Well it wouldn't be an appropriate blog, without me mentioning the release of a long time favorite player of mine yesterday by the Tigers. He was the last player from that 43-119 team, that did not have much of a chance to win because they were loaded with AA and AAA players and did not stand a chance against anyone that year. The question remaining in my head, is how the hell did Ryan Raburn survive not being sent to Toledo? But as all things go, they must end sometime and it was time for Brandon to go, hope someone picks him up that needs a great defensive player, who may not hit for average but pick everything hit his way.....

It leads me to this, back in the 70's it was acceptable for a position player who could play his position but not hit for average the Tigers had Aurelio Rodriquez and Eddie Brinkman as examples. Couldn't hit there way out of a wet paper bag with a hole and a road map to get their asses out of that bag, but when you hit a ball their way you may as well headed from the batter's box back to the dugout, because you were out nearly every time. Every team has their Brandon Inge's, and they deal with it because they know what he lacks at the plate he makes up for by saving them runs out on the field with their glove. Brandon will be sorely missed by the Tigers and my daughter Taylor, she was his Tiger when she was 3 and learning about baseball.

Thank you Ben if this was truly your last game as a Piston, I really enjoyed coming down to the Palace and watch you play.  You understood your role as a Piston, and were a major reason they brought a title back to Detroit in 04' Your fans wish you would stay another year, but understand that its time to watch your children grow up. The Pistons will be fine, because from the looks of the kids coming out of college this year, they will find your replacement for many years to come.

Dear Metta World Peace:

No offense, but I remember when you were a member of the Indiana Pacers and went into the stands one evening at the Palace and assaulted some fans. Sorry my friend I do not believe the sincerity in this apology, because I have seen your ignorance before first hand.

When and who will you snap on again, and then claim it was an accident and make it all better? Did David Stern forget about the incident at the Palace a few years back, if he had remembered you may have been suspended a whole lot longer than 7 games, or the first round of the playoffs if the Laker's get lucky enough to get by without you on their bench. I guess that is the benefit of playing for the Laker's and not the Pacer's, because you were suspended a whole lot longer than this for what you did that night.......

I just did not come here today to slam and rip World Peace, I wanted to show you a soft side that came from his site about his daughter's battle with cancer. It shows there is a human side to this man, and may explain his anger but still is no excuse for his actions.........

I was going to talk about the NFL Draft today, but I am still puzzled by the Lion's first pick Riley Rieff. Can he run the ball up the middle, cover a wide receiver going deep and going over the middle? I think not, he may plug a hole on the offensive line but he will not help cover up the Lion's real weakness, their defensive secondary. I will leave it at that for the moment......

Not to rub it in, but the Stanley Cup finalists are now both sitting at home watching the playoffs on television. I give the Capitals and Kings credit, they played two great series and the Caps got a great goal in what turned out to be a great series to watch on television. The Wings sucked badly during their series against Nashville, but Rinne was the real reason they are also at home, he outplayed Jimmy Howard the whole entire series. I guess I am not much of a fan of the Flyers and Pens, but I am glad that Sid the Kid and his team of crybabies are gone, and I do not care much for the Flyers so I hope someone takes care of them in the next round. 

My buddy told me once that its not a hockey game unless there are fights, and he was pissed off when the NHL tried to eliminate them from the sport entirely. The sad part is I actually agree, I believe half the stick and elbowing to the heads causing the concussion issues are caused by the NHL not letting the players take out their frustrations on a player that pissed them off. I believe they should let them get it out of their systems, because most of the time they do not fight a second time anyway. It does not really slow the pace of the game down, it adds to the entertainment value especially if the fight is a good one. He also hates the 4 on 4 and shootout at the end of overtime, he believed in 5 on 5 and sudden death overtime 20 minutes or until a goal is scored. No points for losing in overtime or shootout, because why should a team be rewarded for losing? Bring back Center Ice and the two line pass, so that teams like the Penguins can cherry pick and score easy goals. Make the goalies fair game if they come out of the crease, and eliminate that blue patch that protects them. If you notice, they use their sticks as well as the position players on opposing players in front of the net and should not be protected like they are the superstar players most goalies aren't in the first place. Finally, stop protecting the superstar players like they are Gods, and make them fair game also. They seem to get penalties called by the refs if the opposing team touches them, if you make them accountable for their actions then maybe players like Daniel Sedin will not swing his stick or take liberties on others. He clearly got what he deserved, and a few years back he would have got the crap kicked out of him and the other player involved would not have been suspended for getting his revenge.....

