Santa Kitty’s Coming To Town

Santa’s not the only one who has been making their lists and checking it twice. 

I’ve got a naughty & nice list when it comes to sports in Detroit.

Here’s who deserves a visit from Santa & who deserves to be left with a lump of coal.

Nice:  Lions head coach Dan Campbell.

Dan and his staff took a losing team and turned them into contenders with a 10 - 4 record and the Lion are now the NFC north division leaders

Naughty: Tom Gores and the Pistons. 

The Pistons have the worst record in the NBA Eastern Conference 2 - 26. 

Their season smells worse than Rudolph’s’ leavings in Santas’ back yard.

It’s like they forgot to how to play basketball.  

Or have they just given up trying. 

The games are not even fun to watch anymore.

Nice: The Wolverines 

The Wolverines have a perfect season and once again are Big 10 Champions. 

They’re also in the running for the NCAA championship. 

If they defeat Alabama in the Rose Bowl, they’ll go to the National Championship game.

Naughty: Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.

He served a 3 game suspension earlier in the season because of a recruiting violation. 

He served another suspension do to an alleged allegation that his staff was stealing signals from the opposing teams sideline.

Naughty & Nice: Lions Players.

Let’s do the nice side first. 

Like I said earlier, the team’s 10 - 4 and they’re on the verge of clinching the NFC North division for the first time in decades and make the playoffs.

The players have worked hard, played and won tough games. 

On the other hand, they blew games they could have easily won including the game against the Packers on Thanksgiving Day. 

The 1st. half of the game was brutal to watch. 

Nice: The Ford family.

 They finally got the right Lions coach and staff. 

There’s no going back for this team. 

No more 0 - 16. We fans have waited long enough for the Lions to be good. 

Please don’t f*** this team up anymore, don’t blow it!

Naughty: The Tigers. 

Although they ended the season 2nd. in the Central division, the team still had a losing record.

 Even with a new manager and Miggy still on the roster, the team still couldn’t get it together to have a winning record. 

At least the season wasn’t as bad as the 2003 season.

Nice: Miguel Cabrera

For 15 seasons, Miguel’s been a thrill to watch as a Tiger.

Whether Cabrera’s been winning batting crowns, hitting homers or making the AL Allstar squad many time, he’s been thrilling to watch as a Tiger.

Although he retired at the end of this season, he’ll still be with the Tigers in the front office.

Naughty: MSU football 

The Spartans were 4 - 8 this season.

 They also had a scandal where the head coach was fired because of a sexual harassment allegation.

The coach allegedly harassed a consultant who was hired to talk to the team about sexual harassment.

The coach allegedly made unwanted advances to her.

Soon 2023 will be over and it will be history.

Hopefully 2024 will be better.

Detroit’s one of the best sports town,  period.

We’re loyal.

We love our teams through thick and thin.

It’s never a dull moment in Detroit sports.

Prayers For Willie Hernandez

 Prayers, thoughts, peace for the family, friends, former teammates of Tiger legend Willie Hernandez.

Willie passed last week from natural cause, he was 69. 

The Tiger pitching legend was part of the 1984 World Series champions Detroit Tigers. 

Willie also was MVP and a Cy Young award that year too.

Willie will be dearly missed.

From Bad Boys To Worse Men

The late Bill Davison would be turning over in his grave if he knew how bad the Pistons have been lately.

2024 is the 20th anniversary of the Pistons 2004 championship season.

Davison who was team owner at the time, won his third NBA championship when the Pistons defeated the Lakers in game 5 of the NBA Finals.

They went to the Finals again in 2005 and were defeated by the San Antonio Spurs in game 7.

The team also won back to back championships in 1989 and 1990.

The last time the team won in the playoffs was in 2008.

 They were eventually defeated by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals in game 6.

The Pistons last appeared in the 2019 playoffs when they were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st. round

The Pistons currently are in last place in the Eastern Conference and are 2 - 10 in their current season.

