Kwame vs. Kwame: Winners and losers

There's now a pair of Kwame's in Detroit. One is an overpaid, lazy disappointment. The other...Hell, I'm talking about both Kwame's, the Pistons' Brown and the city of Detroit's Kilpatrick.



Let's break down the winners and losers in a battle between an underachieving and immature NBA center and an unethical and under indictment big city mayor.

Welcome to the Kwame vs.Kwame showdown!

Kwame Brown: Skipped college, entered the NBA out of high school. Showed flashes of brilliance early in his basketball career, then backslid to the point of being considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.



Kwame Kilpatrick: Played football in college, then went into politics.Showed flashes of brilliance early in his political career, then backslid into a cesspool of corruption.



Loser: Kwame Brown. Brown has managed to enrage the fans in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Memphis, and soon, Detroit. Kilpatrick is 2 cities behind, though you could argue he has an entire state pissed at him.



KB: Somehow got Joe Dumars to sign him to a 2 year, $8 million contract to sit at the end of the bench. I can only guess there was some sort of blackmail involved.



KK: Stuck the already broke city of Detroit with a $9 million dollar lawsuit verdict after the courts agreed Kilpatrick tried to ruin the careers of 2 Detroit policemen who were investigating his antics.



Loser: The citizens of Detroit, as Brown is an anchor on the Pistons, and Kilpatrick's legal bills are skyrocketing thanks to his perjury indictments. The city may not be footing all of the bills, but no businessman in their right mind would even think about investing in the city. Maybe Brown, and his freshly minted $8 million, will...



KB: While a Laker, Brown was accused of rape during the 2006 playoffs, but was ultimately cleared of all charges.



KK: A serial adulterer, having hit on/slept with strippers, hookers, his chief of staff and any other woman within the Detroit city limits. Basically sleeps with everyone BUT his wife.



Loser: Women everywhere.



KB: Threw Ronny Turiaf's birthday cake at a fan.



KK: Involved in the "alleged" murder of a stripper at the mayoral mansion.



Loser: Tamara Greene.



KB: During a tight playoff series against the Chicago Bulls in 2005, Brown told the Washington Wizards he had a stomach virus, and was too ill to practice. Brown was later seen happily having dinner at a Chinese eatery. As it turns out, Brown lied to the Wizards, later claiming he was too pissed off at Gilbert Arenas to play. He was suspended for the remainder of the playoffs, then traded to LA soon after the season ended.



KK: Testified under oath he was not having an affiar with his chief of staff. Mounting evidence, including 14,000 text messages, says otherwise. A jury found Kilpatrick's testimony totally unbelievable, and awarded $9 million in damages to the 2 police officers he willingly slandered.



Loser: The truth.



KB: Was one of the centerpieces in one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history, as the Lakers traded Brown, several of benchwarmers and a couple of draft picks for All-Star Pau Gasol. The Lakers, led by Gasol, went on into the playoffs, while the Grizzlies spun into irrelevancy, finishing 22-60. The Grizz thought so little of their prize pickup, they let him walk in free agency. Memphis essentially traded Gasol for a couple of low 1st round picks.



KK: Arrested on assault charges when he shoved a police officer who was trying to serve a subpoena on his good friend, Bobby Ferguson. This is the same Bobby Ferguson who received preferential treatment and confidential information regarding his competition when bidding for city contracts.



Loser: Justice and fair play.



KB: Brown's draft day attire...

KK: Kilpatrick every day of the year...

Loser: Good taste.



I think the decision is clear. The loser in the battle of Kwame vs. Kwame is...You, me, everyone in Detroit and it's suburbs.



Buckle up folks, as it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I refuse to go into mourning over a pile of concrete and steel

I loved attending games at The Corner as much as anyone. I've said in the past I spent much of the 80's hanging out at Tiger Stadium. But from reading what are essentially obituaries in the local dailies the last few days, with Tigers fans making a final pilgrimage to Michigan and Trumbull, you'd think these people lost a close family member, instead of a piece of real estate they had no vested interest in, and occasionally vistited.

We should be happy for the memories we all have,

instead of in mourning. It's ONLY a stadium.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. Grown men and women crying over the destruction of the rusting hulk that are the remains of Tiger Stadium. It's not as if the memories have died. For that matter, it's not as if there is no longer a baseball team in Detroit, which would be worth shedding tears over.

Think about it, your memories come from the team that played there, and the people you attended the games with, not the stadium itself. It's just a large structure made of concrete and steel. Your memories are going nowhere, unlike a useless stadium that's a drain on Detroit's finances, and a blemish on the cityscape.

We should also realize not all the memories are good, and I'm not talking about bad baseball (Though we've seen plenty). I am talking about a team that did business in a way that was morally reprehensible for a very long time.

To a substantial number of Detroiters, Tiger Stadium stands as a symbol of past racism. Let's be honest, it's not as if the Tigers were anywhere near the forefront of breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. They were dragged into integration, kicking and screaming. The only team who took longer to integrate than the Tigers were the Boston Red Sox. It took 6 years after the death of Briggs for the Tigers to integrate, signing Ozzie Virgil in 1958 (!), and then only after Briggs' heirs were forced to sell the team.

When you are eulogizing the past of Tiger Stadium,

just remember whom you are also acknowledging...a racist owner.

Was the Tigers' owner, Walter O. Briggs Sr, a racist? Though Briggs saying "no black man would ever play for the Tigers" has not been directly attributed to him, his blatant racism has come to be accepted as fact. Many older, black Detroiters would tell you he was a racist, without question. His lack of action in regard to signing anyone of color for decades speaks for itself. Actually, it's pretty damn obvious in hindsight. Briggs only wanted a team as white as the sheets worn by the KKK wearing the Olde English D.

So for many people, the former Briggs Stadium does not evoke pleasant memories. It represents much of what was wrong with baseball, and by extension, we as a people, through the decades. When taken in that context, the demolition of Tiger Stadium should be considered a good thing. It's exorcising the memories of a long racist owner and sport.

We, as a city and state, have many more pressing issues at hand than the demolition of a well past it's life span white elephant. If you feel the need to say your goodbyes, feel free. I'm not going to stop you. But I won't be joining you.

Pros and Cons: Dave Bing for mayor of Detroit

Dave Bing is seriously investigating throwing his hat into the political ring, and running for mayor of Detroit. Personally, I think it makes too much sense to not happen. I just fear for Bing's sanity, jumping into the nasty muck and mire that is Detroit politics.

Who would you want to run Detroit?

Classy Mr. Bing?

Or big pimpin' King Kwame?

With Bing going public with his investigating a mayoral run, it's a good time to do a list of pros and cons. Let's determine, once and for all, if the former Piston is the city's savior, or just an older, basketball playing version of Kwame Kilpatrick...

Pro: Someone as respectable as Bing running the city of Detroit would greatly help in fixing Detroit's reputation.
Con: Detroit's reputation is so low, a skateboard riding dog as mayor would make the city look better.

Pro: Bing is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he used that status to great effect in building his business into a multi-million dollar operation.
Con: Kwame Kilpatrick is an ex-jock as well, a former college football player, and we saw how well that worked out. Hizzoner still has that sense of "I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT" entitlement that too many athletes use and abuse.

Pro: Bing has the business acumen to draw new economic entities to Detroit.
Con: Who wants to come to Detroit with so much controversy surrounding the city? Seriously. I'm extremely pro Detroit, but with the mayor facing felony charges, and now city council being investigated for corruption, the stench could linger for years...and years, and years, and years...

Pro: The respect people have for Dave Bing would go a long way in cleaning up the city.
Con: People may think Dave Bing is "Insane with a capital I," in wanting to run Detroit.

