“Dolla Billz” Heading Back to His Boat for Good

The Detroit News is reporting that Michigan Athletic Director Bill “Dolla Billz” Martin is hanging up the checkbook effective September 4, 2010. Martin made his plan known to University president Mary Sue Coleman in a letter today, and will inform staff members at a meeting at Keen Arena.

I’m not quite sure what I make of this just yet, other than I’m curious to see what direction Michigan decides to go in with their next AD. For all of the good that Martin did (Stadium renovations, practice facility for hoops) there were moments that left you scratching your head (i.e. Les Miles and the infamous sailing trip). All of that aside, Martin was a financial maestro and had the University’s bottom line singing a beautiful tune.

Coleman has already said she will lead the search for Martin’s successor, which could be in place before Martin’s announced retirement date of September 4.

“He has agreed to remain as athletic director until his successor is on board, at which point he will serve as a special advisor to me until retiring from the University in September.”

You can bet the discussion will obviously start heating up shortly on who should replace Martin, and one name that will probably pop up is that of former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr. Carr is still highly thought of by many members of the Michigan community in high-ranking positions, but it’s hard to imagine that he will be the first choice of Coleman given his lack of financial experience, as well as his “shaky at best” relationship with current football coach Rich Rodriguez.

We’ll see how it all plays out, but for now we should all take a step back and thank Martin for his contributions to the University, which cannot be argued.

Bon Voyage, Bill.

Meltdown for the Ages.

meltdown:

1. Severe overheating of a nuclear reactor core, resulting in melting of the core and escape of radiation.

2. Informal A disastrous or rapidly developing situation likened to the melting of a nuclear reactor core

3. Informal An emotional breakdown

Chernobyl

Three Mile Island

2009 Detroit Tigers

Heartbroken.

Get it Done.

There’s nothing more to say. It’s been a crazy weekend, with all kinds of drama, but none of that matters now. All that matters is a win. So get it done Tigers!

LET’S GO TIGERS!

One More Time

“You’re out on the town, safe in the crowd
Ready to go for the ride
Searching the eyes, looking for clues
Theres no way you can hide
The fire inside”

-Bob Seger, “The Fire Inside”

It’s fitting that Nate Robertson gets the start for the Tigers today. With the the Tigers’ first division title in 22 years hanging in the balance, we hand the ball to a guy who, at the beginning of this season, pretty much said if he wasn’t starting, didn’t want to be here. Yet, here we are, four games to go, and Robertson is getting the nod. Shows what happens when you buy into something, eh Nate?

This Tiger team may be the greatest metaphor that the city of Detroit has ever seen. A down-and-out group during the preseason who hardly anyone gave a chance to do much of anything. A division title? Forget it. It won’t happen. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Detroit as a city rebounding? No way. It’s over.

Is it?

This city has long held the Tigers close, despite being treated to a number of terrible seasons where hope seemed to run out on Day One of the season. Sure, attendance dropped and money was lost, but the one thing that always stayed constant was the love of a team that most closely resembles the state of the city as a whole. Some will argue that the Lions are a more fitting metaphor: a bunch of losers with no way out and no hope of ever bouncing back. Yet, the Lions did get that first win last week, and although I don’t follow the team that closely, it was a great moment and a step in the right direction. Some will argue that the Red Wings are the face of the city. I disagree. The Red Wings are kings of the city, expected to succeed, and when they don’t, everyone is surprised. They are the gold standard that the city itself hopes to one day achieve. They are the success story that every true Detroiter wishes its city would become.

No, the city itself most closely aligns itself to the Tigers, a group who are constantly up and down and who you are never quite sure will actually pull it off or hang on to do something great. But it’s their character that connects us to them. Their love of what they do, the support that they give the city, the hope that they provide for the downtrodden. They are the great success story of Detroit, and they can put their seal of authenticity on their great tale today.

No, a win today is not a World Series victory, but it doesn’t need to be right now. The World Series experience in 2006 was a glorious and golden moment for this organization, but if you asked any Tigers fan about it, nine times out of ten you heard “This is great, but it sure would have been nice to win the Division.” I was one of those fans. In true “assembly line” fashion, the road to a championship needs all of the parts, and one of those is the satisfaction of grinding out 162 games and finishing what you started. All of those spring and summer matchups against “fill in the blank” that “didn’t mean anything”, well, those now mean a whole lot. Every game this team played this year means something now. Every hit, every run. It was all for the chance this team has today.

