Past Failures Leads to Salary Dump

A Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco Detroit Tigers jersey, still up for sale online, with Granderson in his new uniform, and Polanco returning to his former team.



Detroit, MI - After coming off their 12th consecutive losing season, the Detroit Tigers fans were losing interest in the team so much, that their TV contract had been cut substantially to begin the 2006 MLB season. But after new Manager Jim Leyland and his squad surprised the baseball world, and stood on top of the league standings in May, people wondered, is this possible?

An absolutely magical 2006 season, saw the Detroit Tigers reach their first World Series since 1984, and although they eventually lost, it was a stunning season, that could not have been foreseen after their previous failures. If they were that good with such unknowns Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames, coupled with the high-priced veterans such as Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, and Ivan Rodriguez, it was thought that maybe they could be even better.

When Jim Leyland was asked exactly what the Tigers needed to do to get better, his answer was “a big-time pro-hitter,” and that answer to him seemed to be Gary Sheffield. So General Manager Dave Dombrowski gave their farm system a little cleaning, and sent three prospects to the Yankees in exchange for Sheffield, who was going to be that final piece they needed to recapture glory.

They fell short in 2007, despite making more trades and signings, to bring in Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, and others. The team was predicted to score a record number of runs that season, but their season was deemed a disappointment due to their pre-season expectations, and high payroll, because it seemed they forgot to handle one problem, their pitching.

2008 was an absolute debacle, which saw the team struggle to a 74-88 last place division standing, prompting 97.1 the Ticket Radio Host Dennis Fithian’s assessment saying the season was,” the biggest disappointment in Detroit sports history.”

” People were still feeling the effects of that last place finish this year, he said,” Even though the Tigers were in first place for the entire summer, I could tell most Tigers fans were bracing for another big time disappointment.”

After such a horrid season, people in the town were back to the old ways of expecting another poor season, as so many injuries and “dead money” were on the table, with high 2009 salaries such as Ordonez ($18.9 million), Jeremy Bonderman ($12.5 million), Dontrelle Willis ($10 million) and others not performing.

Despite all that, from May 8 and on, the team held control of first place in the Central Division, and despite losing streaks and other poor performances, they still maintained their position until late in the season.

They went on a four-game winning streak ending Sept. 24, and seemed all but ready to clinch the division, but that’s where it all went sour. They lost three of their next four, and as the Twins were gaining ground by just winning, the Tigers were just losing.

“It was something we all saw coming,” said Drew Craig, who lives out of state in Connecticut, but is a die-hard Tigers fan.

The teams split their final four games, and the Tigers needed to win their final series against the White Sox, who themselves had basically given up on the season, but they just couldn’t do it.

Chicago won two of three, and the Tigers finished their 162-game season tied for first with the Minnesota Twins, which set up a one-game playoff.

The Tigers ultimately lost in 12 innings, after having numerous chances to score, and thus became the first team in MLB history to lose a three-game division lead, with four games remaining.

Losing the division hit hard here in Detroit, as all season long, the city seemed to be filled with haters, yet there were people backing the team saying, we still have first place stop complaining, but this seemed to be what we were talking about, when it counted, they choked.

Now as the 2009 offseason began, owner Mike Illitch, who had basically given Dombrowski an open check book since the 2006 World Series, to do whatever he wanted with the team, basically said, enough is enough, and cut off the team’s spending this offseason.

They have brought back only Adam Everett and Brandon Lyon as of right now, while Fernando Rodney is still a free agent. Former all-star gold-glove second baseman Placido Polanco signed with his former club the Philadelphia Phillies, and the team traded away all-stars Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson for seemingly worse players and prospects.

After trading away Granderson and Jackson, Tigers fans seem to be irate. Fans have been flooding their distaste over the trade.

“Why should I go to a single game next season?” said Tigers fan(or former) Rob Neville, 21, from Plymouth, who has been a Tigers fan since he can remember.
“They traded an all-star center fielder, for a center fielder they hope is as good as this guy, why?” said Jake Codling, 19, of Novi, who goes to several Tiger games every season.

There doesn’t really seem to be a feasible reason for the trades, other than a salary dump, but Granderson wasn’t making nearly the money some other Tigers were making.