Pro: Bing has more class in his pinky finger than King Kwame, the serial adulterer, has in his entire body.
Con: Former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer was a pretty classy guy too, and he ended up walking away in utter disgust than run for another mayoral term. He had more than his fill of dirtying his hands in Detroit politics. The same could happen to Bing, while Kwame seems to revel in the city's dirty dealings.

Pro: Bing could make his Hall Of Fame teammate Bob Lanier his running mate. Hell, make him police commissioner!
Con: There is no con to Bob Lanier, he's a bad, bad man. (Just ask Kareem Abdul Jabbar!) Would you want to mess with The Dobber? You'd end up with a size 22 Converse All-Star where the sun don't shine.

Pro: Everybody likes Dave Bing, ex-Piston and current businessman. He has no enemies.
Con: Everybody will have an issue with the mayor of Detroit, be it Bing or the skateboarding dog. Politics is all about having, then dealing with, enemies.

Pro: The suburbs would love Dave Bing as mayor. He could undo the Coleman Young style politics King Kwame's embraced, pitting a mostly black city against the mostly white suburbs.
Con: The residents of Detroit hate anything the suburbs approve. Which is why I'd be scared to death that King Kwame would be re-elected, instead of moving forward with Bing, just to spite the suburbs.

Pro: Bing would clean the city of Kwame's cronies. Most of whom do nothing of import, and permeate every sector of Detroit public services. The city needs an enema, Bing's just the man to give it.
Con: There's so many cronies to eliminate, Detroit's unemployment stats would skyrocket.

Pro: No more stripper parties in the Manoogian Mansion...Not that stripper parties are a bad thing. (Just ones that end in someone's murder)
Con: Bing would be more discreet with the extra-curriculars, which at his age (64) wouldn't be quite so strenuous or amorous as King Kwame's. Say playing bingo or hitting the early bird senior specials at Denny's.

Pro: Dave Bing is already one of the best ambassadors the city has, and he could do even more in public office. He could add the term "Detroit's savior" to his already long list of accomplishments.
Con: There is no con to Dave Bing. He's as honorable as they come, and would put the needs of Detroit first, unlike the current administration. King Kwame is out for King Kwame, first, last and always. He placates his own wants and needs, such as traveling the country like a rock star, and having a security detail with a bigger roster than the Lions, than taking care of a needy city.

After going over the list, I've made a decision...

TWFE endorses Dave Bing for mayor of Detroit! Let's make it happen, folks.

Programming alert: TWFE is on the air!

4/30 10AM: Thought I'd give this a bump. We'll be on after WDET covers the latest Kwame Kilpatrick texting scandal news. First it's the President bumping us, now the mayor? Who's next? The Queen of England?!

Seriously, listen in, as it should be fun.

Addendum 4/29 10AM: Our roundtable has been postponed by President George W. Bush! WDET, being a public radio station, breaking news (W's holding a press conference) comes first. So our roundtable will be on Wednesday at 10AM instead!

4/29 9:45 AM: I 'm bumping this up, for those who didn't catch it yesterday...

I'll be appearing on "Detroit Today," which is broadcast on WDET 101.9 FM, Detroit Public Radio. If you are unable to tune in, click here to listen live over the web.

You can hear me today at 11AM as part of a blogger roundtable. I hope everyone can listen in.

Edit 4/28 10PM: Also confirmed to be on WDET's blogger roundtable are Bill Ferris of The Detroit Tigers Weblog, Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys and AOL's Fanhouse, and Bruce Macleod of Red Wings Corner and The Macomb Daily. It should be a fun listen with this group of bloggers!

Clichés remain the refuge of a newspaper hack

The longer I'm a sports fan, the longer I blog about sports, the more bullshit I see being spewed from the quickly dying medium commonly known as a newspaper.

For the most part, with a few exceptions, beat writers don't insult their readers with uneducated, meant to irritate tripe. I don't always agree with their coverage, and they are all too often in lockstep, reporting the same exact stories. Nevertheless, they are on the front lines, actually reporting.

Columnists, on the other hand...

There's a reason more and more fans are getting their sports opinion from the web. Because most columnists are phoning it in. The latest example of hackery I found tonight in the Freep. No, it's not a piece from the usual hacks (Though they are often guilty themselves), but a Bernie Lincicome column reprinted from the Rocky Mountain News.

I'm not even going to bother rebutting what this clueless fool says about Detroit and the Red Wings. It's the same tired clichés we've been subjected to in the past, by every newspaper hack in the damn country. Detroit's dirty, it's crime ridden, it's not "Hockeytown," as it should be called "Loserville," Hasek is old, so are the rest of the Wings, the octopus tradition is stupid...

Har-de-fucking-har-har.

I know this clown is attempting to put semi- coherent sentences together for a Denver readership, Avs fans who probably believe this was an awful piece of writing as well. If you are going to do the same flea bitten, overdone, unimaginative "our city is so much better than the opposition city" column every other piss ant, know-nothing fishwrap columnist in the fucking country feels the need to commit to print, at least be creative and funny about it.

What actually made me laugh was this Lincicome character is writing as if Detroit-Colorado is still a rivalry! It hasn't been one in quite some time, since the moment Patrick Roy tried his "Statue of Liberty" move in 2002. Which is also the last time the Avalanche were actually a factor in the Western Conference.

Hell, I'm guessing this guy is as much of a bandwagon rider most columnists are, only writing about hockey when the playoffs come around. Which is why he has to stoop down to the level of turning in a column full of bad jokes and insults, as he knows little about the sport to begin with.

Utterly lame columns as this are a prime example as to why newspapers are an endangered species. Your daily paper is too often full of opinions spewed from old, the stuck in the past curmudgeons who think an IBM Selectric is advanced technology. In other words, it's the same shit, different day and city.

In fact, the Freep is just as guilty, as the only reason they printed Lincicome's drivel is the same reason Drew Sharp still has a job. To get a pissy, knee-jerk reaction out of Detroiters. In the world of fishwraps, a bad reaction is better than the type they usually get, which is none. If they sell a few extra papers, and get a few more page views in the process, even if it's in anger, then they're happy.

Who needs it? I don't. Those of you who have realized how homogenized and dumbed down the newspapers have become, and now get the vast majority of their news and sports opinion from the web, don't either.

We have better things to do, like seek out educated, thoughtful, well written and funny sports opinion on blogs and web sites. Finding the same in newspapers is as rare as a Nick Lidstrom goal from center ice. It happens on the rare occasion, but you should never, ever expect it.

Finally!

The Freep has published a report stating the city of Detroit has finally awarded the contract allowing for the demolition of Tiger Stadium. Destruction will begin within a month's time.

Detroit’s Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public arm of the city, awarded the demolition contract to a joint venture of MCM Management Corp. of Bloomfield Hills and The Farrow Group of Detroit. The team will tear down the stadium at no cost to the city and make its money by selling the scrap, estimated to run $1 million or more in value.

Only in Detroit would it take the better part of a decade to demo the rusted hulk of a decrepit stadium, allowing a neighborhood to decline along with it. To allow the money pit known as The Corner stand for as long as it has is an embarrassment for the city, and to the legacy of the Tigers. The stadium been a festering pustule on Detroit's back for far too long.

The city has more than enough issues to deal with, everything from a corrupt mayor to population flight, that the demolition of Tiger Stadium is comparable to throwing a pebble in Lake Erie.

The ripple effect won't go very far...But it's start.

Why Detroit sports talk radio blows: Reason #532

I tune over to WKRK, 97.1 The Ticket, as I'm not a Jim Rome guy. Thanks to that unfortunate decision, I found myself listening to some of the most irritating radio I've EVER heard. Yes, even more irritating than Rome...

