Smoltz Coming Home to Detroit?

Video of John Smoltz, 41, throwing off a mound has recently been sent to various teams around the league by his agent in order to garner interest in John's pitching services.

Smoltz has had four elbow surgeries and most recently shoulder surgery. Smoltz has said he would prefer to be a starter, but in the right situation would consider closing. Of course look no further then the Detroit Tigers for a team in desperate need of a closer.

The Detroit Tiger originally traded John for Doyle Alexander back in '87 in order to chase a championship....and Tiger fans have been wondering since, WHAT IF we never traded away Smoltz???

If the Tigers actually aquired Smoltz, it would no doubt be a great coming home story and another big name on the Detroit roster. However, and I hate to say this.... I hope this aquistion doesn't happen. Reason being is he's 41, had multiple surgeries and could end up like Gary Sheffield... a broken shell of what he used to be. For the money that I would imagine Smoltz will command, I'm not sure its worth it.

Tigers Aquire New Catcher

From Foxsports.com

The Detroit Tigers have filled one of their prime offseason needs, acquiring catcher Gerald Laird from the Rangers for Double-A right-hander Guillermo Moscoso and a second prospect, according to a major-league source.

Laird, a strong defensive catcher, is a .255 career hitter with a .306 on-base percentage. He earned $1.6 million last season in his first year of arbitration, and is two years from free agency.

The Tigers also are seeking an inexpensive solution at shortstop, a position in which they are considering free agents Adam Everett and Nick Punto, with Everett the apparent preference.

No Surprise Here! 0-13

Jared Allen, defensive end of the Minnesota Vikings was quoted as saying "there is nothing scarier then facing a team with nothing to lose." However, the Detroit Lions did have something to lose, their 13th game. Maybe that's why there aren't scary or good. They are more like scarily bad.

The Minnesota Vikings tried to give the Detroit Lions their first win, but of course the Lions decided against it. The Vikings threw two interceptions, had three fumbles and six penalties for 35 yards. The Lions were in the red zone four times and could only come away with three field goals.

"Detroit had 10 days to get ready and prepare and we knew we would get their best shot here," Vikings coach Brad Childress said. Unfortunately for the Lions, their best shot couldn't beat a team of gingerbread men.

Big Blue is Back!

The Michigan Wolverines have recorded their second win against a top 5 ranked opponent this year with their 81-73 victory over the Duke Blue Devils on saturday. Deshawn Sims led the way for the Wolverines scoring a career-high 28 points.

"I still think it's a rebuilding year," Sims insisted. "Even though we've had two big wins, we've also lost two games. It definitely says we're executing what Coach wants us to do on both ends of the court."

The Wolverines made 13 of 14 free throws in the final 3 minutes to seal the upset, leading to hundreds of fans from the sold-out crowd rushing the court."I'm at a little bit of a loss for words," second-year Michigan coach John Beilein said. "That was a great atmosphere, wasn't it?"

The loss is just Duke's third in 48 games in the month of December since 1999-2000. The loss also snaps Duke's six-game win streak vs. Big Ten opponents. Michigan improved to 6-2; Last season, the Wolverines did not win their sixth game until Feb. 9.

Coach Beilein after the game did remind the media that this team is still a work in progress and that the Wolverines had barely survived against lowly Savannah State one week earlier.

But there is no denying that right now whispers of a top-25 ranking are floating through the NCAA.

Greg Kampe Wins 400th Game

From ougrizzlies.com

Redshirt sophomore Keith Benson scored a career-high 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots, and senior Erik Kangas finished with a season-high 19 points, to lead Oakland University (4-5, 1-1 Summit) past UMKC (3-6, 0-1 Summit), 84-78, in men's basketball action on Thursday night in Municipal Auditorium. The win gives head coach Greg Kampe his 400th of his career.

"This is an unbelievable win for us," said Kampe. "From what we went through on Tuesday night and knowing the importance of tonight's game, to get in a 0-2 hole would just kill us. These kids deserve a lot of credit. I told them it was one of the gutsiest performances that I have ever been associated with."

After the Kangaroos' Dane Brumagin made a pair of free throws to give UMKC its first lead, 77-76, with just 1:11 remaining in the game, Oakland called a timeout. Kangas, who was 2-for-10 from behind the arc, was called upon one last time and he found the bottom of the net on a big 3-pointer to give the Golden Grizzlies the lead again, 79-77, with just 52 ticks on the clock.

"I was thinking every shot feels good and I'm going to make it sooner than later," said Kangas. "Coach was calling out my name so I knew that I had to knock it down."

The Kangaroos misfired at the other end on a 3-pointer and missed the tip in which allowed Kangas to grab the rebound and give the ball to junior Johnathon Jones who in turn was followed and sank both free throws. Jones finished the game with 12 points and six assists, while freshman Matt Samuels added a career-high 10 points for the Grizzlies.

UMKC's Brumagin scored a game-high 29 points, 19 of those coming in the first half, and grabbed 10 boards for a double-double. Spencer Johnson had a double-double for the Roos with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

Oakland had just nine turnovers in the game, while UMKC shot 39 treys, making 14 of them. OU was also outrebounded by the Kangaroos, 44-36.

Kampe becomes the 33rd active Division I coach to reach 400 wins, joining Tennessee's Bruce Pearl, who reached the plateau last night, and other greats like North Carolina's Roy Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski to name a few.

"I've gone to ougrizzlies.com quit a bit and I had noticed that he got 399, so it was just good to get it on this road trip and get it out of the way," said redshirt senior Dan Waterstradt who ended the game with six points and five rebounds off the bench. "We were just thinking about UMKC and just trying to get after it."

The Golden Grizzlies will host Toledo in their home opener in the Athletics Center O'Rena on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. The game will air on OU's flagship station WDTW (1310 AM) and can also be followed on www.ougrizzlies.com.