One of the most reasonable reason as to why the deal went through, is the team owed 92 million dollars next season to Miguel Cabrera, Ordonez, Guillen, Brandon Inge, Nate Robertson, Willis, and Bonderman.

While some may feel a salary dump may be sufficient in some cases, this particular one seems to be avoiding the biggest cap hits, where Bonderman, Willis, and Robertson, who made a combined $29.5 million last season, according to sportscity.com, combined to pitch in 43 total games. Equaling out to about $686,000 per appearance for the three isn’t a bad deal nowadays with the economy how it is.

However, If this upcoming off-season continues to get worse, then what Dennis Fithian added might be true.

“If this Tigers team has a salary dump and goes with a bunch of prospects it will be felt big time with low attendance at Comerica,” he said.” I wouldn't want a $100 million dollar Miguel Caberra with nothing to do but look at an empty stadium.”

Thanksgiving Day Massacre

The Lions vs. Packers 2009 Thanksgiving Day towels handed out at the game.



Detroit, MI - It’s not enough that the Detroit Lions are coming off the first 0-16 season in NFL history, but its coming up on the time of year, where despite everything, Ford Field seems to sell out.

"We go because it's tradition," says Lions fan Mike Holmberg.

All the Lions seem to be able to do these days is lose, and lose, and ruin the careers of players and coaches, mess up draft picks, overpay players not worthy of past their primes, and lose some more. With a 31-97 record since their last winning season, in 2000, the Lions have only seven winning seasons total since 1973, and only one playoff win, despite being three games above .500 on Thanksgiving, with a 35-32-2 overall record, but the majority of those wins came back when the Lions weren’t quite the laughing stock of the league.

High priced draft picks such as Joey Harrington, Charles Rogers, Mike Williams and more, have come and gone, all before the age of 30, and are now out of football entirely.

The Lions actually have hosted the game for the longest time running, according to profootballhof.com.

In 1934, then owner G.A. Richards scheduled the game as a gimmick to get people to attend Lions games, and it stuck.

But it seems, that one team will always lose, at least in recent years. Since the new millennium, the team has just one victory on that day, winning 22-14 versus Green Bay in 2003, and just got rid of the man who was in charge of the team since then, Matt Millen.

Dallas has five wins since 2000, and even its four losses have been by a combined total of 36 points since then.

It’s crazy to think that every Thanksgiving game since 1992 has sold out for the Lions, despite their recent poor showings, however, last year’s massacre against the Tennessee Titans needed an extension to sell out, but eventually did. It’s tradition indeed to watch, especially being from the state where the team plays, but every time around dinner time, it seems we’re all in a little worse of a mood, because the game has just ended or is nearing it’s climax, and the Lions trail.

"We don't usually watch the end of the game, because it just puts everyone in a bitter mood, so instead we just turn on something else, and eat our dinner," announces Lions fan Darren Lescott.

This Nov. 26, Detroit will host the Green Bay Packers, a bitter division rival, in what hopes to be a watchable game, although with the Detroit Lions, it seems games are only watchable now, if you’re a fan of the opposing team.

Compuware, Not Just a Hockey Arena

A parking lot view from the front of Compuware Arena.



PLYMOUTH, Mich. - It’s hard to imagine that over 40 NHL players present and past have called a small suburban city outside of Detroit their home. Compuware Sports Arena, is not only home to the Junior Hockey Plymouth Whalers of the OHL, who have won seven division titles in their current uniform, and ten overall, it's also a place that is host to high school graduations, as well youth hockey, indoor soccer and a drive-in movie theatre.

Opening in 1996, Compuware isn’t the biggest arena, with a capacity of 4,500 in the NHL-size arena. This and much fewer in the Olympic-sized arena, but many people in the area have been able to see David Legwand, Bryan Berard, Justin Williams, Stephen Weiss and many other future NHL stars here as teenagers.

It was originally built by owner Peter Karmanos, so the Whalers, then the Detroit Whalers, could have a permanent home, as at the time, they were sharing home arenas with the Oak Park Ice Arena and the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Other youth hockey is also very popular ar Compuware.

”My kid has been playing here since he learned to skate, and I wouldn’t dream of him playing anywhere else,” says hockey dad Robert Smith.