Scott Anderson and Doug Karsh have spent the last half hour arguing over the following...Was Eli Manning's prayer to David Tyree was a good or bad pass? I've lost part of my pitiful life listening to the most asinine, stupid and what the fuck forced discussion I've ever heard. By the way, that sound you hear is me kicking my own ass for listening to this tripe.

Are things that slow in Detroit that LOCAL sports talk radio is rehashing 1 fucking play in the Super Bowl? They could be discussing something closer to home, and much more meaningful. Say the absolute rampage the Red Wings and Pistons are on, or the Tigers signing Curtis Granderson.

But no! Let's not cover the 3 teams who may be the beat in their respective leagues. Let's spend the afternoon lamely arguing utter bullshit that is already old news.

By the way, it was one of those "NONONO...YES!" plays. Manning threw the ball up for grabs, Tyree made a great catch. Discussion over.

Unfortunately, the discussion is NEVER over on Detroit sports talk radio. They have to run a subject so far into the ground, you need an excavating crew to find it...

Pros and cons: Should Kwame Kilpatrick stay or go?

As it's pretty damn slow on the Detroit sports scene today, and I've milked it for all I could in my earlier posts, I wanted to touch on the Kwame Kilpatrick "situation" one more time. As Detroit's mayor is back on the job, even if he's not answering questions,I thought it might be fun to break down Kwame's pros and cons.

Kwame was unable to answer questions from the media,
as he was too busy conducting interviews to find his new Chief of Staff...

Trust me, it wasn't as easy as you might think, as it was much easier to come up with the cons...

Let's break down the Kilpatrick administration, shall we?

Pro: Kwame wears nice suits.
Con: If you are a first round NBA draft pick.

Pro: Kwame loves Detroit sports.
Con: He scores more often than the Red Wings and Tigers combined.

Pro: The Super Bowl went off without a hitch!
Con: Thanks to former mayor Dennis Archer laying all the groundwork! Kwame just took all the credit.

Pro: Kwame's administration has provided plenty of jobs...
Con: For his 150 man deep security entourage. For the rest of the city? Not so much.

Pro: Kwame travels all over the country to pump Detroit as a destination.
Con: He also brings along his mistress, and pumps her. Long and hard.

Pro: Kwame's serving his second term in office.
Con: His mistress is in her second trimester.

Pro: Despite his numerous peccadillo's, many of Detroit's voters still like the mayor.
Con: They liked Coleman Young too, need I say more?

Pro: He said he was sorry!
Con: Being sorry won't pay back the $9 million lawsuit settlement.

Pro: Kwame's wife stands by her man...
Con: Because she sure loves her Cadillac Escalade bought on Detroit's dime.

Pro: Kwame's former mistress resigned as chief of staff.
Con: Only to be replaced with his buddy, who's as responsible with his money as Pac Man Jones in a strip club.

Pro: All of Kwame's friends had a great time at parties thrown at the Manoogian Mansion.
Con: Save for that stripper that knew a little too much...

Detroit fishwrap comment of the day - Kwame Kilpatrick edition

I'm going to step away from sports for one post, much as Drew Sharp pulled a Little Fella and tried his hand at social commentary in today's Freep. His target? Detroit's embattled mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick.

Today's COTD is from the comments of Sharp's take down of the mayor. A Freep reader called midnight rider posts the following thoughts about a big city mayor under siege.

Time Magazine had it right back in 2005 by naming Kwame as one of the worst mayors in the US.

Here's the exerpt- The Nation's Worst Big-City Mayors (in alphabetical order):

Kwame Kilpatrick- Detroit: Equally at home in senior centers and hip-hop concerts, Kwame Kilpatrick, 34, inspired Detroit voters with his energy and determination when he rode into office three years ago. But a cherry red Lincoln Navigator has put a big dent in his reputation. After weeks of denying it, the mayor admitted in January that the city paid $24,995 to lease just such a car for his wife. That outlay showed what Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing Magazine, calls ?a tin ear for symbolism,? given that Detroit?s $230 million budget deficit has prompted the mayor to eliminate 3,000 city positions and end 24-hour bus service, TIME reports. He denies and then apologizes

I was born and raised in Detroit and watched the fall of the inner city and neighborhoods. Coleman Young poured money into projects like the RenCen and Hart Plaza while neighborhoods, parks and city services went to hell. Seems like we have second coming of Coleman with Kwame. Detroit is the laughing stock of the US- What a joke!

This comment parrots my opinion of the quandary Kwame finds himself in. His screw-ups just confirm the prejudices outsiders have about Detroit, and it's citizens. The state, all of southeast Michigan, and Detroit, are now a laughing stock.

You'd think the controversy was a movie of the week. The honorable (term used loosely) mayor cheats on his wife with his chief of staff, fires the deputy police chief, amongst others, in covering up his actions, lies about his infidelity while under oath, ultimately costing Detroit $9 million in cash the city doesn't have, in a court judgment awarded to the unjustly fired cops. The mayor is now under investigation for perjury.

The whole sordid story breaks in the Free Press last Wednesday, Kilpatrick goes into hiding for a week, and breaks his silence in a woe-is-me-I'm-so-sorry TV speech last night.

You can see the STEAM rising from her ears. That is one pissed off wife...

Yet many Detroiters are defending Kwame. They blame the media for exposing the mayor to be a corrupt, immature, incompetent public servant. Typical cloistered, short-term, Detroit-style thinking. I should know, as I lived in Detroit for close to a decade. (Don't look at me, I didn't vote for the philandering mayor) Yes, this small town, white bread country boy got to put up with the city's bullshit on a daily basis.

I left Detroit about 2 1/2 years ago, but I didn't bail out on the city because I was driven away. My life changed, and my physical ailments meant I had to downsize my life considerably. Ultimately, I moved back home. If I had the ability, I'd still be living in the city.

Honestly, I LOVED being in the D. I lived in a very safe, full of families, racially mixed, middle class neighborhood. Yes, Detroit has those, it's not all slums and ghettos, despite people who NEVER lived in the city would have you believe. I never felt threatened or out of place. It was great being a short drive from all the cool downtown areas of Detroit, and believe me, there are plenty.

I'm amongst the first to defend Detroit. But to see what's going on now disgusts me.

The longer this used car salesman disguised as a mayor stays in office, the more we'll see of the suburbs (ie: whites) vs Detroit (ie: blacks) issues we had for the near entirety of Coleman Young's tenure. Hizzhonor drew the battle lines back in the 70's. Dennis Archer did his best to bring the area back together, with a fair amount of success. Unfortunately, Kilpatrick is doing his damnedest to create that schism between the suburbs and city again.

After watching his speech blaming everyone but himself this morning, I found Kwame's use of religion as a shield deplorable. Paraphrasing, "This is between me. my wife, and our God." Bullshit. Total and utter BULLSHIT. Not when your infidelity, then covering it up, cost an already flat broke city $9 million!

Yet, after all the lies and criminal actions, he has the absolute gall to take the moral high ground, and give the speech from a church? A CHURCH? Talk about pandering to your populace. That's all Kwame's speech was, pandering to the voter's heartstrings, their faith, and their us against them feelings when it comes to the media and suburbs.

As someone who's marriage was broken up by my wife's infidelity, I have absolutely no respect for those that do cheat on their spouses. I hold them in even more contempt when adultery is committed by someone who claims to be religious. So to say I have NO respect for Kwame Kilpatrick is an understatement.