As I close out my blog, I will say one more thing get rid of the Designated Hitter. The reason the pitchers are getting away with intentionally hitting opposing batters in the American League is there is no course of retribution other than the opposing pitcher hitting a member of their team which normally results in a ESPN highlight the next day. When I was growing up, if you threw at a player you had better put catcher's equipment on because Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan was going to bust your ribs the next time you batted.....

Thank you for reading my post, hope you enjoyed my rants and raves...

It seems as though Mr. Irrelevant (the 253rd and last pick in the NFL Draft) gets a bonus present this year.  What a country!

Well, no intro this week, folks, just anger… pure, unadulterated anger! That’s right, it’s draft season… and apparently hate-crime season as well. And, both activities have me seeing red this week.

   We’ll start out with the NFL Draft, where, true to form, the Detroit Lions shit the bed with all three picks in the first three rounds. Apparently the ghost of Matt Millen still lurks somewhere within the bowels of Lions HQ in Allen Park… because Martin Mayhew is at the very least staying true to his formula of ignoring glaring holes on his roster and taking guys that make zero sense with picks that can be the difference between an 8-8 team and a playoff team.

   Here is one theory of mine as to what the hell might have happened to Martin Mayhew prior to the draft:

   That’s right… Martin Mayhew must have been driving along, ran down Matt Millen, and Millen’s soul entered Mayhew’s body, and he proceeded with the draft as usual. That’s right folks… THAT’S MY BLACK GM!

  Another theory: Calvin Johnson DID win the Madden cover this week… and the jinx that comes with it. Is this an insurance policy against his impending injury/arrest/turning into a douchebag?

  Of course, there is ALWAYS the theory that the Lions are just going to attempt to outscore the Packers, Bears, Vikings, and everybody else on the schedule by adding more receiving threats. At this point, I’m grabbing at fucking straws folks.

  But in all seriousness, the first round pick didn’t bother me quite as much. Riley Reiff was a guy that was supposed to be a top ten pick, certainly a top ten talent, and helps transition the offensive line into the future. Let’s face it, Backus isn’t the greatest left tackle in the league, and he isn’t getting any younger. Personally, I would’ve addressed a defensive need there, a corner, safety, DE, linebacker… something else, but I can deal with getting premium talent at the #23 spot in the first round.

   But last night, when the #54 pick rolled around, I expected to hear Barry Sanders say “with the 54^th pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions select cornerback (fill in name here).” Instead, I hear “wide receiver”… at that point, everything kind of went dark. Yeah, I think I might have had a minor aneurysm at that point… not exactly sure. When I came to, I realized that not only had we wasted a second rounder on a receiver, but on a 5’10” slot receiver with a bad ACL… who probably would have been there in the third round.

   Evidently, being torched by Drew Brees and MATT FUCKING FLYNN over the last two weeks of your season to the tune of 1,000 yards and 10 passing TDs, in two games mind you, was not enough of a wake-up call for the Lions’ brass. Apparently we just have to watch this shit for another season… maybe next year we’ll get to addressing that little situation… you know, needing two starting cornerbacks. Oh yeah, we got a corner in the third round… with Brandon Boykin on the board, a first-round graded corner from Georgia, who faced premium SEC competition on a weekly basis… we snagged Dwight Bentley out of Louisiana-Lafyette… because we all know the Sun Belt conference is a hotbed for NFL talent.

  What scares me even more, the Packers, Bears and Vikings have all made major strides through trades, free agency, and the draft, and all three have improved a great deal. Namely the Bears, who added Brandon Marshall via trade and drafted Jeffery Alshon, one of my favorite receivers in this year’s draft. It’ll be GREAT to see those guys torching the Lions’ secondary twice a year for the next five or so years.

