streak

I keep on ending up at Tigers games that end up having a streaker run across the field. Last August I went to a game against the Red Sox where a couple of naked guys jumped on to the field from the first base line and one of them made it all the way across to the third base side before gettin caught.

Saturday in the game against the Angels a guy jumped out from the third base line and ran across the field. As he was running he fell on the center field grass quite a bit in front of Tigers centerfielder Curtis Granderson. He then was eventually caught in the rightfield corner.

The game was pretty tight. Sarah and I got to see Verlander pitch and had some decent seats that were 20 rows behind the Tigers dugout. After trailing 1-0, Detroit scored two runs in the eighth thanks to a clutch hit by Marcus Thames to go up 2-1. It appeared it would be another W but shaky defense in the ninth helped Los Angeles tie the game. They eventually scored 5 runs in the 10th with a triple by Chone Figgins keying the surge. They won the game 7-2 which was a crappy ending. Hopefully this loss won't come back to hurt them late in the month when the Tigs try to claim the Central Division title and reach the playoffs
Regardless it was still fun, and I was glad to finally see Verlander pitch in person.
It looked like the game might get cancelled because of rain but the game just started 15 minutes later.

the photos above are from the Associated Press

baseball games

Recently had one of my ultimate stretch of days that included two trips to the ballpark to see the Tigers. Sunday I went to catch the game against the Indians with my dad - a 1-0 victory for the Tigers

A pretty good game and it was fun chillin w/ the pops and keeping score and stuff like that. Despite Verlander not pitching, Ledezma put on a show and performed well. Every time I've seen him pitch in person (also saw him during the 04 season at U.S. Cellular) he's done well.

After the game we went to a nursing home/rehabilation center to see a relative, and to visit both my dad's parents and then met some relative I'd never even met before. The dude, who is my grandpas brother, had like a car shop in his back yard and it included a 1953 chevy that is one of them cars that u see at the Dream Cruise. It looked very good.

Also went to see my other grandma that day so needless to say it was a loong day that didnt end til i rolled back into Adrian at 9.

Yesterday's game was fun even tho the Tigers lost to the Twins. ended up going with Jess and Scott. We had fifth row seats that were outfield box along the first base line. Were pretty close to the action. Robertson aka Gum Time pitched decent but made a few too many mistakes.
Scott and I both ended up getting Tigers jersey shirts - he got Verlander and I got Granderson. Not too much else to add right now

Boo to that

I was all excited and very much looking forward to going to Sunday's Tigers game with my Dad, especially knowing that I'd finally get to see Justin Verlander pitch in person. That excitement just faded a few minutes ago when I was looking on the AP wire and saw that Verlander would miss a start due to a fatigue in his arm.

Sucks for me but a good decision for the stretch run. It should still be fun anyways

Michigan nips Penn State

A classic video

One of the most classic press conferences of all time

what will they create next..

In light of the World Cup and the infamous head butt by France's Zidane, I recently found this on one of my friends blogs

http://addictinggames.com/zidaneheadbuttgame.html

A great first half

I'll be the first to tell you that I'm definitely satisfied with the way the first half of the season turned out for my beloved Tigers. No way did I expect them to have a 59-29 record and have the best record in all of baseball and have a two game lead over the White Sox for the lead in the AL Central.

Heres to hoping they can keep up the pace in the second half and be in the playoffs for the first time since 1987. Hopefully the pitching holds up and the young players like Granderson, Zumaya, and Verlander don't get too fatigued down the stretch. I would hate to do what the Cleveland Indians did down the stretch last year and then have to recall the vivid image of Chicago White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen giving the choke sign (see image)
Also here is hoping that the players (i.e Carlos Guillen, Pudge, Maggs) stay healthy during the stretch run.

The first half of the season was also a great one for two of my three fantasy baseball teams (yeah im a fantasy sports dork). In the random yahoo public league i joined i'm in first place with a game lead over the rest of the competition. I'm boasting a 59-41-10 record and have won seven of my last eight weekly matchups after opening the season by losing the first three weeks.

In the league I care about most (league im in with people from work) I'm a 0.5 game behind Scott for first place with a 118-85-44 record. In that league i've won five straight weekly matchups and seven of my last eight.
Then theres the league I'm doing shitty in.. the league im in with EMU people. I'm 12th out of 14 teams and 39 games behind the league leader.

my wish list

As the second half of the baseball season will begin soon, I decided to make a wish list of players I hope the Tigers acquire for the stetch run.

1. Carl Crawford

Probably not likely because the Tigers would have to give the Devil Rays too much. But Crawford is a young, talented left-handed outfielder with great speed - something that is missing from this year's team.


