Mikey D

I think this might be one of my favorite Rick Reilly columns...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4281277

~Mikey D

Always good to revisit.

Mike: "Wrestling fans are idiots. Like when Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out they yell 'What!' and when Kurt Angle comes out they yell 'You Suck!'"

Kevin: "So if all wrestling fans are idiots, and you're a wrestling fan, that must mean..."

Mike: "Well, I meant I excluded."

~Mikey D

P.S.- I'm starting to get back into wrestling again...just a little =).

I wonder what I could do to be accused of insubordination?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms

On a side note, $70,000 a year!? I'm moving to New York. Go Yankees! Go Giants! Go Kni- wait, no, they're awful...

~Mikey D

As soon as the clocked reached zero, I had the TV off. I couldn't watch Pittsburgh dog-pile on top of one another, and I couldn't watch the Red Wings, in defeat, line-up for the obligatory shaking of the hands. I went to bed with my stomach in knots and my hands literally shaking from the nerves of the last few minutes of play. A bad feeling to say the least. But after a night of sleep I woke up in a reflective mood. Emotions aside, I can't complain too much about this year's playoff run and Cup Finals.

First, can we all agree that Pittsburgh deserved to win this series? Games 1 and 2 were in no stretch of the imagination dominate Wings wins, and could have easily gone to the Pens. Save Game 5, this series could have been over in five or six. They played excellent hockey for the most part, and kept us from getting into any sort of rhythm (again, save Game 5). And while we did a fantastic job of stopping Crosby, their secondary guys (Talbot...oye...) stepped up. Good teams, Stanley Cup winning teams, have contributions from all their guys. Perhaps if we had more of a contribution from our guys the outcome might be different.

Like Hossa. He admitted after the game that the pressure may have gotten to him; that he's only human. I can give him that. It was a nightmare Finals match-up for him, but he's an all-star caliber player, and pressure or not, he had seven games to contribute something- and he didn't. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. A bad series for him should be a mere couple of goals. To say I was disappointed with him would be an understatement. But let's stop criticizing Hossa there. He played like shit, but can we stop with the "he should have stayed with Pittsburgh" talk? Like he pointed out at the end of the game, if he would have signed the more lucrative deal with the Pens their team might be completely different. Hossa's cap number would have prevented them from signing/trading for some of the key guys they have on their roster right now. It worked out fine for Pittsburgh in the end, now let Hossa be about that whole ordeal.

Going into the offseason I want Stuart and Raflaski gone. That's harsh, I know, but they were so very awful. The two goals Pittsburgh scored, the odd-man rushes, the turnovers...I can point to those two men as the culprits for all of them. Yes, other guys had bad series too and didn't show up, but these two guys hurt our team more than anyone. Like I told Kevin during the game, I felt bad for Osgood. He had a great series, but the amount of quality scoring opportunities Pittsburgh had because of our defensive lapses was ridiculous. He can't stop every two-on-one...

But I think next year will be good for us. We had a lot of young guys infused with our older guys, and hopefully we can stay healthy for a whole playoff run. Pittsburgh and Detroit again in the Finals? Seems likely...

Random question that I keep forgetting to ask: The announcers during the playoffs mentioned numerous times that Osgood had to be sent home during the season for a period of time (no pun intended) for an "attitude adjustment". Anybody know what that is all about?

Anyway, congrats to the Pens, they deserved it. I still won't ever be able to watch highlights of this series or look at pictures of them holding the Cup, but they earned it. And congrats to the Wings. Even playing poorly in the Finals we were able to force a Game 7 against a talented team playing at the top of their game. That's something to be proud of in my mind. If there are such things as moral victories, that should be one.

Well, there's always next year.

~Mikey D

If you ever loved "Saved By The Bell", than this is great...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/76560/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-saved-by-the-bell-reunion-update-3

~Mikey D

I am the first one into school in the mornings, so I usually have the entire building to myself for a good half-hour. It's very peaceful, and as you go through the school it's hard to imagine the chaos that is about to envelope the building in less than two hours. But being in my solitude, I do a lot of good thinking.

Today I got to thinking about my life and school, and how I ended up as a teacher. I know part of the reason I became a teacher is because I like working with kids. I always felt that is my main reason for choosing teaching as a profession, but I have struggled come up with secondary reasons. I mean, do I teach strictly because I "luv da kidz"?

I most certainly don't teach for a lot of the reasons others do...like be a good influence...to make a difference in childrens' lives...and so on and so on. I mean, if that's the byproduct of my teaching, fantastic, but it's not a goal I've set out to achieve (I'm sure I've mentioned that multiple times in previous posts).

So what is a secondary reason for me being a teacher? Today, in the early morning school hours, I got to wondering if it was because I fear change. I've always like routine and the predictable. I like to plan ahead and I like knowing what happens next. The unexpected and surprises are not for me. Perhaps a secondary reason for being a teacher is that I am used to being in a school building, in a classroom, excelling in mathematics, and with a firm understanding of the teaching profession. Maybe that "other" reason I became a teacher is because I knew what to expect out of the career, and I'd be in an environment that was comfortable and predictable.

Just a thought that occurred to me that I felt like putting down.

***

Moving onto something completely different, at the end of the year teachers get some pretty decent "thank you" gifts from students. Today I got a Staples and iTunes gift cards. I mean, they were 10 and 15 bucks apiece, so we're not talking about extravagant gifts here, but you get a few of those bad boys and they start to add up!

So here's my other thought for the day: Can I somehow manipulate my students mind in some way that I could influence the potential gift they buy me at the end of the year?

