Official Blog | Sunday | August 1st, 2010

Jul
04

Nine or Nineteen?

By Tom DeLisle
When it was announced this spring that Steve Yzerman would be leaving our fair city for the sunny skies of Tampa Bay, you likely said, or thought, one of two things:
 
1.  There goes the greatest player in Red Wings history.
 
2.  There goes the second greatest player in Red Wings history.
 
It’s an old story, literally, told in time and numbers.  If you grew up as a local hockey fan in the time frame of the postwar years, Number Nine — Gordie Howe — would reign forever as the premier Red Wing, indeed the best player, of all time.  Now, it’s a terrific tribute to Number Nineteen, Yzerman, that he managed a career that in time would come to rival the reputation of Howe’s among contemporary Red Wings enthusiasts. In fact, among Wings backers the very thought that a local skater could come to be considered alongside — much less ahead — of the reputation of Howe would have been thought of as sacrilege not too long ago.
 
But there’s the rub … “not too long ago.”  No matter how great the memory of a performer, his fame and status are always subject to the ravages of time.  The passage of years engenders debates that can never be settled or satisfied.  Anything can be stated; nothing decided.  Howe or Yzerman?  Cobb vs. Kaline.  How about Billy Sims and Barry Sanders?  Joe Louis or Ali.  Bobby Layne as opposed to … well, absolutely no one.  Yet. 
 
Such debates are useless endeavors.  Sports supremacy, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.  I was shocked when I first — probably just within the past five years — began hearing Yzerman and Howe being talked about in similar, almost co-equal, terms.  And that shock gave way to the inevitable — opinions being raised upon Yzerman’s departure that he may have been THE greatest Red Wing of all-time.  Absolute humbuggery to us baby boomers (and those of us who experienced both Nine and Nineteen in their primes), but a result of the unavoidable erosion of reputation and change of status brought on by time.    
 
Witness the sport of hockey alone.  When Gordie Howe was a kid, the names of Howie Morenz and Eddie Shore were bandied about as the “greatest” players of all time.  Then it was Gordie’s rival Maurice Richard.  Then it was Howe himself, for a period that lasted more than 30 years.  Then the title was ceded — by popular if ill-informed acclaim — to Wayne Gretzky.  And even now, some are aleady looking to eventually hand the title to that little dink Sid Crosby. 

When we were kids Ty Cobb was universally acclaimed the greatest ballplayer of all time.  There was little if any debate.  Now you rarely hear his name mentioned; I’m not sure he’d make a contemporarily-named All-Time Nine.  In Chicago there is currently a public blowup between Hall of Fame Bears running back Gale Sayers and Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher.  In reply to Sayer’s criticism of the current team, Urlacher has said “Does he (Sayers) know how to win football games?  Does he?  No.”

 
And that goes to the heart of the issue.  I can tell from that quote that Urlacher never saw Sayers play.  Because he was absolutely the greatest running back of all time.  Better than Brown, Sanders, even Joe Don Looney.  He knew how to win games merely by taking handoffs. So Urlacher is talking through his hat. 
 
How do I know?  Because I saw Sayers play.  And play like the unmatched champion he was. 
 
Back in MY time….
 
(And PS:  Back to #19, the correct assumption upon his leaving town, at the top of this exercise, is statement 2.  Since #9 remains the greatest player of all-time, his sovereignty over all includes his fellow wearers of the winged wheel.  Sorry, kids.)

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Jul
02

The Red Wings’ Greatest Captain

By Tom DeLisle
The greatest “captain” in Red Wings history?  Of course, it’s Steve Yzerman.  In a runaway.  Right?
 
Nope.  Give me Ted Lindsay.
 