It’s fitting that in the year the Tigers are one step short of the division mountaintop, they also lost one of the great symbols of Tiger baseball. In 1987, the old stadium would have been rocking and rolling as the boys of summer put on the long sleeves and brought home the division. Today, it’s a new stadium that holds the opportunity, one that is yearning for a legacy of it’s own. It’s already been host to a pennant win and a World Series appearance, but now it’s time for the new park to wear a division crown. Since Tiger history never seems to fade away, it would be a fitting tribute to the ol’ ball park that used to live at Michigan and Trumbull if the Tigers win the division in the year that it died.

There are so many ways in which a win today would impact this city and this organization. I could sit here and list them for days. The truth is that for each of us, this means something unique. For me, it’s the vindication of growing up a diehard Tigers fan and thinking that I would never ever see this team win the division and make the playoffs. Sure, I’ve seen them in the playoffs. But that division win has been oh so elusive.

It’s in their grasp today. Pardon the pun, but can they finally “grab the Tiger by the tail?” I sure hope so.

Counter-Punch

(Photo courtesy of Julian H. Gonzalez/DFP)

Well, after the Game 1 tirade, things turned around on the nightcap and the Tigers held on to a 6-5 win with a kung-fu grip. In true Tiger fashion, this one wasn’t in the bag until the last fly ball landed in Raburn’s glove, but a win is a motherf****n win and I don’t care how we get them at this point.

Hat tip to Miggy (solo homer), Maggs (2 RBI), Inge (2 RBI), Grandy (Solo homer, even though he gave the run back on a badly played fly to center) and Fernando (clutch save).

A BIG “We’re not worthy” to Verlander, who ended up pitching eight innings deep to the tune of something like 398,271 pitches.

The only number that matters now is FOUR.

Hunker down, Tigers. Stay hungry.

An Overreaction to the Game 1 Loss

(Photo courtesy of Julian H. Gonzalez/DFP)

This morning at the gym I couldn’t help but be captivated by the sight of the jubilant Los Angeles Orange County Angels of Anaheim and Surrounding Neighborhoods and Communities celebrate their AL West championship last night. The champagne, the beer, the jumping around. It looked like alot of fun.

Of course, the next clip just HAD to be a preview for the Tigers-Twins series that got cranked up this morning following a rain delay last night. My excitement quickly turned to nervousness and then to jealousy, as I wanted to watch MY team jump around and pour booze all over each other and watch as Leyland smokes 16 packs of Marbs in celebration.

That’s when the sinking feeling started crawling in. That’s where this blog gets its name. It’s that feeling that keeps you awake at night and you spend the rest of the day trying to shake it off and pretend like it’s not there. It gets in your ear and tells you to stop pretending, you won’t be good enough to win this series. You try to flick it away with a shrug, but it’s always right there. Telling you that those pinstriped jackasses from Minneapolis are about to swipe another division from right under your nose. Now you’re getting frustrated, and you just want the game to start so you can prove that feeling wrong. So you yell and cheer and get pumped up for your team and the belief starts to get stronger and that nagging in your ear gets quieter.

And then you jump out to an early lead and now you are ready to start telling that whisper in your ear to “shove it” because we came to play today and we are taking this division tomorrow night. And the feeling is quiet. And the innings drag on. And you are still confident because, guess what, you are playing just as good (if not better) than the other guys, and it’s YOUR team’s time to win a division, and nothing will stop them.

Then the game is tied. But that’s OK, we’ll get through it. And we do. On defense.

The offense is a nightmare though, and you can swear that you hear the entire Twins nation laughing at how incompetent your team’s batters are, as their pitcher sits down hitter after hitter. Meanwhile, your team is dodging bullets just to stay alive and it feels like they are losing control of the situation. but just when it looks like it’s all going to come crashing down, Nick Punto “puntos” a sac bunt and the DP is turned and now, NOW it’s time for us to step up and fulfill our season of destiny.

We get a runner on. now the excitement builds. That voice of negativity is awful quiet at this point.

And then, of course, the rest of the lineup lets you down. From cloud nine back to earth, but that’s OK, because we are still in this and wrestling control back.

And then Brandon Lyon happens.

BRANDON F**KING LYON HAPPENS.

