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A Year Later, Here's What I Miss Most About Michigan

A year ago a moving van pulled our possessions off our driveway and moved them 550 miles southeast into Maryland. It's been a long, strange journey filled with some heartache, struggles and some incredible experiences, too.

So as I type this, it occurred to me I'm pining a bit nostalgic for my Michigan roots. Football season is ramping up here, but the fervor, anticipation and general excitement isn't the same. For those reasons and a few others, here's the Top 10 things I miss from Michigan.

10. Cool nights. Jesus, as if 80 inches of snow packaged in three storms of 20+ inches wasn't enough, we're already at 45 days above 90 degrees. I've worked two plate games where it was warmer that 105 when I took the lineups, over 95 when the game ended and still above 90 when I got home in the late evening. I had heard the Mid-Atlantic was hot; I didn't realize that was merely code for living in the doorway of a blast furnace.

9. Sports Town Tradition. Look, Baltimore and D.C. are great cities with their own distinct energy and passion, but like Chicago, New York and L.A., they pale in comparison to the passion that oozes from The D. That's just fact.

8. Nicknames. OK, the Baltimore Dunbar High Poets is cool, but the winningest Maryland basketball school this side of De Matha High is the overwhelming exception. We're overloaded by Cougars, Falcons, Lions, Tigers, Eagles and Patriots in Maryland. By comparison, Detroit's got Doughboys, Tars, Tractors, Thunderbirds, Maples and River Rats. We lost the Oaks and Chiefs but you can still find Shamrocks, Saddelites and Pilots, too.

7. Opinion. The local Baltimore sports media probably wouldn't look very dignified in cheerleader outfits, but if it sounds like a cheerleader and squeals like a cheerleader, why not just finish the look? I think this town is still scared to say anything that will make the owner pack up this toys and go elsewhere. The Tigers had 12 losings seasons in a row and there were songs and shirts chiding the team, and I think the Matt Millen era of Detroit Lions football -- if that's what you call that regular season scrimmage schedule-- speaks for itself. Try saying something negative about the Ravens here, and it's the media, not the fans, who shoot your argument down.

6. Driving Seven Over The Speed Limit. Note to everyone from Maryland: Driving 45 mph in the far left lane is pathetic. So is entering the freeway at 25 mph, scared to death of pushing your way into a moving lane of traffic. Slowing down to a crawl on the freeway for no absolute reason is also a swell Blue Crab state tradition. Jesus, people, we drive 45 mph in our Michigan neighborhoods, just not the nice ones, right? Get moving!

5. Football Fever. Before I chide the Navy gameday experience, I need to omit the games the Mids play Notre Dame, Air Force and Army. Those are exceptional spectacles, but your garden-variety Navy football game looks great from afar, but when you actually go to a game, you realize it's a lot of retired brass sitting on their hands awash in the three scotch n' sodas they put down in the parking lot. The 3,800 Midshipmen in the stands are into it for sure, but it's no Spartan Stadium or Big House, where each school's band thunders into the stadium and the rest of the day just gets crazier from there.

The University of Maryland? Yeah, fear the turtle...if you're trying to stay awake.

4. The Big Ten. If I had a dollar for every transposed Big 10 fan I've met from Michigan, Ohio or Penn State who is secretly rooting for Maryland to be the surprise addition to the Big 10 so they can see their favorite school once a year, I wouldn't have to look for work. If you ask the Maryland fans, they oppose joining the Big 10, but a lot of Big Ten'rs think this is fear. They know the Terrapins would struggle mightily in football and they know it; can you say Indiana East? 

Marylanders also point to the ACC and their rivalry with Duke or North Carolina on the hardwood. Well, it's only a big deal when they play Duke or UNC to Maryland, because the rest of the country doesn't care. Being a Big 10 school hasn't hurt Tom Izzo's Spartans from getting to six Final Fours in 12 years either.