It’s no slight to #19, and it diminishes Yzerman in no way at all, to make the point that quite possibly the greatest leader in Red Wings lore actually wore #7, and led the Red Wings like a take-no-prisoners war hero back in the days when the six-team NHL was an annual series of blood and guts encounters limited to hothouse gatherings in Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Boston and New York. 
Ted Lindsay was the captain of the Detroit Red Wings when wearing the red and white meant something tangible and real, something proud and exemplary, in the hockey world.  The Red Wings were known as the “New York Yankees” of hockey during those great days of the Original Six not so much because Jack Adams was a great general manager, or the Norris family were terrific owners.  More than anything, being a Red Wing in the ’50s meant something because Ted Lindsay MADE it mean something.  Because he personally, through the force of will packed into his barely 5-8 and barely 160 pound frame, set a standard for excellence and commitment that drove every member of his … yes, his …. hockey team.
 
When Lindsay talks of the days when the Red Wings would refuse to speak to their NHL opponents if they encountered them away from the ice or during the off-season, he’s not blowing smoke.  When the Red Wings and an opponent took the same train during a home and home series (say the Wings and Montreal played in Detroit on Saturday, and then trained to Quebec for a Sunday night match), Lindsay used to roust his teammates early and have them move through the Canadiens’ sleeper cars as their opponents dozed so as to not encounter them off-ice.  It was that much like combat, and the tension — and the nastiness — was real. 
 
Lindsay was no pretty boy.  He was “Old Scarface” and “Terrible Ted” and a lot of unprintable names thrown at him by opponents like Montreal’s Rocket Richard.  The Red Wings won four Stanley Cups in Lindsay’s prime, and Ted has often claimed the franchise would have added more had Adams not purposefully sliced up team personnel, dispersing them around the League, to (for one result) keep Lindsay from exercising too much leverage and influence in the NHL.  More than anyone, Ted WAS the Red Wings back then, and it’s a safe bet that NHL bigshots didn’t want him so-dominating the League’s premier American franchise.   And not only was he exhibiting control in Detroit, Lindsay had nearly single-handedly led the effort to move the players out of their absurd slave-master relationship with the owners via the stirrings of the first NHL players union.
 
Such moves, and such talk, merited Lindsay the ‘reward’ the NHL felt he deserved, but alas Red Wings fans did not.  We in Detroit paid a mighty cost for the beginnings of that union.  Because of it, the Wings — think of this now, and imagine how it might go down in the present time — in 1957 traded THE First-Team All-Star left wing, Lindsay, then the greatest left winger in NHL history … AND the First-Team All-Star goalie, the young and magnificent Glenn Hall, only 25 years old … to the last-place Chicago Black Hawks for four mostly journeymen players who were qualified to drive the team bus.  Out went Lindsay; down went the Wings.  Out of town. Even out of the playoffs. That’ll teach him.  And us.
 
But let’s remember Lindsay, that greatest of Red Wings captains, with another image from his prime.  That’s the famous photo of him machine-gunning the crowd in Toronto at center ice after a 1956 playoff game he’d won with an overtime goal.  A death threat had been levied against Lindsay and Gordie Howe before the game.  There was some tension about it, but also some humor — the players sent utility player Marcel Bonin out for the pre-game skate wearing a white sweatshirt with a red “7″ drawn on the front and a red ”9″ on the back.  There was an extra police presence at the rink, but when it was all over …  there was our #7, the greatest captain in the NHL, standing out there and slowly, turning in a circle, gunning down the … well … the entire city of Toronto.
 
You think Yzerman was hot stuff?  Certainly he was, but he had nothing on the Captain from another time … another era of Red Wings excellence … thanks to the man who made it so … a force of nature named … as any Red Wings-loving child of the ’50s could tell you … Robert Blake Theodore “Ted” Lindsay.   

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Jul
01

The Incredible Story of the Friendship Between a Fan and His Hero

By Bill Dow

During my experience of playing a reporter as an extra for the Billy Crystal produced HBO film *61 about the 1961 home run race between Yankee teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, I heard some very interesting stories on the set at Tiger Stadium ten years ago this summer.

