The latest news from the Motor City.
Prince Fielder of the Detroit Tigers is going to be playing just a little bit happier in the coming days. For one reason or another, Fielder takes pride in being Major League Baseball's Iron Man - which is the title given to the player with the active lead in consecutive games played. He was previously the leader when he played 327 consecutive games between Sept. 4, 2008 and Sept. 13, 2010, but missed the game due to flu-like symptoms.
He was definitely upset when he lost the title, and went as far as to have an IV drip in the hours leading up to the game to try and make a last-ditch effort to play. Now he's got the title back. Fielder hasn't missed a game since Sept. 14, 2010 - the day after he lost the title, and has played in 217 straight games.
Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the leader until his streak of 399 games was snapped on Monday. MLive.com has some good quotes from Fielder, who is clearly happy to have the title again. Will he get past his mark of 327, and then Kemp's mark of 399, though?
The 2012 Summer Olympics will be men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski's last, so immediately after Team USA brings home a gold, hopefully, the search will be on to find his successor. Mike Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press says Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo 'has what it takes.'
While Izzo downplays any potential candidacy he may have, he's not denying his profound interest:
"I'm not sure I would even have a shot at it, to be honest with you," Izzo said Monday. "I would think everybody would be interested. That's always been a dream and goal of mine. But I think they'll go with a pro coach, I really do."
Izzo's resume is as good as any potential candidate. He has a .710 winning percentage in 18 seasons as a head coach for MSU, 15 tournament bids (in a row), six Final Fours and a National Championship. I might be slightly biased, but I can't think of a coach with a better coaching philosophy -- players play, tough players win -- to represent our country in the game of basketball.
Just because the Detroit Red Wings' season is over doesn't mean the season of Kronwalling has come to a close. Niklas Kronwall is playing in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship for Sweden and delivered a monster hit on Latvia's Kaspars Saulietis during a game on Tuesday. Take a look:
Just 11 days ago, Chicago White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson provided a memorable call of a walk-off home run by the Detroit Tigers by not even actually making a call. The walk-off homer by the Tigers left Harrelson in stunned silence for a minute, and it was nice to not hear him for a change.
There's nothing better than seeing two opposing fans forced to sit next to each other at a sporting event. But well-prepared inter-family rivalries can often be just as entertaining, and this photo from Tuesday's Tigers vs. White Sox game was a prime example of why. (Via @WorldofIsaac)
The Cardinals shirt is puzzling to be sure, but these all-too-conveniently-placed signs worked like a charm as FSN Detroit's cameras caught them in the 7th inning. And let's be honest, the execution here was impeccable. It's also win-win situation for both sides too. The son gets to call his dad an idiot, while the dad gets to hold pro Tigers sign on live television. And now they're immortalized on the internet. Double win.
Thankfully the father had the last laugh as Detroit won the game 10-8, but this youngster, despite being a Sox fan, really looks to have a promising career of sign-making ahead of him. Provided he cleans up his language, of course.
On Friday morning, EA Sports announced the eight finalists for their fan-based vote for the cover athlete of the latest installment in their NHL gaming franchise, the forthcoming NHL 13. Included amongst the likes of Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Evgeni Malkin and Philadelphia Flyers burgeoning star Claude Giroux was the Detroit Red Wings' elder statesman, Pavel Datsyuk.
Datsyuk is matched up against John Tavares of the New York Islanders in the quarterfinals after defeating T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues in the first round. Red Wings fans can start voting for Datsyuk on May 18 and voting will extend all the way to May 23.
You can place your vote at EA Sports' Official "NHL 13 Cover Vote" website.
Datsyuk finished the 2011-12 season with 19 goals and 48 assists for 67 points in 70 games played. Datsyuk was also the first overall selection at the 2012 NHL All-Star Game Draft in Ottawa.
If he wins the Cover Vote, he will be the first Red Wings player to appear on the cover of the EA NHL franchise since Steve Yzerman did so with Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils on the cover of NHL '96.
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had a rare opportunity on Thursday afternoon, as he and fellow NFL player London Fletcher each took part in a Visa-sponsored trip to both The White House and The Pentagon to promote financial responsibility.