Here's me out. Next year, before I start every class, I am going to say "Home Depot gift card" and nothing more. I'm just going to move right along into the lesson and not answer any questions from my students about why I keep saying it. Soon, it will become part of the classroom routine...and ingrained in their minds.

And so, when the parents ask their lovelies what to get that teacher Mr. D, they will reply without hesitation, "Home Depot gift card".

What do you think? Perhaps that's the slightest bit wrong of me to do...perhaps =)...but I think it would work.

Maybe I should shoot for something really out there...like a Fisher Price basketball net for my classroom. Awesome.

~Mikey D

Okay, it's starting to get painful/frustrating.

The Tigers have been pitching pretty well lately. Verlander has been great, and Edwin Jackson has been even better (when will he get some Cy Young love?). Porcello has been steady, and Willis and Galaraga have had their moments and struggles (Bonderman should push those guys and also add stability to the back end of the rotation when he comes back Monday). The bullpen has been fine with Perry, Zumaya, Lyon, and Rodney. No complaints, really.

But the hitting...How many games are we going to go where we struggle offensively??? It feels like every game we play now we are scoring less than 3 runs. Perhaps that's not true, it just feels that way.

Last night was a perfect example. We won the game, which is great, but we won 2-1. The night before we lost 2-1. Such low scoring games!

Yes we've faced some great pitching. Dice-K. Beckett. E-Santana. Escobar. But still...the production is meager. And what kind of pitching do you think they'll be facing in the postseason? Yeah, those kind of pitchers.

So when you look at the line-up, it's not bad, but we have some holes. Can we all move on and say that Curtis Granderson is not a leadoff hitter? He's just not. He's going to be a career .250-.275 hitter with a lot of speed and power. I will take that, but just not out of the leadoff spot. Granderson would be great in the 6 or 7th spot in our line-up. In fact, I think Granderson, Inge, and Laird would make a solid 6-7-8 for our line-up. Throw in Everett or Santiago at short batting 9th, and we're set at the end of our line-up.

The 2-3-4 spots are also all set. Polanco, Ordonez, and Cabrera. That's easy to put out everyday.

But who leads off, and who gives us that pop in the middle? We just don't have it. We don't have that super-speedy leadoff man that gets on base all the time and steals tons of bases. We need a strong table-setter. I'm sorry, but Anderson, Thomas, and whomever else they've had out there just isn't cutting it. We need a guy who can hit for average and frustrate the heck out of pitchers.

As far as the fifth spot is concerned, I know we have Carlos Guillen and Marcus Thames on the DL, but again, the spot just isn't producing much. Larish just isn't on their level. Who knows when Guillen or Thames will get back, but we need them. Not just for their potential hitting ability, but to protect Cabrera. If you were a pitcher, who would you rather face- Cabrera, or the guy after him, Granderson or Larish? You take your chances with one of the latter two.

Now I'm not saying Dombrowski needs to go trade the farm to fill those two holes. In fact, I'm happy that those are the two biggest holes that we have right now, because I think they're easy fixes come trade deadline. I am saying that it does worry me that the offense is struggling the way it is and that the youngsters filling in for the aching veterans aren't quite producing like we hoped. We need some hitting out of those spots though, because we can't keep winning 2-1 all year.

Remember last year when our offense was pretty good (scored 850+ runs) and it was our pitching that was our downfall? Now it's the opposite!

~Mikey D

You know what I'm tired of seeing? The stupid ticker on the bottom of ESPN that shows random NBA stats about teams, in particular the one I've seen a thousand times about how a certain team is "9-0 when holding it's opponent under 90 points". I completely and utterly hate that stat and I cringe every time I see it.

Why? It's such a "duh" thing to write/say. It'd be like saying, "The Detroit Tigers are 10-0 when holding their opponents to 1 run or fewer". Well yeah, of course they're going to have an amazing record, they're holding them to just one damn run. Fucking duh.

There have been 80 playoff games played thus far. Of the 80 games, only 11 have been decided where both teams have scored a figure below 90. That means 7 out of 8 basically are not defensive struggles. What does that mean? Teams are scoring points, and the playoff runs of the Spurs and Pistons (defensive minded teams) are a thing of the past. This also means if you don't score points...like at least 90...you're not going to be in the game.

To illustrate that further, I took the team stats from the 80 games. Since two teams play in a game, that means there are stats for 160 teams (of course the same team is represented multiple times). Only 45 out of the 160 teams this playoff season have scored below 90 points. About 25%! And of the 25% that scored below 90 points, 34 were defeated.

So in actuality, 11 teams out of the 160 that played were victorious when scoring less than 90 points. That is less than 7%. 6.875% to be exact. "So in so is 11-0 this postseason when holding opponents under 90." Well no surprise there with a 93.125% success rate! Dumbfucks.

I hate that stat. New stat, please. Give me something worthwhile to read.

Maybe I should go somewhere else besides the ESPN ticker for my worthwhile reading...

Nawwwww...

~Mikey D

I have 10 pictures, can you name the person in each?

I'm expecting Adam to do wayyyy better than you, Kevin.

Coming soon shall be my "Name that Sportscenter Anchor" name game. Oh, and if you're wondering why I came up with this random and semi-weird post...I'm not sure. I was watching the hockey game the other night, and I just started wondering how many I could name if I saw just their faces...and my thought sort of expanded to this...

Answers in the comment section.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7) Not Prince, and not Michael Curry...

8)

9) Who is Babcock coaching up?

10) Kevin will never get this one.

~Mikey D