the structure that housed the greenest sod my seven-year-old eyes had ever seen the moment my dad and I walked out the corridor of Gate 5 and stood inn the open air along the first-base lower deck box seats. My first game was in 1970, when Detroit was blanked by the Washington Senators (two years before they moved to Texas), 1-0, on a solo home run by this enormous dude named Frank Howard. Big ol' baggy pants and all, the guy crushed a ball like I'd never seen, sending it into the first rows of the overhanging upper deck.

I was still basking in the earthy aroma of cigar smoke from the old men around me, the guys who kept score of every at-bat in their programs, when my son and I rounded the centerfield corner. We saw the portable night lights and the rows of cranes, sitting idly by, waiting for everyone to go to bed before continuing the job no one would ever want: tearing down the pride of Corktown and a bastion of civic pride.

As if cut with a carpet knife, the bleacher stands and the concrete and metal stands below them stood severed yet proud above our heads, adorned with occasional twisted chards of metal. The upper-deck outfield seats were now in full view [see photo], the bleacher stands still in place and the monsterous scoreboard ready to cheer on the next Tiger batter. We could even see the flag pole, with the stars and stripes at full mast, the only such pole of any major league park in fair territory. Eerily spectacular under a rich blue sky, the marvel of bearing witness to this little slice of heaven one last time would have been considered a privilege were it not made possible by the slice literally carved into it. The slice which eliminated the entire left-centerfield stands.

In full view were the tall rectangular light towers of right field [see photo], the one closest to the right-field foul pole made famous by one Reginald Jackson, who struck its transformer box in the second inning of the 1971 All-Star Game.

You stand overwhelmed by it all and you aren't sure how to handle it. Do you want these memories to come flooding back, or is it better to spend your time moving forward? To some, both seemed to be the answer. As we walked back to our car people lined up along Michigan Avenue, pressing up against the stadium's iron fence and prying bricks from its food concourse. Some kept them as souvenirs, others sold them on the spot to onlookers without tools.

Soon it will be long gone. And in its place, apparently, a parking lot. The great irony being, back in the days when the Tigers hosted World Series games at The Corner, there was no parking to be found, the common practice being to pack oneself into the surrounding lots and wait for the cars behind you to leave. Now there will be spaces to spare, yet no attraction for which to park.

To say it broke my heart to witness this slow death is an understatement.

Would you recognize it if it hit you in the face?

2008-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Question: if there was sufficient enough technology to officially read the velocity of a thrown baseball 34 years ago, why isn't there enough to officially read and record the velocity of a thrown baseball today?

This is something that has puzzled me for... okay, the better part of an hour. But when something's wrong it's wrong, no matter how long one ponders its wrongness. It all started shortly after Venus Williams scorched the Wimbledon sod with a 127-mph flamethrower of an ace this afternoon. No woman had ever hit a faster serve at the Lawn Tennis Club than Ms. Williams, who now holds the distinction of owning speed records in all four women's tennis majors.

Of course, talk of Venus' records can't help but turn to baseball. (Hey, it's either this or a "Why can't our technology match up with that of Great Britain?" segue.) Throughout the evening edition of ESPN's SportsCenter, Williams' howitzer was compared to the highest recognized speeds in other sporting endeavors. One segment compared the serve to Al MacInnes' 100-mph slapper in an NHL All-Star Weekend event. Another brought up the current land-speed record of 700+ mph. And the baseball equivalent ESPN mentioned? Nolan Ryan's 100.9-mph rocket, recorded August 20, 1974.

The majority of online baseball record sites recognize Joel Zumaya as the sport's rocket-launching record-holder, crowning either the supernova that passed Yankees slugger Jason Giambi at 103.0 mph in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the 2006 ALDS, or the pitch during Game 2 of the 2006 ALCS at Oakland's McAfee (Almeda County) Coliseum that rang the guns at a jaw-dropping 104.8 mph. Yet oddly enough, the Major League Baseball records site notes that they "don't recognize radar speeds as an official statistic." Other concurring sources discredit the validity of the guns (and gunners) used to clock Zumaya and other present-day pitchers, claiming that a pitcher's arm velocity can impede the consistency and uniformity of the results, questioning the calibration of the equipment and even suggesting that the numbers are intentionally "dialed up". (Let it be noted at this point that no one, particularly the USTA, has questioned the validity of any of Venus Williams' records, nor the means by which each was documented.)

According to the Guiness Book of World Records, "The greatest reliably recorded speed at which a baseball has been pitched is 100.9 mph by Lynn Nolan Ryan (California Angels) at Anaheim Stadium in California on August 20, 1974." (link: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_guin.shtml) So. If there was sufficient enough technology in 1974 for the folks at Guinness (the world records house, not the brewing company, although knocking a few stouts back may help one make sense of all this), why isn't there enough in 2008? What mad skill do we as a society no longer possess?

Given their insistence on verification--representatives will routinely travel to all parts of the globe to witness a mere attempt--why wouldn't Team Guinness have investigated much less recorded Randy Johnson a decade ago, when The Mullet rountinely hit triple digits (and the occasional Floridian sea bird)? Or why wouldn't they be ready to track the pitches of a now-healthy Zumaya this season? Mind you, this is the same bastion of authenticity that allowed a chopped-up videotaped screen capture to serve as proof of an arcade game's all-time high score (yes, I saw "King Of Kong", so you're not pulling one past me!).

Being from Detroit, I have watched Zoom-Zoom throw 101-103 mph consistently in short relief. If a verification of the speed gun used to record these pitches is all that's standing in the way of making any of them qualify as world records, why on earth wouldn't there have been an attempt to document this legitimately? Especially since the gold standard for pitching velocity dates all the way back to 1974? ESPECIALLY considering how willingly they allowed another 1974 record to fall by the wayside. Funny how the juice-filled final years of Barry Bonds' career will likely keep him from something as subjective as Cooperstown, yet they're good enough for the pocket-protecting savants running the world's foremost keeper of its records.

And as for Zumaya and his numerous 103mph tallies (which, by the way, have been clocked on numerous speed guns by numerous people)? Sorry dude. Never happened. We can't prove the accuracy of the recording mechanisms.