The last decent season was the 2018 - 2019  when the Pistons were 41 - 41. 

They’ve lost their last 9 games so far in this season and were defeated on Tuesday by the Atlanta Hawks 126 - 120.

The last game they won was on October 27th, 2023.

What happened to this team, why are they so bad?

I know we don’t have the same roster or the team personnel when they were good,  but they haven’t improved from last season when they were 17 - 65 and last in the Conference.

Even with a new head coach, they still can’t seen to get their act together as a team.

Could it be their defensive or their offensive schemes that needs improvement.

Could it be their team and group dynamics that needs work?

Or is it early in the season for the team to have time to improve?

Or are we cursed by the NBA gods to be stuck with a lousy team?

We may never back to the way the team was, but we can learn from that era.

Hopefully the team can get back to being good and fun to watch again.

Jim Harbaugh Fumbles On Sideline Gate

Jim Harbaugh has fumbled as head coach of the Wolverines.

This time the coach is under fire after an alleged cheating scandal.

Harbaugh was suspended for the rest of the regular season after he allegedly violated the leagues sportsmanship policy.

Harbaugh has already served a suspension earlier in the season because of a recruiting violation that occurred during the pandemic.

The football program was alleged to have conducted an in-person scouting operation.

To simply put, the Wolverines are accused of stealing sidelines signals from opposing teams.

If there was cheating, why was it allowed and how many teams have practiced it and not caught?    

If there was cheating, what kind of penalties besides the suspension should he or the Wolverines get?

 If there was cheating, why didn't the NCAA do more to prevent it?

And why wasn't there protocols put in place so there's no possible way of cheating.

Even if the alleged cheating never took place, there will still be some doubts about the Wolverines. 

Once trust is lost, good luck in ever getting it back. 

Even if the Wolverines & Harbaugh are punished, the damage is still there.

If the NCAA & the Big Ten wants to recover from this, they need to do a better job of cleaning up their act. 

They need to have stiffer penalties in place for those who cheat. 

They need to keep a better eye on the sidelines.  

They should also have better safeguards in place so that it never happens again. 

Then maybe many can enjoy watching the Wolverines  & college football once more. 

Prayers For Bobby Knight

 Prayers, thoughts, peace for the family, friends of former Indiana Hoosier coach Bobby Knight.

Bobby left us this week, he was 83.

The coaching legend led his team to 3 National titles and coached 1984 US Olympic team to a gold medal.

He will be dearly missed.

Thank You Miggy

Say it ain’t so, Miguel Cabrera is retiring from baseball.

This weekend is the last series and home games of Miguel Cabreras’ career. 

The World Series and 4 time AL batting champion, 12 time MLB All star, is retiring this year as a Tiger.

Miguel began his career as a Marlin and played the last 15 years as a Tiger.

Although he will not be playing baseball on the team, Miguel will still be involved with the Tigers.

Miguel will be a special assistant to the general manager.

Thank you Miggy for being a Tiger, for thrilling baseball,  giving Detroiters hope and a reason to cheer.

Baseball will never be the same.

Prayers For Don Shane

A gentle soul in the sports world has left us too soon.

 Prayers, thoughts, peace for the family, friends, colleagues of Detroit tv legend Don Shane.

Don passed recently from undisclosed causes.

Don was a fixture on Channel 7 for several years and covered many sports events around the city.

He remained with Channel 7 until his retirement in 2012.

Don will be dearly missed.

Join The Team To Help Turkey

 Prayers, thoughts go out to the nation of Turkey and the Middle East who are suffering from a devastating earthquake on Monday.

 The 7. 5 magnitude earthquake left thousands dead, and many are still under rubble. 

The earthquake which took place in Turkey could be felt as far away as Syria and Israel.

The earthquake has devastated families and left many without basic needs that we sometimes take for granted. 

While we can't prevent the earthquake from happening, we are not totally powerless. 

Under the section "Pay it Forward.." of this site, are some links to organizations that are helping in relief efforts. 

Thank you for making a difference.