OU Heads to SUU for Conference Opener

The Oakland University Golden Grizzlies head into their Summit League opener Tuesday night at Southern Utah University with a record of 3-4, this all without last year's top scorer Derrick Nelson.

OU endured a grueling road trip to open the season starting with Cleveland State and then criss-crossing the nation with stops at Oregon, Syracuse, Iowa, Kansas State and Las Vegas. During the road trip for the most part the Grizzlies won the games they were supposed to win and struggled against the stronger teams on the schedule. OU's highlight thus far is upsetting the Oregon Ducks for the second straight year, this time in Eugene, Oregon.

To have a successful conference record this year, the Grizzlies must first and foremost get a healthy Derrick Nelson back as soon as possible. Next, one of the men in the post must step forward. While Dan Waterstradt is a senior and the biggest body for the Grizz, he seems to blend into the background most games and for the most is just a role player. The guys I would like to see take it to the next level are Keith Benson, Will Hudson and Frosh Drew Maynard.

The top players in the early season so far have been Junior Jonathon Jones (16.6pts/game) and Senior sharpshooter Erik Kangas (15.2pts/game).

Can the Lions Go 0-16?

I thought this was an amusing and informative article from CNNSI's Joe Posnanski about the Detroit Lions' state of the union and the possibility of them going winless this season. This article was posted before the Lions embarrassing loss to Tennessee on Thanksgiving....

Do the 0-11 Detroit Lions have what it takes to go winless this season? I remained skeptical until last week when the Lions jumped to a 17-0 lead against Tampa Bay in the first quarter. Oh sure, lots of teams can blow a 17-0 lead. But what made me stop in admiration is that the Lions blew the lead BEFORE HALFTIME. That takes something special. And it makes me think that, hey, this might be the team.

The Lions, you probably know, have an amazing history. They have won one playoff game -- ONE -- since 1957. That team won the '57 championship with Bobby Layne and Tobin Rote and John Henry Johnson and Yale Lary and Dorne Dibble -- I'm hoping that from these names you can pick up that this was a long time ago.

The Lions' last winning season? That was 2000, when they went 9-7.

The last playoff win? That was 1991 against Dallas -- and they followed it up with a tight 41-10 loss to Washington in the NFC Championship Game.

The only Pro Bowl quarterback since Bobby Layne? Greg Landry, 1971.

Their most famous quarterback since Layne? George Plimpton.

The coach with the most wins? Wayne Fontes with 66 (to go with 67 losses).

And so on. The Lions have been consistent good humor for going on three decades, but they have only once before made a serious run at the Holy Grail of bad football -- the winless season. That was in 2001 under the lamentable Marty Mornhinweg*, and they started off 0-12. But the Lions won two of their last four, inspiring the team to bring back Mornhinweg for one more season (and the Lions went 3-13).

*I don't know why, but I get the biggest kick out of the fact that the last three people hired to coach the Lions are Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci and Rod Marinelli. They have some sort of crazy "M" thing going on in Detroit. You only wish that one-time Browns coach Dick Modzelewski was young enough to coach in the NFL again.

Does this Lions team have the magic to go winless? Well, maybe. They do have crucial three traits that I think a winless team needs to have:

1. An absolutely terrible defense. You want to hear an amazing statistic -- opposing quarterbacks have put up a 111.2 passer rating against the Lions. To give you an idea, only four quarterbacks in NFL HISTORY (Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Steve Young and Joe Montana) have ever put up that high a rating in a season. And, you might note, the Lions have not faced any of those four. They HAVE faced J.T. O'Sullivan, Kyle Orton, Gus Frerotte and Jeff Garcia. They do face Peyton Manning and the Colts in December, which could cause the earth to explode.

Even better news is the Lions also have the worst rushing defense in the NFL.

2. Utter confusion at the top. The Lions have that. They finally -- finally! -- fired general manager Matt Millen after seven of the most remarkably awful seasons imaginable. This pleased the Detroit masses -- who had become convinced that Millen had some sort of invisible force field that prevented anyone from firing him -- but it did have a negative effect on the blossoming Detroit business of trying to find unique domain names for "Fire Matt Millen" Web sites*.

*CanMattMillen.com? BootMillen.org? StepOnTheMatt.net?VillianMillin.edu?

The Lions did keep hard-nosed coach Rod Marinelli, though, which is good because seems sufficiently goofy enough to guide a team to a winless record. Marinelli spent this week saying that he was excited about the Lions getting into the spotlight -- they play Tennessee in front of the nation on Thanksgiving Day. When Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg rather logically suggested to Marinelli that, you know, the spotlight might be a BAD thing for a team two-thirds of the way to a winless season, he responded with this:

"I guess if you're from Hostess Twinkies it would be."

Several of the CIA's best code breakers are working around the clock to try interpret what that means.

It should also be noted that the Lions defensive coordinator -- the man responsible for that amazing defense that gave up 48 points to Green Bay even though it was reported that Brett Favre gave the Lions various Packers team secrets -- is a man by the name of Joe Barry. He is, according to many, a bright young coach. He is also the son-in-law of Rod Marinelli.

3. Scheduling. The Lions have five games left. All five are against teams that still have playoff dreams. They face the Titans this week, and the Titans are coming off their first loss of the season. Then they play the Vikings at home, and the Vikings are tied for the division lead. They play at Indianapolis, and the Colts have won four in a row and look like the Colts again. They play New Orleans, the league's No. 1 offense in yards. Then they finish at Green Bay, where the Lions have not won in 17 years.

It's a good setup. This could really happen. Now it's just up to the Lions to try and finish off this disaster.

"I don't look for disaster," Marinelli said to reporters. "I look for disease." And I think these are comforting words this holiday season.