Cheating is bad enough, though as morally repugnant as you may find it, it's not against the law. But to then lie about it under oath? Committing a felony? Trying to ruin the lives of innocent police officers? Costing your city MILLIONS? There is no defending his actions. You just can't do it.

The more I think about Kwame's past actions, his current blame everyone else attitude and what his farce of an administration is costing, not only Detroit, but southeast Michigan as a whole, in money and reputation, the more pissed off I become.

I hope Kilpatrick is brought up on perjury charges, and they throw the fucking book at him. But why do have have the nagging feeling that his former chief of staff, whom has resigned in disgrace, will ultimately be the culprit thrown under the bus, and the Teflon mayor will walk away relatively scot-free?

It's the Detroit way...

I'm sick and tired

I'm sick and tired. Mostly in thanks to my body clock still running on Pacific time, and managing to catch a cold while in Vegas. But that's not the only reason I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired of a lot of things.

I'm especially sick and tired of certain memes and stereotypes that continually pop up when I read about the Detroit sports scene. Such as...

1. Jokes about Matt Millen drafting wide receivers.

They were once funny...4 years ago. Now it's just an uncreative, lazy, cheap shot. I'm not saying that Millen doesn't deserve every possible cheap shot you can throw at him, as he does, but let's move the fuck on, OK?

There's plenty of other material to rip Millen about, from the awful Dre' Bly trade, to the drafting of Drew Stanton at the expense of strengthening the defense, to his 70's porn 'stache, to his horrific W-L record as GM. I'm calling for a moratorium on Millen/wide receiver jokes.* I'm begging you, this is one horse that is truly beat to death.

*Unless he drafts another wide out in the 2008 NFL draft, then all bets are off.

2. Drew Sharp's Big 10 bashing.

I know that the Big 10 is down. Has been for a couple of seasons. I have nothing against calling out the Big 10 when it's deserved, and believe me, it's often deserved. But Sharp's ludicrous Big 10 hatred is has become absolutely irrational, to the point of stupidity. His asinine column in today's Freep pushed me over the edge.

They could have removed the schools' names and just put the score "Big Ten 41, Mid-American Conference 41" up there because that's what everybody really saw.

As much as the Big Ten loves getting another bowl payday to fatten its already bloated coffers, the conference has always understood the potential risk of embarrassment should it lose to a non-BCS conference opponent in a bowl game.

And hasn't the conference's reputation suffered enough this season?

The Big Ten can only breathe a small sigh of relief.

The Boilermakers barely won the game as time expired, but it was the little MAC that ultimately proved victorious.

First off, in the big scheme of things, the Motor City Bowl is a meaningless game, especially for the Boilermakers. Think they were fired up to play in Detroit? In late December? Against a team they had already beaten earlier this season? Me neither. And just how were the MAC and Chips victorious? They lost the game. A game most folks will forget ever happened a month from now. In fact, I don't believe CMU thought taking Purdue to the final gun was a moral victory, if that is what Sharp was implying. That's giving CMU too little credit.

Sharp shouldn't be surprised that the 7th place Big 10 team, in what was the worst Big 10 season in recent memory, struggled to beat the CHAMPIONS of the Mid-American Conference. Metro Detroit is dead center in MAC country, and we've seen enough of those teams to know that elite MAC squads can play with many BCS conference schools. Especially mid to lower level ones. It's fair to say that Purdue is exactly that, for this season anyway, a mid to lower level BCS team.

Sharp's claim that the Big 10 and the Boilermakers should be embarrassed is actually an huge insult to the Mid-American Conference and the Chippewas. Purdue beat a solid team, not some bottom feeder. It was one Hell of a game, and why not leave it at that?

All I can say about Sharp's irrational need to trash the Big 10 at EVERY opportunity is this...Put a God damn sock in it, Sharp! He's bitched so often, for so long, his Big 10 commentary has become nothing more than white fucking noise.

3. Using old Detroit stereotypes in lame attempts at humor.

I highly respect Every Day Should Be Saturday. I read it every day. It may be is the best and funniest college sports blog around. But we all know that humor is hard, and Orson Swindle took the easy way out writing about the Motor City Bowl yesterday. In posting the infamous picture of the late Bubba Helms holding up a Tigers pennant front of a burning cop car from the 1984 World Series, EDSBS went for the obvious joke, the easy joke, the unfunny joke. You know the one...



What bothered me is that I expect better from EDSBS. Something more creative than dissing the Motor City Bowl because...Well, because it's in Detroit.

We Michiganders can joke about Detroit stereotypes because we know the vast majority are no longer true.

Hell, I lived within Detroit city limits for a decade, and I never saw anything burn...Nearby. //rimshot// I didn't hear gunshots every day...Only every other day. //rimshot//

Truthfully, I love the city of Detroit. It's far from perfect, but it does not deserve near the amount of shit it gets from outsiders.

I've said it before, falling back on easy stereotypes are the refuge of a hack. Anyone that's not from here, when going for the easy, cheap laugh, will always go for the "Detroit will burn" joke. I'm not sure if it was ever funny, but it sure as Hell isn't anymore. Just ask Jimmy Kimmel.

The 2009 NCAA Final Four logo has been unveiled...

and it's...A BURNING TIRE?


As Detroit is the host for the '09 Final Four, with it being played at Ford Field, I'm not sure if the logo of a tire in flames is fitting, or if the city should be insulted.

And just what is the reasoning behind a burning tire representing a Detroit based Final Four?

“You know, I have no idea,” said (Bill) Ryan, the executive director of the Detroit Local Organizing Committee, “ … so I will tell you that it means we’re one of the hottest sports towns in the country.”

Uh, if you want to believe that, you go right ahead...

Another day, another plan to save Tiger Stadium

I love living in this area. I was born here, and I'll die here. Despite all the crap Detroit and southeast Michigan take from those in other parts of the country (Just spend a minute reading the lowest common denominator comments on the Detroit Free Press' web site, I dare you. It's disgusting how some dillweeds talk trash about this state), who have either never spent any time here, or left long ago, this area is still a great place to live.

I'm not talking as someone who only went to Detroit for concerts and sporting events. I had a Detroit address, living on the far west side, for close to a decade. I'll say this, all the time I spent in Detroit and environs, I never ever felt unsafe, or at risk.

For all that is good about this area, there is one thing that has always bothered me. The way we refuse to move on from an issue, no matter how hopeless, or futile, it may be. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this...

The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy has submitted its proposal to save a portion of the ballpark as the city moves forward with demolition plans for other parts of the aging structure.

Here we go, another plan to save part of Tiger Stadium. Why can't we let the old building die with a little dignity? Why do we feel the need to save even a part of a building that is in as good of shape as the Roman Coliseum?

Come on, put the place out of it's misery...

The deed should have been done a decade ago, but we in Michigan just have to drag out the inevitable for years and years. It's long past time to let Tiger Stadium go.

It's nice that Ernie Harwell has endorsed this latest plan. But he should know better than anyone just how bad of shape Tiger Stadium is at this point. It was out of date when he started calling Tiger games in 1960. It's been on a slow downhill slide ever since.

This group claims their proposal is a $10-$12 million dollar project.

The Conservancy wants to keep about 3,000 seats from dugout to dugout and the entire infield. The $10 million to $12 million project could be developed into a museum commemorating the city's sports history.

Have any of you ever bought a fixer upper? My first house was just that, and the repairs ended up costing one Hell of a lot more than my then wife and I originally anticipated. Our budget was blown sky high. We would have been financially better off spending the money on a place that didn't need near as much the work.

In Tiger Stadium, you have the ultimate fixer upper.