Maybe we should just chalk it up to the screwed-up mess that is Major League Baseball, whose rules twist logic around as effortlessly as a Dr. Seuss book. The damage this game repeatedly inflicts upon itself is already a matter of record. Yet the very records themselves are precisely what allure the core of its audience: the "stat geeks", the guy sitting in your row amid a pile of peanut shells who's scored every game since the Dodgers left Brooklyn.

Adding to the irony is the fact that the one outlet ideally suited for these fanatical misfits happens to be the only major sport without things like, oooh I don't know, consistent playing field dimensions--uniformity typically being an important component of all comparative research. Not to mention the only major sport where one teams plays under different rules, with roster positions other teams are not permitted to have. Then again, we're talking about a league run by a commissioner content with ending its All-Star game in a tie; cancelling the World Series--THE WORLD SERIES--rather than working with its players union to reach an agreement; and turning his back on the rampant widespread violation of its drug policy because a home run battle was just what he needed to bring the fans back. So how important can maintaining the integrity and consistency of its record book possibly be?

Consider last Friday night's nonsense. The New York Mets' Carlos Delgato set a Major League single-game record for most RBIs by a designated hitter with nine in the first game of the Mets' day-night "Subway Series" double-header against the Yankees. Lost in Delgato's impressive performance is this little fact that the Mets are a National League team and as such, do not recognize the designated hitter rule except for the handful of times when they play an American League team in their ball park.

The list of absurdities grows with each passing day, a fiction no writer who values his reputation would dare write. Even as I type this, another "rule" has popped up that simply defies explanation. For some reason, someone in the MLB brain trust (oxymoron noted) decided to change the definition of no-hitter a decade or so ago. From that point forward the feat would no longer be based on the accomplishments of a pitcher. Nope, throwing a complete game without giving up a hit wasn't enough; the pitcher's team must score enough runs to win the game as well.

Technically, the rule was changed to include that the game must consist of "at least nine innings". Perhaps this was a means to prevent a pitcher with six innings of hitless ball under his belt in a rain-shortened game from receiving "no-hitter" status. However, since a team doesn't need their final at-bat when they're winning a home game, the addendum also excludes any poor saps who toss a no-hitter on the road when their team loses.

So on this asterisk of a night, the Mighty Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's Jerred Weaver and Jose Arrendondo teamed up to blank their cross-town rivals at Dodger Stadium. But there was no celebration, no ride on teammates' shoulders. Why? Because their team couldn't score and the Angels lost the game, 1-0. But more specifically, because they performed this feat on the road. Had the pair pulled this off in Orange County, the Dodgers would have batted in the top of the ninth inning. In other words, you can throw a complete-game no-hitter and lose, so long as you're pitching for the home team.

Despite the fact that it's officially in the books as a complete game and the Dodger line has been duly recorded as one run, zero hits and two errors, this incredible performance is denied recognition as an accomplishment that could have, should have and would have been the defining moment of their careers. And a sport who three times this season has failed to identify a home run (and it's only June), has drifted further away from the game it once was.

I'd recommend pulling the plug on the entire league, but I don't think they're capable of recognizing their own demise.

"Can a nun really say that?"

2008-06-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

"You're in for a long night!"

The cabbie snickered at us as he pulled his taxi in front of our suburban hotel. Its yellow and black exterior should have served as a clue. We were in the only city with team colors, Pittsburgh. Home to the black-and-gold Steelers, black-and-gold Pirates, and the Eastern Conference Champion Penguins, who--suprisingly--wear black and gold.

Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, my first-ever NHL playoff road game with the Red Wings, was a jersey game. I brought two sweaters with me for the ride assuming something divine would point me one way or the other over the course of our four-and-a-half-hour journey. Would it be the Nick Lidstrom 1998 Stanley Cup jersey, with the "Believe!" patch on its left shoulder and the long since forgotten alternate "A" on the chest? Or Igor Larionov's Cup jersey from 2002, the year he broke by a single day the record for the oldest player to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Finals (his goal in the third overtime coming after midnight, technically a day after his second-period goal in the same game set the original record)? Though #5 was the current team captain and #8 was retired, pimping his own bottled wine and waiting for a call from the Hall of Fame, I had to go with Igor tonight. It helped that my buddy Mike was sporting fellow Russian Vladmir Konstantinov's #16. Why just be loathed as mere Detroit fans when you can work in the dual-hatred of the Soviet Union?

So after tossing a few race bombs into the back seat of his cab--hey, they're white dudes from the D, they must be bigots too--the taxi driver pulled up to the curb in front of the Igloo (now referred to as Mellon Arena) and spilled us out. We turned to face the arena and noticed one thing. There wasn't a red jersey to be found. Nothing that even bore the color, with the exception of the cycling traffic light at the corner. So... let the insults begin!

We had a third companion with us, our friend Doug, who chose to do other things with his money (which, tickets being what they were, could have included booking a Virgin Islands vacation). He preferred to mill about the crowd outside the rink and just be. I had yet to put my jersey on. I was meeting a Pens fan outside the arena, a guy I had already sent roughly $1,000 to, and I didn't want to cause him any reason to just keep walking. I had already bought tickets to this game four times... twice I bailed out on the deal after google searches of their names revealed everything from securities fraud to web sites on scrotum reduction. (You read it right; I can't make up this kind of stuff.)

"What, you too scared to wear your jersey?"

The first taunt came from a cute 20-something female. Frankly, I couldn't wait to walk into the Pittsburgh Penguins' arena sporting the winged wheel. Bring it on. I like this city actually, being a long-standing Steeler fan. And despite our being outnumbered and verbally abused, I didn't feel the least bit threatened. Trust me, I've been physically threatened in Columbus, I've had drinks thrown at me in East Lansing and I've had fans chant "You suck!" at me--and my son. This atmosphere, even at its worst, was nothing like that. But it was no walk along the Monongahela River either.

In fact, the only friendly face we found was the large, paper mache head of a black and gold penguin (see photo). Even he yelled out a muffled epithet as we walked off, but as you can see, we took what we could get.

We waded through the crowd like Moses waded through the Red Sea. There's a scene in the movie Juno where the camera follows a visibly pregnant Ellen Page down her high-school hallway and her classmates back away if they could get knocked up on contact. Yeah, it was like that. But it was exciting. Rarely is one put in a position where they are hated by so many people in the same place at the same time. The situation was right for performance art.