Stafford, who had never previously visited either location in his life, faced off with Fletcher in a Madden-style game played before a large audience at both locations. Backed by Visa, the program, which also includes Congressman Gary Peters, is expected to given to schools throughout Michigan.
The game, called Financial Football,helps students and adults tackle their financial futures. The game incorporates lessons taught through Practical Money Skills for Life, a free, award-winning money management program. This game is accompanied by a classroom curriculum.
When asked about whether he was planning to return at some point to visit the President with his teammates, the soon-to-be-Pro Bowl quarterback kept things modest. "That’s the plan," he said. "We don’t know what year that will be, but hopefully soon."
When not attempting to rip off opposing quarterbacks' heads on the field (metaphorically speaking, of course), Ndamukong Suh is not afraid to market himself a little bit off the field. His latest personal promoting will be on FOX's new celebrity dating show The Choice, on which the (mostly) celebrity cast will compete with one another for a date with a non-celebrity:
In each episode, four celebrities sit in spinning chairs and listen to non-famous prospective dates pitch themselves. Over the course of three rounds, the contestant pool is paired down until each celebrity has chosen their date for the evening (more details on the show’s origins and concept here).
Suh joins Patriots tight end Rob 'yo soy fiesta' Gronkowski and ex-NFLers Warren Sapp and Jeremy Bloom, amongst a bunch of other celebrities, like Joe Jonas, The Situation and Dean Cain.
The show will air on Thursdays, starting June 7 at 9 p.m. ET.
The headline is my interpretation of what Jim Leyland meant when giving his opinion of the five-game suspension the MLB brought down on Cole Hamels after he hit Bryce Harper Sunday night and then admitted it was his intention after the game:
"I don't know the man," Leyland said of Hamels. "I know he's a very good pitcher, a very talented guy, but when you come out and admit [hitting Harper intentionally] like that -- that ball could have missed, hit him in the head or something else like that -- and you come out and admit that, I think five games is way too light, in my personal opinion. And I would expect that if that was my pitcher, if my pitcher went out and, almost in a braggadocious way, talked about hitting a guy and that, 'I did it on purpose.'"I felt the way I read it, and I don't know if the kid meant it this way, but it was almost like a braggadocious thing. That's not enough. There's no way." [...]
"It upsets me because if you watch Major League Baseball, a lot of times one of your guys hits [a batter], one of their guys hits [a batter], the umpires are very quick to warn both benches about a situation like that," Leyland said, "and a lot of times there's nothing going on at all, but they just want to stop something before it starts. ... This is a great time ... to show that we mean business, and I think this suspension is way, way too light."
The thing is, it's uncommon to see a pitcher puffing his chest and saying, "yeah, I hit that guy on purpose"; it's usually the old cliché, "the pitch just got away from me." Notice how Leyland doesn't mention Jordan Zimmerman's obvious retaliation, which received zero punishment?
Leyland's an old school guy -- remember, he doen't want instant replay -- and brushing hitters back and sending messages is 'part of the game.' If Leyland still believes in what's inherently 'part of the game', I have to imagine he thinks there's still a place for the occasional purposeful plunking; he just doesn't want pitchers getting all 'braggadocious' about it.
The day Detroit Lions fans have been anticipating has arrived, and Calvin Johnson's official Madden NFL 13 cover shot was revealed to the world earlier today. Johnson is the first Lions player to grace the cover of Madden since some guy named Barry Sanders back on Nintendo 64 (raise your hand if you still own this). Have a look at the glorious shot (click to enlarge):
Without question this is one of the coolest Madden covers we've seen in a while, and not just because it features the biggest sports star in Motown. It's the gloves. It's all the gloves. As much as it would have been great to see a shot of Calvin showing off his 40-plus inch vertical against some underwhelming 5-foot-8 corner, the logo-themed gloves truly seal the deal.
Most Lions fans are probably die-hard Madden players to begin with, but even if the game itself doesn't live up to the hype, it's safe to say that a few extra copies will be sold around the state due to Calvin's presence alone.
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