Selection Sunday Boo-Yah!

Eleven years. The eleven year drought for Michigan basketball is finally over. But when you think about it...so what?

Everyone I've talked to says I'm an idiot for thinking this one lone thought: "I would rather win the NIT than lose in the first round of the tournament."

Granted, now that Michigan is officially in the tourney as an 10 seed facing Clemson in the first round (which is winnable but more on that later) I take that thought back. I am much happier seeing the Maize and Blue back at the big dance, early exit or not, I'm glad they're in. After all the bullshit this team has been through since 1998, the Ellerbe Era, the Tommy Amaker years, the Fab Five Forfeiture, and the NIT Championship, they are finally back to playing at the level required to make it to the Dance.

That being said...do I think they'll beat Clemson? Yes, I think they will beat Clemson in the first round but only if they get stupidly hot from behind the arc, or they give Sims the workload and let him take over the paint a la what they did against Iowa in the Big Ten Tourney. If A or B don't happen then see you later, nice job making the dance and enjoy watching from Ann Arbor.

As for the brackets. I will have available a group on either ESPN or Yahoo for you to join, with more info on that coming tomorrow. Grand Prize will be the T-shirt of your choice from the Tobacco Juice Store.

After watching the selection show and seeing Louisville as a 1 seed I have to say the committee screwed the pooch. Sure, they won the Big East (widely considered the Jesus of college basketball) but after watching them a couple of times this season, they did not overly impress me and I don't think they are a Final Four team and will lose before the elite eight probably to Wake Forest. Oklahoma or Memphis deserve that 1 seed over Louisville with UNC or UConn as the overall #1 seed.

Hamilton disagrees and says Louisville deserves the spot. Aaron still thinks the Sparties should be a 1 seed but he hasn't watched more than five minutes of basketball all year long. Too busy being superman to watch hoops. Dad throws his two cents about the tournament saying, "Eh, I dunno, I have to do my research."

Well do your research Dad and have Aaron or Mom help make you a Yahoo account so you can join in our bracket contest.

I'll put up another post with all the information later on this evening so you can join us in the Tobacco Juice Pants Party bracketology challenge!



It's a great day for Michigan Basketball. Now don't screw it up.

School Daze and The Lifting of the Tigers Embargo

Still being a student at my age still has some benefits. Apart from the actual pursuit of a higher education, going to EMU blesses my life in ways that typically cannot be found in any other spectrum. I'm not saying that I love going to class every day and all that nonsense, I'm talking purely about the sarcastic blessings I get to see on a daily basis. Things like showing up late to class and having the professor pat you on the back and say, "Good morning Mr. Cole, glad you could join us." (To which I replied, "Good morning Dr. Quiel, yeah I haven't seen 8 AM in about two weeks." which gave the class a nice early morning chuckle) Also, I love seeing the ridiculous things people wear when it's butt ass cold outside. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate when girls don't wear a whole hell of a lot of clothes but at the same time, I don't want to hear you complain about how cold it is when you're wearing booty shorts and a pair of Uggs. Seeing the random person who shows up 45 minutes late to class and starts asking questions and causing the rest of us to stay for the whole allotted time instead of busting out early, classic. Another thing I really like to do is eat lunch in the band building on campus. Few things in life are more entertaining than seeing a bunch of band geeks congregate with each other and talk about anime and other nerdy things. Always puts a smile on my face. On a more serious note, I really like when an instructor gives the class an assignment to create a blog to put news stories on. This is beneficial to me because...well c'mon, are you not reading why this is beneficial to me right now? Basically this is a warning, if you start seeing random serious "news" stories on here, it's an assignment for a class and not a move to being a "journalist." I have never claimed any sort of journalistic credibility nor will I. The purpose of this blog has always been to entertain you, my dozen or so readers, and to give me some sort of creative outlet in my annoyingly hectic yet boring life. That being said...let's talk about something completely different.