I had seen an exhibit a few years back in Los Angeles from a photographer who would incite groups of people and capture them in full-blown rage as they chased him down the street. This gallery filled my mind as our pathway approached a crowd of thousands camped before a large-screen TV outside the Igloo. I had a similar chance to capture the instantaneous anger of hundreds of hard-core hockey fans, directed at me. I couldn't resist.

So I stopped before them in my red and white jersey (I couldn't have garnered as much attention naked), flapped my arms and yelled, "Can I get a little Red Wings love here?" This was the response.

"The police should take you guys away in handcuffs!"

It wasn't merely that the comment came from a five-year-old boy. It was that he was just getting warmed up. His laughing father held him back as we passed, while the kid struggled to free himself as if to say, "And another thing..." By the time we approached the doors of the arena, we were novelty to the point of celebrity. Strangers approached us asking if we'd take pictures with them (see below). Others would hurl F-bombs at us, then turn around and say "But Igor's cool though" or "Nice Vladdy jersey".

Inside the door, we received our "Mellon Arena White Out" shirts and Cup Crazy rally towels, and local Stanley Cup Finals programs, full-color small-format magazines they gave away for free. Nice touch... hear that, Mr. I? We then worked our way past the jeers and promises of bodily injury to level E, and found our seats... in the very last row, deep below the overhang of section F. An old rickety air conditioner rattled ceasingly throughout the game, and while we had a complete view of the arena, we could see nothing else beyond that. If I bent down till my chin touched my knees, I could see the Jumbotron (which I did for this shot of the opening face-off):

When we arrived at our seats, the fan next to us immediately grabbed his cell phone. "You sold your seats to f---ing Red Wings fans? You are a f---ing a--hole!" he screamed and slapped the phone shut. He wouldn't even look at us at first, but his friend was more understanding. (By the start of the third period, we were laughing it up... they even vowed to take us to the city's famous Strip District after the game for a steak and egg sandwich at Primanti's delicatessen.)

Ice-cold beers in our mitts, we watched the player intros amid the deafening roar of the Penguin faithful. In a scene reminiscent of Le Colisee in Quebec during a Nordiques playoff game, or the Jets' last game in Winnepeg in 1996 when the Red Wings closed them out in game 6 of the Western Conference semis, the entire arena went white... from the ice to the stands. Take a peek again at the face-off photo above. I counted people wearing red from our vantage point and came up with 47. 47 out of the roughly 10,000 fans in my eyesight (the arena seats 17,000). Indimidating only scratches the surface. Place was LOUD.

Anyway the chrome dome nearly blew from the ground when Pittsburgh's Marian Hossa scored the game's opening goal five minutes in. Both teams had performed extremely well when scoring the game's first goal... and extremely poorly when giving up said goal. The Mellon nearly split like a cantaloupe from the exposion, and it stayed crazy as the game continued. Minutes later, while on the power play, Lidstrom blasted a shot from outside the left circle that passed Pens' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and into the net to tie the score. We yelled out "Yesss!" and high-fived, as the profanity rained down on us like so much Iron City beer.

The tight-checking 1-1 game worked its way into the third period, with Wings goalie Chris Osgood standing on his head once again with save after mystifying save, one knocking him clear into the crease--all but his trapper, that is. Then, just a few minutes into the third, Detroit's Brad Stuart settled the puck in the neutral zone and worked it in deep to Darren Helm, whose cross-ice pass hit a streaking Jiri Hudler. Alone on Fleury, the lightning-quick Czech fired a backhand shot off the right post and the goalie's leg to put Detroit ahead to stay.

But the game was anything but won at that point. Detroit had fought off a disproportionate number of short-handed situations all game long, and with ten minutes left, faced a 1:26-long 5-on-3 advantage.

"Now we're back in this game!" the once-silent Penguin fan beside me proclaimed. "But if you don't score, it's over," I shot back. And the Red Wings denied Pittsburgh any more than a single shot during their entire power play. The highlight and what will surely become the snapshot moment of the game if not the series, was Henrik Zetterberg's clamp-down on Sydney Crosby as the 20-year-old phenom awaited a centering pass at the mouth of the net. Ozzie was beaten on the play and the talented Swede was all that was in the way of a 2-2 tie game. But Crosby could barely touch the puck, much less get the puck on net, and the one remaining opportunity was snuffed out by yet another spectacular save by the once-maligned Osgood. The fuzzy-faced netminder--even in his mid-30s--who has allowed a grand total of one goal in three Red Wings victories, now sits a win away from his third Stanley Cup, second as a starter. And with his career statistics climbing up the list of the very best goaltenders of all time, that win may be enough for him to reach the Hall of Fame.

After the game, I couldn't help but get a picture holding my lucky little repliCup (see photo below). As I worked my way down to arena level, one last drunken idiot threw a vile string of profane name-calling. I turned to him, smiled and pointed at the scoreboard, which sent him into hysterics. I looked back at him as his five friends looked away in embarrasment. As I told a Pittsburgh fan earlier that evening, this team will win one, maybe two Cups in the next five years, so chill out.

We met up with our wandering friend and the three of us headed to the Marriott, where ESPN had taken up shop. The hotel bar was crawling with Red Wings faithful--FINALLY!--and we celebrated this magnificent victory with our own for a change. I even met a couple fans from Alberta, who all but invited us up some weekend next winter to catch back-to-back Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers games. Yet the afterglow still wasn't without incident. A slurry, drooling punk actually threatened a gang attack on me--twice--yet each time I asked him to repeat what he just said, he wouldn't. I've been described many ways, but imposing has never been one of the adjectives. It was one final case of idle threat by drunken fan. And from Pittsburgh of all places, a city I respected for its toughness. I'd never witnessed sore loser to this degree before... and I have season tickets for Michigan football!

We ended the night at a sports bar by our hotel, gloating before sunken-spirited Penguins one last time before we retired for the night. Sunday morning was the long trip back home. Well okay, the four-and-a-half-hour ride home. But we had two items left on our Steel-town agenda. First, a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. No way do we miss that experience, even if for just two hours. The silver clouds room alone (where you walked along a swirling hallway filled with massive rectangular mylar pillows) was worth it. And second, of course, Primanti's. And not just any Primanti's, the Strip District Primanti's (or "the dirty one" as our adjacent Penguin friends referred to it the previous evening). Though the Red Wings win killed their "free lunch" offer, the thought of having the city's signature steak and egg sandwich was too good to pass up. (FYI, they serve them with cole slaw and fries inside the sandwich, a recipe designed to enable steel workers to enjoy an entire meal packed conveniently within two slices of bread).