Two, not one, TWO wild pitches that put the go-ahead run on third and a single later put the Twinkies up 2-1. A sac fly later and it’s now 3-1 and all of a sudden that feeling is back, telling you that it’s your team’s destiny to fail down the stretch, just like they did in 2006 and just like they will do this year. And you IM your friend and say how much this sucks and “watch, Grandy will probably homer just to give me a sense of false hope here” and sure enough, Grandy pops one out of the park, but all you can do is curse under your breath because you know that it was just a flash in the pan and nothing more.

One.

Two.

Three.

And just like that it’s now ONE with SIX to go.

Get it together Tigers. We’ve already done this once with you in the last five years, so why don’t you just man up and win the damn division already? Because I’m sick of hearing about the “CHOKE” and the “CHOKE” that’s about to happen this year. Prove ‘em all wrong, eh? Whaddya say boys? How bad do you want it?

************

Game 2 is in 3 hours and 10 minutes. Let’s hope the post following the game is a little “happier” than this one.

LET’S GO TIGERS!!!

The Good Stuff.

Yes, I get it. I’ve been a little quiet over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t get on here and tell you how excited I was that we beat Notre Dame. I didn’t get on here to complain about the Tigers looking like they might have run out of gas on their playoff run. I didn’t get on here and go crazy because the Red Wings are in the middle of preseason hockey.

But just because I didn’t write about it doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it.

Folks, let me tell you something: right now is the most exciting time in the world to be a fan of Detroit/Michigan sports. There is so much going on that it’s almost unreasonable to expect to keep up with it on a regular basis. But this is our reward, this is our prize at the end of the rainbow. It’s funny that the summer, a time of relaxation, enjoyment and just general “feeling good” is for the most part a blank slate of sports. Summer, one of the most popular times of the year, doesn’t share the same enthusiasm for sports as the rest of us fanatics. Summer is our Sahara Desert. Summer is our barren landscape.

But now we have hit the tropical oasis. We have found the magical spring to quench our sports thirst. Drink up friends. The water is cool and refreshing.

The sweetest taste (for me) is obviously the rebound of Michigan football from last year’s mess of a season. With the right pieces in place, the Wolverines have already matched last season’s win total, scored as many points in three games as they did in six last year and have knocked off major foe Notre Dame. Now, the Maize and Blue head into the real deal: the Big Ten season. Every week will be a battle and there will be NO gimmie games. Have the Wolverines truly bounced back from the depths of despair, or is it just a mirage in a desert of uncertainty? I can’t wait to find out.

The Tigers, one season after finishing last in the division, are back in the thick of a division and playoff race. What a roller coaster ride they have been. Sometimes they offer the sweet taste of victory and the next night the bitter taste of defeat. But again, the ride is amazing. There’s nothing like the chase for the playoffs to stir the deepest echoes of fandom, and that’s exactly what the Motown kitties are doing for us right now. Can they deliver? Will they falter? I’m caught up in the anticipation and I’m letting it sweep me away.

And then there are our beloved Red Wings. Yes, they are only at the beginning of a journey that will hopefully last until June, but this campaign brings with it the need to justify their elite status to all those who have so quickly dismissed them. There’s nothing more fun than proving the doubters wrong and then laughing in their face afterwards, which is exactly what we have planned for this season. I can’t wait.

So sit back and enjoy my friends. This is an exciting time for all of us. One that is sure to be filled with ups and downs, trials and tribulations. But it’s not the destination, it’s the journey and I’m just happy to be walking down that road again.

All In.

Remember that summer day three years ago when Notre Dame was supposed to be invincible and Michigan wasn’t supposed to win? Remember when we went down to Notre Dame as underdogs, having struggled through so many road-opening losses over the years that we were already forgetting how it felt to start 2-0 or 3-0? But what you may not remember is that feeling that we took for granted back then and which, someday, we will probably take for granted again.

I was sitting at an Ale House in Orlando, FL. Yes, I was drinking heavily. Yes, I was nervous. But why wouldn’t I be nervous? This was a rivalry game between two titans of college football,  both ranked, both undefeated and both ready to stake their early season claim to supremacy over the young 2006 season. It was everything that Michigan vs. Notre Dame was supposed to be.

The outcome of that game went in our favor. In a big, big way. But I know that nowhere during my euphoric high of beating the Irish did I ever think that our next two matchups would lack that one thing that most every game before them had contained: meaning.