3. Fight Songs. Anchors Aweigh is a stirring march to be sure, but fight songs like the Buckeye Battle Cry, On Wisconsin and The Victors, not to mention Falcone Fight (Michigan State), and Hail! Purdue are just amazing. A handful of the Big 10 fight songs are derived from Civil War hymns. How cool is that?

2. High School Football Scores. I so miss ripping open the paper or going online and pouring over the scores. Of course, before they closed, my first glance pointed to Royal Oak. Did Kimball win? How did Dondero do? The upsets. Walled Lake Western got beat by who? Farmington Hills Harrison. Dearborn Fordson. The PSL. King, Southeastern, Pershing and Denby. The trio of schools in Livonia and Plymouth. The Catholic League. Who did CC play? Did the Cubs win? Where is Brother Rice today?

By comparison, here in Anne Arundel County, which is about the size and population of Oakland County, we have 12 public schools and six private schools, and the JV plays at 4:00 on Friday before the varsity game at 6:30. Hardly the stuff of Friday Night Lights, let alone Ampipe High in All The Right Moves. Tell Bosco I'll be seeing him around!

1. Coney Dogs, Apple Cider, Sweet Corn & Driving Down The Lodge Listening To "It's The Same Old Song". Don't get wrong, Maryland Blue Crabs and cold beer is a beautiful thing, but every time I'm back in The D, I hit a coney and grab two with everything. Greek salads, too. It's just part of Detroit that I've never seen replicated. Washington D.C. has Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street (a must-see when you're in The District, btw), but it's not a true Detroit coney. And good luck finding a cider mill or a sweet corn stand on the side of the road. That truly is Pure Michigan.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and writes sports for The Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis.

Panic In Detroit; Pen Pal Overload

If you're a follower of the Detroit Red Wings, this morning is filled with worry and a lot of trepidation.

As if the Pittsburgh Penguins didn't merely look faster, stronger and more determined in the past two games, they were all that and more in disposing of the Wings, 4-2, in Pittsburgh last night. After a pair of 3-1 Detroit victories in Joe Louis Arena, the Pens notched a pair of equally convincing 4-2 wins to tie the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals at 2-2. Saturday's Game Five in 'The Joe' becomes moving day for both teams.

I wonder if so much outstanding hockey has bled the tanks dry in the Red Wing dressing room. The Wings have played five grueling games in eight days, dating back to last Wednesday's 2-1 overtime winner over the Chicago Blackhawks in Joe Louis. That victory clinched the Western Conference for Detroit. Add four blistering games versus Pittsburgh in a mind-boggling five days and Detroit looks like a weary bunch.

It's not fair to Detroit to make them play so much hockey in such a short time (from their position in the Western Conference notwithstanding), but life isn't fair. If the Red Wings have any hopes of defending their title as Cup champions, their mission is rather simple. They'll have to overcome the temporary fatigue to achieve Cup glory forever.

No one said the road to 16 wins would be easy, and so far the Wings have been very proficient in achieving their first 14. Last night was the first night the Wings looked tired and dazed. They uncharacteristically turned over the puck left and right, allowed the Pens an inordinate amount of 2-on-1's and 3-on-2's and probably should have lost 7-2 had it not been for Chris Osgood, who stoned three or four should-be goals.

To be fair, Osgood stole two games for the Wings in Joe Louis in this series. He'll have to stand on his head again until the Wings figure out their current malaise and jam more than a handful of pucks past Pens netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.

Enough Pen Pals! I'm usually the last person to care about the slant of the television coverage because I enjoy looking outside the scope of my team, city and region, but this is shameless. The past two Versus telecasts have been overloaded with Penguins slant, tidbits and interviews. On behalf of those not living in Pittsburgh, we get it -- the Pens are the new story in the National Hockey League -- can we go back to national coverage without national bias?

I know it's a bigger deal in Pittsburgh than it is in Detroit, because the Pens are enjoying the hockey rebirth Detroit experienced in the early 1990s. Hockey is definitely en vogue in the Steel City, waiting lists three years long are forming for season tickets and even Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is caught up in the fever.