In additions, Livonia high schools Churchill and Stevenson, as well as Northville High School, are just a few of the schools who have had graduation ceremonies at Compuware, at one time or another, with such a convenient seating capacity, it is also a fairly short drive from those schools.

Around the time of graduations, when the weather heats up and the hockey ends, the parking lot is turned into an old time drive-in theatre, which features double feature movies on three big screens, and is one of the only drive-in theatres still around that area today.

But after the summer months turn back to fall, it’s usually a weekend filled with the Whalers on the NHL ice, and open skate or the Catholic Central High School men’s team on the Olympic side, as that’s been their home ice arena for the past couple of years.

When you first walk into the place, it's no different than any other ice arena you go to for open skating, or to see someone you know play hockey, but when you step into the NHL-arena at around 7:05 pm on a weekend, you feel that buzz that's been in this state for so long. The buzz that makes hockey such an important part of what makes Michigan such a great state.

People around the area do get excited, since the season began with pre-season games on Aug. 29, the Whalers are looking to rebound from a year ago, which saw them bounced out of the play-offs in the second round by the eventual league champion Windsor Spitfires.

“This is my NHL team,” says Whalers fan Christopher Baird,” I can see future stars as kids right here and right now, playing because they love the game, and not money.”

From officer, to driver

For New Jersey born and bred Vinnie De Rossi, being a cop was not always his dream. Growing up, he really didn’t have a passion for anything in particular, but after attending Morris County Community College for a few years, copying off of his friends a bit, and working a full-time labor union job dealing with criminals and drugs, he felt he needed a career that could satisfy his needs and give him a stable future.

The opportunity to be a police officer came along after he turned 23, and he decided at the time it was the best thing for him to do if he wanted a steady career for himself, so he joined the academy. “It was horrible,” he said, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and not getting home until 7 p.m. five days a week, but it was what he needed to do to for 21 weeks to become a cop.

But after graduating through the police academy on a Thursday, he was on his first official duty that Saturday, with a training officer, performing the same job his uncle had for over 35 years of his life. He would be gone for 1-2 months at a time, but it was a career, and where he met his future wife through a mutual friend.

They had a good relationship, up until their marriage, when Vinnie was 26, and that’s when things began to turn a bit sour. Vinnie said he was never the best husband, didn’t really treat her as well as he thought he could, now looking back on it, but said then again, he wasn’t a bad husband.

All that took a back seat one cold morning in February, 1991, when driving on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey to work in the snow, a car spun off the road, then came back on and ran right into Vinnie’s which threw him into the divider, where two more cars then hit him, breaking all of his ribs on his right side, and shattering his sternum, among other injuries. He couldn’t breathe well at the time, but remained conscious through the entire event, remember the Jaws of Life were needed to remove him from the wreck.

It took him two weeks in the hospital before he could go back home, and he had to sleep on his back for two years to recover from the injuries, which still today, give him bad back cramps, as well as changes in the weather hurt him. After the injury, as Vinnie puts it, his marriage was basically over. He went home, and all was normal for a short while, before one night she told him she was going to stay at her mother’s for the night, and with the condition he was in, he was in no position to barter.

He was shutting down emotionally, and when she returned, he just felt like “it was gone” and their marriage just “wasn’t right” anymore. They didn’t really work at their marriage, nor did they seek any counseling, however, if they had, Vinnie says by now they probably would have a family right now, and would be doing just fine.

The divorce was swift, and Vinnie says his wife told him, he reminded her of her father, a former cop, who cheated on his wife, whom they later divorced. He gave her what she wanted, and only said,” Leave me the t.v.”

He has never fully recovered from his accident, but got back to work at a female college, as head of security for a few years, but didn’t enjoy that as much as being a cop, and subsequently quit.

One of his friends was a limousine driver, and convinced Vinnie to give it a shot, to which he said it was easy to do with his injuries, and the hours were flexible, so he began driving a limo. After a few years of doing that, he broke away from that company, and began driving his own people, starting with one steady customer, who then recommended his friends to Vinnie, where he began driving them now and again when they needed.

