weekly update 6-10

I'll cut to the chase this time.

The NCAA has made some rule changes for hockey in this upcoming season among them are that all face offs are going to be on a dot, and more importantly four officials on the ice and OPTIONAL SHOOTOUTS!!!!!

To the former point, from the perspective of a TV man i don't agree with this, it's bad enough having three officials especially if one is standing in the corner where you happen to have a camera hooked up. One time i was performing my duties as a cameraman at Yost for WOLV TV in a game against Alaska, my camera was in the right corner in front of the main entrance at Yost facing the goal where Michigan defends in the first and third periods (i.e. to the left of section 109) During this power play one of the officials skated over to the corner to get a better view and stood right in front of my tripod held camera.

I yelled at him to get out of the way, but to no avail. Fortunately for me, nobody scored during that power play and he eventually moved. Now i know darn well that there are ways of getting around such a situation without the refs getting in the way, as a matter of fact, we've prevented anything from happening like that again. However in my opinion four refs mean they can be more in the way. Not just for the cameras either as Mark Mitera recalls from the Miami game in which he tripped over an official's leg as a Redhawk player went for a breakaway.

I do, however, see a benefit for this from a fan's perspective. There will be less of an opportunity for players to get away with blatant penalties. Under normal circumstances i'm a fan of letting the players play on, but in cases like the series against Northern Michigan at Yost, there have to be exceptions. Sometimes the players can get too physical to the point that it seems like they're trying to hurt the other team's players and hopefully with four officials this will not happen.

Now to the part that's on everybody's minds. SHOOTOUTS!!!!!!!

I'm not going to pretend to know what Red Berenson thinks about having shootouts in college hockey, i know that several coaches in Hockey East and the ECAC, namely Jerry York, have been lobbying for this change. However i don't know whether it would really benefit Berenson to allow a shootout to end a game and risk a loss.

From a television perspective, i love it. If i am the announcer to any game that ends up in a shootout i will start throwing out all the spaghetti-western references that the Michigan Wolverine fans can handle, including:

CUE THE MORRICONE

If i could actually cue the intro to The Good The Bad and The Ugly at WOLV that would be awesome too, but i'm not getting my hopes up.

As a fan of Michigan i'm not a hundred percent certain in Billy Sauer's ability to stand tall in a shootout, it will all depend on the opposing team and the opposing goalie's abilities as well. I know personally, if i were Red Berenson and i were faced with a tie game against Northern Michigan i would not want to go into a shootout with Bryan Stewart. He's like the man with no name.

Hopefully, there won't be too many situations where there needs to be a shootout, personally i didn't think there were nearly as many tie games in college hockey as there were in the NHL when they adopted the rule, but whatever.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya.

Red Wings give something for the state of michigan to cheer about.

I seriously wish i didn't have to work the day we won the cup because i felt like really celebrating. Seeing all the videos on the free press website it really means something. I was at the celebration in 2002, watched the game at the Fox with my dad, and the rest of the night turned out to be really special because when we went outside it was as if the whole town had shown up in solidarity with the team. This year it had to have been different, there were fans outside of hockeytown cafe chanting Detroit Hockey as a tribute to the Pistons who got the Murphys Dropkicked out of them by the Celtics. I was really hoping for two championships this year because lord knows this city needs them in these times.

As i've said before i'm not rich, i'm not benifitting from this economic situation. And i have to tell you it's damn hard to sell anything when it seems like half the town is either taking the buyout and moving or is looking for a new job. Then there's the mayor, who's making the city look so bad he gets booed at a celebratory parade.

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEL YOU KWAME?????

RESIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But i'm not here to dwell on politics i want to talk about happy times and how the Wings won the cup. They won it with a true showing of teamwork and not depending on one single man to win the game. They won every game as a team and they celebrated as a team, that's what Pittsburgh is going to have to learn.

Hey Crosby may be the face of the league, but if the Pens want to get over that hump to kiss Lord Stanley's Cup they have to invest in the same type of team that the Red Wings have.

Also, anybody who doesn't thing the Wings play physical enough hockey clearly didn't see game two of the finals in which Pavel Datsuyk jumped on top of a Penguin player and started pounding him.

P.S. Wings fans should start incorporating some of the Yost chants at the Joe, it would really do something for the atmosphere.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya

programming update: June 4, 2008

Sorry for the extremely long period of time in between posts on my blog, i figure that i owe you an explanation:

Although i am a University of Michigan student, therefore putting me in an elite category for intellectuals in the United States (in a manner of speaking). I have made some bad decisions in the past, bad decisions that have left me financially strained. In the last couple of weeks since i last posted, i have taken a new job, one at a factory where i pack produce, it doesn't pay well but it has long hours and a steady paycheck, plus they bus you from the temp agency to the plant, so i save money on gas. My previous job which made me absolutely no money, but still left me time to do updates on the blog every week, was a commission sales job, enough said.

