DTroppens

Cool story, Biff! Isn't it cool when your favorite artists are still playing 40/50 years later? You figure as long as health issues don't hit any of the band members, they'll probably still be doing it 10 years from now as well. Really, it's super cool. Cooper will be playing until something health wise keeps him from doing it. He'll probably die on stage. We saw Motorhead's last show in Detroit. I'm guessing Lemmy about four months later. We had never seen Motorhead before until that night. Again, that was one of those groups that I probably would never go to see by themselves, but as part of a night's acts, why not. You know you are going to like them. And more often, when you see someone live, you like them about 40% more than before you saw them live.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the Pistons.

Right now, it's "my choice" so I can see that - getting irritated when it's not a choice. But, the few times it happens now, it hasn't been a big issue. Maybe with more games it will. I lived in Illinois for four years at the end of the 1990s (how I found the motownsports message board) and the early 2000s, so I only had the internet and the occasional game against either the White Sox or Cubs on WGN to enjoy. I pretty much never missed those games when I could help it. And that's kind of how it was as a kid. They had about 50 games on TV. It doesn't sound like a lot, that's more than 30% of the games so it wasn't like we were starved for games. But, when they were on TV, it was a big deal. You treated it special. We didn't take it "for granted." Even in 1984 with all the Game of the Weeks, the Monday Night Baseball games maybe 65 games were on TV? Seemingly, somehow many of the "highlight" games somehow ended up being a lot of those games. But I didn't feel deprived of TV games in 1984. When I am inside, I'm usually doing things and then turn around after I hear a play and watch the replay. I pay attention to the TV less than the radio actually. Well, that's not 100 percent true. With the pitch clock (the greatest thing that ever happened to baseball), I certainly focus on the game way more than I did four years ago. It's easier to watch knowing you will see a pitch about every 25 seconds. But, my attention to the radio is much better. By June I'll be out on a deck, maybe out with my parakeet and an old Sporting News folder of old newspapers and listening to the games. If they are on the west coast and the weather is nice, I may be out there in the dark until 1:30 a.m. You know what? I really enjoy the game that way. I even did this for a few playoff games. I'm not losing anything. I'll see the highlights later.

Cable is so much and I'm not the type of person to get a bunch of website services. I'm still seriously thinking about dropping cable just because how much it costs just to have it. And, I've been listening to games the last two seasons a ton for just that reason. I wrote out a list of games that will be on regular TV (network TV) at the start of the season, and wondered if we'd get a list of actual over the air local games eventually like we did late last season. I am so close to pulling the cable plug but what keeps me from doing it is the Pistons actually. Even when the Pistons are crap, I still really enjoy watching their games over the winter. And now that they are good, well, that's even better. But I really have zero issue with listening to Tigers games and Wings games for the most part. Even the Lions I've done it a few times the last three seasons. Gosh, when I was a kid almost every home game was blacked out so I was doing that with the Lions for almost half their games. The Tigers, I was doing it for two-thirds of the games. The Pistons and Wings - I think maybe they had 10 to 15 games on TV? Maybe it was 20. I probably saw More Maple Leaf games on TV through Hockey Night in Canada than I did Wings games. I really can convert back. And with a list of another nine games (I guess I missed the first one already) and what we can see after the game I could live with that. An average of a game a week on regular TV (make them all road games if they want) would be ideal. Or even just 20.

It'll be interesting to see how the Pistons play these games out. 60 wins would be nice, but it's window-dressing at this point. With the long layoff with the play-in tourney, you want to play people but you also don't want to get people hurt. It would be nice to be able to play Cade if he's okay (guessing he's not), but don't want to get him hurt again. I wonder if Cade does come back sometime in the first round or if they advance to the second how much his body can stand the rigors of the playoffs. Let's face it. He hasn't been the pilar of stable health during his career, and the playoffs are a different monster. He's already had issues this year, and it's not going to be easier in the playoffs.

When COVID hit, we actually had tickets to three Alice Cooper shows. All of them were cancelled, obviously. The first show we saw after COVID was in Toledo with Cooper and we were still under mask mandate for that concert. I think the second was Weird Al, but that was cancelled (think it Saginaw) due to him having COVID. I may be blurring this up with Weird Al. Maybe that was a year later. I think that it was like three months after AC though.