It's a weekend I won't soon forget. At least until Detroit and Pittsburgh line up for a Stanley Cup rematch next May. Or the one after that. Without a doubt, these two franchises will meet again. The Penguins are too talented not to make it back and the Red Wings are just too smart.

It's Time.

2008-06-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

This past season the Detroit Pistons paid tribute to their 50th year with the slogan, "50 Seasons, One Reason: It's Time." On Friday night their silver anniversary ended with the silver medal, a few feet lower on the podium and looking up to the franchise who's won gold more than anyone else. The Boston Celtics.

As the series we had waited for since last Halloween came to a close, we discovered how well the foe from Auburn Hills can disguise itself. Each spring for the past six years, the Pistons roll confidently into the conference finals. Each of the last three seasons, they run out of gas six games later. Rasheed Wallace (see my pic) seemed to epitomize the state of recent Piston fortunes in late May, with more fouls (five) than points (four). It's time, as the tag line suggests. Time to move forward.

Move forward, I say. Because simply breaking up the team isn't an option for team president Joe Dumars. Cogs and gears in the machine have atrophied, or just don't move as smoothly and cohesively as they once did. These elements must first be identified, then removed, then most importantly, upgraded. Five years ago, when Dumars said goodbye to Rick Carlisle, I decided to put my faith and trust in Joe. I figured that he must know what he's doing, and just because it made no sense to me doesn't mean I shouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt.

First, bringing in Larry Brown, who quickly toughened up the team. Second, scoring Rasheed Wallace. I was outspoken in my belief that this would blow up in Joe's face, but once again, he knew something few others did. He traded Lindsay Hunter away, only to pick him right back up off waivers. Dumars rolled the dice on journeyman after journeyman, nailing every hunch as if he has regular delivery of next week's newspaper. Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Antonio McDyess. And when Brown brought them to the brink of the title, he made sure some seven-foot stalwart was on the bench, readying himself to go one-on-one with Shaq.

So I trust in Joe to do what needs to be done to move forward. But hey, it's my blog, and as such it's my duty to make a few suggestions. Okay, predictions.

The nucleus will remain intact, because it should, because it has to. I see Rip, Chauncy and Teyshawn coming back. The backcourt works way too well for Joe to rip it apart (pardon the pun). Considering how well Rodney Stuckey played in the final few months, they may end up grooming the next generation Piston backcourt. Teyshawn is still young and despite disappearing in the final two games of the Boston series, well worth keeping at the three. Besides, it would be difficult, only four years after passing on Carmello Anthony and D-Wade in favor of Darko (now on the bench elsewhere), to have a need at that same position.

I see three components that need upgrades.

First, Rasheed Wallace. The most talented player on the team. A seven-footer who can post low and hit threes with consistency. A player with a swagger who usually backs it up. Next year is the final season of his contract, and he can still fetch a good return on investment through a trade. Imagine what Sheed could do for any one of these teams: Phoenix, LA, Portland, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Orlando, Denver. Teams close but in need of cajones to help them rise up to the promised land. Joe can get quality enhancements from several of these teams, and I trust he will know the best course to take.

Second, Antonio McDyess. Not because he's a detriment, not at all. In fact, he had been one of the more consistent offensive weapons for the team, and just completed perhaps the strongest season of his career. But he's at peak efficiency, and at best will deliver similar numbers in the next couple years. The more likely scenario is that his game will drop a half-notch, then another. This is an opportunity for the Pistons to get young, strong and big down low. They can secure reserve Theo Ratliff for another year. But McDyess is a valuable commodity, and packaged with one of Detroit's young up-and-comers could be the key to landing a top-tier center. I won't even throw out names, but I have a sneaking suspicion Joe has a few people in mind, a few of whom the thought of seeing them in the Piston blue and red would blow us away.

And third, Flip Saunders. He has a great basketball mind. He's a real stand-up guy (though I've only met him once, he impressed my son as he ran the kid ragged in a youth camp). But he's not right for this team. I feared that he would take The Team That Larry Brown Built and turn them into the Detroit Timberwolves. And that is precisely what he has done. Frequently (in May!) the Pistons have turned in performances where they looked unprepared for the challenge at hand. Game 1 this year in Boston is a classic example. Game 6 in Cleveland last year is another. Game 1 against Miami in the '06 Eastern Conference Finals, yet another.

But the most telling aspect that turned the Bad Boys, well, bad, was the lack of a defensive focus. Throughout the 1980s, the Detroit Pistons forged a reputation as the league's foremost defensive force. Teams and their superstars feared a drive through the lane, because more often than not, they would pay dearly for it. And no one was exempt--Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kareem, you name it. It may not have been pretty, but it won championships. With each playoff run, the number of layups, dunks and offensive rebounds given up to the opposition increases. In Friday's game 6, it sucked the fire right out of the team and its 20,000 vocal supporters. And with each season-ending loss, they leave the court almost resigned to its inevitability. When you're working harder for your buckets than the guys on the other side, you get tired sooner.

The Pistons need to restore their defensive pride. The pride founded by Dantley and Rodman, Laimbeer and Mahorn. The pride restored by Larry Brown in the play of Big Ben and Tey Tey. This is the single most important attribute of their next coach. Larry Brown was the perfect theoretical fit, but he's been bookended by offensive-minded tacticians.

As for the reserves, I would fight to keep Jason Maxiell, Stuckey and Amir Johnson (in my opinion the second most talented player on the current roster). Among Afallo, Hayes, Juan Dixon and Walter Herrmann, there seems to be the potential for trade value.

Detroit has four tradition-laced professional teams. Only one of them has a personality, a brand if you will. And Mr. Dumars can sense that this brand is in danger of being undone. Bill Davidson trusts you, Joe. The front office trusts you. The fans trust you. I trust you. You helped build the image. You know what you need to do to sustain it.

Unbelievable? That was 19 years ago (literally)

2008-04-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

There are a few words for which their misuse should be classified as a misdemeanor offense. "Literally" is one of those words. During last month's NCAA basketball playoffs alone we heard from fans who were literally pulling their hair out, coaches literally going to the ends of the earth and players who were literally killing themselves. Okay, i'll say it once. The word these laureates should be using is not "literally" but rather, "figuratively". I know it loses a bit of drama, as the term also carries its fair share of emphasis. But "figurative" is accurate at least. And it would avoid those annoying defamation lawsuits. I mean, who wants a judge literally throwing the book at them? Especially one of those Harry Potter hardcovers, that could leave a mark.