Andy Strasberg and his hero Roger Maris at Yankee Stadium.

However none was as moving as the story I heard from Andy Strasberg who was hired by Crystal as a consultant for the movie. Strasberg is considered THE authority and the all time number one fan of Roger Maris, the man I still consider to hold the legitimate single season record holder for most homers in a season. (61 in ’61) (No steroids for Roger)

While sitting in the home dugout during a lunch break, Strasberg shared with me his incredible story of the friendship he developed with Maris that began as a kid growing up near Yankee Stadium.

When Maris was traded to New York in 1960, Strasberg took an instant liking to Roger Maris and when he was old enough to go to Yankee Stadium himself he would always sit in rightfield and speak with Roger during pre-game practice. At one point Strasberg worked up the nerve to ask Maris if he could have one of his game used bats and Roger said he would give him the next bat he cracked.

While the Yankees were out on a west coast trip, Strasberg was listening to the game on his transistor radio while under the covers when the Yankee broadcaster announced that Maris had broken his bat and was going back to the dugout to get another one. Sure enough, on the next home stand Maris ran out to right field prior to the game and told Strasberg he had the broken bat waiting for him at the lockeroom. The bat would become the first of many Maris game used items that Strasberg would eventually acquire, but more than that, he had acquired a friend for life.

This is how Strasberg told the rest of his amazing story.

“In 1966 I went off to college at the University of Akron, in Ohio. My roommate had a picture of Raquel Welch on his wall and I had a picture of Roger Maris. Everyone in the school now knew that I was a big Maris fan. Some of my friends said, “You told us that you knew Roger Maris. Let’s just go see.” So one day six of us drove 2½ hours to Pittsburgh to see the Cardinals play the Pirates. It was May 9, 1967. We got to Forbes Field two hours before the game, and there was the red number 9. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen Roger Maris outside of Yankee Stadium, and I figured he wouldn’t know who I was because the setting was different. I was very, very nervous. Extremely nervous, because I had five guys with me. I went down to the edge of the fence, and my voice was quavering as I said, “Ah, Rog…Roger….”

He turned around and said, “Andy Strasberg, what the hell are you doing here in Pittsburgh?”

That was the first time I knew he knew my name. I looked at him and I looked at my friends and I said, “Well, Rog, I’m with some guys from college. They wanted to meet you and I just wanted to say hello.” The five of them paraded by and shook hands and they couldn’t believe it. I wished Rog the traditional good luck and he said, “Wait a minute. I want to give you an autograph on a National League ball.” And he went into the dugout and got a ball and signed it. I put it in my pocket and I felt like a million dollars.

I’m very superstitious when it comes to baseball. That day I sat in row 9, seat 9 out in rightfield. In the third inning Roger hit his first National League home run, off Woodie Fryman.

I caught the ball.

It’s the most amazing thing that will ever happen to me in my life. I caught the ball and tears were rolling down my face. I couldn’t believe it. He came running out at the end of the inning—you’ve got to remember that Rog knew where I was, and it wasn’t crowded that particular game—and he said, “I can’t believe it.” I said, “You can’t? I can’t!”

After all that, Strasberg and Maris became very close friends, so much so that one of Roger’s son’s named their child Andy after Andy Strasberg.

In the movie, Crystal had Strasberg play the fan who actually jumped out of the stands to shake Roger’s hand after hitting his 61st home run. Today Strasberg, a former San Diego executive owns a sports marketing company in San Diego. One of his current ventures is the website, http://fantography.net  — a site that posts photos taken by fans at major league ballparks.

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Jul
01

Social Media Event Combines Hockey Fans, Webbies

By Jeff Lutz

@jeffjlutz: There is literally a Little Caesar next to me. I wonder what he’ll spear next? #smdaydet

#smdaydet or better known as Social Media Day: Detroit, took place on Wednesday evening high atop Motor City Casino at the Amnesia Night Club. The event gathered together a collection of Red Wings fans and Twitter aficionados to get together and tweet, all in a hockey-filled atmosphere. The event is the first of its kind and looked to be an interesting test case of how sports fans and social media can relate together.

