I've covered the business of sports (among other beats) for the past several years at Crain's Detroit Business. In my spare time in 2006 and 2007, I was the George Plimpton-like last-string quarterback for the now-defunct Port Huron Pirates, a professional indoor football team that won a championship on the field and lost everything off of it. Since then, I've been writing a "Paper Lion" meets "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas" book about that experience, tentatively called "Last String." While I live now in downtown Detroit, and enjoy it immensely, I remain monogamous in my cheering loyalties to my hometown Cleveland Browns, Indians and Cavaliers. And yes, the Ohio State Buckeyes, too. Don't hate.
05/03/13
A photo gallery of 50 professional athletes' attractive wives and girlfriends — otherwise known as WAGs — published online Thursday by
The Detroit News has drawn a swarm of criticism and ridicule. Some of that disapproval is internal, and right from the top. "The photo gallery was poorly conceived and executed, and yes, it received some well-deserved flak -- much of it from within our own newsroom," said
Jon Wolman,
The News' editor and publisher,
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05/03/13
Any minor-league baseball fan with a hunting fetish for Wookies can pick up some Chewbacca camouflage this weekend in Toledo. The
Mud Hens, the longtime Triple-A affiliate of the
Detroit Tigers, will wear Chewbacca-inspired jerseys this weekend as part of a "Star Wars"
-themed promotion. The jerseys are printed with an image of a coat of Wookie fur and Chewie's laser weapon bandolier, although they look a bit more like traditional
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04/26/13
Thursday night, with the fifth overall draft pick, the Detroit Lions selected defensive end
Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah out of
Brigham Young University. In honor of the momentous moniker occasion, here's a quick look at the pantheon of notable Ziggies throughout history: •
Ziggy: The bald, stocky and pantless nebbish comic strip character that's been appearing in newspapers since 1971. He's the newsprint Willy Loman of the
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04/25/13
His nickname is Ziggy, he's a Ghanian-born Mormon, and he wore broken 3D glasses to the
NFL draft at Radio City Music Hall. Meet your newest
Detroit Lion. The fifth overall selection Thursday night, the Lions drafted defensive end
Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah (pronounced Ahn-saw) out of
Brigham Young University. Last year's No. 5 selection, wide receiver
Justin Blackmon, got a four-year, $18.5 million deal from the
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04/15/13
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." – From F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1926 short story "The Rich Boy" It's Tax Day! Here's a quick look at how much Uncle Sam will be collecting from one of the city's elite pro athletes.
Detroit Tigers slugger
Miguel Cabrera is scheduled to be paid $21 million in 2013. In some back-of-the-envelope math, he'll pay an additional $966,000 in federal income tax because the top federal
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04/09/13
The
Detroit Tigers drew 127,333 fans for the first three games at
Comerica Park this season, the most for a season-opening three-game series in the stadium's 14-year history. That beat last year's franchise mark of 120,525 fans through the gates at the 41,255-seat ballpark, an average of 40,175 per game to see the Tigers sweep the
Boston Red Sox. An average of 42,444 saw Detroit take two out of three from the
New York Yankees …more »
04/05/13
This has been a total personal and professional failure on all fronts. My single goal today was to sample two new food items at
Comerica Park while the
Detroit Tigers opened the 2013 home season against the
New York Yankees: The new Little Caesars Deep! Deep! pizza introduced last week and something billed simply as "bacon on a stick." Bacon. On a stick. Finally, mankind's ancient battle with greasy fingers has been solved. This is up there
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04/01/13
Ex-
Cleveland Indians manager
Manny Acta predicts the
Detroit Tigers will win the 2013 World Series by beating the
Washington Nationals. (Yes, casual baseball fans, there's a team playing in the nation's capital — the ex-
Expos since 2005. I had to tell my mother this not too long ago, but I'm pretty sure she still thinks they're the
Washington Senators. Not everyone is a baseball fan.)
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03/29/13
When news breaks, we in the news reporting business are under pressure to accurately and quickly report what
Washington Post publisher
Philip Graham called "the first rough draft of history." Sometimes, in the hairy madcap scramble to make sense of what's going on, under deadline pressure, less than accurate information is put out there. Just ask U.S. President Thomas Dewey. …more »
NFL MATH
03/04/13
Matthew Stafford is a fabulously wealthy young man, and soon he'll be a fantastically wealthy young man. The
Detroit Lions quarterback has been paid an estimated pretax $31,238,750 to play 44 football games from 2009 through last season. Some cocktail napkin income tax math on that total — 1.225 percent nonresident Detroit rate, 4.25 percent state rate and 35 percent top federal marginal rate — shaves about $12.6 million from his take-home pay,
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