Anyways, with my new summer job being taken into account, i will probably be lucky to get in a post every week, but i will say this, it will be memorable, i guarantee it.

Seeing as that all the other Michigan blogs have posted about the NCAA baseball tournament, i will just say this, the Wolverine Nine was probably the only team in Michigan that didn't get screwed by the officials that week, unfortunately they got screwed by mother nature. This just goes to show how mad people are in the state of Michigan, more on that once the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya!

Weekly Update May 22, 2008

Apologies for not getting to this sooner, my new job has ridiculous hours.

Big Ten championships for track and field, and baseball.

After losing to Little Sister in the first round of the Big Ten softball tournament, Wright State, our first opponent in the NCAA regional tried to give us a challenge. Their coach Mike Larabee made a bold statement that Wright State would do the same thing that Appalachian State did to us last September 1, only in softball.

“I want to remind you guys of the beginning of the football season. Appalachian State went into the Big House and beat Michigan. It was one of the biggest upsets in history and we can beat Michigan too,” Larabee said.

“This year, expect to go to Ann Arbor and win an NCAA Regional Tournament. We’re going to shock the softball world.”

Yeah, right and guess who gives up a ten run inning.

Our ladies in blue cruised to a regional championship and will host Virginia Tech in the Super Regionals tomorrow in Ann Arbor.


Baseball set the record for most Big Ten wins in a season. And they play Illinois in their first game tonight.

One thing about this that i will say about our baseball team and about college baseball in general. Everybody is now saying that they are going to host an NCAA regional, this is not guaranteed, yes the tournament selection committee wants to let more northern teams host but there is another team that has a shot, St. John's from the Big East. They have played in a much tougher conference than we have and also play in a much more baseball oriented area in New York City. If we don't win the Big Ten tournament we will really be at the mercy of the tournament selection committee to give us a regional because we haven't played the type of schedule that the other teams that will host have played.

That being said, i have no reason to believe that they can't do this or that Michigan and St. John's won't end up hosting regionals. Rich Maloney knows better than anybody out there that hosting the regional will be the key for this team's goal, Omaha. When i talked to him before the start of the season he told me that if they host a regional and (god forbid) a super regional, there's the key to going to Omaha, home field advantage.


P.S. sorry to pepper this post with links like YSMISB, i'm just really tired from this past week's workload.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya

AND NOW FOR THE RETURN OF ANGRY CHARLES

Anger trigger number one: Ekpe Udoh is transferring.

To Ekpe i have nothing but questions:

Ekpe, Why did you decide to leave? Doesn't Michigan count as part of your family, weren't you concerned for your teammates? Don't you value a world class education while being able to attract NBA scouts? Was the weather in Michigan really that bad? Was it Beiline's fault?????

To Beiline i have very little other than rage:

Dang you Beiline, why couldn't you convince Ekpe to stay???? Are you still oblivious to the way big ten basketball is played??? Do you realize what position this puts the basketball team in, we have no defense or inside presence without him!!! Do you realize that or are you so obsessed with getting a good outside shooter that you would sacrifice our only great defender???

Do you plan on recruiting guys who can play defense to play with Manny and Wright, because if you do you'd better get them now!!!!


Anger Trigger Number Two: Big Ten softball championships.

I understand that Michigan and Northwestern ended both of their regular season's tied for the big ten championship. What i really don't understand is how they ended up deciding the host of the big ten tournament by flipping a coin. I'll admit i wouldn't be ranting about this if the coin had landed in favor of Michigan, but shouldn't the host spot go to the team that had the better regular season record. If that were the case then the Wolverines would have hosted because they have only lost five games all season compared to the Wildcats eleven. Michigan is also the sixth ranked team in the country they went 5-1 against ranked non-conference opponents before splitting with the 12th ranked Wildcats. I highly doubt Northwestern's record is nearly as impressive.

Anger Trigger Number Three: No Original Six Stanly Cup!!!!

With both Montreal and the New York Rangers falling in five games in their second round playoff matches the only original six team left standing is my own home town Detroit Red Wings. While i love the Detroit Red Wings a lot, i feel that i am an old time hockey fan more. I hate the fact that all these teams started migrating south under Gary Bettman's leadership of the NHL, it just made no sense to me.

THERE IS NO ICE DOWN SOUTH, WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOCKEY TEAM THERE!?!?!?!?!

This year i thought that things would be different, i thought that if two northern teams were to play for the Cup hockey would at least have a return to some of the former dignity it used to have. And i thought what better way than to have two original six squads duke it out. As of yesterday, it is no longer meant to be and i am sad for it. While i remain happy that the Red Wings are still in the hunt for the Cup and i also am glad to see two northern teams in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia fighting for the Eastern crown, i cannot help but despise the presence of the Dallas Stars in NHL's final four.

