Tim Furno

I would like to congratulate Mr. Tim Furno for being elected to the Michigan High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. It is a wonderful recognition for him. I saw Tim this morning and personnaly congratulated him. I am sure a story is to follow on Andrew Selich's Tuscola County Sports blog.

'Roid Busting PI's

Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens attorney, has hired his own private Sherlock Holmes to check to validity of The Mitchell Report and to interview witnesses that Geroge Mitchell seemed to ignore. Well, I am glad that Clemens is fighting the attachment of his name to this report. He has stated that he did not use the performance enhancing drugs. If that is true then he should fight the allegation with all the wealth that he has accumalted. I believe that he is the greatest pitcher of my generation. Of course if he was injecting, that belief would change. I am going to take him at his word until proven otherwise. Besides, he has only told us he was retiring 3 times.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!

Those words never sounded so good to Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons. In fact, I heard today that he has put a hit out on "Father Time" unless he agrees to skip over the last week or so left of 2007. The founder of Home Depot or Home Depot (however you say it) has his franchise player and PETA loving quarterback arrested for his role in an illegal dog fighting ring. After declaring his innocence, Michael Vick pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 23 months of hoping that Bubba knows about the product KY.

Arthur Blank also hired a new head coach this year. That is a fresh beginning for the franchise to start the year. The honeymoon did not last long. Bobby Petrino decided that after going 3-10, he did not like the NFL anymore. He took the open position at the University of Arkansas, replacing Huston Nutt. So Blank, starts the year with a new offensive minded coach to go along with his franchise quarterback, and finishes with neither. The year though did not get any better for Mr. Blank.

Earlier this month, Bill Parcells agreed in principle to take over the football operations for the Falcons. When Mr. Blockbuster Video found out that the Tuna was available he said, "Mr. Tuna sir please come join my sad sack franchise instead of the sad sack franchise in Atlanta. Besides we have better weather."

The Tuna replied, "Sure I love the ocean."

So with that statement Arthur Blank gets kicked in the Jimmy for the 3rd time this year. Please Mr. Blank, let Father Time live. The year 2008 is almost here. Besides, it can not get any worse this year. You could have Joey Harrington as a quarterback on your roster. Wait, never mind do with Father Time as you wish. You need 2008 more than the rest of us.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Detroit Tigers and D-Train

As reprinted from ESPN.com:

"Pitcher Dontrelle Willis has reached an agreement in principle on a three-year, $29 million contract extension with the Detroit Tigers, a source told ESPN.com.

The deal includes incentives that could push the total value to more than $30 million, the source said. An announcement was expected after Willis took a physical exam Thursday in Detroit.
The Tigers acquired Willis and star third baseman Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins in an eight-player trade at the winter meetings two weeks ago in Nashville. Willis will join a Detroit rotation that also includes Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Kenny Rogers.
Willis, 25, has a 68-54 record an a 3.78 ERA in parts of five seasons with the Marlins. He went 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA last season.
Willis earned a base salary of $6.45 million for the Marlins last year. He would have been eligible for free agency after the 2009 season, but is now locked up through 2010."

The countdown clock to first spring training game has started. Go, Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tigers annual bus caravan through Michigan will again be making a few stops in Mid-Michigan. On January 14, 2008, the North Bus will be stopping at The Ryder Center at Sagainaw Valley State University and at Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn. Times and players on the North Bus are to be announced at a later date.

Pete Rose

I thought I read the ESPN.com article wrong this morning. I then re-read the article. I then read it a 3rd time and realized I was correctly reading the article. Pete Rose (click on his name for link to article) of all people is passing judgement on the players who might be involved in The Mitchell Report. Is that not like the devil saying, "It's hot down here"? Why is it that every time something in baseball happens, he has to opine on it? Frankly I could care less what "Charlie Hustle" has to say about anything. I was all for his Hall of Fame eligibility until 2004 when he admitted he did bet on baseball. I am all for taking a man at his word until otherwise proven worthless. Which I hope is not the case with Roger Clemens, but I was burned by ole' Pete.

Musings

The Mitchell Report

Seriously, what good did the report do, except line the pockets of DLA Piper US, LLP to the tune of millions of dollars. I am not sure why Bud Selig and the baseball powers felt compelled to commission this report. Yes, Mr. Mitchell made recommendations to Mr. Selig. He also named many people, some surprising (Andy Pettite), some we already knew (Jose Canseco), and some laughable (Nook Logan). I hope this quells the "National Enquirer" in people. Frankly, the only thing I took from the 409 page novel is that Bud Selig should resign.

Miami Dolphins

Was it just me, or did anyone else get upset when Greg Camarillo went 64 yards for the winning touchdown in the Dolphins first win. It seems like if you start a season 0-13, then at least go down in history as the first 0-16. You would think they would want to be remembered for something. Now, they are almost just like the Lions.