You could argue that the 2007 game had lots of meaning for both teams. But let’s not kid ourselves here. Those two storied programs were the laughingstock of the college football world. Notre Dame rolling into the Big House with a highly touted freshman QB that had engineered two losses. Michigan coming off of THE HORROR and the ass kicking from the Oregon Ducks, both in our house. A combined record of 0-4. A national broadcast. It was pure humiliation and anyone who tells you otherwise is full of it. All that blowout win did for Michigan was get a win in the Big House and put another win between us and the #2 team in all-time victories. But it wasn’t the same.

Ask any Ohio State fan about last year’s drubbing of Michigan. It wasn’t as much fun as beating a good Michigan team. The luster wasn’t there. After 11 weeks of ridiculing the Wolverines and ripping them, finally getting the turn in the whipping line just didn’t feel right. Just like going down to ND with one of the worst teams in school history didn’t really do much for the Irish in the long run either. Did it even the score from the year before? Sure. Was it a game for the ages (or even the year, for that matter)? Absolutely not. It was a joke. A sham. A ghost of what it used to be.

Which is why today’s game is that much more important. After two years of mediocre matchups between these two giants, we finally get what we have been waiting for. Both teams undefeated again. Both teams with their own agendas. Both teams out to prove why they belong. It’s all the drama that was missing during the previous two matchups and all we can hope is that these teams know how to live up to the expectation that has been set in the previous 36 matchups.

Who’s going to win? Don’t really know. I can sure as hell tell you who I WANT to win, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. And quite frankly, it doesn’t really matter which team wins tomorrow*, as long as they both step up to the plate and embrace the rivalry by playing their hearts out and giving us an entertaining, physical and 100% competitive game.

You can bet that the Michigan Wolverines will be “All In” tomorrow. I encourage every fan of the maize and blue to do the same. Wear your maize shirt to the bar. Refuse to get “down in front” at the big house. Pace nervously in your friend’s living room. Just do whatever it takes.

All In. F**K the Irish. GO BLUE!!!

*Of course it matters who wins! It better damn well be Michigan!!!

Allegations, Violations and Misrepresentations. And some Henne.

In case you’ve been under a rock, the University of Michigan football program has found themselves in some hot water this weekend. According to Michael Rosenberg and Mark Snyder of The Detroit Free Press, the Wolverines are guilty of some major NCAA violations in terms of “mandatory” and “voluntary” practice time. If you don’t know all of the details by now and you need to get up to speed, read the article.

Quite frankly, this sucks. It sucks because the season starts on Saturday. It sucks because I GUARANTEE you that Michigan isn’t the only program doing this, but we are the one being investigated. It sucks because, in the grand scheme of things, what did Rosenberg and Snyder really accomplish in all of this? It’s incredibly unlikely that any major sanctions will be handed to Michigan, so now all these two journalists have managed to do is drive another wedge between the players, fans and coaches. In a week that should be focused on optimism, the Freep has forced pessimism down our throat.

But nothing sucks as much as the fact that Michigan’s own players are the ones doing the talking and don’t have the CAJONES to stand up and say who they are. If you can do the “right thing” and the “big thing” by whistle-blowing against your teammates, then step up and claim your prize. We know Toney Clemons had something to contribute to the conversation. That’s more than we can say about his efforts on the field while at Michigan. Terrence Taylor? Those extra “mandatory” workouts are one of the reasons your ass is in the NFL. The only other guys that we know have said something about the workout program are a pair of freshman who were bragging about the work they put in and whose comments forced the authors of the article to caveat the piece by saying that neither freshman was complaining about the workouts.

Does that make them right? No. But it shows that there are guys buying into the system, and those are the guys that want to work hard and win. My guess is that the guys who are doing the talking are guys that are either tired of the rigorous demands of the Rodriguez regime or freshman that were preyed upon by Rosenberg and Snyder, knowing full well that they could get the kids to provide soundbites that could eventually be turned back on the staff.

In the end, we get to be the face of a problem that is obviously spread throughout the entire college football world, despite what the Freep wants you to think.

  Courtesy of MSU’s Andrew Maxwell:

{Ed. Note: Brian at MGoBlog pointed out that, despite sounding similar to the Freep allegations, this statement doesn’t fly:

17.1.6.3.5 Preseason Practice. Daily and weekly hour limitations do not apply to countable athletically related activities occurring during preseason practice prior to the first day of classes or the first scheduled contest, whichever is earlier.

