Dear Spartan Fans,

You’re having a rough season, I can dig it, I went through it last year and the story remains to be told for me this year. So I can understand completely why you’ve been fussy lately. This is exactly why I have chosen to bow out every time one of you has tried to bait me into a flamewar after a tough Spartan loss. Each and every time I have taken my leave, and reminded you that during football you are our rival for but one week, and that at the moment it was not your week.

Congratulations, it is now your week. Keeping with the spirit, I would like to respond to a couple recurring themes I have noticed coming out of Sparty land over the last few weeks:

1.) You are not our top rival, Ohio State is, get over it. I only root against you the week we play each other, and the last week of the Big Ten season if your loss helps us. Other than that, I would prefer you to win, especially during non-conference play. It’s good for the state we share, and good for the Big Ten as a whole. You can continue to send your hate my way,  I don’t care. You only matter to me when we play each other, you can still play the crazy stalkerish unrequited lover the rest of the season while I tune you out.

2.) Stop complaining about Michigan not taking you seriously. Winning forces people to take you seriously, thus for now we take you seriously, as you won last year. For that matter, the only reason anyone fails to take you seriously is because Sparty fans do not take Sparty seriously. When you lost to CMU, I heard and/or saw at least 30 Sparty fans claim that it didn’t matter because Michigan would lose later that day to ND anyways. I was speechless when I saw that, because I don’t understand how that matters. Shouldn’t your goal be to win every game, regardless of what we do? When we lose, if Ohio St. loses as well, it doesn’t somehow make it all better, a loss is a loss. every loss should be unacceptable to fans of a program. Believe me, I’ve sat through the pain of enough of them the last couple years. You want us to take you seriously? Start taking yourself seriously. Oh, and mix in a win against a Div 1-FBS team somewhere this year. That would help too.

There you go, it’s your week. To quote the incessant southwest commercials that I have been forced to sit through during this weekend of football, “Grab your bag, It’s on!”

Love,
Wolverine Fan

There is no more puzzling phenomenon for me in sports than the annual Pete Rose debate in baseball. Every year we all get together and argue about Pete Rose and every year we hear the same tired arguments for and against the reinstatement of Pete Rose into Major League Baseball.

Hammerin’ Hank has kicked off the festivities this year by coming out in favor of Rose’ reinstatement. As expected, Ray Fosse has come out against. Many will discard Fosse’s argument as biased by the 1970 All-Star collision between himself and Rose. I, on the other hand, believe Fosse when he says his opinion is unbiased, as I do feel he truly believes in his argument, however, I feel I have to call said argument out for what it is. Bullshit.

Fosse argues that there is no greater sin in baseball than betting on the game, just as many have argues before him. Really? No Greater Offense? In 2003 MLB performed a private inquisition into the PED issue in baseball. 104 players tested positive, a few of the names are known, many are assumed, and many are unknown. None of the 104 players have been banned from baseball, all of the 104 players are eligible for the hall of fame. Yes, I am aware this test was done under the guise of private inquiry and thus those who failed were immune to punishment for this test. Since 2005, when PED’s were banned, at least 25 players have tested positive for PED’s, many were given the 50 game suspension, none were banned from baseball. Everyone who has used steroids to cheat is still eligible for induction into the Hall. What is wrong with this picture?

Maybe I’m old fashioned, or perhaps I am not old fashioned enough, but I was raised to believe that cheating was the number one sin in sporting. Gaining an unfair advantage that affects the outcome of the game is cheating. Betting against your team and then negatively affecting the outcome of the game is cheating. Betting for your team, and thus having no effect on the end result of the game is shameful and wrong, but not cheating. What Rose did was embarrasing for him, and embarrasing for the game, but did not violate the sanctitiy of the game. To this day no one has been able to prove anything other than Rose bet on his team, and never the opposition. Dirty, Shameful and embarrasing for the game. Yet these actions had no effect on his carrer as a player. The player with the most hits in the history of the game. One of the best ever to play the game.

I agree with his orignal ban from baseball, he has deserved every year of punishment he has received thus far. For his actions I would be fine with it if we was not reinstated until after his death, but when that time comes, he has to be reinstated. If the PED cheaters are elligible, shouldn’t Rose? Charlie Hustle Belongs in Cooperstown.

I guess that’s the best way to put it. I don’t know if I am wiser, or more mature, but definitely changing. Four years ago the concept of paying a hosting company a monthly fee for a host server seemed ludicrous to me. It wasn’t about the $8/month fees, it was more about the concept of do-it-yourself web hosting. I used to enjoy battling with non-cooperative routers and constant software updates while keeping older than dirt hardware up and running. I still like to have control over my own webspace, but after this most recent spike or router issues versus a new ISP who didn’t care for home web hosting, I’ve given up. The last thing I want to do at the end of the day is constantly maintain a server, routers and sidestepping ISP’s. The peace of mind and lack of maintenance is worth the $8/month I’m now paying Godaddy for hosting. Good riddance. Anybody want a B&W Power Mac G3 Server? Comes with a second B&W server for spare parts all on the cheap.

In other news, thank god the conference finals involve Detroit playing another Midwest team. Aside from the spectacle of watching a blood soaked old fashioned match up, it also signals the end of 2230 EDT start times. I have a job Bettman, you spineless Wing-Fan-Hating sonuvawhore. Prediction: Wings in 5

One much welcomed surprise this spring has been the performance of the Tigers, primarily the rotation staff. Verlander is dealing lately, Jackson is maturing into a legitimate number 2 or 3 man, and Porcello is performing above expectations for a Rookie who has never pitched above High-A ball. Bonderman is about 2 starts from rejoining the Tigers. The only real dark point is the apparent slipping of Galarrag into a sophomore slump. If his team mates maintain their pace, though, it should be well manageable. Dontrelle Willis may or may not be ready to be a big leaguer again. His first start was nothing to write home about, but he threw strikes, and that was the problem before. I fully expect him to get beat up tomorrow by the Rangers offense, but I would like to see how he comes out on Sunday against the Rockies in inter-league play. An interleage Memorial Day Weekend Sweep of the Rockies would make an excellent birthday present.

Had a great weekend in Lansing last weekend. This weekend may or may not be more of the same on the home front. The company of a history of unwise decisions is making her way into Global Command for the weekend, I’m sure I will be making even more poor decisions than usual this coming weekend. What can you do?

I’ve been waiting, waiting under things that rise in the morning.
I’ve been holding, holding back so long…
You can own it, take it off my hands, do me a favor.
Nothing wasted, just fingerfucked and busted up all at once…

I’m so lost out on the highway with no direction left to go.
Everyday sit up and wonder where it was I started from…