@nwlife, or Nicole Yelland was the brainchild behind this event. As we chatted among the Red Wings Fatheads and cutouts throughout the room, she mentioned that the idea came from seeing “cooler cities” take the lead on the nation’s inaugural social media day. By combining all resources under the Ilitch umbrella, she used her social networks to fill the event within days of posting. Nicole described that she had even heard of her own event through a friend on the west side of the state.

Events like this represent a shifting change in the national sports scene. The World Cup’s U.S. soccer fans used their social networks to gather in various venues throughout the country. When Tom Izzo’s supporters wanted to hold a rally urging the long-time MSU coach to stay, Facebook and Twitter lit up with alerts and event details. The Red Wings event proved that sports fans will gather when the teams they support provide an opportunity to extend the brand to new channels. When a team like the Wings gathers social media enthusiasts together in one space, they drive free marketing while extending the brand to venues outside of Joe Louis Arena.

Most of my time at this event was spent fascinating over the wonderful mix of individuals that had gathered together to discuss their Twitter accounts and the upcoming NHL season. In listening in on many of the conversations taking place, I would not be shocked to see more themed “tweet-ups” in the sports scene over the coming months. Congrats to @nwlife for such a fantastic event – for more highlights of the event check out the #smdaydet hashtag on Twitter.

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Jun
30

A Presidential Pitch

By Tom DeLisle
Now this will be … I assure you … THE   most confusing blog you will ever read.
 
And I’m not bragging by saying that.  In fact, it’s rather something to be ashamed of, wouldn’t you think?  I didn’t set out to make this the most confusing blog item you’d ever encounter, things just worked out that way.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at what follows.  Just jump on in, and don’t say I didn’t warn you:
 
This blog is based on the picture that comes with it.  It’s a baseball picture, yes.  And a political picture.  You’ll recognize former President and Vice President and Run-Out-of-Town-on-a-Rail President (ROOTOAR) Richard Nixon as the guy throwing a baseball in the photo.  I’m sure on that much we can all agree.  From here on it gets kind of dicey. 
 
Standing two, well, heads above Nixon, and looking properly concerned, is his son-in-law David Eisenhower.  He is the grandson of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who ain’t in the photo. He’s probably out golfing somehwere.  Standing just to our left of David is, I believe, Helen Thomas, the so-called “dean” of White House reporters who recently got tossed out of that position, as in Run Out of Town on a Rail, because — like Mr. Nixon (remember “I’m not a crook”?) –she talked too much.  To David’s right, from our perspective, is Julie Nixon, the daughter of ROOTOAR President Nixon, and David’s wife.  I don’t know when this photo was taken, or where, but I’d guess it’d be around ‘72 to ‘74, during Mr. Nixon’s abbreviated second term.
 
Now, I once attended a baseball All-Star Game in San Diego with David Eisenhower.  No kidding.  We were both the guests of some hotshot baseball agent.  This was around 1977 or ‘78, as I recall, and I only agreed to go to the game ’cause I figured it’d be a hoot to later say that I had gone to a game with David Eisenhower.  He seemed like an okay guy, very nice, but here’s the weird thing — he wore a baseball glove TO the game!  I mean, the guy was a grown man, a famous man, dressed in a suit like he is in this picture … and he goes to the game wearing a baseball glove!  Like he’s gonna catch a foul ball, even though we were seated in some fancy box.  And he’d pound the glove every now and then, and say “Boy I hope we beat the National League today!”  And I, eager to get along, would agree with him.
 