It is currently January 6th, 2009 and my self imposed grounding from writing about the Tigers is over so let's talk some baseball!! It appears that Dombrowski and Illitch have learned their lesson about trying to buy a championship from last season and have reverted back to the ways that remind me of simpler times. They've resorted to signing gritty white dudes again! To replace Pudge behind the dish, the Tigers acquired Gerald Laird from Texas and Matt Treanor from Florida. Laird is a career .255 hitter with 25 home runs and 136 RBI. Not exactly eye popping stats but Laird has a reputation for having a ROCKET for an arm and defensive skills that could eventually lead to a Gold Glove at some point. Barring injury Laird will be the every day catcher for the Tigers in 2009. Treanor on the other hand will serve as a more than capable backup for Laird. Treanor is a career .237 hitter with 8 home runs and 36 RBI, again not eye popping numbers but the biggest thing Treanor brings to the table is the fact that he is married to Misty May-Treanor of beach volleyball and Dancing With the Stars fame. Hopefully she'll show up at a few games and I can buy her a beer and talk about her catastrophic Achilles tendon injury suffered while ballroom dancing. Probably not but still, how awesome would that be?

Another great pickup by the Tigers this offseason was short stop Adam Everett. Everett is known for his range and arm strength and not at all for what he can do with the bat (career .246 hitter with 37 HR and 236 RBI). Everett will give the Tigers arguably the best defensive left side of the infield when combined with Brandon Inge back at the hot corner. Defense was a problem for the Tigers last season and these pickups should help fix that problem. The only thing I worry about is Inge and Everett diving for the same ball in the gap and slamming their heads together which, given each player's penchant for making the spectacular play, is a distinct possibility.

Another area in which the Tigers struggled last season was pitching. From the starters to the closers, the Tigers were, simply put, not good. Things for the staff seemed to cannonball when Bondo had to get that rib removed and was declared out for the season early on last year. The Tigers acquired relatively young Edwin Jackson (who was born in Germany oddly enough) from the Devil Rays, I mean Rays for former Official Tiger of Tobacco Juice Sports Matt Joyce. Of course, my initial reaction to the trade was something along the lines of MFing the Tigers for trading away a young player with a powerful bat and decent glove (remember Cameron Maybin?) for an unproven starting pitcher. After calming down and thinking about it 30 seconds later, I realized that it could potentially be a great deal for a great pitcher. To use the term I've used about eight times so far in this post, Jackson's stats aren't exactly eye popping. Last season, his second as a full time starter, Jackson posted a 4.42 ERA with 108 strikeouts over 183.1 innings and a 14-11 record. However, Jackson was solid enough in the second half of the season (10-4 with a 3.43 ERA) to give the impression that he can shore up the Tigers rotation and prove to be another good, young arm in the arsenal.

As for the rotation, the Tigers have 4 of the 5 spots solidified with Bondo, Verlander, Jackson, and pleasant surprise Armando Galarraga. The fifth spot will most likely be determined during spring training and could be filled by typically solid yet extremely average Zach Miner or the hopefully rebounding Dontrelle Willis or Nate Robertson who both suffered abysmal seasons in 2008. I wish I could tell you who it is going to be but I can tell you that I hope Dontrelle can find the plate again this off season and returns to the pitcher he was earlier in his career.

The bullpen is what worries me the most about the Tigers' pitching staff and it has been a question mark for years now. The main problem is the Tigers have no real closer. Rodney is a trainwreck and has been for three seasons now. Zumaya is coming off an injury and is just now starting to just pick up a baseball and might not be ready for the start of spring training. Freddy Dolsi is an option but is better in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings in my opinion. Bobby Seay, let's skip him. With no other definite closers left on the market, I will throw a radical idea out there for the Tigers' closing spot. Nate Robertson. That's right. Nate has always been a great pitcher his first time through opponent's lineups but once they get a bead on his delivery and whatnot, he is extremely hittable. Why not just eliminate the first 8 innings of a game for Nate and let him come in and get three outs and a save in the 9th? It's an idea the Tigers are reportedly mulling over but I still see it as a longshot even though personally, I love the idea.

On the whole, are the Tigers contenders in 2009? For me to make any sort of prediction right now would be asinine and borderline reckless. That and last year about this time I was singing the praises of the Tigers and all but guaranteeing at least a Central Division title and instead, the Tigers finished last in the Central and were right there with the overspending Yankees (more on those assholes and their lack of the concept of money later) watching everyone else play in October. Could this season be special? Well, with the much improved defense and seemingly improved pitching staff with a healthy Bondo, it certainly could be. My main concern is this, Carlos Guillen being moved out to left field. Leyland keeps saying that playing out there will take less of a toll on his aging body and allow him to be more productive at the plate. If that proves true, the upper half of the lineup could potentially be strong to very strong. The lineup will look something like this...
1. Granderson CF
2. Polanco 2B
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Ordonez RF
5. Guillen LF
6. Sheffield/Thames/Random Power Hitting White Dude DH
7. Laird C
8. Everett SS
9. Inge 3B
Can you win with this lineup? Absolutely. Will you win with this lineup? How the hell should I know? It's January 6th and I'm just a dude with a laptop and some time to kill.

