Author Archive

The Best Team Won’t Win AL Central, But That’s Baseball

Posted: 2nd October 2009 by Greg Eno in MLB
Ronald Reagan was in the midst of his second term as president. The Pistons were still having ghoulish nightmares about Isiah ThomasÆs pass to Larry Bird in the Eastern Conference Finals. Steve Yzerman has just completed his first season as a boy captain. Darryl Rogers hadnÆt started wondering about what it took to get fired around here. That was the political and sports landscape, nationally and around Detroit, when the Blue JaysÆ ...
Our NBA talk got put on hold for a couple weeks last night on ôThe Knee Jerksö, my weekly sports gabfest with Big Al from The Wayne Fontes Experience. Our guest, A. Sherrod BlakelyùPistons beat writer for MLive.comùgot caught up in some work-related stuff and couldnÆt be with us, after all. But he WILL be joining us on Oct. 12, so weÆre pleased about that! So given all that extra time to ...
Every dog really does have his day. Every blind squirrel really does find a nut. The long-shot came in; the house lost. It was ôany given Sunday,ö finally. The dice came up snake eyes. Someone had to be the victims of the LionsÆ losing streak ending, and it happened to be the team with some of the most ravenous, venomous fans in the NFL. The Washington Redskins are todayÆs NFL patsies. They ...

Monday Morning Manager: My Weekly Take on the Detroit Tigers

Posted: 28th September 2009 by Greg Eno in MLB
My weekly take on the Tigers, also known simply and affectionately as ôMMM.ö Week of 9/21-27: 4-2 This week: 9/28-10/1: MIN; 10/2-4: CWS Goat of the Week Curtis Granderson. MMM has been riding Grandy all year long, and with good reason. This is easily his worst season, statistically, of his four full big league campaigns. Ironically, it was also the first season in which he became an All-Star. It was hoped that MMMÆs venomous words would ...

Red Wings’ Run of Excellence Taken for Granted in Detroit

Posted: 26th September 2009 by Greg Eno in NHL
I was in New York, one of my favorite towns, and I started walking. It was a June day, some 18 years ago, and if you havenÆt been to New York in June, then your life officially has a missing ingredient. I set out around Times Square and headed north, up Sixth Avenue, from around 42nd Street. Maybe a half hour or so had passed when I decided to stop and ...
A lot of them will be there, standing on the Comerica Park field, not the place of their glory, but still right smack dab in the city of their faithful. Darrell Evans says heÆll be there. Alan Trammell, tooùexcused from his duties as Chicago Cubs bench coach. Kirk Gibson, as wellùappearing with the consent of his employers, the Arizona Diamondbacks. The old white-haired manager himself, Sparky Anderson, has submitted his RSVP. TheyÆll ...
Jimmy Devellano, recently announced as a winner of the Lester Patrick Trophy for dedication toward hockey, was the first man hired by Mike Ilitch when the latter purchased the sad sack Detroit Red Wings in 1982. One of the reasons was Jimmy D’s uncanny ability to sniff out NHL talent from the woodwork of small North American towns, and from other NHL teams. It wasn’t a smooth ride at the beginning. ...

Last Night on “The Knee Jerks”: Can the Shaky Tigers Hold On?

Posted: 22nd September 2009 by Greg Eno in MLB
The Tigers’ wobbly state as a first place team took center stage last night on “The Knee Jerks”, my weekly sports gabfest with Big Al from The Wayne Fontes Experience. Our guest was Johnny Lawrence, one of the featured Detroit Tigers columnists for The Bleacher Report. Johnny gave us his take on the Tigers’ chances to finally put the division to bed, and their outlook for the playoffs. While Johnny doesn’t see ...

Monday Morning Manager: My Weekly Take on the Detroit Tigers

Posted: 21st September 2009 by Greg Eno in MLB
My weekly take on the Tigers, also known simply and affectionately as “MMM.” Week of Sept. 14-20: 3-4 This week: Sept. 22-24: at Cle; Sept. 25-27: at CWS Goat of the Week The Metrodome, pure and simple. Oh, and Jim Leyland. The Dome jumped up and got the Tigers again on Saturday, as left fielder Don Kelly lost a harmless (HA!) fly ball in the lethal combination of white lights/white dome roof/white ...
The Detroit Lions have been kings of the incompletion.Not talking about passing here; talking about overall performance.On select Sundays, the Lions will play perhaps 15, 20 minutes of decent football. On special occasions, they might squeeze out 30 minutes. Things could even get dicey and they might tease you with 45 minutes, just to mess with your mind.Two years ago, the Lions were also kings of the incomplete season.They sprinted ...