Another word is "unbelievable". As in an unbelievable catch, the unbelievable shot, that unbelievable comeback. It's gotten so ridiculous that I recently heard an unnamed hack announcer use it in his reaction to--wonder of wonders--a ground out to third. The third baseman, a Golden Glove-winning third baseman to be exact, doing what he's been trained to do, and what he's being paid UNBELIEVABLE amounts of money to do. Stop a sharp grounder and cross the diamond with a 120-foot dart of a throw before the batter completes his 90-foot sprint to first. Exciting? Sure. Unbelievable? It's not even unlikely he'll execute the play. If getting that runner out is such an unbelievable feat, then why, if his throw was slightly off the bag and got past the first baseman, would he get an error on the play? Why wouldn't his face be emblazened on the Jumbotron with a "Thanks for the try!" super?

Unbelievable isn't doing something you're supposed to do. It isn't even doing something amazing, short of walking from a wheelchair and doing a Gregory Hines tap number. The '69 Mets, the 1980 Olympic hockey team beating the mighty Soviet Union, George Mason reaching the Final Four, these are admirable examples of unbelievable in its correct usage.

But there's one event during my lifetime where the word "unbelievable" proved to be a downright understatement.

Few times in the history of Major League Baseball do two teams from the same state wind up facing each other in the World Series. We saw it in the days of the Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York baseball Giants. (Okay, I didn't literally see it since my father's seed was years away from planting itself in me mumsy. But I have watched the black-and-white footage... and boy did they move fast back then by the way. But I digress.) In my lifetime it had yet to happen before 1985, with the I-70 matchup between Kansas City and St. Louis. But the fact that the Royals and Cardinals were from the same state didn't resonate all that much: first, because the cities were still 300 miles apart; and second, because 50% of any survey you take believes that Kanssas City is in Kansas. Even if you poll residents of Michigan City, Indiana.

The first true neighborhood battle for baseball's crown occurred four years later. We expected the Oakland A's to be there. They were supposed to have crushed those poor Los Angeles Dodgers until hobbled outfielder Kirk Gibson's ninth-inning pinch-hit home run in game 1 (yes, that was unbelievable, since he could barely walk and it was his only at-bat of the series) led to an equally unbelievable upset. We knew the A's, with Jose Can't-Single and that whisp of a bean sprout named Mark McGuire, would appear in the Fall Classic with Don Rickles-at-a-Dean Martin-Roast frequency. But the Will Clark-led San Francisco Giants, now that was a surprise.

Permit me a bit of back story here, as it is my blog. During my final years of college in the mid-1980s my roommate J.R. and I got hooked on college baseball, particulary the College World Series, held annually at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. ESPN had committed itself to covering the college game quite well. The teams that mattered most were the evil Texas Longhorns with their ace, Roger Clemens; those great teams Ron Fraser of Miami and Mike Martin of Florida State brought to Omaha, and my adopted Wildcats from Tucson, Jerry Kindall's University of Arizona baseball team, who smoked the favored Seminoles 11-2 to win the 1986 national championship (not unbelievable but cool as hell for me). Clemens, Robin Ventura, Paul Sorrento, Greg Swindell, Pete Incaviglia, Greg Ellena and the like were everyday names to us, and we soon knew the world would catch on once they turned pro. One player in particular we thought had it all--fielding, hitting, personality, clutch performances, you name it. A latter-day Steve Garvey figure from Mississippi State by the name of Will Clark, a standout on a lineup with names like Rafael Palmiero and Bobby Thigpen which in itself is an impressive feat (though not technically unbelievable).

In the late 1980s we saw the growing effect of college baseball as it spread into the majors. 1988 saw Clemens strike out 20 batters in Tiger Stadium. And one year later, Will Clark would drive his team to the grand stage of all grand stages, the World Series.

So San Fran and Oakland were heading for a NoCal Knockdown. This for the first time in decades was a true war of neighbors, two metropolitan areas separated only by bay and bridge. An entire World Series would take place within a 20-mile radius. That's not the unbelievable part. The A's winning the first two games at home wasn't unbelievable, either. What happened two days later, however, I still don't believe today.

During the pregame show for Game 3, with the entire community abuzz and the world's eyes upon the Bay Area, at precisely 5:04pm, 26 minutes before the first pitch and moments after ABC signed on for its network broadcast, the single greatest earth quake our nation has experienced in generations struck San Francisco, knocking the network off the air for minutes, each of which lasting an hour. When power was restored to the ABC broadcast truck--first the audio feed and eventually the full video signal--the announcing crew broke news of the quake to the televised world while players mulled about the field locating their families, while cameras hung over the highest points of Candlestick Park to capture the immediate chaos outside, while the Goodyear blimp floated peacefully overhead, able to zero in on every plume of smoke in sight, ultimately discovering the tragic collapse of the pancake-stacked I-280 bridge.

The nation's worst earthquake in half a century, occurring at the precise time and location of the first World Series among neighboring cities in decades, is not merely unbelievable. It's absolutely astounding. I thought about it this morning and still don't believe it actually happened. It's right up there with Randy Johnson's fastball killing a wayward seagul during a preseason game, at the top of the "unbelievable" scale. But just slightly more significant.

Don't Tell Me, You'll Ruin The Ending

2008-04-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Something strange is going on with Henrik Zetterberg (see my friend's photo) and his Detroit Red Wings. They entered their playoff round with Nashville with a fire in their collective belly, taking the first two games and with them, a seemingly insurmountable lead in the series. Yet now the best-of-seven battle has turned into best-of-three, their lead has disappeared, and they sit tied at two, one slip-up away from another disappointing playoff run.

What's strange is, we act like we've never seen this before.

How many times do we need to watch something unfold before we change our expectations? Fifteen years ago, the Red Wings' Stanley Cup express was derailed with what appeared to be an historic upset at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs after losing game 7 at home in overtime. The following season (1994), the Wings Stanley Cup express was derailed... yadda yadda yadda... game 7 at home... yadda yadda yadda historic upset by the San Jose Sharks. Last year's loss to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks is as inexplicable as the loss to the Edmonton Oilers the season before. Perhaps, if you put everything together and roll it up in a ball, there's a pretty valid explanation after all.

