Spring's a coming!!!!!

We are a WEEK away from Spring Break around here at CMU, which means that the Detroit Tigers are down in Lakeland, Florida preparing for their 2010 season.

The Tigers have had a busy offseason, with most of the buzz being around the trade of popular player Curtis Granderson and pitcher Edwin Jackson. Closer Fernando Rodney and setup man Brandon Lyon were both chose to sign with other teams in free agency. Jose Valverde was signed away from Houston to fill the Tigers closer role.

Oh yeah, last week- can’t forget- the Tigers signed left fielder Johnny Damon last week away from the Yankees- just his veteran presence on the team is worth the one year, eight million dollars he got. He’ll put people in Comerica Park too- Damon has been a fan favorite everywhere he has went.

The Tigers blew a 5 game division lead with just a few games to play- and lost to the Minnesota Twins in a one game playoff. This team should be motivated to play.

There are three main questions and concerns for this team this season. The first- stay healthy; the healthier, the better. Two- pitching staff; Verlander, Porcello, and Scherzer are bonafide starters; Bonderman (back from injury), Coke (relief/starter acquired in Granderson trade), Robertson, and Willis (he’s still on the team??) will have to fight it out for the other two starting spots (or the Tigers can just hope for three days of straight sunny skies and pray for two days of drenching rain every five days).

Next week is the Tigers’ first pre-season game. Opening Day will be here before we know it.

-Jerry Taylor

News Central 34 sports

USA Today "Player of the Week" poll not fair to fans

Before I begin, let me reiterate that the arguments contained within this blog are not due to the fact that my school's Quarterback(Dan LeFevour) did not win the award. There are no sore losers at Central Michigan University. Okay, that feels better.

USA Today SHAME ON YOU!

"America's Newspaper" has turned its back on the diehard fans of America's game, College Football. Every week the publication has a "Player of the Week" award, in which five players are in the running for the accolade. USA Today then allows an online vote (the fan's vote) as well as two College Football expert's votes, Erick Smith and Mike Lopresti respectively, to be combined into an equation to form the "Player of the Week".

Problem: This week, like the BCS, the voting is flawed and not fair to fans who have voted online. Running Back Kevin Smith from Central Florida rushed his way to 284 yards and four touchdowns. He also received a staggering 91% of the online vote. The winner of this week's award: Hawaii Quarterback Colt Brennan. Despite having great stats: 442 yards and 5 touchdowns, Brennan only received 1% of the online vote. Essentially USA Today is allowing two so called experts to have a larger voice than the 82732 fans who voted online.

Solution: Unlike the BCS, it feels like there is a logical way of fixing this issue. USA Today needs to conduct two different weekly awards. The first award is simple: an online award. The second: put together a panel of College Football experts (more than 2, some number like 10 seems fair) and have those experts vote amongst themselves for an "experts pick" award. In addition the players voted on would be the same list to preserve integrity.

Ah, the smell of Democracy...

'Til next time

Phil Byrne

Tonight on News Central 34, 11/1/2007

Tonight on News Central 34...

• Mount Pleasant voters will vote on whether to establish more parks in the city...
• A Central Michigan University dean is absolved of any wrong-doing in the accused assault of a student...
• The search continues for a missing Leelenau County man as police re-question persons of interest...
• And Chrysler begins another round of layoffs...

All that plus your weather, sports, and state/national news tonight at 5:00 PM on News Central 34 (channel 34 on campus, channel 23 on cable).