Cool. Do I need it stuffed down my throat? No. When I notice the obvious push to highlight the Pens, when Wings Coach Mike Babcock says he sees NHL commercials and wonders aloud if the Penguins won last year's Cup that his Wings won in six games and when my wife asks, "Is this Pittsburgh's television network?", there's a problem.

IdeaShop: If I were NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, I would order the Toronto Maple Leafs back into the Western Conference  so each conference has three Original Six teams. That would put Montreal, New York and Boston in the East while Toronto, Chicago and Detroit would populate the West. I would also mandate home-and-home dates on Fridays and Saturdays to better stimulate the rivalries.

The current NHL schedule is stale. First, it's unbalanced with four originals in the East and just two in the West. Second, every team's schedule is weighed down with too many match-ups carrying no emotion. Home-and-home scheduling adds that instant jolt of intensity. Let your Original Six teams carry the cache of tradition and mandate the home-and-home on the weekends to give hockey that old time feel in the new age of hockey being played in some rather non-traditional markets.

~T.C. Cameron is an unabashed hockey fan, the author of two Metro Detroit prep sports history books and a amateur/collegiate football, basketball and baseball official.

June A Benchmark Month In Red Wing History

DETROIT -- Today the Detroit Red Wings and their fans find themselves up two games to none in this year's Stanley Cup Finals versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fans and media members alike might be surprised to know that just 14 years ago, the Wings played their first game in team history in the month of June.

Many fans might not realize how the month of June has changed the Detroit Red Wing organization, the most successful professional hockey team in the United States. The Wings, already boasting one of the most impressive pedigrees in all of professional sports, own a lineage that dates back to the now-demolished Olympia Stadium in 1926 at the intersection of Grand River Avenue & McGraw in Detroit. June is filled with dates to remember for reasons good and bad in the long history of the Red Wings, more than even the most fervent Red Wing fan might realize.

The month of June, by the numbers:

1st: Detroit defeated Chicago 2-1 in the 1995 Western Conference opener, marking the first time in team history the Red Wings played into the month of June.

2nd: Mike & Marian Ilitch purchase the team from owner Bruce Norris in 1982. The Wings were three years into a new era of hockey at Joe Louis Arena but were better known around the league as the 'Dead Things', 27 years removed from the last Cup victory of 1955.

3rd: The Red Wings trade Hall-Of-Fame netminder Terry Sawchuk in 1955 after winning the Stanley Cup. The Wings wouldn't win the Cup for another 42 years. In 1995, the Wings defeat Chicago 3-2 in Game Two of the Western Conference Finals in Joe Louis Arena.

4th: Last season, on this date, the Red Wings topped the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena to capture the team's 11th Stanley Cup. Former Red Wing defensemen Derian Hatcher was born on June 4, 1972.

7th: Darren McCarty's nifty goal in the 2nd period turns out to be the winning goal as the Red Wings break a 42-year drought and capture the eighth Stanley Cup in team history when they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, at Joe Louis Arena. Longtime Red Wings announcer Bruce Martyn called McCarty's game-winner of the memorable 1997 Finals.

8th: Perhaps one of the watershed days in the history of the team, a disappointed front office missed out on Waterford's Pat LaFontaine and instead drafted Steve Yzerman of the Peterborough Petes with 1983's 4th pick in the annual NHL Entry Draft. While brilliant when healthy, LaFontaine suffered from several concussions and retired in his prime. Yzerman became the longest-serving captain in NHL history, scored 692 goals and 1,755 points in the regular season and 70 playoff goals and 185 playoff points in his career. Yzerman will be a first-ballot Hall-Of-Famer when he becomes eligible.

9th: The Wings traded Roger Crozier to Buffalo for Tom Webster in 1970.

11th: Slava Kozlov, one of the acclaimed "Russian Five" the Red Wings boasted in the 1990s, scores the game-winning goal in double overtime as the Wings defeated Chicago in Game Five at Joe Louis Arena in 1995. The win pushed the Wings into their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1964, but the team was swept by the New Jersey Devils to extend a championship drought dating back to 1955.