Detroit has the longest current streak of post-season appearances of any major sports franchise. Not only that, but they have had home-ice advantage in their first-round series each and every playoff season since the streak began. This bears rephrasing: since 1992--a streak of 17 seasons--the winged wheels have finished among the top four teams of their conference. That span has seen three Stanley Cups and four conference championships, to be sure. But it has also seen five first-round exits--twice where they were the top seed and another when they were the defending NHL champs.

Here's yet another way you can look at it. Looking back over their long post-season streak, name the instances where the Red Wings lost a series they should have lost. THAT is the problem. The first- and second-round exits were series where they had home ice, and whose outcome was viewed as an upset. Even the four-game sweep by New Jersey in the 1995 Stanley Cup finals was a total surprise by most, many of whom predicted the exact opposite. Had they met expectations just a third of the time over the course of this streak, they would have been regarded as perhaps the most successful pro sports franchise of the last quarter-century, their six titles matched only by the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls.

Since 1991, the NHL playoff series that come closest to an "as expected" Detroit loss would be the following:

> 1992 Norris Division final vs. Chicago. First of all, this was back when there was a Norris Division. Second, this was the season the Blackhawks rode goalies named Belfour and Hasek to the Stanley Cup finals. And third, despite Detroit losing each game by a single goal, they were swept in four games. The verdict: no upset.

> 1996 Campbell Conference final vs. Colorado. Despite the Avs rolling on to a four-game sweep of the Florida Panthers to capture their first Cup, I am very reluctant to include this series as one they were expected to win. Before the series it was assumed the Red Wings would return to the finals for the second straight season. Furthermore, had it not been for one Paul Coffey, who intercepted a defensive clearing pass and drilled a slapshot past Chris Osgood in a blunder that would make Roy Riegels turn in his grave--the wrong way, of course--the Red Wings would not have gone to overtime in game 1 (which they lost). Meaning there would have been a game 7 back at Joe Louis Arena. And I get the feeling they do well in general when it comes to game sevens against the Avs. The verdict: upset.

> 1999 Western Conference semifinals vs. Colorado. Without the home ice, it could be argued that the Avs had the advantage. But it could be equally well contested that the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions would be favored until they were defeated. Nothing supports this more than the fact that the Red Wings won the first two games and that they were played in Colorado. That and the fact that the series seemed to turn on the broken finger of Igor Larionov tip the scales toward an unexpected win by Team Sakic. The verdict: upset.

> 2000 Western Conference semifinals vs. Colorado. Maybe, maybe this wasn't the upset loss we've seen in other seasons. Yet still, many hockey experts foretold of the Red Wings gaining a measure of revenge after the previous year's series defeat. The fact that this series ended on the Joe Louis Arena ice in five games, however, lends credence to the argument that the better team won. The verdict: no upset.

The point stands that the Detroit Red Wings have entered each of the last 17 post-season campaigns with a decided advantage. Yet in all but six seasons (the three Stanley Cup wins and the one year they reached the Cup finals, plus the aforementioned '92 Chicago and '00 Colorado defeats) they have ended up underachieving. Every game they lose they seem to have a decided advantage in shots. Every series they start out strong, then fall behind, then start pushing the puck ahead time and time again on those long familiar 1-on-3 mismatches, with no hope of success. Every year the philosophy is so well understood by the opponents that they block as many shots as those that reach the goal. Their teams have been lined with Hall Of Fame-caliber talent. Paul Coffey, Mark Howe, Larry Murphy, Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov, Darien Hatcher, Niklaus Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Matthieu Schneider and Brian Rafalski. And these are just the defensemen.

But hey, Charlie Brown keeps running up to kick that football. Our electorate keeps putting Republicans into the White House. Maybe the crazy people are right. Despite the repeated result, we should keep expecting something different. After all, this is THE year, right?

With two decades of consistency to draw from, I think I have a pretty good idea what to expect in the coming week or two.

When you choke, it shouldn't matter what seed you are

2008-03-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

I just watched one of the most exciting NCAA games in years, an historic upset in the making against one of the college basketball giants. Mighty Duke was in danger of losing to Belmont, a name more familiar to horse racing than hoops. It was a game they will talk about for years to come, a brave and valiant attempt by a tiny little David to topple mighty Goliath.

What they should remember it for, is one of the greatest choke jobs in NCAA tournament history.

Sorry, Belmont. You are to be congratulated for your effort. You most definitely came to play tonight, and by all rights should have been the second #2 seed ever to win a college basketball post-season game. You deserved it. You earned it. You outplayed a team who assumed you'd run away scared at the opening tip.

And when it came time to turn it up, the Blue Devils couldn't. Missing shot after shot, getting outboarded and outpounded by your relentless team, they pretty much handed you the game in the end, your chance at immortality. No one would ever have forgotten your name, ever. You had the lead AND the ball in the final minute. Even when you lost the lead, you still had the ball under their basket with :04 remaining, down by a single point. Timeout.

Your coach orders up a play you've worked on all season, a lob to the hole and a subsequent slam dunk. If run correctly, it's virtually indefensible short of giving up a foul. In which case, you'd get the chance to beat arguably college basketball's biggest name from 15 feet away, while they watched helplessly. Or at the very least, you'd take them into overtime. With all the momentum in the world.

The horn blows, you break the huddle and take the court. The ref hands you the ball. You take it out of his hands, look away briefly to throw Duke's attention elsewhere. Then you lob it, as diagramed. Right to Duke.

Game over.

It will never be talked about, since you shouldn't have been in the game with seconds remaining to begin with. Anyone even whispering the C word will be scolded immediately by all around him. After all, they came so close! But you know. I know. And everyone saying nothing about it knows.

It's not the biggest choke in the history of March Madness. It could never be. You didn't grab the ball down a point with just seconds remaining and call a timeout your team didn't have. Chris Webber's gift to North Carolina is and will always be the #1 Choke Of All-Time. And it's not even second. You didn't trail by a point with just seconds remaining and essentially hand the ball to your opponent. Georgetown's gift, again to North Carolina, will most likely be the #2 Choke Of All-Time. (Wow, those UNC boys must be pretty scary, if teams just keep handing them national titles!)