I am a huge Queensryche fan and Operation Mindcrime is probably my No. 2 most listened to album in terms of my vinyl albums, but I've never seen Tate or Queensryche before. He is doing Mindcrime for certain. Like you said, I don't know if he's doing it ever again. But I also hear he's adding some from 2 and 3 into it as well. Cheap Trick is the 30-min or 50-min act opener I've seen the most over the last 20 years. I would never go just to see Cheap Trick as the main act, but it's always great to see them in concert - at least the 50-min session. I always feel a little burned when they get the early opening act and you hear about five songs and it's pretty much over. They are way too good for that. If I saw them do a 90-min show, I'd enjoy it. I know they do tour occasionally by themselves (I think they did last summer or two summers ago), but I'd probably not pay the prices needed to see them as a closer by themselves. Now if they had Cooper opening for them, or if let's say Megadeth were opening for Cheap Trick (one of my wife's favs as well), we'd probably see their full show and I'd be super happy to see it. I hope that makes sense.

Dan D is a very comfortable listen. Out of anyone we have doing radio or TV for the Tigers, I'd consider him the most solid and consistent. And he doesn't dominate the airways. He lets whoever is in the booth with. Bobby Scales doesn't do anything for me. For a bit, I thought it was Bobby Higginson. I think their voices are reasonably similar if I remember correctly.

BINGO! I can deal probably with one of them on the booth because both like having fun. But when they are together, it just gets too crazy. The snowball keeps rolling and sometimes they seemingly forget there is a game going on four three innings. Sometimes I think they do this purposely when they are on droughts for weeks. But here's the problem. Let's say the snowball is rolling on a 1 out of a 100 at the end of a game (100 being never stopping the snowball). By the end of this game they may be a 10. They don't start the next game at a 1 or even drag it back to a 5. You feel like it's a season-long battle to keep one-upping the other and so they start the next game at a 10 and before you know it they are at 100 and it just gets too crazy. And their only way to break it up is by bringing the same special guest booth member they've already had 10 times during the season. 🙂 When I see Dirks in different scenarios when Benetti is gone, I think he has the right blend. That's even true with Benetti. He's still going to force some silly pop culture thing he wrote down four hours ago if it fits or not, but one or two of those are fine. I get the feeling if I personally new Benetti, I'd think he's a great guy. He probably is. But in the broadcast, it just taxes me. And Dan Petry still can't cope with it all. Petry probably needs someone there to carry the broadcast because he is kind of bland to say the least, and Benetti does do that. But even then he needs to do it in doses. When he says something and you get the feeling Petry is clueless about what he's talking about, it doesn't help Dan.

We see Cooper, Weird Al, Godsmack, Poison, Def Leppard, Motley Crue and a few others pretty much anytime they come to the area. We are slowing down on that now because even getting tickets to see Cooper (he's still a great act but he is old) is in the $150 range. So, it's likely we won't see him after this show. And, we probably are going to drop other concerts we may have attended. We'd rather go to the UP for a weekend or something like that with our $$$.

After the All-Star Break is when I finally started watching other games a bit deeper than I typically do. I'm usually putting my TV on a soccer game, some mid-major college basketball game or the golf channel during the winter, but after the All-Star Break I kind of started watching more of the other teams in the Eastern Conference when I saw they were on. So maybe since that is still pretty "new" to my watching, I enjoy it a little more. But that said, so many of those games never have full teams playing anyway, so it's hard to understand what you are seeing anyway. I actually had the Lakers and Mavs on for a good chunk last night. I never watch Western Conference games like that, but just keeping any NBA game on is now starting to sink in my brain than it has over the last 10 years (minus the end of last season a little bit).

That may be true, but I think what probably rekindles interest is the team doing well. That's what brings casual fans back. For example, people loved Mario and Rod and they embraced them. But, if 2006 doesn't happen like the way it does the fan base doesn't return to make that summer the high ratings the Tigers' broadcasts were. There may be an element of what you say is true, but I'd argue it's 80% winning baseball, and now that it's happened that makes people associate them with good times and makes people probably enjoy them more. That doesn't really happen when a team goes 70-92 every season.

I find myself going backwards instead of forward with music. I'm really enjoying trying to learn more about the 70s than what I just learned growing up. The only concert we went to last year was Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. But, we've seen Cooper more than 50 times since 2000 so that's not too much of a shock.

100% - And it's amazing what happens when a team decides to truly play on the defensive end. There isn't a team that if they decide to do that honestly night in and night out, won't improve at least 12 games during the regular season. Probably really at least 15 games. But we had a coach that didn't want to be here and the team was stuck with that. I love defense. This team plays defense.