Even weirder, no kidding – I have the feeling that the glove that ROOTOARP Nixon is wearing in this picture is the SAME glove.  No joke.  It looks like it.  Honest. And here’s a further irony.  I once did a TV show with Mr. Nixon in which he was interviewed by Sparky Anderson — again, no joke –  as part of a primetime special on Channel 4 here in Detroit in 1989 to raise money for Sparky’s C.A.T.C.H. charity.  And here’s another weird — make that weirder – part.  I was able to ‘book’ Mr. Nixon for that show after I heard Sparky say one day that the ROOTOAR President was a big baseball fan and expert who often called Sparky on the phone to talk the fine points of the game.  (“Oh that Nixon, he loves me,” was the Sparky quote that started it all.)  Sparky said Mr. Nixon was an amazing baseball expert.  But … look how he’s holding that ball in the picture.  He’s got it SITTING in his hand!  He’s not even gripping it.  It’s just lying there.  Like an egg.  And he’s a baseball EXPERT?
 
And his glove, my old pal David’s glove I presume.  WHY is he wearing a glove to throw OUT the first ball of the game??  He’s throwing the ball AWAY.  Plus…if he DOES throw out the first ball, and he holds it like that, isn’t he going to conk that lovely babe standing next to Julie right in her hairdo with it?  She, you’ll note, has the perfect vapid look of a politician’s wife.  You’ll note that the woman situated just behind the ball and to the right of Mr. Nixon’s open hand in this photo is already ducking.  She’s the only person in the whole shebang who obviously knows what’s going on. 
 
I found this old photo recently in my computer picture file, under the heading “Nixon Tries to Kill a Fan With A Baseball.”   Now, I really liked Former President Nixon.  I even voted for him once.  He was a terrific guy when I met him to tape the Sparky special.  He signed business cards with his Presidential seal and asked me to distribute them to every guy on our crew.  He even seemed pleased when — during the rather lengthy interview — Sparky assured him that while, yes, there were some ominous trends going on around the world that seemed to threaten our country’s future, there seemed little doubt — again, this is Sparky’s opinion, mind you — that the United States back then WAS … and would forever REMAIN … Number One in Show Business in the whole wide world.
 
Yes, Mr. Nixon readily agreed, we’re Number One.
 
But you’ll never convince me, Sparky or no Sparky, that the guy knew how to throw a baseball. 

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Jun
29

No More Human Error

By Jeff Lutz

Armando Galarraga and the City of Detroit were quick to make nice with Jim Joyce and the umpiring crew when Joyce’s error cost the Tigers pitcher his perfect game only a few weeks ago. The warm gesture by all parties involved made the move easy for Bud Selig to claim no involvement and praise the human element of the game. With technology advancing at a far faster pace than the sporting events, it has become time for athletics to embrace the technologies that have increased fan exposure and revenue.

If you’re a German soccer fan you might know a few things about the benefits (and disadvantages) of replay in reviewing goals. Hockey at most levels has adopted instant replay for a tool in reviewing goals. When it comes to FIFA and soccer/football, Germany has lost a World Cup (1966 v. England), and won two matches (2002 v. United States, 2010 v. England) because of officials making adaptions of the rules on the fly. For Tigers fans, a similar event took place on Saturday evening.

Umpires have long not been the best of pals with baseball players, but for the second time in a month an umpire has admitted openly that they blew a significant play in the ballgame against the Tigers. This time, Gary Cederstrom used a quick strike call to send Johnny Damon and the Tigers to the clubhouse on a ball that was roughly a foot outside the strike zone.

Arguing strikes/balls has long been a battle of frustation between umpires, players and fans, and hopefully one day a technological strike zone will end this annoyance for everyone. Like a pinsetter in bowling, baseball could create a system where strikes that go a certain height, and over the plate, are called strikes. Combined with a replay system, baseball would have a situation in place where the athletes on the field could find something else to argue over.

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Jun
28

Where is Tiger Stadium’s State Historical Marker?

By Bill Dow

In a ceremony to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Detroit Tigers, on August 23, 1976 a state historical marker honoring Tiger Stadium was presented on the field. Participating at the ceremony were Tiger legends Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, and Billy Rogell.