So congrats, #3. With one tight-throated pass, with one ill-executed play, you turned history into infamy. But at least you gave a valiant effort. Remember that on the ride home.

If it made sense, they wouldn't be wearing helmets

2008-03-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's official. The nation's all-everything #1 high school quarterback, Terrell Pryor, has finally made up his mind. Yet after an additional month of hype and speculation, it seems clear he didn't spend the extra time in deep thought. Not simply because he chose Ohio State over Michigan--though it qualifies as sufficient evidence on its own. But because the deciding factor was that he thought he had a better chance to make it to the NFL as a Buckeye.

Ummmmmmmm... huh?

Michigan has sent six of its last seven QBs to the NFL (Elvis Grbac, Todd Collins, Scott Driesbach, Brian Griese, Tom Brady and John Navarre). The seventh (Drew Henson) was projected to be THE top overall pick of the 1994 NFL draft before deciding to pursue a baseball career (after mulling over the 18,000,000 reasons a Buckeye fan named Steinbrenner presented to him). And the current one (Chad Henne, above) is looking to go anywhere from mid-1st to mid-2nd round this April.

Currently (as in fall 2007, after the final cuts of training camp), only one Big 10 school can boast of having more than two quarterbacks on the NFL depth charts. Michigan. Even Indiana has more active signal-callers in the pros than Ohio State. Indiana! In fact, that quarterback factory in Columbus can't even match the number of NFL arms pumped out by two MAC schools (Miami of Ohio and Akron). I know, it's easy to sit back and be a Monday morning quarterback. But when it comes to counting Sunday morning quarterbacks, the Buckeyes aren't even in the top two of their own state.

If Pryor had instead insisted that his chances of winning a Heisman Trophy were better there, okay, then say that. The Bucks win the Heisman-winning QB shootout, 1-0. Just don't pretend your selection has anything to do with something it can't possibly have anything to do with. It's like saying you picked Ohio State because you've always wanted to play for JoePa, or that you love how the students spray-paint the helmets gold on Friday nights.

From a career standpoint, even the Heisman rationale would seem unwise for a kid who-- let's just say he's not weighing pre-med programs. Alhough nine of the last 15 Heisman winners were QBs, only one has gone on to anything resembling greatness. That would be Carson Palmer, so clearly I use the G word very liberally here. Yes, the jury's out on Matt Leinert and fellow Buckeye Troy Smith. But the pattern is set. In fact, since 1970, only Jim Plunkett has had what you could call a stellar pro career. Vinny Testaverde and Doug Flutie were respectable, mostly by being durable. And a few others made it to the NFL but just couldn't keep their jobs (Pat Sullivan, Andre Ware, Ty Detmer,Chris Weinke and Danny Wuerffel). Suffice to say, your odds of being a Jason White, Eric Crouch or Gino Torretta are far greater than being a Plunkett or Palmer.

Every other reason for Pryor's choice of letter sweater makes less sense. Michigan just switched to a wide-open spread offense--the identical offense Pryor ran through high school. And the Wolverines have an immediate vacancy at the position, not to mention a proclivity for starting freshmen (Rick Leach, Rich Hewlett, Chris Zurbrugg, Elvis Grbac, Scott Driesbach and Chad Henne all started on or around their first move-in weekend). As a member of the scarlett and grey, with returning junior Todd Boeckman having led the Bucks to the brink of a national title, it's more likely The Sweatervest will hand him a different red shirt. Sometimes you handle the drug. Sometimes, the drug handles you.

Less likely to make it in the NFL? A former Michigan QB has won three Super Bowl MVP trophies this millenium. Michigan INVENTED the forward pass. Michigan taught Notre Dame and Ohio State the forward pass. Michigan's winged helmet was introduced 60 years ago to enhance their passing attack.

It doesn't have to make sense. The rich get richer. While the poor get... coaches from West Virginia.

See? I DID pick the Giants to upset the Patriots!

2008-03-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

I just picked the wrong game, that's all.

Anyway, I can no longer sit silently while this election season rolls along. So, I've created a politics blog. Borrowing from Barack Obama's reference to the words of Rev. King, I've called it "The Fierce Urgency Of Blog". The URL is:

http://thefierceurgencyofblog.blogspot.com/

Anyway, check out the new site, read on & let me know what you think. Don't worry, I'll keep posting here on my Detroit Sports blog as well. No such luck for you!

The Shortest Post I've Ever Written

2007-12-23T20:24:00.001-08:00

I don't really have anything to say except this. The Giants will beat the Pats on Saturday. What's a blog if you can't use it to forecast the occasional upset pick, right? I did pick the Tigers over the Yankees in four last year you know. Then again, I thought Michigan was a lock over Ohio State. I thought Les Miles was a lock for Michigan. I thought Rich Rodriguez would look forward to facing the Buckeyes in a week, not 11 months. So what do I know? Not much it seems. But I ams what I ams: a college-educated, critical-thinking, season-ticket-holding half-step better than a housewife picking helmets. Nonetheless, Giants over Pats this Saturday. The conditions are right. At least it'll make picking the Super Bowl champs (New England) much easier.

Lions 25, KC 20: Best Team of the MILLEN-ium

2007-12-23T20:17:00.000-08:00

["SAD PUPPY" MUSIC FADES UP]

As long-suffering Detroit Lion fans know too well, "Millenium" starts with Millen. And as these loyal enablers have come to expect, a season under Millen ends with at least 10 losses.

That is, until now.

[MUSIC STOPS; CUE SOUND EFFECT OF NEEDLE YANKED FROM VINYL RECORD]

That nasty habit was kicked, abruptly and inconspicuously, today at Ford Field. In dropping the visiting Kansas City Chiefs 25-20--on the strength of two fourth-quarter stands by an awakened defense (see photo, taken by yours truly)--the Lions officially ended their string of double-digit-loss seasons at six. Proving once and for all that the second half of their season wasn't the death-spiral everyone had made it out to be.

Truth is, they're an up-and-coming football team who played consistent football all season long, despite one mother of a bottom-heavy schedule. At the halfway point, coach Rod Marinelli had this squad sitting at 6-2. The fickle, flat-earth fans who don't measure deeper than Ws and Ls--as well as the lion's share of local media--foresaw a post-season berth with all the certainty of a Jason Hanson 30-yarder. The more relevant issue was that of securing the most favorable playoff position.

