Yesterday, the Detroit sports world stood still and I decided to stand still with it.
Actually, I decided to smoke a cigar Otter (yes, Otter is still alive we just don't have cable or internet in the living room so we can't live blog and we all miss out on his um, witty comments) bought for me a couple weeks ago and enjoy a bottle of rum. It was like I was a living, breathing JoBu (from the Major League movies c'mon people). I received my first purchase order from the Tobacco Juice Store yesterday, which was exciting until I realized that I was the one who bought the shirts. The "Got Swedes?" and "Cleveland Doesn't Rock" shirts came out very nicely and I will be wearing them at every given opportunity. Tagless Fruit of The Loom Shirts are the essence of comfort. I suggest you buy some.
Anyways, on tap for tonight we have the Tigers starting a three game set with the ever so gracious Mariners at 10:10 which is an odd start time even for the West Coast. The Pistons end their good run tonight when they lose to the Celtics in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on ESPN at 8:30. Also playing tonight is the lookintheattic.com coed slowpitch softball team at 8:20. That is if Mother Nature doesn't piss all over the place as she is expected to do.
On a more serious but not that serious note, what is wrong with the Detroit Pistons? I'm not talking about what is wrong with their play but what is wrong with the attitude surrounding that team? I am not the only person who just doesn't care that much about them anymore. Why do you think that is? I think this is mainly due to the fact that they topped out too soon. They should not have won that championship against the Lakers in 2004. They shouldn't have. That was supposed to be Phil Jackson's 9th title. Shaq and Kobe were supposed to win their what like third in a row or something along those lines? It was supposed to be a sweep of the Pistons in the NBA Finals but instead, as the Free Press called it, it was a "Five Game Sweep," by the Pistons. They've been to the Eastern Conference Finals every year, and the NBA Finals once since then. I would like to think that had the Pistons lost to the Lakers in 2004, things might be very different. Fans would still give a rats ass about them in the Conference Finals every year instead of saying, "Oh the Pistons are on? What round is it? Who are they playing?" Detroit Pistons fans have been spoiled by success. And I am the biggest culprit of that. Many of you have read what I have said about this. How I was a huge fan and would go to Palacevision or see them play in Indy during the playoffs. Now though, I am simply not interested in going. Even if the tickets were free, I would probably say, "Eh, I'm good. I'll just watch the highlights later." If you give me Red Wings tickets I'm going no questions asked. I'll drop everything to go watch them play and not just in the playoffs.
Why would I do this? Because, I am simply tired of the Pistons, their fans, their players, their administration, and their arena. It's all just old news to me now. I remember when they started playing good again after they got rid of the awful teal unis with the flaming horse on the front. It was very exciting. 7 years and one championship later though, the whole idea of the Detroit Pistons is just stale to me. The Red Wings on the other hand are technically in the same boat. Years and years of successful regular season teams has spoiled fans but the playoff flops since 2002, have actually kept them somewhat interested. Which makes this trip to the Stanley Cup Finals even more special for everyone involved.
In Eastern Michigan Hurons news, the baseball team, champions of the MAC tournament, is playing as we speak at Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor. As of writing this, EMU is leading perrennial power Arizona 6-5 in the bottom of the 6th. This would be an upset the likes of the Earl Boykins led team's upset of top seeded Duke in the NCAA Basketball tournament. However, due to the double elimination format of the NCAA Baseball tourney, it wouldn't be nearly as exciting as sending a top seed home early. It would be nice, but not THAT nice. Hopefully they will be able to pull this one out.
Speaking of baseball, the Grass Lake Warriors open up district tournament play tomorrow afternoon against Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard. This is a match up that I take special interest in as Richard was the team that knocked my junior year baseball team (a great, great team if I do say so myself) on a fluky play in the district finals. Bases were loaded and Mike Masten hit a bullet back to the pitcher who threw his hands up in self defense and randomly caught the ball to end the season. Needless, to say, I would really like to see Hamilton's boys put a whoopin on the whatever the hell they're called from Ann Arbor Richard.
The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is on (I hear Erin Andrews is doing the sideline reporting for it, which makes me giggle a bit) and the lone participant from Jackson County was Tristan Schrot from Our Lady of Fatima elementary school in Michigan Center. Tristan did well but missed on his first word on the stage. The word was, "Personalia." He spelled it "persanalia." Which just goes on to prove my theory that private schools are not as good as public schools. Really Tristan? You know there's no A in the word, "person." I don't want to call the kid a choke artist, but he choked worse than Greg Norman at the Masters. Way to go Tristan, way to go. You can watch all of the smart Asian kids spell words you've never heard of tonight at 8 on ABC.
HEY BARTENDER! JOBU NEEDS A REFILL!
