Movement in the 'D'

For those that haven't heard, there's big news from the world of professional sports in Detroit. The Tigers have made a trade right at the deadline, acquiring Sean Casey from the Pirates for minor leaguer Brian Rodgers...and have optioned Chris Shelton to AAA. Has anyone ever hit 10 home runs in a month and been sent down later in the season? I'm guessing no. Check out the Detroit Tiger Weblog for the full story. It's better than the crap you'll get from ESPN.

In breaking news from The Joe, the Red Wings have found a way to sign Dominick Hasek to a one-year deal, increasing the average age of Red Wing's players to 47. I had no idea that Hasek had such a good season last year for Ottawa...actually, I had no idea that professional hockey still existed.

Case of the Mundys 7/31/06

The 2006 version of the Michigan Wolverines will appear together for the first time officially when they report to practice Sunday, August 6th at noon. Freshman now report at the same time as the rest of the team, but with the rumors floating around about the year-round dedication of the Wolverine veterans, expect the likes of Brandon Minor, Quintin Woods, Cobrani Mixon, and Brandon Grahamwill have to play a little catch up. Not so for Carlos Brown (yes that's him in the picture) and Justin Boren, who "came out early"...of high school.

The previews continue and Athlon has provided a fairly in-depth, and totally free Michigan preview. It includes quite a few little gems, such as this one:

They didn't fall as far as some other traditional powers have in recent years and endure a losing season, but five losses just doesn’t cut it in Ann Arbor. Neither do four losses in five seasons to Ohio State, three defeats in four seasons to Notre Dame and three consecutive bowl game implosions.

They go on to point to quarterback depth as a serious issue...thanks 

Matt Gutierrez, I hope you enjoy Idaho State, and I hope you know that we all know that something shady went down before that 2004 season started, despite the triple deadbolt on Fort Schembechler. Also, there's this tidbit on the defense:

New defensive coordinator Ron English must find more playmakers to help Woodley and Hall. The Wolverines finished 10th in the conference in red zone defense and gave up crucial fourth quarter scores in losses to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State and Nebraska.

Wow. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Nebraska. That's a third of the damn season.

Moving on... Every Monday, we will try to provide a comprehensive injury report, affectionately called "Case of the Mundys" in honor of Ryan Mundy's season ending shoulder injury last season. However, assembling an injury report from the information from the weekly press conference will most likely become a lesson in futility, so instead I will use a combination of rumors, innuendo, and crappy message boards to report on the latest list of boo-boos. So whether it's from Lloyd Carr, ESPN, or some guy named Ike that works with some player's aunt, it might just show up on here.

Injury Report:

• Antonio Bass
• INJURY: Injured knee during conditioning drill in spring practice on 3/16/06
• BAD NEWS: Expected to miss entire 2006 season. Was a viable candidate to be the backup QB behind Henne.
• GOOD NEWS: Prime candidate for a redshirt. So, maybe 3 more years of Antonio Bass.
• GOOD NEWS: Carlos Brown ran the "Antonio Bass Offense" very well in the Spring Game

In UMTailgate.com website news, the migration continues. I can't begin to tell you all of the pictures and posts that have been discovered buried in servers and on backup CDs/DVDs that haven't seen the light of day in years. It's amazing what you lose every time you move, both physically and virtually.

Added this past weekend:

• 2004 Off-Season Pictures and Front Page Posts


• 2004 Football Season and Front Page Posts


• 2003 Off-Season Pictures and Front Page Posts


• 2003 Football Season and Front Page Posts


• 2002 Off-Season Pictures


• 2002 Football Season

For those unfamiliar to this blog-type of webpage, you can click any of the "categories" listed on the right hand menu to show all of the posts from that category.

My Wish & Did U Know? : Conference Championships

I'd rather drink fecal tea than be inundated with another reprised episode of the "My Wish" series on Sportscenter. Besides, it is really the athletes involved that are getting their wishes granted, specifically Kobe Bryant. I can almost hear former MTV dork Chris Connelly doing the voiceover as we look at the segment from another prospective.

"Born in 1978 in Philadelphia, PA, Kobe Bryant was named after a steak by his parents Joe and Pam. At six years of age, he was taken from his homeland (the United States) and forced to live in Italy, where his father was put into a camp, a basketball training camp. Seven years later, Kobe was allowed to return to the U.S. and attended Lower Marion High School, excelled in basketball, and entered the NBA draft.

In 1998 he met his future wife. She was 16. He was 20. They would be married just three years later, much to the dismay of Kobe's parents who were against the wedding due to their young age. Kobe and his parents did not speak for two full years following the nuptials.

In April of 2003, Kobe's wife gave birth to their first child. Just three months later, Kobe slept with a 19 year old hotel employee, who later would claim he sexually assaulted her. A year later, he would help force the trade of Shaquille O'Neal, sending the Lakers on a downward spiral, and giving the Miami Heat the last piece to their NBA championship puzzle.