Lost in the hysteria--after all, it was the Lions' first glimmering point of light since George H.W. Bush shared with us his thousand--was the fact that the team had not one impressive, eye-opening win. Not a single jaw-dropper to get Howie and Terry's flaps a-flapping the following week. The victory in Chicago was close, being that the Bears (losing record notwithstanding) were still technically the defending conference champs. And considering that Millen-era road wins within the division have been about as commonplace as Nintendo Wii systems on the shelves at Target. The Lions did pummel the Denver Broncos 44-7, at home, a solid team performance indeed given the failed opportunities of seasons past.

Yet, like the big-boned kid sitting on the teeter-totter, the other end of Detroit's schedule had all the meat, all the muscle, all the life to make up for the front part. Of the eight games comprising Act II of Season 74, six were against playoff teams--the Giants, Packers (twice), Cowboys, Vikings and Chargers. And three of those eight matchups involved 7-1 teams looking to ultimately lock down first-round byes. So good luck with all that, as they say.

Now we see that 1-6 should have been the expected result heading into the final week for this young team. A team struggling to find its identity, with a kiddie-pool-shallow roster peppered with injuries and limited talent and a field general figuring out how best to utilize it. And now they've secured their best record of the Millen era, even if they extend their drought at Lambeau and end up at 7-9. (Actually, the Lions' last road win against the Packers was 15 years ago, back when the Pack still played half its home schedule at Milwaukee's County Stadium... so I'm not sure offhand where their last win took place.)

Nonetheless, the best may be yet to come with the formerly Honolulu blue. Particularly when you consider my unofficial "Third Millenium, Even-Year, Rotating Detroit Championship" Theory. Here's how it goes: every even year this millenium, a different Detroit pro sports team has played for their league's championship. The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2002. The 2004 Pistons stunned the basketball world by steamrolling the three-time champion LA Lakers to become NBA World Champions. And then in 2006 the Tigers, who hadn't even seen a .500 record since people played records, roared their way to the American League pennant and their first World Series since Ronald Reagan's first term. The next year in the numeric sequence is 2008. And if my little theory holds true, 2008 will be the Year of the Lion.

So it's not time to give up on your gridiron heroes, no sir, not yet. Just think about next year...

[INSPIRING MILITARY MARCH FADES UP AND UNDER]

...imagine an off-season trade for a legitimate quarterback, one who can better appreciate the talents of Kevin Jones, Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson... envision another season of solidarity for a young, talented O-line... picture a strong addition to a fiery young defense, preferrably a game-breaking DB who also loves returning kicks... then consider the role of karma, which HAS to turn the Lions' way at some point, right?

It all starts with the NFL draft next April. Man oh man, I can't wait to see which wide receiver they pick this time!

[MUSIC STOPS; NEEDLE-DRAGGED-OFF-RECORD EFFECT]

The Incredible Lions: To Infinity, And Beyond!

2007-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

As I'm typing this the Detroit Lions are playing in San Diego, it's the first quarter and the Chargers are beating them infinity to zero. Okay, it's not technically infinity. But it is nonetheless an ever-increasing number (currently 17), only limited by the scoreboard hitting all zeroes and, ultimately, the Fox network signoff.

Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Vikings scored a touchdown every time they touched the ball until midway through the fourth quarter, when by then the score was 42-14 and it didn't matter. The Philadelphia Eagles had 42 points by halftime, and ended with 56. This they've-got-to-get-tired-sometime defensive strategy isn't working, and I can't be the only one getting tired of it. Oh, look, it's 20-0 now.

So will this ever end? I ask although I know the answer. No. As long as a Ford runs the ship, we're forever iceberg-bound. Detroit Lion futility has gone on as long as I can remember, but it's not a fair assessment since I've only been watching them for 38 years. But this is today as it was, as it will always be. The Lions are, were, and will be doomed to fail.

There are ways to tell when a franchise is a sure-as-sunrise-comes-tomorrow loser. First, the owner. In this case, the fat cat of the Lion empire, Mr. William Clay Ford. He sees himself as a success because he's got a beautiful new stadium with nice, comfy seats, which he somehow sells out to more than 70,000 mind-numbed loyalists eight times a year. Hey, beautiful, Chargers just scored again and it's 27-0. Where was I again. Oh yes, WCF. He also gets all the revenue lost to the city of Pontiac from 1975-2001. He conveniently ignores the fact that he's only won one playoff game in the last half century. That his teams have only been good enough to play two home playoff games in the last half century. And with our Super Bowl approaching its 43rd anniversary, his teams have only come as close as the conference championship game once--losing ugly on that stage of course, 41-10 to Washington.

The owner is also responsible for hiring unsuccessful general managers--and keeping them as their unsuccessful general managers for years on end. Ford handed the direction of the Lions to unproven Matt Millen, who responded by delivering his boss victory in only his 13th game on the job. Millen hasn't figured out a way to lose less than ten games a season since he took the job. An employee cannot be blamed for his own incompetence, so long as his employer keeps giving him a paycheck. Yet still, Millen is such an easy target because of his ability to hire the wrong coaches. M-and-M's seven-year tenure is marked by three other Ms: Mornigwheg, Mariucci and Marinelli. Halftime update, the Lions are on the board but it's 34-7, Bolts. Another game long lost by intermission.

The coaching position. The cornerstone of a winning--or losing--tradition. As the Lions are concerned, two points tell you all you need to know. First, prior NFL head coaching experience. In my experience--38 years, in case you don't remember--there have been 11 different head coaches of the Honolulu blue and silver. Three had coached previously: Don McCafferty (1973), Bobby Ross (1997-99) and Mariucci. The second point is NFL head coaching experience after leaving the Lions. Of those 11 head coaches, zero have moved on to coach another pro team. Touchdown, SD! 41-7 now. In fact, since Joe Schmidt retired 35 years ago only one coach has left Detroit winning more games than he lost, and that was because he only coached seven games (Gary Moeller's career coaching record was 4-3).

In short, Millen, or Ford, or the Lions (however you wish to see it) haven't considered experience a priority in their coach, which has resulted in a string of coaches who can't seem to land a job anywhere else afterward. (Except for McCafferty, who died raking leaves in his yard after one season on the Lions sideline.) If that doesn't help define a losing franchise, we can find something else. How bout this. We're in the fourth quarter and the score in San Diego is 51-14. Can you guess who has the 14?