How is it possible to play hockey in Texas?

Gary Bettman

Weekly Update: Cinco de Mayo style

Due to my new job's bizarre scheduling and the way Michigan sports news goes i wasn't able to post anything of substance until now.

The baseball team took three out of four that school in Columbus. They did it without amazing hitting either. In the first two games the Michigan nine got most of their runs in the last two innings, in both of those games prior to that point it was tied 1-1. This was helped by the fact that Nate the Recker did not have a homer in the weekend for the first time since the Iowa series that started the conference schedule. Nevertheless the one man wrecking crew did help the team with two RBI's over the course of the series, but the fact that he went hitless in both ends of the doubleheader on saturday plus the fact that they had trouble scoring runs that day speaks volumes as to how much his bat means to the team.

Of course with this team when one man isn't doing his best another always steps up and this weekend it was Zach Putnam who pitched a complete game and drove in a run to aid his cause on friday (the National League scouts are loving this guy). Putnam has been overshadowed in my opinion by the recker simply because of Nate's home run clout and that's unfair. Putnam was a preseason all-american and this weekend he proved to us all why that is.

In any case the Wolverines are now 2 1/2 games ahead of Purdue as those pesky Hoosiers in Bloomington took two out of three from their in state rivals.

Weekly Update April 28, 2008

My first weekend of relative freedom was good, but it could have been a lot better.

First, in Maize and Blue land, the softball team swept through Michigan State with two straight mercy rule games before playing a twin bill at home with Northwestern, who they were tied with for the lead in the Big Ten. Northwestern went out and shut down the Wolverine bats in the first game to win it 2-1. In the second game it looked like more of the same, the Wildcats had a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth when the Wolverines loaded the bases with one out for the female version of Cecil Fielder, Dorian Shaw. After fouling off nearly a dozen pitches, she finally struck out, as did the next batter to end the threat. However it was enough to wear down Northwestern's pitcher Lauren Delaney, who loaded the bases again this time with nobody out this time for Angela Findlay, who walked. That gave the bat to co-captain Samantha Findlay who has been Ms. Clutch all year, and delivered a clear cut walk off single to left to drive in the two runs needed to win the game in the seventh.

Michigan is still tied for the Big Ten lead with Northwestern, they have one more series left in their conference schedule against Penn State on the road. The Nittany Lions have struggled their way through the Big Ten this year after an impressive start in the non conference. Coach Hutchins will probably try and preach to them that they can't look past anybody, especially when the Big Ten championship is at stake. If Michigan can lock up the regular season championship then they should be able to blast their way into the NCAA tournament because they have been dominant at home this year.

The baseball team's hopes of winning the Big Ten title have been put in jeopardy as they split a four game set with last place Indiana. After assaulting the Hoosiers 14-6 on friday, the Wolverines were stumped in saturday's first game by Matt Beshore who struck out eight in a game that only lasted seven innings due to scheduling conflicts. Michigan lost the first game 2-1, then pounced on Indiana 11-4 with Nate "the 'recker'" Recknagle going 4-4 with his 17th homer of the season. Unfortunately they expended everything in that game and the score of saturday's nitecap was reversed in favor of the hosting Hoosiers. With Purdue's sweep of Minnesota, including three come from behind victories, the Wolverines now stand atop the Big Ten by a mere game, and they're playing Ohio State.

Fortunately that school in Columbus struggled with Northwestern having to settle for a split as well. Also Rich Maloney refused to leave any quotes for mgoblue, making one think that he was NOT PLEASED with the performance on sunday. If Maloney pulled a Jim Leyland on his team he should hope they react the way the Tigers do.

The Tigers could have done so much better at this point, but hope is on the way in the form of Curtis Granderson. He returned this past week hitting pretty much anything that came in front of the plate this past week, although they dropped two out of three to the Angels at home this past weekend, as a longtime Tigers fan who has had his heart broken by them so many times, it's good to have Grandy back on the field.

The Red Wings didn't just beat the Avalanche in the first two games of their playoff series, they showed them who was the boss. After giving up two really bad second period goals in game one to cut their lead to 4-3 Chris Osgood played magnificently in net. I couldn't believe what i was hearing on the radio at the time, sprawling out to make sure the Avs shooters would not get it in. I hope Billy Sauer takes some pointers from the wizard of Os in the offseason, because right now it looks like he's taking Vezina Trophy winners to school.

Last but certainly not least, i thought for certain that the Pistons were going to return to the Palace trailing the Sixers three games to one. But the self preservation kicked in early as they showed the world how they win by owning the court to send it back to Detroit on their terms. Hopefully they can complete it and end all this upset talk.