We told Kobe that he would be showing up at this TGI Friday's to talk about a sponsorship deal with Tuffy muffler, but in reality we're about to bring in a Mexican kid with leukemia that has a spot on jump shot and film Kobe spending the day with him and put it on Sportscenter. It's this type of exposure that will help Kobe's image, to get him back to making that endorsement dollar, to make him look like he is not a predator...this is Kobe's wish. (cue Rascal Flatts)

Ya, that's about right. I'm just really getting sick of this new Disney laden side of ESPN. That being said, I plan to do a weekly "Did U Know?" segment here on UMTailgate.com. It's a throwback to an old Sportscenter segment that used to appear at the end of every show. For those of us that may have regularaly watched the repeated 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, and 11am editions, it was our hourly chime. Hopefully the UMTailgate.com version will be something that will spark a memory, raise eyebrows, or just make you look smart at parties. So, without further ado:

DID U KNOW?

Michigan has 42 Big Ten Conference Championships in football to Michigan State's 6. The Spartan's 6 titles are the third worst among active Big Ten teams (which includes a Penn State team that has only been in the conference for 13 years) and is one title less than the University of Chicago, who stopped playing Big Ten football in 1939.

Bonus DUK: Michigan has 12 Big Ten Conference Championships in basketball to Michigan State's 10.

Enjoy the weekend!

Thursday's Have Become...Hard Hittin'

Your Thursday's will never be the same! Gimme the rock son! From this Thursday forward I will be contributing to the all mighty UMTailgate.com website. Hope you enjoy! Let's get started...

The Detroit Tigers have the best record in baseball and as we near the last two months of the season that statement actually holds some weight. And this is no fluke either, as their pitching has been dominant. They've allowed the fewest runs in the big leagues and it's not even close. Tigers - 396, Twins - 443, Rockies - 451...Their defense has also been solid, allowing for the team to stay in close games. (They're 17-10 in one run games this year) However, the most impressive story for the team to this point is starter Justin Verlander, who is one of the front runners for the AL Cy Young award. Verlander struck out a season high eight against Cleveland Wednesday while winning his 13th game. The Tigers increased their record to 31-13 against the central division. Impressive run boys!

However, when talking about rookie pitchers and the Cy Young the name Francisco Liriano needs to top the list. The Twins rookie has been lights out! He's 12-2 with a 1.93 ERA and 125 k's in only 107 innings. The kid is no joke. Look for his domination to continue as the Twins catch the White Sox for the wild card and potentially represent the AL in the World Series...

What does this mean to you, the Wolverine fan? Defense wins championships. Maybe not so much in baseball but the Tigers have been the best defensive team this season and in order for our valiant Wolverines to have a shot at the Big Ten title we need to play exceptional defense. Shocking, I know. But the Wolverines gave up fourth quarter leads in four of their five losses. Terrible...Next week I'll drop "the hammer" on how are defense should stack up in the Big Ten and whether we'll have a shot at the big ten championship. Road games in Happy Valley and Columbus will surely provide a challenge! See you next Thursday when we drop the hammer!

The Consensus for the Rest of Us

Let me start by apologizing. Yesterday was the 7-month anniversary of Michigan's 71-67 victory over Michigan State in basketball, and I didn't so much as send a postcard to Tommy Amaker. He probably didn't even notice since he's in his "best month ever" according to The Sporting News.

"It has become another terrific July for Michigan coach Tommy Amaker. If only every month could be July. If only the Wolverines were not forced to deal with the months of November, December, January and February. Of course, we already know they're not asked to do anything important in March."

I'm sure we all dream of the day when a victory over Michigan State doesn't mean we have to rush the court. They finished the season unranked, right?

With just 38 days until life begins again, the preseason magazines are piling up over here in Ann Arbor. Here's where the Maize and Blue stand in the eyes of every publication out right now:

• Athlon : 13
• Lindy 11
• Sporting News: 17
• Phil Steele: 11
• Gold Sheet: 17
• CBS: 19
• Surefire: 6
• Street and Smith: 12
• Game Plan: 16

You can get a deeper description of these publications by looking at one of the best websites ever, Stassen.com.

 I think you'll find it a bit disheartening that the publication that rated us the highest, and the only publication to have us winning the big ten, is the one with the shady website.

Someone out there takes the time every year to make a nice neat aggregate schedule for college football on an excel spreadsheet, and every year I say to myself, "Who are you, Schedule Gnome?". This year is no different, except that whoever did this one added in the graphical pleasure of the helmets of EVERY TEAM. Download it here, but be forewarned, it's about 1.6 megs, so it might take you a minute or two. A right-click, "save link as" might be your best bet for being able to ever use it.

In the process of updating and uploading to the gallery, I have stumbled on some pics that have been missing from the site for quite a while. I added these to the gallery as albums, and they include the 2004 Final Four, 2005 Winter Reunion, 2005 Michigan State Basketball Game, 2005 Spring Game, and 2006 Michigan State Basketball Game.Check them out in the gallery in their respective albums. More to come....

GO BLUE!