Author Archive
Matthew Stafford + Detroit Lions = (FINALLY) No QB Controversy
Posted: 10th July 2010 by Greg Eno in NFL
Take a good look at Matthew Stafford. Better yet, take a photo and store it in an airtight frame and lock it up in your safety deposit box.
Take a good look, because not much longer will Stafford have the boyish good looks that he currently possesses.
The young NFL quarterback comes into the league like a newborn—soft and smooth and with chubby cheeks. His legs kick a lot. He leaves with ...
Bob Probert Not the Most Talented Red Wing, But Among the Most Popular
Posted: 6th July 2010 by Greg Eno in NHL
They threw a party at Joe Louis Arena on January 2, 2007. The guest list was A+.
Alex Delvecchio. Gordie Howe. Ted Lindsay. They brought Sid Abel’s ghost in, too.
It didn’t stop there.
Dino Ciccarelli. Brett Hull. Luc Robitaille. Scotty Bowman. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
And on and on. Dozens of Red Wings players, coaches, and management types—past and present.
All the former players wore Red Wings jerseys with their name and number sewn ...
Kirk Gibson Gets His Shot With the Arizona Diamondbacks, But For How Long?
Posted: 3rd July 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
So how did we get here?
How did we get from a bull-in-a-china-shop football player at Michigan State University to the manager of a big league baseball team?
Well, first of all, Kirk Gibson was a bull-in-a-china-shop baseball player, too. So nothing new there.
Gibson played baseball with the temperament of a bear awakened early from hibernation. He reported to spring training every February scowling, and got crabbier. His face was affixed into ...
They came from all over North America, and in one instance, the Czech Republic. They honed their skills on backyard ponds, wore hand-me-down skates, and were chauffeured to practices held so early in the morning it was still dark out.
They all had a dream to play in the NHL. But it's a wonder whether that dream included being selected No. 1 overall in the Amateur Draft.
Yet that's what each ...
He’d never do it, but Jimmy Devellano should have burst into the NHL’s offices in New York City and cried out, “What does a guy have to do to get into the Hall of Fame around here?!”
And he should have done it 10 years ago. At least.
They finally granted Jimmy D. Hall of Fame status yesterday. Thank goodness they’re not doing it posthumously because I was beginning to wonder.
Red Wings ...
Monday Morning Manager: My Weekly Take on the Detroit Tigers
Posted: 21st June 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
Last Week: 6-1
This Week: at NYM (6/22-24); at Atl (6/25-27)
So What Happened?
The National League came to town and all was good again.
The Tigers should pull a Milwaukee Brewers and lobby for a move to the NL. The American League can have the Brewers back, as a matter of fact.
The Tigers’ dominance over the Senior Circuit continued last week. A weekend sweep of the Pirates was followed by a weekday sweep ...
McCloskey’s Rotten Draft Luck in 1972: LaRue Martin over Bob McAdoo
Posted: 18th June 2010 by Greg Eno in NBA
Before Jack McCloskey was "Trader Jack," the risk-taking, daredevil GM of the Detroit Pistons—architect of two World Championship teams and damn near a third—he was a rumpled old college basketball coach.
The Eastern seaboard was his jurisdiction. He coached for 10 years at Penn, then for six years at Wake Forest, picking-and-rolling in the sweaty gyms of the campuses of Rutgers, St. John’s, Temple, North Carolina and CCNY. The basketballs in ...
Dave Pallone: MLB’s First Gay Umpire Now Preaching Respect
Posted: 12th June 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
How many dreams come true in Pittsburgh?
On Friday, April 6, 1979, a 27-year-old man from Waltham, Massachusetts crouched behind Pirates catcher Ed Ott and prepared to call balls and strikes in Three Rivers Stadium in his first game as a big league umpire.
Whether the first pitch from Bert Blyleven was a ball or a strike has long been forgotten.
What is irrefutable from that day is this: Dave Pallone pulled ...
Maybe someone with Ph.D. after their name can shed some light, but it sure seems like the pro sports specialist has an affinity for—and pardon my laymen’s term here—playing his game of life with something less than a full deck.
There’s the hockey goalie, whose career at said position surely must have started as either the loser of a bet or because all the regular sticks were taken.
For no ...
Monday Morning Manager: My Weekly Take on the Detroit Tigers
Posted: 10th May 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
Last Week: 1-4 This Week: NYY (5/10-13); BOS (5/14-16)
So what happened?
Minnesota—that’s what happened.
The Tigers’ sweep by the Twins at Target Field, after years of being tormented in the Metrodome, reminded me of a quip from long ago Tampa Bay Bucs coach John McKay.
McKay was explaining away yet another loss in his team’s infancy—when the Bucs were in the throes of their 0-26 start to their NFL career. The loss in ...