gehringer_2

Igor still lacing 'em up.

Ironically, the money and contract terms are leverage the schools could use to force them to tow the line - but do they? I imagine it's not different from the way it was before. There are schools that let prospects know they aren't expected to do anything and schools that are more interesting to guys who still want to go to school and that sorts itself out. Social media lets the players communicate the ins an outs of their programs with other to a degree never possible in the past, so few guys probably pick programs whose expectations don't line up with what they want to do in the first place.

the tigers were at least as dumpy a franchise in the years before Pudge signed than they are now. When Pudge signed the Tigers hadn't had a winning season in 10yrs, hadn't been to the playoffs in 17, had come of one of the worst losing seasons in history and were known for troubles in the clubhouse.. Today they are coming off 2 playoff appearances, 6 in the last 15 yrs and have a manager guys like to play for.

when I first saw this I thought it staged, but then it became pretty clear it was not all an act, or if it was initially the kids lost control of it. Any Adult in proximity this needs to be fired from their gig - not funny at all.

One of the great misappropriations of a song that always made me laugh was when GM was using the instrumental lead in to the Who's 'Emminence Front' in the their truck ads, when the song is as much an anti-advertising/marketing screed as has ever been penned. I guess it works for people like my SO who says she never heard/knew the lyrics on any R&R songs.

More than seems. In mid-Dec the OT rate was reported to be 27%, which would have been a record pace. It's fallen a bit in the last couple of weeks. By my quick calculation 185 of 715 games have gone to OT as of the current standings, which is a 25.9% rate, so down a little from the peak a couple of weeks ago but still. high.

So you are assuming a big future for that comp pick..... 😉

good for him.

It's been so long since the Wings had great goaltending that I don't feel I have a good frame of reference for whether Gibson is playing at a level he going to have to come down from or if he's just being as good as a good goalie should be. 😉

When Syverud got to Syracuse athletics was deep in debt. One of his accomplishments was getting them out, though he didn't use PE to do it. Also, may be more accurate to say he is coming out of retirement to come to Michigan. And if he is going to be there more than 24mos the regents will have to waive his mandatory retirement age - which they've done before, so no biggie, but still another weird hiring decision. And before the sports folks get too excited, Ono was a really big sports guy before he got to UM, didn't seem to help him navigate the U nor the U navigate its sports issues better at all.

where would you even go if you wanted to buy a set of hot windshield wipers? All I can picture are guys on the street with them sewn into sleeves inside their trenchcoats along with the knock off Rolexes.

LOL - he's only 40yrs late on that one.

If we could get back to normal institutional stability I'd be glad to argue with my most liberal friends about a lot of things, but old style liberal/conservative policy detail debates today feel like worrying about the hang nails of a patient with a metastatic carcinoma.

something like that. IIRC Way back, when the state first passed the enabling legislation for city income taxes it did specify the city had to be 1M population because nobody outstate wanted their municipality starting one. Somehow that got changed/waived but I don't remember those details. Obviously Flint is nowhere near 1M and the city itself is now well under 1M and since they keep bringing it up in A^2 that requirement must just be gone.

This is a big difference between this and the prior regime. Say what ever else you will about Avila, he belived in drafting pitchers high and often exactly because they went down so often. I understand the other view but I'm not sure that just because there is a lot of uncertainly in doing it with great deliberation, that means you actually have any reasonable chance of assembling a play-off calibre pitching staff by chance pickups. I may be being unfair, as has been noted, Harris did pivot toward more pitching in the recent draft but they've had a lot of bad luck so we haven't seen anything out of it.

LOL - good call. fwiw - AI/Google image search says the image is this guy (who died last july) - but looking at various pics I'm not certain that's good ID either.

I'm not so worried about the 8 on the field. They field and run really well and hit enough. More certainly in CF would be nice but if McGonigle sticks some combination of Meadows, Baez and Vierling should do. I remain very nervous about the pitching staff.

chicago keeps talking about implementing some sort of such tax Unless a city is surrounded by water or mountains, a city income tax is a business death sentence. In the midwest where there is open land and freeways? The arg when the city passed the tax was 'nobody is going to move over 1%' but of course that ignores how many businesses relocate every year as space and facilities needs change, and every percentage makes a difference in the decision about where to go next. So not an immediate death sentence, but a slow slide into negative growth. They keep talking about it in A^2. My response is always 'so Flint is your model for the future of Ann Arbor?'

oops - Forgot the Detroit City Income tax - 2.4% resident, 1.2% non resident. The City is addicted now of course, but that is a single factor that drove and keeps thousands of small businesses in the 'burbs. If they could ever get off it it would do wonders for small business dev. At the time of the bankruptcy I remember there was some discussion of the State ending all the MI city incomes taxes, but it didn't happen.

Wings are kind of fun right now because we don't really know how good they are: Are they going to fall back at some point and be the same old thing, or have they turned a corner as a team and can sustain making the playoffs or even 1st place? It's contrast to when the situation with the Wings was that we knew they had more than enough talent to win but they might not be hungry enough or tough enough to match the talent.

Michigan has a 4.25% flat rate income tax, which is probably a bit below avg, but generally high property taxes.

A^2 news reports it's Kent Syverud, who had announced earlier last year he was retiring as President of Syracuse. He is a UM Law School alum and had achieved his tenure at the law school befor he left for Vanderbilt. He clerked for Sandra Day O'Conner. However, he is 70 yrs old, so basically another transitional hire while they look for someone for a longer term. You also question how much is heart is going to be in the job if he had already decided to retire once. I would guess Garcia had the name already as the pic in his story is the Law Quad. My guy Gallimore had apparently asked not to be considered.

quantity is pretty useless in baseball. Until some of them do something to prove quality, you got nothing to plan on.

Indeed. They way the team mishandled Scherzer always reminds me of the Joni Mitchell tune - "You don't what you've got till it's gone". They could have paid Scherzer any amount of money and they've have made it back with he and JV anchoring the team for the next 10 yrs. But management always thinks it was all their skill and not just as much luck that got them where they are, so they think they can just easily do it again, any time. Not.So.Much.

Winwood was 15 in 1963 when he was a founding member of Spencer Davis group.