So when I hear that saving a few thousand Tiger Stadium seats, from dugout to dugout, is only going to cost $10-$12 million dollars? Color me skeptical. Considering how dilapidated the Corner was in 1997, and that there has been no upkeep in the decade since, you'd be much better off building a museum from scratch.

Let alone they use the words "Could be developed as a museum." That doesn't come across as a very sound plan to me. What it does sound like is another pie in the sky project, one that keeps the city from moving forward, but the clueless Tiger Stadium Fan Club happy.

Then I read the following...

"We included some information about how we are going to get the funding. That's pretty basic in terms of reaching out to corporate donors and foundations"

Hold on a second. Did I read that correctly?

They don't have the funding in place, just a PLAN to get funding? Good Lord, let's get real. They want to save part of Tiger Stadium, yet they don't have the money on hand to do so. But not to worry, as they have a PLAN to raise the money. They want to find corporate donors in an area that has the worst economy in the NATION? You want to stop progress for a group that has NO FUNDING IN PLACE?

Just how long will it take them to get the funding to do what it takes to make this so-called plan to come to fruition? A year? 5 years? 10 years?

My guess is this will only serve to keep Tiger Stadium on life support for who knows for how God damn long. The last thing the city needs is for this white elephant to continue to rot from the inside out, and keep the Corktown area from getting the help it needs, being some sort of realistic retail/housing/entertainment development. You know, a development that actually has funding...

I have a plan too! My plan won't take years to implement. I call it, for lack of a better name, "The Big Al plan."

It involves a truckload of dynamite, a wrecking ball or 3, a handful of bulldozers and trucks, tons of fill, and a nice plaque saying Tiger Stadium once stood at this location.

Now that's a God damn plan! It's practical, cheap, quick, and sensible. My plan will allow us to put an end to the "Save the Corner" silliness. And that's just what it is, silliness.

Please, make it stop. We've heard ENOUGH about Boston sports

I'm up to here with news about Boston teams, and hearing how good they are currently, going to be, or used to be. Enough already!

Did you know that Kevin Garnett was traded to the greatest NBA team of all time, the Boston Celtics? That he's going to play alongside Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and win multiple titles?

How could you not?

All I've heard since the trade was made is that this makes Boston the favorite in the east, and that having a Celtics team that matters is in the NBA's best interest. Of course, many of those those pronouncements are coming from Boston fans and the east coast centric media.

I thank God every day that there isn't a suck ass movie about the Detroit Pistons fanbase...

First off, having a team that matters in ANY large media market, not just Boston, is in the NBA's best interest. If the Celtics played in Charlotte, multiple titles or not, no one would give a shit.

Till the Celtics find a legit point guard and a center, the only championship they'll have locked up is the one for hype. Hype that the rest of the nation is already tired of in regard to any and every Boston team. (See the hype over the Eric Gagne trade. I hear the Red Sox have already won the AL pennant, and for that matter, Randy Moss has won the 2008 Super Bowl for the Patriots.)

Speaking of hype, has there been a team more hyped in the NFL off season than the Patriots?

Sure, the Pats were bad to average for most of their existence, but since they started winning big? The Pats, and their fanbase, have become insufferable. Tom Brady is better than Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, and Joe Montana, combined. Bill Belichick is not an adulturer who broke up a marriage, but a genius, if not a God. The Patriots have become the "Team " all should emulate. Lord help me...

The expectations for the Patriots, already high, are now through the roof, thanks to their acquiring an admittedly talented, but also a troublemaking, lazy, and well known locker room cancer, wide receiver Randy Moss. If you believe Pats fans, and the MSM (With Belichick acolyte Peter King on point), Moss will lead the Pats to several Super Bowls.

Actually, the only thing Moss has ever lead any team to is trouble, and the nearest bong. But to a championship? Never. But that's not keeping the Boston hype machine from shifting into overdrive.

As bad as it once was for Patriots fans, we've never heard the end as to how tough it is to root for the Red Sox. Right. I'm damn sure it's soul-suckingly hard to root for a team whose payroll rivals the GNP of most European countries.

In case you didn't know, Red Sox fans aren't the only fanbase that has ever suffered. In fact, to say they "Suffered" is overstating things by more than just a little bit, you think?

Historically, the BoSox are almost always competitive, more often than not make the playoffs, can afford to sign the best free agents, and have been doted upon by the MSM. That's suffering?

If given a choice between rooting for the Red Sox, or watching "Fever Pitch,"
I'd have to ask...Is death an option?

So they had some near misses before they won it all in 2004. Ask a fan of, say the Cubs, Mariners or Brewers, if they'd rather have "Suffered" as much as the Boston Red Sox fan. They've had just as much, if not more, heartbreak, than your average Red Sox fan, yet you don't see HBO specials, or awful Jimmy Fallon movies, about those fans. (Let's not even talk about the embarrassment that was "Celtic Pride." Think Dan Aykroyd lists that turkey on his resume?)

Boston fans aren't as special as they'd like to think. They are just like any you would find in Detroit, Philly, or Chicago, to name just 3 cities. Actually, when it comes down to it, they are just as much the bandwagon type in Beantown as you'd find in any other big league city.

The Bruins are ignored. Hell, they've ignored the NHL since Cam Neely retired, and started showing up in every Farrelly brothers flick. The Celtics have been long headed in the same direction as the Bruins, till Danny Ainge somehow stumbled across Ray Allen and Garnett. After those trades, the fans in Boston are going to jump on the Celtics' bandwagon so fast and hard, they'll break it.

Here's a shocker... The sports world does not revolve around the New York-Boston axis. If the Sox don't make the playoffs, despite what the worldwide leader and FOX would like you to believe, the sports world will not come to an end, and the nation will still care who wins the World Series. Same goes for the Patriots and the NFL, and the Celtics and the NBA.

Regardless of rumors to the contrary, the Stanley Cup still gets contested for every year, despite Boston no longer giving a shit about the Bruins. The BCS is still quite the big deal, even though the northeast cares as much about college football as much as I care to watch "Fever Pitch" and "Celtic Pride."

Is there a sports fan with a bigger sense of entitlement than the fans in Boston? Good lord, no. In fact, the Boston sports fan is "Hubris" defined. Supposedly, no fan is better, no fan cares as much, no fan has suffered as long, and no city is as rabid about sports than they are Boston. And they'll tell you as such...

At least, for today anyway, it isn't all about Boston. The Sporting News saw fit to honor a city and fanbase that doesn't have the arrogant pretension of the entitled Boston fan...

Only in Detroit...

The never ending saga of what to do with Tiger Stadium continues in a city that has too many politicians looking out for themselves, rather than the needs of the populace. In today's Freep, I saw this comment from one of the rocket scientists on Detroit's city council, councilwoman JoAnn Watson.

"It would be ridiculous to demolish an existing structure without having a developer lined up."

Does Watson even realize that she's talking about the crumbling health hazard of a structure once known as Tiger Stadium? That it hasn't been used in several years, and was barely maintained for several more years beforehand? That it's an albatross, a white elephant, a structure that has no reasonable use to the city?

I'm no real estate wizard, but it just seems that if you had a lick of common sense, you'd think that the land Tiger Stadium sits on would be more attractive to developers if there wasn't a rotting from the inside out ABANDONED STADIUM on said land?

It's insane to think that the city would be better off keeping the damn thing standing one second more than necessary. But mental competency was never a prerequisite for being elected to Detroit city council.

Then I read this...

People who wish to save the ballpark have charged that Kilpatrick and his aides have ignored viable plans.

There are no viable plans for a stadium that should have been imploded 7 years ago. I'm no engineer, but to even to a layman, it's obvious that the cost of doing anything with Tiger Stadium's infrastructure would be cost prohibitive at this point. The stadium is long past saving.