12th: Jacques Demers was named Head Coach in 1986. Demers would earn a 137-136-47 ledger until he was released in 1990. Borje Salming was signed by the Wings in 1989 after a long stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

14th: Marcel Pronovost was born in 1930 in Lac-de-Tortue, Quebec, and the Wings traded Adam Oates in 1989, who they signed on June 27th, 1985, to the St. Louis Blues.

15th: Scotty Bowman, who coached the Montreal Canadians, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, was named Detroit head coach on this date in 1993. Bowman earned a 401-195-88-8 ledger with the Wings, winning three Cups in 1997, 1998 and 2002, when he retired from active coaching. Sergei Fedorov won both the Hart and Selke trophy on this date as well.

16th: The Wings drafted Sergei Fedorov in 1989 and the Russian defector remains the highest scoring Russian-born player  in NHL history. In 1998 on this date, Fedorov and the Wings earn the ninth Cup in team history by defeating the Washington Capitals, 4-1, to earn a Stanley Cup Finals sweep.

19th: In 1996, despite a disappointing loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals, Scotty Bowman wins the Jack Adams Trophy, Fedorov won the Selke Trophy while Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood shared the Jennings Trophy. Longtime winger John Ogrodnick was born in 1959 in Ottawa, Ontario.

20th: The Red Wings acquire longtime Minnesota North Star Dino Ciccarelli in 1992 from Washington for Kevin Miller.

23rd: In one of the worst trades in team history, the Wings trade future Hall-Of-Famer Marcel Dionne and Bart Crashley in 1975 to the Los Angeles Kings for Terry Harper, Dan Maloney and a 1976 draft pick.

24th: Two of the worst coaching ledgers in Red Wing history come from 1985. Harry Neale was named head coach on this date in 1985. Neale was canned after going 8-23-4 in 35 games. The Wings replaced Neale midseason with Brad Park, the longtime defensemen from the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins who finished his playing career with the Wings. Park went 9-34-2 to finish an abysmal season. How bad was the 85-86 campaign? Steve Yzerman was a -24 for the season.

29th: Detroit acquired goalie Mike Vernon in 1994 from the Calgary Flames for defensemen Steve Chiasson. Vernon would lead Detroit to the 1997 Cup, ending a 42-year title drought, when the Red Wings swept the Phiadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals. Vernon captured the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs for 1997.

30th: Kris Draper is traded from the Winnipeg Jets to the Red Wings for $1 and future considerations in 1993. Draper scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game Two of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals versus the Washington Capitals and has been one of the most proficient face-off men in the past 15 years in the NHL.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron has blogged about all things writing, refereeing, life & sport at this site since August 8, 2006.

Rematch!

While I'm never sad to see Chicago bite the dust, and they did just that in a 2-1 overtime loss, here's a legitimate tip of the hat to the Blackhawks, who played one of the toughest elimination games I've seen in nearly 15 years before succumbing to the Detroit Red Wings tonight in Joe Louis Arena.

Gotta hand it to Chicago, the 'Hawks will be an emerging force so long as their management overcomes the potential pratfalls of the salary cap. Chicago hasn't had a viable hockey team since 1995, and tonight's loss might well be the foreshadowing of the new-look Hawks, who look like an emerging force in the new age of the salary capped-NHL.

For the Wings, it's center stage for the sixth time in 14 seasons, an opportunity to capture an amazing fifth Cup in 12 seasons and a final chance to avenge Bill Guerin, who was just 24 when he played on the '95 New Jersey Devils. Those Devils broomed the Wings in four games to capture the Cup. Guerin is now 38 and a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and more than a few Wings on that '95 team remember the humiliating defeat Guerin and the Devils handed them.

The NHL got another great Finals pairing -- let's hope the games live up to the hype.

Detroit Rocks!

Just the facts, Mister...

The Red Wings rock; Too bad, Chicago, too bad. Dan Cleary is my pick so far for the Conn Smythe trophy if the playoffs ended today, because I think it's safe to say the Wings wouldn't be here today without Cleary.

