in trouble again

Once again the Pistons have gone about things the hard way as they now have their backs against the wall and face elimination. With tonight's loss to Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. the Pistons trail 3-1 in their best-of-seven series and face win or go fishing predicament.

Coming behind in series seems to be no problems for the Pistons. In their last series against LeBron James and the Cavs, Detroit overcame a 3-2 deficit to get the win. And this was after having won the first two games convincingly and then losing three straight before rebounding to win the final two.

In the past the Pistons have overcame a 3-1 deficit with the most notable series being the first round playoff series against Orlando in 2003.

While they have overcame these deficits in the past, this Heat team looks to be a little different from those teams in that they are a lot tougher. If the Pistons can't slow down Wade, who is hitting close to 70 percent of his shots through the first four games of the series, they are in trouble. If Shaq keeps playing like he is 10 years younger the Pistons are once again gong to be in trouble. This Heat team also has role players who arfe stepping up that the Pistns will need to contain. And if the Miami continues to get a favorable whistle (the Heat shot 43 free throws in Game 4) Detroit is also doomed.

Here is hoping that the Pistons make the necsessary adjusments and come out in a big way in Friday. They've come back from these deficits before, and here is to hoping they overcome this once again.

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend was a pretty decent one as I got to do a variety of things and see a variety of people. A breakdown of the weekend

Friday
After doing pages Friday morning I came home and took a nap and then headed up toward Ann Arbor to meet up with my friend Amy from high school. She happened to be in Novi so we met up for some ice cream before she hit the road to head back to C-town. I hadn't seen her since Christmas so it was nice to catch up with her. After that I met up with Nate and we headed to Comerica Park to catch the Tigers-Indians game.

We made it down to the ballpark for batting practice and I came close to snaggin a ball but let the little kid around me go get the ball. oh well. the game was great ... the tigers won 8-3 behind Curtis Granderson who had five RBIs.

The game was alsom Polish American night at the ballpark so there was a ceremony before the game. And Friday was also the Friday night firework promotion and as usual they were pretty decent. A random thing bout the night was when me and Nate were sitting in our seats prior to the first pitch, I see a guy walkin up to sit in the seats next to us that looked very familiar. turns out it was Tim, who used to work at the Echo with Nate and I. He graduated a couple years before me and was also on OTEAM and stuff so it was nice seeing him and chatting Tigers talk with him. He was also with another former OTEAMER and his wife who is related to one of the photographers at the Telegram.

Saturday
On Sat I chilled for the most part of the day and then covered a baseball game. After gettin off work I caught the tailend of the Pistons game only to see them lose and go down 2-1 in their series with the Heat

Sunday
Ended up spending most of the day with family as my parents were up in Ypsi after spending Friday and Saturday at weddings. It was always an eventful time especially being at my grandmas house. We ended up cooking out and my two cousins were there as well as several aunts and uncles. it was an entertaining day to say the least. And I ended up coming home with pots and pans from my grandma as well as other kitchen accesories.

first place!

Don't look now, but with last night's come from behind 7-4 victory over the Twins, the Detroit Tigers now are in a tie for first place with the Chicago White Sox. (Thank you Devil Rays for beating the Chi Sox)

Its been a long time since the Tigers were in this position a month and a half in the season. The last time the Tigs were in first past mid-April came in 1993 - quite a bit ago. At that time I was measely 10 year old in middle school and remember goin to games at Tiger Stadium with my dad and grandpa. Quite awhile ago.

Besides sharing the lead atop the AL Central, the Tigers also share the best record in baseball with the White Sox. (The Sox did sweep Detroit during its opening series at home so they do hold the tiebreaker) A look at the best teams as of today.

Detroit - 25-13
White Sox - 25-13
NY Mets - 24-14
Boston - 23-14
St. Louis - 24-15
Cincinnati - 23-16

It would be nice to see the Tigers keep this up. A lot of their good start has been pushed aside because of the Pistons run for a title, but they are quietly making some noise around baseball and have been featured in the top-10 of espn.com and sportsline.com's power rankings

This year's team is doing things they haven't done in ages, like sweeping the Indians in Jacob field, had four win streaks of five games or more just to name a few. Here is hoping they can sustain this play throughout the season.

thanks amanda

apparently i was mentioned on the EMU writing prorgram alumni website. I would have never known this if my friend Amanda wasn't googling my name so i've got to thank her for finding it

here is the link - http://writing.emich.edu/?p=14 or http://writing.emich.edu/

if that doesnt work i've copy and pasted what it says

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Alumni News: Recent Journalism Alumni win Michigan AP awards
April 19th, 2006

Two of our Journalism Program alumni won first place awards in the Michigan Associated Press Awards.

Brian Calloway, who was our Journalism Student of the Year last year at this time, won first place in the Sports Enterprise category for his story “Too much camping?” for the Adrian Telegram (small newspaper division). Brian was sports editor for The Echo and a devoted student of our Art Brooks. He is sports editor in Adrian.

Amalie Nash won first place in the Feature Writing category for her story, “Different sides of theft in our community,” in the Ann Arbor News. Amalie won the big newspaper division, with the Detroit News and Free Press taking second and third place to her, respectively. Amalie is an alum who now teaches feature writing for us part-time. She is the chief police reporter for the Ann Arbor News.

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Too bad they didn't get my title correct in the release.

Thanks again tho amanda

playoffs intense

Its only the first round, but many playoff series have been intense and very competitive. Yesterday there were several good games on, but the highlight had to be the Lakers rallying back to defeat the Suns. All of the sudden L.A. has a 3-1 lead over the Suns and just needs one win to head into the second round.

What is going on with these Lakers. The other night Kobe only scored 17 and it was enough for L.A. to beat Phoenix. Yesterday people like former Pistons Smush Parker were stepping up and making big plays for the Lakers. Parker hit a big 3-pointer late to tie the game and then helped to force a steal on Steve Nash to set up a shot by Kobe that forced overtime. And then the Lakers have other people stepping up like Devean George - who had his best game on Sunday. And Luke Walton who helped to force the held ball on Nash in the final seconds. That play led to a jump ball between him and Nash which Walton won and found Kobe who hit the game-winner.

It hasnt been just the LA-Phoenix series as both Chicago and Sacramento have rallied to even their series at 2 with Miami and San Antonio respectively. It looks like every game of this years playoffs are going to be exciting to watch.

The NHL playoffs have been tough to watch especially with the Oilers takings a 3-2 lead on the Red Wings, who seem to be playing unaspiring hockey. And Manng Legace has been sucking it up in goal - which has put the team on the brink of elimination and poised for an early exit from the playoffs once again. The NHL playoffs are so unpredictable though, as No. 2 seed Dallas was ousted from the playoffs by No. 7 seed Colorado last night. Winning the presidents trophy guarantees no playoff success