This game was my highlight of last season. I was in the UP doing a one-day "get to all three great lakes" day because the weather was so awesome. I started the game just sitting in a quiet spot in Lake Huron that I never see anyone in (although there's always evidence that people do walk through the trails to this beach) listening to most of the first half of the game. With about eight minutes left in the second quarter I drove to a spot on Lake Superior where I know there is a reasonable sand bank that allows you to walk about 300 yards out in Lake Superior to a bunch of rocks that (if you can find a spot the seagulls haven't destroyed with poop) you can sit out there and just be away from everyone. I listened to the entire second half in this spot. The water was probably close to 70 degrees and there were no waves to speak of. No one was out there and I'm just sitting on a rock listening to the Lions-Browns game. I was happy to see the internet came out so clear out there. My biggest worry was making sure I didn't drop my phone into Lake Superior. What a relaxing game that was. I plan on doing it again next late summer/early fall for certain. In a season of few highlights, that was a biggie for me.

Please get consecutive hits before the seventh inning sometime today. 🙂

Regardless what happens to Jenkins the rest of his career, I'll always remember this season for his contribution. Seeing a guy like him get an opportunity, seize it, prove that he not only belongs but is a vital part of a team that's going to win their conference and was displaying leadership qualities almost from day one - he's been a breath of fresh air. Athletes like Jenkins makes watching sports 100% worth it.

One can make a post about Lavert like this seemingly every night. I have no clue why he's part of the regular rotation.

I know people get tired of the regular season, but this regular season has just been a bunch of fun. I kind of find these games without a full roster super fun. It's almost exciting to see how the Pistons figure it out without X, Y and Z in the lineup. I know the gang here has probably talked about it all season, but I just popped back up so I'll say it for the first time. In an era when money and individual agendas rule professional sports (especially the NBA) it's 100% apparent that this team just enjoys its company and truly look at each other as brothers, as family. And where else can some guy from the D-League come from nowhere and by the end of the season the guy is not only productive but you can sense his leadership skills among the rest of the team. The playoffs define a team, but while last season was fun this has been just a super enjoyable regular season. I'm going to miss it when it ends.

We do take a lot of meaningless challenges that you know as soon as he challenges it, you know it's going to fail.

I am basically 50% Polish and German so I really wanted Poland to qualify. After the US, my No. 2 team is Poland (it's too easy to root for Germany), so that would be great. However, I think qualifying should matter. It shouldn't be a piece of cake. I think this is Italy's third straight World Cup vacation. That's not a mistake any more. Be better. When the US didn't qualify, I was harping two cycles prior that the US was going to struggle with the cycle eight years later. I honestly think they may have struggled this cycle if not given an auto bid. I enjoy the qualifiers and don't want to see them not matter. I went to plenty of US CONCACAF qualifiers because they mattered. I was earning my fan caps for US-Mexico games in Columbus for quite a few cycles. Six CONCACAF teams automatically in 2030, and a seventh competing in a play-in home-and-home series. Ehhh, even I think the US can blindly just walk through and qualify in that scenario. It probably will go to 64 teams one day. I think there is a little talk about it for 2030,but that probably be more likely a 2034? Maybe I'm off on that and 2030 is more on the table than I think. It's more money, more fringe teams making the cup and if half the field increasing the interest in the event world-wide, so they probably will. That probably would mean another week to the tourney as well.

I play sports baseball board games so I have a ton of players that I just enjoy learning about them. I'd go with Charlie Maxwell (died a little more than a month ago), one of my favorite Tigers to play in any Tiger replay (currently part of my 1947 Tigers in an MLB replay) Roy Cullenbine or maybe John Wockenfuss or **** McAuliffe. It would be cool getting their batting stances on the podium. Maybe an Aurelio Lopez leg kick delivery.

I've always been of the viewpoint if you couldn't win it in 60 minutes, then you only have yourself to blame for allowing a potential coin flip to dictate the result. Again, I know no one else agrees with me, but I never had issues with OT the way it was initially. That's pretty close to what we have now with your idea. I'm not going to go to war on this stuff. I agree with you what is closer to actual regulation play is better. The four-point idea is fine. I don't want anything like the NCAA version of OT.

I would imagine you could almost have to replay it to see if a kick actually was 60 yards or not. That would be pretty funny to see happen. If it went to the NFL, it would be the Lions that would place the ball 1/10th of an inch too far back for the extra-point to count. 🙂 That's a huge rule to state if you lose yards (let's say a 10 yard hold puts you back at your own 42), you still can't punt? You may see teams that get to the 49 and then just run the ball to "protect" themselves from losing yards on a sack or a holding call - at least for a down. Yeah, that is just a crazy concept.

Either are solid selections. I don't have a horse between either, but averaging a triple-double is hard to ignore.