   At this point, it really doesn’t matter what the Lions do the rest of the draft… their chance to add two starters in the defensive backfield went by the wayside in the 2^nd and 3^rd rounds. Hopefully I’m wrong about this kid out of ULL… but somehow I think we’ll be seeing him on a practice squad roster within three years. This team has not only not improved, they’ve taken a step back. If they finish 8-8 this year, I’ll be amazed.

   This was shaping up to be a GREAT week for the Tigers, too. Early in the week, the Tigers cut ties with much maligned second baseman Brandon Inge, sending his whining, non-hitting ass packing in a move that really came about a year and a half too late. Of course, this was much to the shagrin of all the downriver skanks across the southeastern Michigan area… but there’s plenty of dirty white boys left on the roster for you gals to follow. How about Brennan Boesch, Ryan Rayburn (who is hopefully next in line to get his ass booted out of here), Justin Verlander… hell, Verlander might be a better hitter at this point than Inge is. But Inge being GONE finally got rid of the non-stop discussion, the non-stop bitching every time his name appeared on Leyland’s lineup card. Things were looking up. Sure, the team is playing like shit, but Inge was gone.

   Then, Thursday night, the Tigers hit the Big Apple… and evidently at around 3 AM, outfielder Delmon Young got into an altercation outside the team hotel, which led to his arrest on aggravated harassment and hate-crime charges. The story is, good ol’ DY got piss drunk, pushed a man to the ground, and started off on an anti-semetic rant including shouting “FUCKING JEWS, FUCKING JEWS” repeatedly. A real shock… never saw this coming… not like Delmon has had any issues in the past… (video of Delmon Young throwing bat at ump)

  Yeah, I say cut this fucking bum loose too, and throw somebody else into his lineup spot to NOT HIT.

  As for Ron Artest… he got off easy. Seven games ain’t shit for a blatant elbow to the head of James Hardin. Let that be LeBron or Wade, and his ass is out of the league. And for blaming the media for the spot he’s in, Ron Artest, you are the decided winner of this week’s shut the fuck up award.

  And Rosie O'Donnell... nobody cares what you think about ANYTHING you washed up old gash. 

  That’s all I’ve got this week gang. Thanks as always for reading and for any comments you leave on the way out. Hope your teams are doing better than mine this week!

There was a wonderful, quirky television series that ran in the United States from 1990 to 1995 called Northern Exposure that took place in a fictional town called Cicely, Alaska.  To say that the series was great would be an understatement, I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend that you watch it on DVD if you have not seen it;  it is a funny, entertaining series. I had lived in Alaska in my later youth, and it was there that I was introduced to hockey.  Up to then I had resided in Texas, Arkansas, and Arizona most of my life, and hockey was a foreign sport to these regions of the country.  I attended a small college named Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage, and a friend of mine was on its hockey team.  

I moved back to Arizona in 1970 and I figured that I would never be exposed to hockey again; After all it is a cold weather sport.  Yet in 1996 Phoenix got a NHL franchise, hockey had indeed somehow made its way to the Sonoran Desert.  Years of bad management and poor hockey teams led to fan apathy and bankruptcy of the franchise to the point that the team has been owned by the NHL for the last three years.  Yet a funny thing has happened in these three years, the team has finally become competitive and has made the play-offs for the first time in these three years.  This season the Coyotes have won their first round series against the Chicago Blackhawks and are now in the second round of the playoffs for the very first time.

I hated when Northern Exposure was cancelled in 1995, and I certainly would hate it if the Coyotes were to be bought by an owner who will move them to another city.  But part of the problem is that I am in love with our town, a city that was never made for the sport of ice hockey.   However Phoenix is certainly a city large enough for all the major sports.  So I will understand if the team moves, but there are many other NHL cities that also were not made for ice hockey.  Florida, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Dallas, Nashville, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim all come to mind.  So I am rooting for the Phoenix Coyotes to win it all this season.  What a great way it would be for our town to say goodbye to the NHL.

I would also like to take a moment to say goodbye to a great New York Yankee Moose Skowron, who passed away yesterday at 81 years.  Moose played first base for the Yankees from 1954 to 1962 and was a 6 time All-Star and a 5-time World Series winner.  Moose hit three game 7 home runs and will be greeted in the beyond by his good pals Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and chorus of boos, make that moos.    

Rey Mysterio Jr has been suspended for 60 days for failing his second drug test.