But three years ago this past Memorial Day weekend, the Tiger Stadium state historical marker was stolen from the corner of Michigan Trumbull.

To this day it has never turned up and one just wonders who has it in their possession.

We know the Tigers took the Ty Cobb plaque that was located on the same wall where the state marker hung just to the left of the front door of the Tiger Stadium executive offices. The Cobb plaque is now located on the outside wall of Comerica Park near the entrance to the executive offices.

The only lead the police have is that a Detroit Police officer said he saw “two white males in broad daylight with a white pick up style utility truck and a yellow top light backed up to the Marker.” He said “ they looked like they were doing their job so he didn’t challenge them.”

The green cast iron marker measured ¾ inches by 42” by 54” and weighed 200 pounds. At the time, Laura Ashlee of the State Preservation Office stated the “theft” is a “high misdemeanor crime.”

I suppose it’s possible that some officials from the city of Detroit removed the marker in preparation for the stadium’s demolition. But I can’t help but wonder why no one seems to know where it is.

If you just happen to see the marker in someone’s office or home, do a favor for everyone who still respects that sacred ground at Michigan and Trumbull and call the police.

The state historic marker recognizing Tiger Stadium is unveiled by (left to right) Tiger legends Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser, Billy Rogell, and Charlie Gehringer on August 25, 1976.

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Jun
26

Detroit’s Most Glorious Sports Moments

By Tom DeLisle
I recently compiled a list of the most exasperating defeats and disappointments in my long observation of local professional sports.
 
In the interests of fair play and balance, it seems only fair to also look back at the greatest moments I’ve experienced in following our local teams, reflecting on the finer times I’ve witnessed across more decades than I’d like to count.  My Worst Moments list constituted a baker’s dozen of defeat and despair; this compilation of golden memories will stop at ten.  This IS Detroit, after all:
 
1.   December 22, 1957:  Lions at San Francisco, Western Division playoff.  This is surely the greatest game in Lions history.  Down 27-7 in the third quarter of this championship confrontation, the Lions roared back for a 31-27 victory that left ‘em weeping at Kezar Stadium, with Detroiters delirious in front of their TVs on a Sunday night.  The then-never-champion 49ers didn’t recover until the Montana era.  Tobin Rote, Joe Schmidt, and Tom Tracy led the Lions in their stunning comeback.
 
2.   December 29, 1957:  Lions vs. Cleveland, World’s Championship game.  The gashouse gang that was the ‘57 Lions topped a season of miracles with an astonishing 59-14 rout of the favored Browns at Briggs Stadium.  Everything they tried worked.  Yup, the LIONS.  Personally, my first attendance at a Lions game.  I thought they’d all be this wonderful and joyous. 
 
3.  December 4, 1960.  Lions at Colts.  Down 15-13 after a spectacular Unitas-Moore TD pass, the Lions have time for one play.  It’s a beaut–a 65 yard Morrall to Gibbons TD pass that deflates Baltimore, 20-15, and brings an end to their two year domination of the NFL, and the Lions.  The Miracle on Turf.
 
4.   Thanksgiving Day, 1962.  Detroit vs. Green Bay.  The Lions, again.  Yes, they really USED to be that good, that colorful.  This time it was the Thanksgiving domination that was as good as the historic hype.  I was attending my third Lions game.  It was the last great moment of a once-great NFL franchise.  The Lions threw the elite Packers around like they were tackling dummies.  Plum to Cogdill; Brown, Karras, Schmidt et al. to Starr.  The 26-14 final was illusionary, this was 59-14 all over again.
 