Despite that fact, the back and forth continues between the mayor's office, which wants to move forward, starting with the demolition of Tiger Stadium, and the city council, which still grasps to the pie in the sky dream that a good part of the stadium could be salvaged by a developer's plan.

A decade or ewo ago, that might have been possible. In 2007? You have be kidding me.

A pair of plans, as usual, are mentioned. There's the "Navin Plan," which would salvage 10,000 seats, and be used for a NONEXISTENT minor league baseball team.

"There's vitality and there is interest in Tiger Stadium as it exists now," said Louis Beer, a proponent of the Navin Plan.

That's a joke, right? Interest as it exists now? Who's interested in a dump? A dump that will cost a fortune to fix?

There's also the "Michigan Hall of Fame Plan," which wants to save 20% of the stadium. Why 20%? Why not 10%? Why not 22%. Why does any % need to be saved?

For that matter, does anyone ever go to the Michigan Hall of Fame? Let alone know where it's located? Isn't it just a hallway full of plaques in the bowels of Cobo Hall? So why would anyone ever go to the hall, even if it was part of what remained Tiger Stadium?

Seems to me, that the only person making sense in the Tiger Stadium debacle is, amazingly enough, mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. What's his plan? The mayor's plan would preserve the historic playing field, and ring it with retail and residential development.

Wow! Something the city could actually use, a park surrounded bynew housing and businesses. Which would be that much easier to implement, if a useless structure wasn't just sitting there, costing the city money.

What about the people most affected by that rusting hulk, the residents and business owners in Corktown?

But Dia Pearce, a resident of the Corktown neighborhood where the stadium is located, favored immediate demolition.

"We fear that houses will not sell in this community as long as we have other empty properties" such as the stadium. "Let some development happen in our community."

That thinking is much too logical for city council, or the save the stadium proponents. Blow it up, clean up the land, property values go up, and I'd bet developers would line up with useful proposals in hand.

But I'm not an expert in land development, unlike Detroit city council. Wait! They aren't experts either, just a bunch of political hacks.

The fact that the fate of Tiger Stadium is still being debated should be an embarrassment to the city of Detroit, and the state of Michigan.

Roundtables, Placido Polonco to the ASG, and other links

I've been totally lax on linking recently. That changes today. On to the link dump...

First off, I was asked by Christy of Behind the Jersey to contribute to her bloggers roundtable about the merits of Detroit's status as a pro and college sports mecca, along with several other notable local bloggers. The eyeopening viewpoints were a fun and informative read. It's a 5 part series, so set aside some time...

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Scott of Quo Vadimus took a one look at the undeserving Robinson Cano of the evil empire leading Placido Polonco in the AL 2nd base All-Star game voting, and thought that wasn't right. Well, Scott's not one to take such a thing lying down, so he's begun a grassroots blogroots All Star voting campaign known as "Go to the Polls for Placido!"


Count me in, as Polonco should be the starting AL 2nd baseman in the Midsummer Classic. To do your part, head to the MLB All Star game site, and stuff those electronic ballot boxes!

While you're there, write in Curtis Granderson, who was inexplicably left off of the AL ballot. For that matter, Magglio Ordonez, whom the worldwide leader has at number 1 in their "Top 100 " player ratings, is 5th (?) in the AL outfield voting. That's not right. So do your part folks, and move some deserving Tigers up in the popularity contest fan voting for the All Star game starting lineup.

Steve Nash Andrew at the Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass talks about "Wacky Races," "The Wild One," "Blade Runner," the animated version of the Dark Knight, and also squeezes in his thoughts on the Tigers' pitching staff. For what it's worth, I think "Blade Runner" is a great movie too, but I'm not sure I buy the idea that Dekkard is actually a replicant.

Angry Chief seems especially angry today at Check out my HEMI, while pondering Detroit sports losing streaks and office restroom etiquette. I suggest going to coffee strategy, Chief.

I can tell school's out, and Sam finally has more time on her hands, as she's posting damn near every day at Roar of the Tigers. One of her recent posts I found most interesting was her solution to the Tigers bullpen woes. Trade for CJ Wilson of the Rangers. He's a good pitcher, but after hearing him during a Rangers broadcast, Sam's even more sold on his intangibles. In other words, he's a funny guy! At the very least, Wilson could add a little wackiness to a bullpen that is missing both Joel Zumaya's fastball and off-center personality, and the give Detroit blogosphere tons to write about.

Clubber Lang's Basement is back after a long absence, and like the rest of us, the Tigers' bullpen is of primary concern. BAW says if the Tigers don't do something, he's either going to be bald or a dead man. To paraphrase that well known educator Dean Wormer...Dead, stressed, and bald is no way to go through summer, son...

On a quick note I want to thank the guys who gave me some advice and guidance in response to my domain and hosting questions. Expect replies soon...

Wishful thinking is a fan's right, but lets be realistic about it

News: Gilbert Arenas will opt out of his Wizards deal after this coming season.
Fan wishful thinking: The Pistons need to sign Agent Zero!
Reality: Never, ever going to happen. Arenas is going to get a shitload of cash, probably a max deal. Odds are the Pistons will have signed Chauncy Billups to a long term, 13-14 million dollar a year contract. Considering how Bill Davidson despises the luxury tax, let alone his refusal to give max deals, it's going to choke his goat to just sign Billups. He'd never go for Gilbert Arenas. Agent Zero is highly marketable, extremely entertaining, well spoken, and most importantly, a legitimately talented player. Arenas would blow up as a national personality if he signed in a big market, that's if he doesn't stay with the Wiz. He's not coming to the D.

News: Dante Culpepper is persona non grata in Miami. He's currently trying to broker a deal to be traded to another team. That's if he isn't cut by the Fish in the meantime. Either way, the former nemesis of the Lions is not going to stay in Miami.
Fan wishful thinking: The Lions need Culpepper!


Reality: Culpepper is still not healthy after his 2005 catastrophic knee injury. The Dolphins know he's damaged goods, and won't be ready for the start of the 2007 season. In fact, Culpepper may never again be the elite QB we saw when he had 2 good knees and a motivated Randy Moss catching his passes. The Lions, or should I say, Millen and Marinelli, need to win now, or risk another fan revolt. After a 3-13 season, Millen and Marinelli need a healthy, veteran QB who already knows the Mike Martz offense. Which means, for better or more likely worse, Jon Kitna is entrenched as the Lions QB. They would never sign a QB who has high risk, even that also means high reward, written all over him.

News: The Tigers take 2 of 3 from the Mets, no thanks to the bullpen, thanks to the best offense in baseball. Yesterday, Jim Leyland finally admitted, in so many words, that the bullpen must improve. Otherwise, as Leyland said, "At some point, you look to make changes. It's that simple."
Fan wishful thinking: Blow up the bullpen! Make a trade! Bring up Andrew M...Oh, he's already up. Bring up somebody! Anybody!


Reality: Finally, wishful thinking that may come to fruition, for more than a few reasons. Leyland has gone public with his opinion about the bullpen, calling them out in the media. Kenny Rogers is a week or 2 away from rejoining the rotation, if his performance last night in Toledo is any indication. The aforementioned Andrew Miller has been brought up as an injury replacement twice, won both times, and looks as if he may be in the bigs to stay. Chad Durbin has passed both Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth in effectiveness. Speaking of Robertson, he's due to come off the DL in a week. There are several near big league ready arms in the minors. That leaves the Tigers with that extreme rarity, excess starting pitching. Rumors have been flying about the Tigers interest is several different relievers. Something is going to happen, and I bet it's going to be soon.