But for the New York Yankees and Jets season ticket holder explains, he’s sort of quit on himself, and feels he is just getting by nowadays.

He explains he feels that he is wasting what little intelligence he has left, but it still grateful that he made it through his accident.

Lions Skin Washington

As the Washington Redskins scored their second touchdown of the game, making the score 19-14, the Detroit Lions and their fans, knew all too well this scenario.
They got the ball back, with 2:36 to go in the game, trying to hold on for dear life, and claim their first victory in over two years, but after five plays, they faced another fourth down, having to punt the ball away, with just over a minute to go.
The fans and players alike had seen this story many times, and were staring yet another last minute loss in the face.
“Oh no,” Lions fans shouted,” Please, not again.”
Three straight plays for first downs, drove Washington 32 yards, down to the Detroit 36 yard line, and left a mere 23 seconds on the clock.
“They can’t lose this, not this time,” shouts another stressed Lions fan.
Much to everyone’s surprise, they hold Washington to two straight incomplete passes, after a 1st-down spike had been forgone by Jason Campbell. So now, it was all down to this, 4th down and 10 to go, for a week three victory for an NFL team, but for the Detroit Lions, something much more was on the line.

The ball is snapped, and Jason Campbell sees Sinorice Moss a few yards up the middle and hits him with a pass, he laterals the ball to Antwaan Randle El, who again passes it back to Ladell Betts, he dodges and jukes his way, but can’t escape Detroit’s own Larry Foote, who had come back to Michigan, to play for his hometown team.
He makes the tackle with eight seconds to go, as everyone begins to cheer as if the Lions had won the Super Bowl.
For a team, who had gone 0-16 last season, firing both their long-time pathetic general manager Matt Millen, and clueless head coach Rod Marinelli, replacing them with a brand new head coach Jim Schwartz, and 1st overall pick quarterback Matthew Stafford, this was just a stepping stone for them, but for the state of Michigan, it was a long overdue victory, and they made sure the fans were involved in the celebration as well.
Players ran around the field, giving high fives to fans, Safety Louis Delmis even hopped up into the stands, and enjoyed the moment, and for the just under 41,000 fans, it was well worth it, as a two-thirds filled stadium were witness to an amazing display of character, and emotion, as the game had been blacked-out locally.
The loss was something the fans milked every second of, but the Lions were expecting to take the game, and shortly after their celebration, they announced, that it was just one win, and they don’t expect it to be their last this season.
Team owner Williams Clay Ford, Sr. even said,” We not only got a monkey off our back, we got King King off our back.”

Photo: http://www.detroitlions.com/media-center/photo-gallery/Lions-vs-Redskins-Photos/443c590c-9923-4bad-88b3-0f14ab7a7b94

About me

Ypsilanti, Mich. - The game of soccer/football is the one thing I'm the most passionate about, and you probably won't find someone in the U.S.A that is not already on television, as in-depth with it as I am. My name is Blake Meakin, I'm 20 years old, and as of just a few years ago, I've become deeply involved in the beautiful game of soccer. Ever since I became interested in sports, I've wanted to do something that would involve that in my life. Soccer is what caught me, in particular Everton F.C. of the English Premier League, and I am as passionate about them, as any american is about their NFL team. I watch every game they play, either on television, or on the internet, as not many games are broadcasted on American television. I also watch almost every game that is shown on television here, either on Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, or an ESPN channel, and watch the in-depth analysis shows they do on a daily basis, similar to our Sportscenter, and when I'm talking to someone from Europe about the game, after a few minutes of them asking me questions, they realize I actually DO know what I am talking about, and take me seriously.

I began writing when I started college at Schoolcraft, and wrote for the Plymouth Whalers for a few years, sharpening my journalism skills, and it really helped me become a better writer. I hope from this class, to improve even more with my writing skills, and to become the best possible writer I can be when I'm done with school, and am ready to get into a profession.

I grew up in Northville and played sports throughout high school, and when I first started college, which is when I got into journalism, as it was the one thing I was always really good at. If something involves sports, I automatically become more interested in what I'm doing, as I get bored very easily. My dream job someday, is to either be a big time reporter or journalist for soccer, or to be on a television program or talk show, giving my opinion and analysis on certain subjects.