Stats - .319 average, 12 doubles, 8 triples, 13 home runs, 46 RBIs, 32 stolen bases


2. Alfonso Soriano

A second baseman who has been transformed into a left fielder for my second favorite team - the Nationals. His defense can be suspect at times, but for what he can do with the bat he is well worth it. Not a lefty, which is what the Tigs need, but if they could acquire him it would be a big lift.


Stats - .272 batting average, 20 doubles, 27 home runs, 56 RBIs, 20 stolen bases, 63 runs

3. Dontrelle Willis
Has arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball the past month. Seems unlikely the Marlins will trade him now that they are playing respectable baseball. The price might be too high for the Tigers. The Tigers seem to have enough reliable pitching but you can never have too much.

Stats - 6-7 record, 3.94 ERA, 123.1 innings, 3 complete games, 76 strikeouts


4. Bobby Abreu
Seems to be the most likely of this group. A left-handed bat who gets on base. Has a big salary but seems as things will be worked out in order to reach a deal if one is reached. Likely would lose Craig Monroe or Marcus Thames and possibly a minor league pitcher

Stats - .293 batting average, 22 doubles, 8 home runs, 59 RBIs, 83 walks, 18 stolen bases, .447 on base percentage

*Stats are through the first half of this season

what a coincidence

Just saw that NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth was rear-ended for the second straight day. Seems he must have a target on him.

Kenseth’s rental car bumped at stoplight

One day after a bump from Jeff Gordon sent him spinning out of the lead in the Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway, Matt Kenseth felt another nudge as he was stopped at a light in his rental car.

He thought it might have been a tap from Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who was following Kenseth from the airport to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for testing.

“He always runs into me, so I thought it was him joking,” Kenseth was quoted as saying Monday in a NASCAR news release. “It wasn’t. It was a student driver and instructor; just pile drove into the back of me. That was exciting.”

Goodbye Ben, hello Nazr

In a couple of days Ben Wallace will be a Chicago Bull. Like many Pistons fans I was disappointed that he decided to leave Detroit when it seemed like the starting five could at least have a couple more long playoff runs to see if they can deliver another title. I also didn't think he'd actually leave, but things happen and change.

At the same time, I understood the business aspect of things and realized that the Pistons couldn't offer him 60 million for four years. Many are skeptical of the signing of Nazr Mohammed as the new center but I'm taking the optimistic approach and thinking we might have something better than people think we have.

When Ben Wallace was traded to Detroit in the summer of 2000 along with Chucky Atkins for Grant Hill, he wasn't exactly an All-Star caliber player. In his last season in Orlando here are his numbers

Ben Wallace (1999-2000 season)
Games- 81 (81 starts)
Minutes /gm - 24.2
Pts/gm - 4.8
Reb/gm - 8.2 (2.6 offensive reb/gm)
Blk/gm - 1.6
FG % - 50.4
FT % - 47.4

Here are Mohammed's numbers from last season with San Antonio
Games - 80 (30 starts)
Min/gm - 17.4
Pts/gm - 6.2
Reb/gm - 5.2 (2.0 offensive reb/gm)
Blk/gm - .61
FG % - 50.4
FT % - 76.5

Their numbers are fairly comparable
Mohammed might not be the defensive presence that Wallace was, but he is an upgrade on the offensive end. While it sucks to lose the face of the franchise this might pay off in the long run

Now I understand

As if I didnt understand before, I got another reminder on how big this area is on there NASCAR.

I was in Meijer picking up some grease for my hair tonight and I overheard a couple of ladies talking in the next aisle over. There discussion began about their day and one mentioned she had watched the race. The discussion took off there as they talked about the end of the race in which Jeff Gordon won by spinning out Matt Kenseth in the final laps.

When the lady who didnt watch the race heard Gordon one she was rather disappointed because she doesn't like him but said she preferred him over Kenseth. The other lady replied I really can't stand both of them and they continued their discussion about their favorite drivers.

After picking up what I needed I took a quick glance over at the next aisle and saw that these ladies just appeared to be your average females.

a trip to the southWEST side

Went home for a little bit yesterday to enjoy the holiday and catch up with some pals. Its amazing all the people I saw while being home for a little bit more than 24 hours. I rolled until town about 3 p.m. yesterday and stopped to get some ice cream and saw a few people I knew working at Dairy Queen.

I went home and chilled there for most of the evening and met my sister's boyfriend Rodney for the first time. Of course I was the last to meet him because I'm never around that way. But from what I hear hes a regular at my house. I ended up heading down to the beach for the fireworks display over Lake Michigan that night and caught up with people I hadn't seen in eons. Ran into one of my classmates and a few of my sister's classmates and then also my friend Erika and one of her pals.

After the fireworks I ventured out to Benton Harbor to meet a few of my close pals at Steak and Shake for a late night snack. Steak and Shake was surprisingly packed with so many people there from the fireworks .. so it took awhile to get food. but that was cool because it just gave me the chance to catch up with Amy, Katie, Kristy and Lynz. Aside from seeing Amy at the end of May, I hsdn't seen the others in quite sometime.

