Author Archive

Detroit Pistons: From The Elite To a Cautionary Tale

Posted: 17th March 2010 by Greg Eno in NBA
It’s been a long time since the Pistons have provided this much fodder for the ink-stained wretches and bottom feeding bloggers around town. Being a card-carrying member of both of those groups, I can attest to this from experience. Another one of our four children in Detroit has gone astray. The Lions have been, for decades, the one kid that just can’t seem to get it together. He’s the one who is most ...
If you never got a chance to see Roger Crozier play goal for the Red Wings, I can replicate the experience for you. To recreate the acrobatic, helter-skelter manner in which Crozier tended net, drop a few unpopped kernels of popcorn into a pot coated with sizzling oil. Then try to predict in which direction those kernels will fly once they pop. That ...

Merlin Olsen: The Schizophrenic Football Player

Posted: 13th March 2010 by Greg Eno in NFL
Merlin Olsen always fascinated me. I considered him borderline schizophrenic. On the football field, Olsen was part of the Los Angeles Rams’ Fearsome Foursome defensive line that swallowed ball carriers whole. He, Lamar Lundy, Deacon Jones, and Rosey Grier gave no quarter on Sunday afternoons. You’d be better off running through a fire wearing a suit soaked with gasoline. Olsen, like his line brethren, was mean, nasty, unforgiving, snarling, and angry. But it ...

Nate Robertson: One Tough SOB, When Healthy and Confident

Posted: 12th March 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
If Nate Robertson were a right-handed pitcher, he’d be as expendable as a finished bag of potato chips. Robertson ought to thank the right-minded God who made him a lefty, because that’s what’s keeping him in the big leagues right now. The Tigers say that, if worst comes to worst, they’d be happy to venture north with five righties in their starting rotation—if they are the five best, ...
No one knows where the Red Wings will finish in the conference standings, but I can assure you that it will be in the top eight, albeit in the bottom half of those eight. Which means one of the upper seeds will draw them in the first round of the playoffs. May the hockey gods have mercy on that poor team’s soul. Enough fooling around ...
In producing a list of the all-time great NFL quarterbacks, anyone who knows a lick about pro football wouldnÆt have Terry Bradshaw anywhere near the top. A sane-minded individual wouldnÆt put Bob Griese up there, either. The list would include, in the upper echelon, Francis Tarkenton and Danny Marino and Jim Kelly. Hell, probably even Dan Fouts. You wouldnÆt risk being portrayed as ...
The Pistons just slogged through another unproductive, unsuccessful road trip out west. Of course, they can’t really win out east, down south, or up north, either. “Pistons’ inconsistency maddening to fans,” read a headline on MLive.com. The Pistons aren’t inconsistent; they aren’t any good—that’s the problem. They win a game here and there, then lose several, not due to any inconsistency, but due to the fact that they ...
How ironic: The Man of Many Positions for the Tigers may soon be the Man of None. If the Tigers sign Johnny Damon, as has been widely speculated, and insert him in left field, there doesn’t seem to be any place for Carlos Guillen to play—at least, no position that involves putting on a mitt. Guillen, whilst a Tiger, has been seen in various years at shortstop, first base, third base, and, ...

Chris Osgood Suckering Detroit Red Wings Fans Once Again

Posted: 9th January 2010 by Greg Eno in NHL
If I saw Chris Osgood at a billiard hall, IÆd high-tail it out of there. If I met him on the golf course, IÆd head in the other direction. I wouldnÆt even trust him at the local bowling alley. It wouldnÆt surprise me if heÆs banned from the casinos in town, plus the one in Windsor. Osgood, if he chose to, would take you for everything you have at the above establishments. ...

Best Thing About Detroit Lions’ 2009 Season? It’s Over!

Posted: 4th January 2010 by Greg Eno in NFL
The circus has left town, not to return for another year. If you didnÆt get a chance to see it, shame on youùyou had 16 weeks to check it out. Sometimes, you didnÆt even have to leave your living room. Another Lions season is over with. Barnum & Bailey got another run for their money. If you head down to Ford Field today, you can see the remnants. Smell it, too. Crushed popcorn ...