Above the Fold - Where's the love?

The Pistons and Red Wings are stormtrooping through their respective conferences. To beat into the ground one of my all time favorite movie quotes, they are here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and they're all out of bubble gum.

The Pistons and Red Wings are kicking an amazing amount of ass.

The Red Wings have reached the 30 win mark faster than any team in their storied history. They, by far, have the best record in the NHL. For all intents and purposes, the Red Wings have all but locked up no worse than a 3 seed in the playoffs. Last night, Detroit played the team with the 2nd best record in the west, the Dallas Stars. In what was supposed to be a battle of west titans, the Wings beat them handily 4-1, extending their lead for the west's best record to 13(!) points.

With their easy win over the Wizards last night, the Pistons have won 10 games in a row. They have turned the NBA's Eastern Conference into a 2 team race. That other team, one that is getting heaps of love from the national MSM, are the Boston Celtics. It's ignored by the masses that the only team the Celtics have lost to on their home court is...the Pistons!

With the Wings and Pistons on the verge of making their regular seasons irrelevant, and both winning big last night, it's interesting to note that the local fishwraps have not a single opinion piece about either legitimate championship contender. The columnists have better things to do...

At the Freep, Michael Rosenberg trashes Matt Millen. Deserved, but done to fucking death. Their other big piece is a "SPECIAL REPORT" about the final days of Lloyd Carr. Nice enough, but it was done earlier and better by the AP's Detroit writer, Larry Lage. The Little Fella and Drew Sharp have nothing to say, which to be honest, is a good thing.

The News isn't much better. They do have the Wings beat writer's game recap at the top of the page (unlike the Freep, which is all Lions and Wolverines football), but their columnists are nowhere to be found. The only opinion pieces are a feature on Nike using a local paraplegic hoops player in their current advertising, and what's basically a love letter to MSU's retiring AD, Ron Mason.

But their big gun columnist, Wojo, and their pop gun columnist, the functionally retarded one, have nothing to say. Quite surprising in the case of the worst columnist in America, who has been in Joe Dumars' hip pocket for years...

A Mlive, it's SOP. A.Sherrod Blakely has his normal game recap, and game notes pieces. Same for Ansar Kahn, save for a short blurb about the Red Wings wanting an outdoors game (Hell, YES!), there's just a game recap.

As always, Detroit sports talk radio has been 80% Lions, 19% Wolverines, and the remaining 1%? Pretty much anything other than the NBA or NHL, let alone the Red Wings or Pistons. To drive home the lack of radio dap, last week Abel to Yzerman live blogged WDFN and WXYT (He deserves a medal of some sort for his bravery), and their stunning lack of Red Wings covererage. It's an illuminating read...

All this begs a question. Are there 2 teams in all of sports, both elite, both title contenders, that have been so throughly ignored by their local media entities?

Thank God for the Detroit blogosphere...

Here's to sites that cover the Pistons and Wings relentlessly. More so than the MSM.

Detroit Bad Boys, Need 4 Sheed, Pistons Nation, Pistons Palace, A2Y, Behind the Jersey, Lets' Go Wings, Gorilla Crouch, Hockeytown Todd, On the Wings, Winging it in Motown, Yzerman is God

If you aren't visiting these sites regularly, and/or have them in your RSS reader, you are missing out on some incisive opinions on two of the best teams in all of sports. And if there are any blogs I'm missing or don't know about (I'm sure there are, as the Detroit blogosphere is growing exponentially, faster than I can keep up), please let me know.

The MSM needs to realize that the Detroit sports fan cares about more than just football. Especially when the season is over, as it is for the Lions and Wolverines. We're a sports crazy city, and deserve better all around coverage from the folks that are getting paid to cover sports.

They are losing the battle for internet eyes, thanks to their old school tunnel vision.