This is the front page of the sports section in today's edition of The Detroit News showing Mikael Samuelsson's game-winning goal rebounding out of the net in overtime at Joe Louis Arena.

As a Detroiter, yesterday's 3-2 win by the Wings over the Blockheads was incredible to watch and miserable for Chicagoans to suffer through. Detroit didn't skate that well, gave up the first goal again but made Chicago pay for two bad mistakes and won the hockey game because goat-turned-hero Samuelsson one-timed the winner past Chicago netminder Nikolai Khabibulin, who had no chance to stop a jailbreak, three-on-one rush. Samuelsson, who made a great poke check during a 3rd period Blackhead power play, mindlessly threw the puck to the middle of the rink, where it was intercepted and later banged home to tie the game, 2-2.

It was a mistake the Red Wings almost never make, and it reminded me of the time Lee Norwood tried to clear the puck up the middle of the rink from his own end in the mid-1980s. The ill-fated pass was intercepted and banged home and Norwood was sent to Adirondack the next day by Coach Jacques Demers. But Samuelsson's mistake stands out because of the Red Wings' efficiency. Chicago gets whistled for too many men on the ice, they turn the puck over and they over-skate the play on occasion. That could be attributed to youth, but Chicago out-skated the Wings, won the majority of important face-offs and were physically imposing at times, but still lost because Detroit is so efficient and makes plays when it matters most.

In the Detroit Free Press today, Mitch Albom applied a high-gloss shine to the Detroit hockey dominance and it reminded me of the 1986 and 1987 editions of the Wings, who advanced to the conference finals but ran into the juggernaut better known as the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers. Yesterday on the Chicago sports talk radio circuit, it was another session of Detroit put-downs, snickering and catcalls about the blight, the racism and the general decay of Motown. Great, Chicago, you can't win the hockey games so you slam the Motor City.

Stay classy, Chicago.

I looked at the Chicago dailies this morning, and can tell you Rick Telander's piece in the Sun-Times was nice and Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey's op-ed was a good read, too. Just how tired were the Wings last night? Nick Lidstrom took not one but two penalties -- I can't remember the last time that happened -- one being was a careless high-sticking call. Didn't matter. Detroit 3, Chicago 2.

It's Chicago's turn to bring the roar back to the Windy City, but will it be enough to derail the runaway Red Wings?

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, to be released in October from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's first book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, was published in August 2008.

Family Or Not, This Ain't Right!

Today I found myself perusing the sports pages of both the Chicago and Detroit dailies in the delicious afterglow of a heart-pounding 5-2 win in Game One of the Western Conference Finals by my beloved Detroit Red Wings over the Second City BlockHeads when I cringed violently, spasming into near-convulsion.

This is Susan Chelios, dear mother of Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios, wearing a half-Wing, half-Hawk sweater. Pictured to the left is Kostas Chelios, father to Chris and husband to Susan. This picture, evidence to a crime as much as the Zapruder Film was to Oliver Stone, ran in both the Chicago Tribune and Detroit Free Press. For the record, I only listed the Chicago rag first because C comes before D.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

Don't misunderstand me, I intend no malice for the Chelios family, especially Susan & Kostas Chelios, because as we all know -- thanks to Mark Cuban -- parents are off-limits to the in-stadium heckling that is a trademark of all religious hockey zealots. Blogs, however, are another story!

And this just ain't right -- especially our sacred winged wheel connected with the  mullet of the Chicago BlockHeads. AAAHH! Take that thing off before Joe Louis Arena crumbles and the team breaks up!

Some things were just not meant to be together. Take my wife and I. She's smart, engaging, very good-looking; I'm... not very attractive. Imagine a maize & blue Michigan football jersey conjoined with Ohio State's scarlet & grey. Just the thought makes you queasy, doesn't it? Or North Carolina's powder blue and Duke's blue and white. Ick!