University of Michigan

So Bill Martin and company stole another coach from West Virginia. At first glance, this looks like a good hire for the football program. The offensive philosophy will change tremendously. Ryan Mallett might not have a job come next spring. This will be a much needed change from the predictable, run, run, pass, etc. Let's just hope Rodriguez's Michigan teams play better defense than his teams from Morgantown.

High School Basketball

Looking forward to seeing Brad Redford and his Frankenmuth Eagle teammates swoop down to Vassar to take on the Vulcans. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Listen for Jon Sicotte and myself on WIDL 92.1 FM.

Redford is the man!!

122 and counting. Christian is starting to look like a guru.
In last week's pre-game show on the New mix 92.1, Christian Selich, color-commentator extraordinaire, boldly predicted that Frankenmuth's Brad Redford would average over 40 points a game for the 2007-08 season.
The rest of us on the show laughed it off...said no way...it just couldn't be done.
Well, after three games this year, Mr. Redford is averaging 40.6 points per game, with 47 in the opener against Flint Southwest Academy, 39 in a big win over Bridgeport along with 36 on Friday night in a 77-60 win over North Branch.
Against the Broncos, Redford spurred his team to a 66-36 lead by the end of the third quarter, meaning of course that the 6-0 guard spent the majority of the fourth on the bench.
Redford scored 12 in the first, 12 in the second, eight in the third and four in the fourth when the Frankenmuth starters had to return to the game to close it out for the win.
Even though he is averaging over 40 at this point, I still don't think it will be possible for Redford to close out the season with such a high average.
It's not that I don't think that he can do it....I've seen him play enough times over the last two years to know that the kid can do pretty much do whatever he wants to do on the basketball court.
He can score from anywhere on the court....he's much too quick for anyone in the area to guard him man-to-man...and you can try to push him back, but he can make the '3' from 25 feet out or more, so it is not beyond the realm of reason to think that he could score 40 points a night.
The reason I don't think he will average 40 this season is this....he is so good, that his team will have too many games like Friday night's, where a 30 point lead after the conclusion of the third quarter cost Redford at least six to seven minutes of playing time.
That's a lot of time, especially when you consider that right now he is averaging over 40 points a game in a 32 minute game. Give him those extra six to seven minutes last night, and instead of a 36 point night....well, who knows what he could have ended up with. 48...50...maybe even more!
Outside of Birch Run and Bridgeport, the Tri-Valley East is down this year, and with Frankenmuth playing 14 of their 20 regular season games against TVC-E opponents; well, that's just going to make it that much more difficult for Redford to continue to pour in the points when the game's might be out of hand by halftime.
I would love see him do it. For Redford to be seriously considered for the Mr. Basketball award, he might just have to average 40 points a game. For a Class B player to be chosen for the honor over a Class A player from say Detroit or Kalamazoo....he would have to average nearly twice as many points as a kid from a Class A school, so for Redford to get the award, he will have to score as many points this season as Christian boldly predicted.
But with the competition he has to play against this season, I just don't see that happening.

My Sports Christmas Wish List

I just finished helping my sons email their wish list to Santa. Yes, no more letters for Santa. Apparently, he has DSL available in the North Pole. I also heard that his Blackberry has world coverage. Anyway, I decided to put together my wish list for sports.

1. A Commissioner's Trophy presented to Mike Illitch. The way this man agreed to assemble talent reminds me of the owner of the Detroit Red Wings. Oh wait my mistake, it is that guy. Barring major injuries, the Tigers seem poised to present Illitch with their 3rd Commissioner's Trophy and 5th World Series title.
2. A Cy Young Award given to Justin Verlander. He is on the cusp of being the Tigers 1st 20 game winner since Bill Gullickson in 1990. A 20 game winner might be a shoe-in with the offensive prowess the Tigers posess. The organization's 3rd Cy Young should be awarded to Mr. Verlander.
3. What do I wish for the fans of the Detroit Lions? Ownership is the key here. I wish for new ownership for the Lions. Until that happens, we will see more losing year in and year out.
4. This winter's version of the Detroit Pistons deserve one thing. I think a change of address to "6 Championship Drive" is a very worthy wish.
5. A Mr. Basketball given to Brad Redford of Frankenmuth High School. An award he deserves. What a wonderful thing for the Thumb of Michigan. It's own Mr. Basketball.
6. A football head coach is a wish for Bill Martin and the University of Michigan. A special note for Mr. Martin, the next time you are courting a head coach stay in an area where your cell phone works.
7. My wish for Michael Vick is a 2nd chance in the NFL after his 23 month sentence is over. Everyone deserves a 2nd chance.
8. I am also wishing for 30 wins for my slowpitch softball team next summer. We had 23 last year, only need to pick up 7 more.
9. A DeMarini F3 Slow Pitch Softball Bat that is 34 inches and 26 ounces for me under the tree.
10. I like rooting for the bad guys every now and then, so my final wish for the Christmas season is for Mumbles to finally defeat Dick Tracy!

Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Ford a Research Paper for You

While I was watching the Lions being declawed by the Vikings this past Sunday, I found myself starting to cringe every time Jon Kitna was hit. Since I was under center during my high school playing career, I understand how much it hurts to be sacked continually. That is why my body started to ache when I learned that Kitna’s sack total has now reached 100 in his one plus years as the Lions main quarterback. Reaching for the Motrin bottle, I wondered if the Lions recent spat of futility had any direct correlation with the amount of time their quarterback is brought to the turf.

This should be an easy question to answer. It just makes sense. If your quarterback gets sacked a lot, then you lose. If he does not get sacked a lot then you win. While waiting for my laptop to boot up I had to come up with a few ground rules. What is a lot of sacks? Is it the actual number of times the quarterback is taken down? Is it the amount of sacks compared to the rest of the teams in the league? After all, if your quarterback is sacked 70 time (which seems like a lot) in one season and the other 4 quarterbacks in the league are sacked 75, 72, 79 , and 65 times, then your team is pretty good compared to the rest of the league. As the picture of my children, came up on my home screen, I decided I would compare the data I found with the rest of the NFL.

What time period should I use? Do I use the last 5 years as a reference point? The overall record is horrible, and it would skew the data. How about the last 10 years? The record is just as horrible. Wait this is the Detroit Lions I am talking about, I may have to go back a few more years. So I decided to use 30 years. Why did I finally choose 30 years of data? Well I remember first becoming a Lions fan on Thanksgiving Day 1978, watching as the Lions defeated the “Orange Crush” Broncos of Denver. So 30 years of misery seemed like a good round number.

I typed http://www.espn.com/ into my address bar, and began my research. Much to my dismay the website only had statistics back to the year 2002. Knowing I need another 24 years of data to make my piece Pulitzer or Nobel worthy, I directed my browser to http://www.nfl.com/. This was the site. It had searchable stats, by team and by year. I started writing down sacks allowed by year and where the Lions ranked by year, see chart to the right. After getting the sack information I needed, I came to the conclusion that I was happy that I never quarterbacked for the Lions. They give up a lot of sacks, an average of 43.6 per year over the last 30 years.

The Lions have given up over 1,300 sacks over the last 30 years. It seems like a lot, but how do they compare to the rest of the league? How will I break this down? I decided to use simple ranking scale. If the Lions gave up the most sacks in the NFL, then they would receive a 1 for the year. If they gave up the fewest sacks in the NFL, then they would receive a 32, 31, 30, or 28. Why include four separate numbers? Expansion has increased the amount of teams three separate times. The average rank for the Lions is 10.8. Does this mean 10.8 out of 28, 30, 31, or 32? 10.8 out of 32 is much better than 10.8 out of 28. I had to narrow this information down to make it more manageable. I decided to break down the information in a simple way. I broke down the data in fourths. I took each ranking and placed them in four categories: B25, B50, T50, and T25, whereas B=bottom % and T=top%.

Now I was getting to where I was going to prove my point. The Lions have finished in the top 25% in the league in sacks allowed 4 times, the top 50% 3 times, the bottom 50% 10 times, and the bottom 25% 13 times. Knowing how putrid the Lions record has been over the last 30 years, I figured my point was proven. They give up a lot of sacks and consequently have a bad record.

I put my pen down satisfied with my conclusion. Wait, the Lions probably have their best records when in the T25 group and the worst records in the B25 group. I still needed to find their winning percentage in each category. Here I was, at the pinnacle of proving my point and like so many Lions games and seasons, my enthusiasm was crushed. When the Lions give up the fewest sacks (Top 25%) their winning percentage is .381, Top 50% the winning percentage is .417, Bottom 50% the winning percentage is .444, and Bottom 25% the winning percentage is .375. What is this, the Lions lose at almost the same rate if they are giving up sacks or preventing them. My numbers or research must be wrong. Surely if your quarterback is being sacked a lot then you do not win and so on.

My research is correct. My math is correct. My thesis is incorrect. Wait, I am talking about the Detroit Lions, the laughing stock of the NFL. The one constant through the last 30 years of .400 football is Mr. William Clay Ford, Sr. It is time to sell the team sir. If you truly love this franchise and city, then do the correct thing and sell the team to a real owner. Do not make my mistake, and think the problem lies elsewhere.