So close

A friend of mine, who's an across the board Detroit fan just like me, sent me an attachment yesterday which made me laugh and cry at the same time. Thought I'd post his attachment on this blog. Why did I cry? What could have been......attendance (possibly) to Game 7 in Detroit. Why did I laugh? Justin Verlander's throw to 3rd base. Fernando Rodney's throw to first base. Some other pitcher's throw to 3rd base. Another pitcher's throw to anywhere. Disappointing.

What could have been... 

Poll

If anybody's out there reading this blog, help me out. Poll: What's your coolest sports event? Mine:

5. Last ever game in Olympia Stadium. I was a child (maybe 11 or 12?) circa 1980. Don't even remember who the Wings were playing. I do, however, remember that in the 3rd period, the Wings were losing by like 2 goals and my brother decided he had seen enough and started to take Sean and I home. As we were walking through the stadium, we heard an enormous roar from the crowd. It was obvious they scored, but they were still a goal down so we kept on walking. Must have been seconds later, we heard the same roar and the boys had tied it. This time we stopped at an aisle and watched the game from the top of the aisle. Homeboys scored AGAIN and I jumped so high with my arms in the air that I ended up accidentally punching my brother in the nose. Excellent memory!

4. Early November 1987, MSU beats Indiana to clinch the Rose Bowl. I rushed the field after the game. I was a freshman at the time thinking this was going to be a great 4 years. Little did I know it would be the last Rose Bowl appearance in 20 years and now I'm pushing 40 years of age!!.

3. March 2000: MSU B-ball vs. Iowa State at the Palace in the Elite eight. A win takes them to the Final Four. Behind by 7 with less than 6 minutes left, an alley oop play to Mo Pete changes the game completely. Unlike the football team, MSU goes on to win the NCAA title.

2. June 1998: Red Wings - Capitals Game 2 Stanley Cup Finals. Wings down 3-1 in the second period. Bla, bla, bla 3rd period Wings down 4-2. Wings end up coming back down from 2 goals TWICE to win in OT 5-4 on a Kris Draper goal.

1. October 2002: Not even a Michigan related sports event. Not even a win for the time I was rooting for! San Francisco Giants at Anaheim Angels in Game 6 of the World Series in Orange County. Giants up 3-2 when Barry Bonds was fun to watch. This was the clincher. Anaheim had the thunderstix and the rally monkey. They end up winning that game in the late innings and going on to win the World Series.

Why is this the number 1 coolest event? Because it's the World Series.

My year in Philly before the ACL injury ended my career. I'm now a Supply Chain Manager. 

Going up to Oaktown

Scored 3 seats to ALCS game two on Wednesday! Dan, Andrew and I (all Michiganders) have field level seats down the 1st base line. If this thing goes past 4 games, planning on hitting Game 6 or 7 as well. Look for pics after the game. Justin Verlander starting this one.

PS - MSU sucks.

Damian Easley. 

Tony Clark. 

Bless you boys

A former high school classmate of mine, Steve "Scoop" Karageanes, once gave me some advice when I was struggling in Mrs. Grangers' AP English class. He said I would write better papers if I wrote about subject matter I cared about, as opposed for instance, the history of flight (which was in fact one of my term papers). I took this advice into my MBA program where I was required to write about the fudiciary responsibility a corporation has to its stockholders. Quite a bore right? Know how I wrote mine? It so happened at the time, the Red Wings were in their first cup year (of our generation) and I made an analogy to the ticket price of playoff games to a stock price. As the product of Detroit Red Wings corporation kept improving, the ticket (stock) price rose. The stockholders felt a tremendous value in the product and the corporation invested more in the product (this was the year they signed Brendan Shanahan). Much more interesting than the current HP scandal, eh?

So what?

So nothing really. I often like writing just for the sake of writing so I started yet ANOTHER blog near and dear to my heart. My family is my biggest joy, and therefore the main blog. I've got a blog for mom. I've got a blog for wine. This one is for everything else (and probably mainly sports) but not always. That's why I've called this random thoughts. I was thinking about calling it 'Deep Thoughts' by Jack Handey, but my guess is only a few people would get that. I'm hoping to make this much more interactive. Leave comments. Start a discussion. I'll give you a topic. No big woop.

First topic - THE DETROIT TIGERS. They just made a $175 million dollar payroll look like a bunch of junior varsities. 19 long years for starved baseball fans. Michiganders have actually been spoiled since the last baseball title. 3 NBA titles. 3 Stanley Cups. 1 NCAA football title (albeit SHARED). 2 NCAA basketball titles (for you MSU fans, yes I am including UM accomplishments here - of course you probably figured that out when you saw 1 NCAA football title). 1 (maybe even 2?) WNBA titles (but who cares, right?). Throw in a Rose Bowl or two and a few Final Four appearances and it hasn't been a bad couple of decades.

So why does this one feel so different? Why do we like these guys better than the Bad Boys? Why is Pudge a better captain than Mateen? Why do we think Kenny Rogers shows more swagger than Chris Webber? Because it's baseball. Pure and simple. The boys of summer. America's pastime. Hot dogs. Applie pie. Chevrolet. And what better way to do it than beat the friggin' New York Yankees! America's team. They're laughing in Boston. I'll venture to say that Texas and Seattle fans are smug about Alex. As for me - well I'd believe this group beating the Yankees would have as much chance as adding Rasheed Wallace would allow the 'stons to beat the Phil-Kobe-Shaq-Mailman-Payton-and what the hell Magic-Jordan-Bird and whatever other big name you can think of Lakers. But as the native Michigander, Derek Jeter says: "That's why you play the game".

So Bless You Boys because We Are Family. Another One Bites the Dust and now The Final Countdown begins. Thanks to Alan, Kirk and Lance for trying. Kudos to Higginson for the stamina to endure what is likely the most frustrating career in all of sports. On to Oakland.

Let's go to work Detroit.