Could you imagine the Dallas Cowboys' Star and the headdress of the Washington Redskins pushed into bed like this? That would be like taking the beautiful Cowboy cheerleaders and making them date those Redskin fans aptly named 'The Hogs', the ones who  wear dresses, adorn pig snouts and don't shave their legs.

Eerrr, boy. You see, it's just not right!

Point is I bleed gasoline, OK? I live and die with our Detroit teams. Therefore, as a general rule, nothing good has ever come out of Chicago, and that rule (1-1-1 A.R. 1-a) supersedes all other rules. I savor every triumph our Detroit teams earn over Chicago with shameless glee. Lions, Tigers and to hell with the Bears, OK?

I even switch over to WGN's News at Nine with an unabashed smirk as their Wayne's World-like news and sports anchors stumble in disconsolate tones whenever the Tigers, Pistons or Wings defeat Chicago. Of course, the Lions haven't earned a meaningful win over the Bears since Barry Sanders ran for three touchdowns on Thanksgiving Day in 1997, but that's not a concern because no one in Chicago can do the simple math to reveal that was three presidential terms ago. Hell, they just found out someone from Illinois became President and his nickname isn't Blago.

Anyway, you can imagine my blood boiling when the news broke in 1999 that Chris Chelios had been traded to the Wings. Chris, "I'll never play for the Detroit Red Wings" Chelios. I remember seeing him at a Detroit Lions tailgate at the Pontiac Silverdome in 2000, and I told Chelios, "It's great you're a Wing, but all those years you were a 'Hawk weren't cool, man."

His response? "Yeah, well we never liked you guys, either."

No bones about it, we're both from the Take No Prisoners camp, but business and sports have always made for strange bedfellows, right? Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn , or Johnny Damon...what the hell is Johnny Damon doing with the Yankees, anyway? Regardless, some things remain sacred. Bad Boys Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas were and always will be Pistons, and Michael Jordan was the whining crybaby from the hated Bulls. Go get Scottie a Tylenol, your Airness. Kirk Gibson was and always will be a Tiger. Wasn't he wearing the Olde English D while rounding the bases after that game-winning homer in Game One of the 1988 World Series? Brett Favre is a Green Bay Packer -- no way I could root for him in a Lions' jersey after all the heartache he caused us in Detroit -- and therefore I love that Barry Sanders retired a Lion, even if the losing forced him to retire for the same reasons I didn't renew my tickets.

Bo is pure Michigan, Woody is a Buckeye and Bob Knight will always be a Hoosier, too. Some things don't change.

Bottom line is my Motor City roots run deep. I don't like Chicago. I don't eat Chicago-style pizza; give me two coneys with everything and some chili fries, thank you very much. So when Chelios officially had played more games as a Detroit Red Wing than he did for the Hawks, I smiled. Ten years later the cat is cool, no doubt about it, and the two Cups he's won with the Wings make that well-earned jealousy in Chicago all the sweeter that he did it in our sweater. Plus he's got a couple kick-ass restaurants in Dearborn and Detroit. Oh yeah, we won the Winter Classic at Wrigley, too, and Chelios played for the 'Good Guys', right 'Hawk' Harrelson?

Hell, when my wife and I saw Chelios in the FOX Sports restaurant in Chicago's O'Hare Airport this past winter during the All-Star break, we both looked at each other and said, "There's our guy!"

Chris Chelios is a Red Wing, and our beautiful sweater and the BlockHead just don't belong together.

~T.C. Cameron authored Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries in August 2008 from Arcadia Publishing. His second title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due in October 2009 from Arcadia Publishing. Both books were edited in Arcadia's Chicago offices. An official protest has been filed with the appropriate governing body, The Gin Mill in Chicago.

(Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune and photographer Jose M. Osorio, as published in the Detroit Free Press online edition of 18 May 2009)

The Links Are Back

After a longer-than-imagined repair of this blog's links, they've returned today, and without our friend, Brooklyn Ron.