5.   October 1964, Red Wings Opening Game.  One of the most amazing comebacks in major sports history begins when Ted Lindsay electrifies the opening night crowd at Olympia by skating out as a surprise member of the ‘64 Wings team.  Leader of the Red Wings in their glory years, the 39-year old Lindsay had retired in Chicago following the 1960 season.  Second only to Gordie Howe in local hockey esteem, the scrappy Lindsay (at 5-8 and maybe 160 pounds) helps lead the Wings to their first regular season championship since 1957 with 14 goals and 173 penalty minutes.
 
6.   April 1966, Red Wings vs. Chicago, Stanley Cup semi-final.  In the deciding game of a classic and dramatic series (remember Bugsy Watson vs. Bobby Hull?) the Wings are down 2-1 in the waning minutes, when Dean Prentice scores two electric back-to-back goals that ignite Olympia and propel the Wings into the ‘66 Stanley Cup final.  A victory reminiscent of the team’s glory days, it was the last hurrah at Grand River’s glorious old barn.
 
7.  October 1968, Game 5 of the Detroit-St. Louis World Series.  Down 3-1 in the Series, trailing early in the game, the Tigers are poised at last to take the lead.  At bat is Al Kaline, with everything on the line.  His unforgettable single into short right/center, connecting on a wicked low-outside strike pitch, sends the Tigers ahead to stay for this game and the two that follow in St. Louis.  As important as Horton’s throw to Freehan earlier in the game, it is the single that saves the Series.  And a golden moment of salvation for the greatest Tiger of our time.
 
8.  October 14, 1968, Game 7 Detroit at St. Louis.  Mickey Lolich strides into local lore with the greatest pitching performance in Tigers history.  His magnificent third Series victory — mowing them down at the plate and on the basepaths, cool as a cuke — reduces what Denny McLain did during the regular season nearly to insignificance.  Better, our town gets to finally shove it to the Cardinals IN St. Louis some 34 years after the Cards embarrassed the Tigers in the 1934 World Series in Detroit.  Real Detroiters never forget.
 
Okay, I was wrong.  I’m not even half done, not even out of the 1960s yet, and already nearly out of space here.  Who’da thunk we’d have so many glorious local moments worth recalling?  Certainly not a naysayer like myself.  This has been more fun that I figured.  But it will have to continue with more Glorious Moments in Part Two ….

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Jun
25

Wild Pistons Off-Season Set to Begin

By Jeff Lutz

There was something unsettling in seeing Greg Monroe walk across the NBA Draft stage with a Pistons hat on. Personally, seeing a Georgetown Hoya walking anywhere tends to make my stomach churn, let alone the top draft pick of the team I’ve followed from my first days alive. In his just-drafted interview, I found the root of my uneasy stomach – he never did a pre-draft workout for the Pistons.

The Pistons have known about their seventh pick for nearly two months, and never thought once to bring Monroe to the Palace for a physical or a venue tour. If you have hung onto any of your Pistons fandom following last season’s spend and lose debacle, it might be time to put your fan safety deposit box to use. This pick screams of a pending trade, and Joe Dumars needs to do something pretty drastic to get the ship righted for 2011.

I have a unique perspective on Greg Monroe having watched him and despised the uniform he placed on for two years. There’s something significant about being the Georgetown center, and Monroe always played like he had those weights on his back. He was tabbed as the freshman of the year in the Big East, an ominous honor in a year when Georgetown had one of its worst seasons in years. I would not be shocked to see him struggle in the NBA as size doesn’t always mean success when heading to the pro league.

With a team being built around players like Stuckey, Gordon, Villanueva, Jerebko, Maxiell and now Monroe, the Pistons will look to gain the most value out of their last prized blue chip – Tayshaun Prince. The former Kentucky product, and perhaps Richard Hamilton, are the only remaining pieces that might bring anything in return to Detroit. It’s clear that the last season came out of the blue and hopefully the Pistons will realize that one more season in the dumps can devastate a loyal fan base in a tough economy.