Regardless yesterday was a long day considering I was up at 5 to do pages. and i didn't get much sleep because I was hanging out at a co-workers cookout on Sunday.

Today I stopped at my friend Renae and her husband's house and got a tour. When I get married I'd want to have a house like theirs. It was a decent size and a pretty nice place. Then I ran a few errands and before you knew it it was time to eat. Renae and her husband came over as was my uncle Ron. My sisters boyfriend and his mom and nephew also came but they didnt arrive until after most everyone had already eaten dinner.

while at home it was pretty cool to see the new additions around town, and I was surprised to see that there is a Steve and Berry's in Benton Harbor. I definitely want to hit that up when I return that way

rocket man

Last night I got a chance to see the winningest pitcher in baseball for the first time. That pitching being none other than future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens, who was making his second start of the season with the Astros. I saw Clemens pitch 2+ innings (i'll explain later) and he held true to form.

And once again he was plagued by the low scoring Astros' offense as he ended up getting no run support thanks to a solid pitching effort by Nate Robertson. The Tigers ended up winning the game 4-0 and did their damage once Clemens left the game in the 7th.

All in all a nice victory to see for the Tigers who are continuing to play solid basbeall. They just swept the Cardinals and took the first two games of their series with the defending National League champs.

As to why I only saw Clemens pitch for 2+ innings.

I arrived to the stadium at 6:20 ish and headed toward the will call line with the people I was with. We were in line by 6:25 and didnt get in the ball park until close to 8:00. By that time the bottom of the fourth inning was one out away from being over. The delay? A long will call line. I could have never imagined having to deal with something like that and I feel sorry for people who were way behind us. I'd be surprised if they got into the stadium before the seventh inning.

It didnt make sense that the Tigers didnt have all the ticket offices outside the stadium serve will call needs since the game was pratically sold out -- which doesnt often happen for a night game in the middle of the week. But oh well I guess. I wrote a letter to the Tigers to speak my mind on the matter and hopefully they get back to me about it.

After the game we ended hoping on the people mover to get to Greektown where we ate at Pizza Papalis before heading back home. Not a bad night, minus the long will call line.

catchin up

Nice to catch up with some friends that I hadnt seen since last summer last night
I journeyed up to Ypsi for Pat and Anna's birthday party at Frenchies in Depot Town.

Not a bad time. Ended up driving over to my buddy Scott's apartment on Summit to watch the end of the Tigers game (another great, magical win for the Tigs) and then making the 15 minute walk to Depot Town. That was prolly the first time I had walked to Depot Town from the main campus area since I went to Summer Insitute in the summer of 2000 (i was getting ready to enter my senior yr of HS then).

When we almost were at Frenchies I saw Glenna Frank Miller chilling outside a restaurant and she recognized me and said hello. and then once we got there I ran into a lot of the peeps I used to chill with from time to time like Steve, Ken, Carrie and Trisha along with Pat and Anna. Also ran into some people I knew from my days on OTEAM as well.

All in all a pretty fun night and it waw great to catch up with some people I rarely see

im still here...

im still alive to whoever reads this

been busy of late... a few things ive done recently

- covered the East-West All Star game at Comerica Park Tuesday.. an interesting experience. I found out that one of our local coaches actually knows Jim Leyland. I heard him talkin to another guy talkin bout how he tried giving Kate Leyland (Jim's wife) a call and was shocked that he knew him. I guess tehy used to do camps together in the Toledo area which makes perfect sense since leyland is from that area.

- spent this whole past weekend at MIS covering NASCAR stuff and my cousin Bill Lester (just a joke there). For those who don't know Bill Lester is an African American driver and he was racing in his second race in the Nextel Cup Series. He races in the craftsman truck series as well but is tryin to break through in the major series. Seemed like a cool guy from what i saw of him interacting with people

Adam Sandler was the grand marshal of Sunday's race and said Gentleman start your engines in his happy gilmore voice.. quite entertaining. Walked right past Dale Earnhardt Jr on Sunday. I was standing with Deloris at the time and joked she should have reached out to touch him since that is her favorite driver.

-- oh and yesterday there was that storm that hit Adrian. My power went out at 6 pm yesterday and didnt come on until 11 am. Talk about sucking especially since I had to get up early for pages. Thank God for cell phones

Another random thing... last week Sean and I were playing tennis at Adrian High at night. It was starting to get pretty dark.... so dark we could barely see the ball so we decided to leave. As we were walking to our cars a security guard emerged from the school asking us if those were our cars and telling us to move them because they were closed. Closed??? how were they closed? there were no signs posted. That was pretty much just wack....

i think that is enough rambling for now. hopefully ill write more soon

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

---------------------------
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.

--------------------

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