Aw, hamburgers. Practice limits don’t count during fall camp. You can stop bringing this up now.

Not that this prevented Michigan State from deleting that article in its entirety from its website.

{Ed. cont. They still suck. Anyway, statement is below for your reference.}

We’re almost a full week into it and preseason camp is everything all of us freshmen expected it to be: learning a completely new style of football, working hard every day to try and move our way up the depth chart, meeting new people and trying to fit in with the flow of things, and trying to get used to this totally foreign schedule. A typical day consists of showing up for meetings as early as 7:30 a.m. and being dismissed after our final meeting at 9:30 p.m. In those 14 hours, we have meetings, practice, lunch, more meetings, film sessions, dinner and meetings.

Sound familiar?

Somebody call Rosenberg and Snyder and let them know that it’s time to break another story.

In the meantime, I offer up this bit of wisdom from former UM quarterback Chad Henne:

 

"That’s the players. They have to know, 20 hours, you’re never going to be 20 hours limited. You think about it, you get done with class, you start practice around 2:30 for meetings or whatever, then you go through practice, you get done at 7. So that’s four-and-a-half hours. There’s no way – you’re going to use up 20 hours easily in practice.”

“I really think whoever’s saying it really doesn’t want to be there,” Henne said. “If they’re saying that then they’re not really worried about the team, they’re not worried about what they’re going to do during their season and they’re kind of just giving themselves up. That’s just negative talk right there. So whoever it is just really doesn’t care about the team, I would say.”

“If they’re complaining about that, then they don’t want to be the best they can be and that’s their own fault.”

Henne has always told it like it is, so I have no doubt that this comes as no surprise to anyone else in the college football community. All I want now is Mike Hart to come off the top rope and finish off this shitstorm that Rosenberg and Snyder created.

Changes, they’re a comin’…

I’ve had a few folks ask me about my slowdown in posting output this summer and if everything is OK on the home front. In short: yes, everything is cool. However, despite a slowdown in posting, I have been super busy putting together some new opportunities, which are far enough along now that I can finally tell you about them.

Changing Locations

As many of you know, I’ve been covering the Red Wings for Winging It In Motown for the past few months. WIM gave me an outlet to focus exclusively on the Wings, and the more I wrote for them, the more I enjoyed being able to cover one of my topic areas with such depth. Well, as we moved through the summer, the folks over at FanBall reached out to me, and told me that they had an opening for a Red Wings blogger on their team and would love for me to come on board. Naturally, I was torn because of my allegiance to WIM, but in the end, the ability to manage my own site while getting paid some cash to do it was enough to convince me to branch out and give it a go.

I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t thank Christy, Casey and Joe over at WIM for the opportunity to work with them. It’s a fantastic blog with a fantastic group of writers, and my support for what they continue to do is absolutely unwavering. Hopefully, I’ll still be invited to the Christmas party.

With that said, I’m proud/excited/insert whatever adjective you like to present my new home for Red Wings content, Motown Wings. The folks over at FanBall have been awesome to work with in getting this set up, and have given me the opportunity to contribute to a larger sports blogging network, which has been a goal of mine since I started writing. I encourage all of you to check out the new site and let me know what you think and how I can make it better. It’s going to be a work in progress for the first couple of months, so bear with me. However, there’s alot of potential to work with, and I’m excited to head down that road. I hope you will join.

A New Endeavor

As if moving to a new blog wasn’t enough, I’ve also been busy working with my buddy Brian (@pioneerhall on twitter) to get an idea of his up and running. Later this week, we will be launching MGoTalk, a new Michigan football podcast where Brian and I chat all things Wolverines with former U of M players Jeff Del Verne and Jeremy Miller. We are currently in the process of getting the final logistics up and running, and we should have the first show ready to hit your ears sometime soon. I’m REALLY excited about this, and can’t wait to get some different POV’s on the football team, especially from a couple of guys who have been privileged enough to wear the winged helmet. Be sure to bookmark the site, as well as follow @MGoTalk on twitter, so that you can stay up-to-date on when a new show goes up as well as offer up ideas for all of us to talk about each week.

So yea, I’m staying busy and am really looking forward to these new opportunities. As always, your feedback is appreciated, so let it rip.