Preview for Tomorrow - 10 reasons why new Eastern Michigan Head Football Coach Ron English WILL NOT FAIL...and assistant coach hirings.

Random Silliness and General Nonsense

Quick shot of the Stanley Cup Finals TV schedule. Games 1 and 2 in Detroit will be broadcast on Versus with the rest of the games being on national NBC. Two more games of cagefighting and deer hunting commercials. The only problem is the Versus broadcast team of Mike Emerick and Ed Olzcyk will basically change sport jackets and do the commentary for NBC which means more intermission reports from Brian Freaking Engblom. Nice work Gary Bettman, nice work.

The Pistons open up their series with the Celtics tonight at 8:30 on the World Wide Leader which is just as tolerable as the Versus hockey broadcasts. Maybe I'm just being over critical of these broadcast teams but for some reason I just find them to be horrible for both sports on both networks. I can't really put my finger on it but when I watch the NBA on ESPN it sounds like an elderly fourth grade teacher scraping her nails on a chalkboard. It makes me want to go around punching babies somewhere.

I had an in depth conversation with Z about the Pistons and their chances against the Celtics. He thinks the Stones are going to win the series in no more than 6 games and no less than 4. He did bring up some good points saying that Ray Allen has been the invisible man thus far in the playoffs and that all the game sevens they've played has to wear on the legs a little bit. The Celtics are by no means a young team so he may have a point there. On the other hand, I am still skeptical of the Pistons ability to win the series. They have the veteran experience to win on the road but no team has beaten the Celtics in Boston yet this playoff season. I don't really expect the Celts to win at the Palace due to the fact that they haven't won a road game yet in the playoffs and all of those road games were in relatively tame locales when compared to the Auburn Hills Zoo they will play in in this series. All the Pistons have to do is win one time in Boston and the series is theirs to lose. Of course, IF they were to win this series, they would have to play San Antonio (yes that is a prediction on my part) in the finals and we all know how they usually fair against the Spurs in the finals. Could this be a parade laden early summer/late spring for the Wings and the Pistons? I'm going to say.......maybe.

The Tigers open up their series against the Mariners tonight at the Copa. Hopefully the day off yesterday will prove to shake something loose and the Tigers can get back to their winning ways. The good news is, as much as the Tigers suck right now, the M's are just as bad if not worse. This could be a pillow fight for the ages as these two teams battle for the bottom of the barrel in the AL.

In other and more important baseball news, the Grass Lake Warriors won their first outright Cascades Conference Title since 1993 after sweeping a double header against the Jayhawks of Vandercook Lake. In the first game Casey Hall pitched 5 innings of shut out baseball with 11 strikeouts before Steven O'Hotzke (go Irish pitchers!) came in in a mop up role allowing two unimportant runs as the Warriors would go on to win by a score of 7-2. Hall also lead the charge at the plate going 3 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs. Jordon Bliss scored a hat trick and struck out three times...that'll happen Jordon, keep your head up. Charlie Fisher took the hill in the second game and was nothing short of dominant pitching 5 innings and striking out 9 while only allowing 4 hits. The aforementioned Jordon Bliss erased his 3 strikeout performance in the first game by going 2 for 2 with a walk, a triple and 3 RBIs in the second game as the Warriors mercy ruled the Jayhawks 10-0. I cannot congratulate the Warriors and their first year coach Ben Hamilton enough on a terrific season thus far. Grass Lake will host the District tournament starting next Tuesday and featuring Manchester, Whitmore Lake, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, Clinton and South Lyon East. Tournament pairings will be announced in the upcoming days.

Tomorrow I have a very, very special treat for you as we will have the first guest blog written by a writer to be named later. You will enjoy it as this writer is one of the most talented, insightful, and technically sound writer I have ever seen.