I’ve asked it before, but I ask it again: What images do you see when I say Detroit? Again, maybe I’m just going on perceived stereotypes, but are you seeing beat up, abandoned houses and empty streets? Are you seeing empty hulks of past industrialism? Heck, I just watch a guy on the news play a round of golf from 8 mile into the heart of Detroit with hardly an interruption. I don’t need to tell anyone its bad here.
 

Did you picture: the zombie apocalypse?

Well, a local entrepreneur wants to make that connection. He wants to bring zombies to the D.
Marc Slwak wants to buy up a section of abandoned properties in the city to create a live action, zombie survival game in the streets of Detroit. The idea has gotten looked at by the city council, but it has started receiving a whole lot of buzz around the region and the world.
 

Slwak and his team plan to find an ideal location that will offer a variety of urban environments from burned out houses to abandoned factories. Contestants will be placed into teams and given some time to explore the area and find a good place to try their luck at surviving. After the teams have had some time to establish a base, the group would release a horde of zombie actors.

Slwak and his team plan to hire Detroiters to fill these roles. If a player is caught, he becomes a zombie and spends the rest of the game hunting people down. The game lasts an entire night. The objective: survival.
Slwak claims that the city itself is doing nothing to help neighborhoods; a casual glance around shows that he has a good point there. He calls the plan a fun and unique way to revive the city and create some jobs. They’ll need folks to help set the place up, reinforce structures, market, take tickets, and act.
 

Still, the plan has met with resistance. Critics claim this plan is just further exploitation of Detroit and its people. A lot of people don’t seem to want this as a solution. On the other hand, Marc has set up an Indiegogo site and mentions that he has already raised a few thousand dollars towards his goal.

You can see an article and a video on the project here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168161/Detroit-hit-flesh-brain-eating-zombie-apocalypse-live-action-terror-theme-park-pushed-through.html.
 

At this point in the game, I don’t see how anyone can really say this is exploiting anything. I think most people have their doubts of any of these neighborhoods coming back and the city isn’t doing much for them. Will this park really create the jobs it says? That’s hard to say. I don’t know what I think of the plan, but it is one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen for all the unoccupied property residents are faced with daily.
 

I was catching up on the All-Star rosters at ESPN when I found a link to some baseball photo galleries that ESPN does. The one that really caught my eye was the#Faces of the Franchise one. They took all 30 teams and listed what they saw as the face of each. The important thing to remember is that these guys just did the current faces. They didn’t go historic. I have a few problems with some of the pics. I’ll highlight a few here.
 

Miami Marlins  ESPN: Ozzie Guillen  My pick: Giancarlo Stanton
St. Louis Cardinals ESPN: Chris Carpenter  My pick: Matt Holiday
Chicago Cubs  ESPN: Theo Epstein  My pick: Starlin Castro
Arizona Diamondbacks ESPN: Kirk Gibson  My pick: Justin Upton
Cleveland Indians ESPN: Carlos Santana  My pick: Asdrubal Cabrera
Texas Rangers  ESPN: Michael Young  My pick: Josh Hamilton
 

I found a lot of their other picks pretty spot on. I know I ousted a lot of managers from the list, but I think especially in a place like Arizona many teams have a big name player who is easily more recognizable than their manager. The one management pick they made I liked was Billy Bean for the A’s. Billy and his Moneyball might not be doing much for Oakland and its long suffering fans, but with all the turn over he’s clearly the most consistent and famous face around.
 

This also got my think what the overall faces of many franchises would be. If you look at a lot of clubs, that’s awful hard to nail down. A lot of clubs have great history. A lot of clubs have a lot of memorable folks who worked for them and not just players. You think of the Dodgers and you think Duke Snyder or Sandy Kaufax, but what about a Vin Scully? It’d be tough.
 

That said, in addition to this post I’ve started a YouGabSports Faces of the Franchise post. What better place to define the people who made the 30 MLB clubs than right here at the Gab? The rules have been outlined in the #post. Everything is up for debate, which is indeed encouraged. I’ve even started you off with my nomination for the Face of the Detroit Tigers. I think my pick is going to shock a few people and should open a nice debate with my brother and Stormin. Be sure to stop in and let your voice be heard.
 

http://www.yougabsports.com/pt/Faces-of-the-Franchise.7-3-2012/blog.htm

With that, I wish you all a happy July Fourth. I hope you all have safe, delicious, and happy celebrations/cook outs. I’d like to wish a special Happy Fourth to those of you with friends or loved ones who will unfortunately be spending the holiday overseas keeping us safe. Thanks for everything and get home safe. I leave you as always, with some vocabulary.

America, noun

The country that everyone loves to hate, but when disaster strikes, the one they look to for help
 

Starving people in Haiti? Call in the Americans