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Jun
24

Detroit’s All-Time Worst Sports Moments: A Baker’s Dozen

By Tom DeLisle
It was the night of the Galarraga Massacre that a local sports fan younger than I … one who shall go unnamed (all right, you forced it out of me – writer Bill Dow) … asked if the denial of the Tigers first perfect game ranked among the Top Ten on my personal grievance list of excruciating Detroit professional athletic defeats in my lifetime.
 
His question got me to thinking, and counting.  And by the time I was done compiling this appalling history of galling failure and disappointment, I had come to a screeching halt with a Baker’s Dozen (for those of you from Clinton Township, like me, that’s 13) of my personal Worst Moments living and dying with our local sports teams.  A warning:  You read this at your own risk.  I have had high blood pressure across the years of my own health history, and the following disappointments contributed mightily:
 
1.  The 1954 (told you I was old) Detroit Lions at Cleveland Browns World Championship game, won by Cleveland 56-10.  Just a week after the Lions continued their mastery of the Browns with a last-game regular season win, the best team of modern Lions history goes for a record third NFL championship and unaccountably gets slaughtered.
 
 2.  The 1956 Lions at Chicago Bears final season game.  The Bears win the Western Division in a 38-21 romp after Ed Meadows knocks Lions leader Bobby Layne out of the game with a vicious late hit in the early second quarter.
3.   Labor Day Weekend, 1961; the Tigers–Yankee series in New York.  A Tigers team that would win 101 games that year goes into New York with a chance to take over the American League race, and the wheels come off in an excruciating one-run Friday night loss.  The Bengals never recover.
 
4.   October 21, 1962, Lions at New York Giants:  Forget the heart-breaker in Green Bay.  A Lions team that is superior to the ultimate champion Packers loses a 17-14 squeaker to a Giant team they should have manhandled, and all hope is lost for a team that goes 11-3 and watches the championship game on TV.
 
5.   April 1964, Red Wings–Toronto Stanley Cup Finals.  The Wings best bet of the ’60s to win the Cup goes awry when, ahead in the series 3 games to 2, they lose in overtime at Olympia (after hitting a post late in the third period) on a goal scored by broken-legged defenseman Bobby Baun. 
 
6.   October 1967, Tigers vs Angels.  Possibly the worst of all, the Bengals lose the second game of a frantic double-header AND the American League pennant before a frenzied and angry home crowd on the final day of a regular season they should have dominated.
 
7.   January 1970, Lions at Dallas.  The best team of the Joe Schmidt coaching era falls 5-0 in the post-season at Dallas in a playoff game they coulda, shoulda, won. 
8.   October 1972, Tigers vs Oakland.  In a bitter and bizarre five-game playoff, the Tigers lose the last game at Tiger Stadium by an exasperating  2-1 score, ending the final chance for the ‘68 veterans to return to a World Series.
 
9.   October 1987, Tigers vs. Twins.  It’s a carbon copy for the ‘84 champs, as an annoying Minnesota team picks off Darrell Evans and Detroit’s World Series dream.
 
10,  May 1996, Red Wings vs. Colorado.  This one hurt even more than the previous season’s Stanley Cup sweep by the Devils; Claude Lemieux and the Avalanche pound and humiliate a stunned Red Wings team that appears to represent the last Cup possibility of the Steve Yzerman era.
 
11.  June 1997, Vladimir Konstantinov.  Never has joy turned so quickly and devastatingly to pain and heartbreak, as the valiant Red Wings defenseman is nearly killed in an absurd one-car limousine wreck only days after his team’s phenomenal Stanley Cup victory.  Only in Detroit, anyone?
 
12.  June 2009, Red Wings vs. Penguins.  A superior Red Wings team, up 3-2 in the Stanley Cup finals, succumbs to injuries and exhaustion inflicted by a season-long pounding from inferior squads, fading before Pittsburgh and a wimp named Sid the Kid in a defeat that should never have occurred.
 
13,   One word:  Galarraga.  And one epitath for all of this:  Only in Detroit.

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