Just knock the damn thing down already

The news came today that Tiger Stadium will be mo more by September 2008. Unfortunately, that gives the city 15 months to screw it up. Somehow, I believe it will be.

My first thought was the same as Bilfer's...

"I’ll still believe it when I see it."

Exactly. Not until I actually see the wrecking balls in place, the explosive charges go off, and they start picking through the wreckage, will I believe that the Corner will finally meet it's put off for much too long end.

Just put the place out of it's misery.

I loved Tiger Stadium as much as the rest of you, but enough is enough. In the final years years of Tiger Stadium, it was a decrepit, rusted out, hulking shell of a stadium.

Come on people, it's time to let go of the past. Your memories blind you to the hard, cold facts about Tiger Stadium.

If you had 1 of the 10,000 or so seats with a clear shot of the field, there wasn't a better view in all of baseball. But to go along with those 10,000 great seats, there were at least 20.000 with some sort of obstructed view. And if you actually got stuck with a seat whose ticket was actually marked and sold as "Obstructed view," you literally had a steel girder in your lap.

Tiger Stadium was already well out of date in 1960. Hitler's bomb shelter had more amenities. The Berlin Wall had more charisma than the outside facade of Tiger Stadium. The Roman vomitoriums had wider and cleaner concourses. To use either the bathrooms or the concessions, there was a 3 inning long line. Had to visit both? You missed most of the game.

In spite of all those hassles, I loved going to Tiger Stadium. But you know what? I love going to Comerica Park even more.

Those of you who still want to save Tiger Stadium? Please. That ship sailed 2 decades ago. Tiger Stadium is not going to be saved, nor should it. The state, the city, and especially the stuck in the past fans, all need to move on.

We have a world class, state-of-the-art, stadium in Comerica Park. The 2006 season showed us all how wonderful a place it really can be. There has been no need for time to stand still around Tiger Stadium for the past 7 years. The fact that the rusted out eye sore is still standing should be an embarrassment to all of us in Southeastern Michigan.

I'd be thrilled to be the one to push the plunger, hit the button, turn the key, whatever you need to do to set off the dynamite charges. I'm in favor of anything that will pull the plug on Tiger Stadium's life support.

But, just as Bilfer said, "I'll still believe it when I see it."

I'll give you 2-1 odds that Tiger Stadium still standing when the 9/08 deadline comes and goes.

That's one bet I'll be more than happy to lose.

The 5 most hated men in Detroit sports

5. The Detroit Lions QB - Currently Jon Kitna: No matter who quarterbacks the Lions, he makes the list. There is no such thing as a free pass given to a Lions QB. The honeymoon between Lions fans and whomever becomes the Lions QB lasts only a matter of minutes, or until the first turnover. Jon Kitna was no exception.

His 4th quarter implosions snatched defeat from the jaws of victory several times in 2006. Sure, Ktina did throw for over 4ooo yards, but it was the emptiest, least effective, and least celebrated 4000 yard season in NFL annals. Yet the Lions brass continue to insist that Kitna was the QB of the here and now, and will be for the length of his contract, which is for another (Gulp) 3 seasons.

Not that the Lions aren't hedging their bets. The next man to be on this list was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2007 NFL draft, the Lions QB of the future, Drew Stanton. He claims to be excited to have been drafted by his hometown team. Ah, the sweet naivete of youth. He chooses to ignore what a buzzsaw of hatred he's walking into.

Stanton will learn soon enough.

4. Robert Lang: Lang is unquestionably uber-talented, but is also uber-lazy. Not since the days of Keith Premeau, another notorious underachiever, has a Red Wings player frustrated fans to the point of such hatred.

Robert Lang was acquired with much fanfare in 2004, and was expected to carry a big part of the scoring load. He turned out to be just a load.

iwoCPO at Abel to Yzerman tagged Lang as "The Enigma," for good reason. You never knew what Robert Lang you were going to see on any given night. Unfortunately, the longer his tenure in Detroit, the less we saw of the "Good" Lang.

Lang's 2007 playoffs may have been his crowning underachievement. His lackadaisical effort was only topped by his playing much smaller than his considerable size, bringing not just his line, but also the entire Red Wings team, down to his level.

The screams for Lang's benching were heard long and wide, but ultimately ignored, this past spring. During the Calgary and Anaheim series, he was public enemy number one. In most fan's minds, the Red Wings won despite of Lang, and lost because of him.

3. Neifi Perez: The Black Hole of Suck is the worst offensive player in the major leagues. Let me qualify that... The Black Hole of Suck is the worst offensive player in the history of baseball.

TBHoS is the 25th man on the Detroit Tigers roster, but he's numero uno on every Tigers fan's hit list. TBHoS may just be the most hated Detroit Tiger since the one-two cock punch that was Bobby Higginson and Juan Gone.

What of Jose Mesa, you ask? The hate for Joe Table burned with a white hot intensity, but it was mercifully short lived. The bubbling hate for TBHoS has been a constant Tigers fan companion since his senseless acquisition by a temporarily insane Dave Dombrowski in August 2006.

TBHoS has made enemies everywhere he goes. The fact that TBHoS somehow has a multi-million dollar contract riles every fan's ire to the point of becoming irrational. There isn't bigger proof of baseball's fiscal insanity than TBHoS, and his 2.5 million dollar per season contract.

Fans rejoice whenever TBHoS gets shipped unceremoniously out of town. Every fan in Detroit eagerly awaits the moment when we get our chance to rejoice the departure of TBHoS. Those tears of joy cannot happen soon enough.

2. Flip Saunders: Flip is number 2 with a bullet. He managed to generate a shitload of fan hatred in an impressively short period of time, thanks to his unfathomable decision making against the Bulls and LeBron's.

Starting the 4th quarter of a win or go home game with your offensively challenged backup guards, while your All-Star backcourt watches the season go down in flames on the bench, was the final straw in most fan's minds. By coaching game 6 of the NBA ECF like it was game 50 of the regular season, Flip pegged the hate meter right then and there.

Flip has become the poster coach for those who do less with more. He might be the best regular season coach around, but unfortunately for Flip, playoff basketball is his kryptonite. He somehow manged to burn up all the goodwill built up over a decent 2007 regular season.

With the news today that Flip was somehow keeping his coaching gig, and will come back for a 3rd season of cluelessness, we just may have Matt Millen's heir apparent as the most hated man in Detroit.

1. Matt Millen: Placing the incompetent boob in the number 1 spot was a no-brainer, much like Millen himself. Do I really need to say anything more? So I'm just going to use something I wrote earlier this year as to why Millen is hated with such burning, scathing, all-encompassing rage by the long suffering Detroit Lions fanbase...

Millen is historically bad. Legendarily bad. The sort of bad that will be talked about for generations. When you look up bad in the encyclopedia, you'll see Millen's picture. Millen will be the comparison used when talking about how low a GM can take a franchise. Millen is so bad, that no other GM will ever be allowed to surpass Millen's ineptness, as they would have been canned long before they could do Millen-esque damage to a franchise.

That's why Millen is the most hated man in Detroit.

I've never seen 1 man take on 5, and win. I can now mark that off the list

I can't believe I watched one man literally beat five. That's not overstating things. LeBron James singlehandedly beat the Detroit Pistons in game 5 of the NBA ECF, 109-107, in double overtime.

James scored, drained, hit, and dropped what seemed like the last 50 Cavaliers points. Actually, it was the last 29 of 30 points, 25 straight, and obviously every single point in the 2 OT's. Those sort of numbers don't seem real, something that you would only see in a video game. But it did happen, and it's was all too real to the Pistons.

The last time I saw something even remotely similar was the famous Bernard King - Isiah Thomas duel in the 1st round of the 1984 playoffs, which also ended in a Pistons loss. (That was the game where Thomas just took over, and scored 16 consecutive points in the final 1:33 of regulation. Isiah's performance was the damnedest thing I've ever seen...Till tonight, that is) But that was a Pistons team on the rise. This one? It's reached a plateau, and more likely, is on the downside.

I'm not sure what to make of this game. I do know this. You'll never, ever convince me that the Cavs are the better team. No way, no how. Take one specific player off that roster, and they don't finish .500.

But the Cavs have, by head and shoulders, the best player. And in the new NBA, that is more than enough.

As for the game itself? Where do you start? For the Pistons, it starts, and maybe ends, with the Antonio McDyess ejection. I have to ask, does having Antonio McDyess for the entire game make any difference in this game? Honestly, I'm not sure, and we'll never know.

As for the foul itself, without question it was a hard, hard foul. But did McDyess deserved to be tossed? Give him a "Flagrant 1," and move on. The "Flagrant 2" call was total and absolute BS.

In the 1980's, this was an offensive foul. OK, maybe a no-call. Now it's a called "Flagrant 2," and you get sent to your locker room to think about what a bad thing you just did

I won't use the term "Criminal," as it's only a basketball game, but incompetent, ludicrous, asinine, and clueless all describe the call quite well.

I can't be positive if having Dice makes any difference, as LeBron James was not of this planet, but I can think of several times during the game where his presence would have been a huge help. If McDyess is in at the end of regulation, which he would have been, James doesn't drive untouched for those 2 consecutive sick slams.

Losing Antonio McDyess wasn't the reason for the loss, but it sure as Hell hurt the Pistons, in that they could not foul ANYONE hard from then on, in fear of another "Flagrant 2."

Even though the officials incompetence hurt the Pistons more than the LeBron's, I think Cleveland and Detroit fans will both agree that this was not a well officiated game for either side.

Not that the game was about the officiating. This was not exactly a battle of head coaching geniuses.

I have a question for Flip. How do you let ONE PLAYER beat you? Literally one player.

You know James is going to take the shot. Every shot. The very few times he did pass late in the game, the other guys who wear the same color jersey as James couldn't even hit wide open 6 foot J's. (I'm looking at you, Drew Gooden) Yet, James continued to get the ball, and finish. With authority. All this while rarely going to the line, the one place where James was human.

Someone who scored every damn hoop from the midpoint of the 4th quarter on only went to the line 14 times. If you aren't going to put James on the line, you'd think that you might continually double and triple team him. Aren't the Pistons supposed to be one of, if not the best, defensive teams in the NBA? You wouldn't know it by tonight.

For the LeBron's, all Mike Brown had to do was makes sure James got the ball. The one time he did try to do something, he screwed the pooch royally in calling a TO that ended up costing Cleveland a legitimate chance at winning in the 1st OT. After that, it was James, all James, all the time. Understandably...

Maybe McDyess stops this game winning layup. On second thought, even the combination of Laimbeer and Mahorn couldn't have stopped the Jesus James train tonight

When you let one man beat an entire team, a team that is supposed to be the cream of the east, you got out coached. Flip Saunders has some serious explaining to do.

As do the rest of the Pistons team. Even though they did play much better than in the 2 road losses, we still saw some uncharacteristic mistakes. Or maybe we should start saying boneheaded plays are now a characteristic of this team. Tayshaun Prince had an awful turnover late in the game. In fact, the Pistons had 3 straight possessions late in regulation that ended in turnovers. Lax ball handling in the 4th quarter has become the rule, rather than the exception.

For that matter, it was great to see Chauncey Billups drain the game tying shot. Hey, it's Mr. Big Shot, just like old times! But his attempt to win the game was the all too typical dribble out the clock, and take an off balance trey. Sure, it almost fell through.

But it didn't...

I'm sure much of what I'm feeling tonight is a knee-jerk reaction. That reaction being to blow the Pistons up. NBA has once again become a superstars league, and the Pistons have a roster full of very good players. But they don't have a Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, King James, which it now seems to be what you need to win a title in the David Stern-ized NBA.

I know that it's not practical, and talk of roster changes is something that should not be even be mentioned till the season is actually over. But that's the problem with such a tough loss, one that is going to become an iconic, career defining win for LeBron James.

Even with at least 1 game left to play, this loss feels like a season ender.

The more I think about this game, it's the first time in a very long time that I feel like the Pistons just aren't good enough. I've kept the faith every time they found themselves backed into a playoff corner. The majority of the time, they lived up to that faith, and won those playoff series.

But now? The faith isn't there. Why?

If you can't beat a ONE man team, even if that one man is the best player on the planet, how good of a team can you really be?

Not one good enough to get out the eastern conference this season, and possibly for some time to come.

Inside Jim Leyland's brain: At least I have Neifi

I need a smoke. Damn, I need a butt. Bad.

Christ almighty. I'm on the road, and I'm out of smokes again? Fuck me. Where'd all the reds go?

Oh, yeah. Thanks to our damn bullpen, I'm up to 3 packs a day. Wife's gonna kill me if she finds out. Hell, I'm spendin' more time hidin' in the tunnel from those damn dugout cams, than on the bench. Can't a man enjoy a cigarette without feeling the wrath of smokin' nazis? Bunch of damn nanny state lovin' liberals, that's what they are...

Nothin' better than a cold Bud, and pack of Marboro reds after a win. Damn straight. Those anti-smokin' nazis will never understand. But I still need a smoke.

It's just not the damn pen that's givin' me chest pains. That Inge, who's drivin' me nuts at the plate as it is, breaks his toe? As we are goin' into Cleveland? Fuck me.

Then I find out my made of crystal shortstop pulling his gonad muscle? Fuck me twice. His groin is worse than that nutty damn goalie, what's his name? The snow angel makin' crazy ass that gives Babcock angina? Whatever. I need a smoke.

So we're goin' into the meat grinder that is Cleveland, and I now have to play Neifi and Infante as the left side of my infield? Shit.

I love that Neifi to death, fans will never understand why. Kid's a warrior, that Neifi. Give me 9 Neifi's, and I'll win the damn division! But warrior or not, we're still screwed. And I still need a smoke.

Who's pitchin' for the Indians tonight? We'te openin' against that fat-ass Sabathia?! I have to play Neifi, Infante, and the Mayor in the infield? At the same damn time?! Wonder-fucking-ful. Jesus H. Christ, Toledo has a better infield than I do. The kid's little league team has more power. Shit!

OK, OK, Calm yourself down. Never let 'em see you sweat or smoke, that's what I always say.

Short of breath or not, I GOTTA have a smoke. Where's the clubhouse boy? I know, I'll send Infante out to get me a carton. He ain't good for anything else...

Well, I can't let on to the guys in the room, let alone the piss ants in the media, that I think we're up shit crick without a paddle this weekend. With that infield, they'll probably figure it out for themselves anyway.

The media couldn't be that clueless, could they? Nah. Except that little shit know-it-all from the Freep, what's his name? Wrote that book, what was it? "The Four Dickweeds You Meet in Houston," something like that? Oh yeah, that guy with the ears. Albom. Ahhh, He's nohtin' to worry about, probably watchin' the Pistons anyway.

Thank Phillip Morris I don't have it nearly as bad as Flip. His locker room is a damn insane asylum. Ridin' herd over Pudge is a piece of cake compared to Flip havin' to handle that 'Sheed character. That kid is nuts. Small favors, I guess.

Small damn favors or not, I still need a smoke. Now where's that Infante kid with my reds?!