I added a link about six months ago via the copy n' paste method. Of course, I had forgotten that I had copied a new URL in my browser window. I added the link, thinking I was adding this really cool site about all the hidden treasures of New York City, called Forgotten New York. I ended up with this flag-waving liberal from Brooklyn, New York who railed on endlessly about all the problems that are everyone else's to solve.

So I deleted him. He didn't go away. I deleted every link. He was still there. I sent this blog's host, TypePad, a problem ticket, and the issue was resolved internally... months after the problem started.

So now the links are back. I'll start on the long, tedious task of listing the sites on the 'Net that I think are worth checking out.

MEGA Scoop Came From Rivalry Questions

Friday night I received a curious entry on this blog's comment section regarding the post, "Trying To Cover Some MEGA-sized Tracks?", from a trusted friend. Sean Maloney, athletic director of New Boston Huron High, put his two cents in regarding the threat of lawsuit as a possible deal-breaker to the potential Downriver League.

Before taking the post at Huron, Maloney was the AD at Milford High, where he was a first-person participant in the merger of the Kensington Valley Conference (KVC) and the Western Lakes Activities Association (WLAA), so he's well-versed in the ingress and egress of the league formation process. Maloney said the Downriver League was well on it's way to being finalized. "They have their bylaws and charter done, and they've been done for a long time, "Maloney explained Friday night. "They had taken the good parts, the parts they liked, from different league by-laws and these documents are finished on desktop computers. The Downriver League AD's were meeting when the 'suits' showed up unannounced to the meeting."

How my information on the MEGA's spring of discord came to pass is quite by accident; I was drawn to a Detroit Free Press story that ran April 18th that mentioned Ferndale High School as a potential deserter of the Oakland Activities Association (OAA). That would have been big news because Ferndale has as much history and tradition in Oakland County as any other school in the 248 area code, and the Eagles not playing fellow Oakland County schools would end 75-80 years of tradition. I called Ferndale's AD, Shaun Butler, who emphatically denied Ferndale leaving the OAA. Later I spoke with Edsel Ford AD Bob Picano, also mentioned in the above-referenced article, about a MEGA break-up affecting Dearborn's dynamic rivalry structure and the possibility Dearborn Fordson could lose as many as four major rivals should the MEGA collapse under the weight of it's own structure. I talked informally with Fordson AD Chuck Silver when I visited Fordson's iconic campus this spring to look at Fordson's football archives.

In the process about writing about the potential loss of more cherished rivalries, I talked to Allen Park's Ken Stephens, who confirmed the Downriver League's proposed membership. Stephens told me the drop-dead date was May 6th, the date the MEGA requested an answer to the question of the intent of the schools forming a new league to leave the MEGA. Picano was the first to tell me of a potential lawsuit 15 days earlier and put to rest a rumor that one Dearborn school could move without the other two. Monroe athletic director, Dr. John Ray, confirmed Monroe was leaving the MEGA for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and also told me of the possible trouble Monroe will have keeping the historic Fordson game on the schedule, despite both school's desire to keep the game on the docket. Friday Maloney confirmed more of the Downriver League's near-mythical confusion.

I wasn't at any of these meetings, so I can't say what is truth and what isn't, but I've never known any of these men to lie to me. These are some of the straightest shooters you'll find in educational athletics. And I'm not trying to grind the gears of a fellow writer, a prep writer who's probably forgotten more about the local and state prep scene than I'll ever know. It's not about who's right and who's not. It's not about a cover-up or story spin about what really happened.

This is about what is happening in Michigan, and if you love prep sports like I do, it should be setting off some internal alarms. It's about southeast Michigan's economic conditions driving schools to find cheaper, cost-friendly alternatives for spiraling school sports costs. It's about leaders of buildings, departments and entire districts scrambling to stop the financial bleeding. Public schools aren't used to this kind of number-crunching. Most involved firsthand with public education say school districts need to stop being wasteful with all of their resources as a first step. Travel and energy costs, especially building heat and fuel, are threatening the viability of school sports as we know it.

Further, we're at a bit of a juxtaposition in Michigan whenever the word 'opportunity' is used in the context of school sports. It's rumored the threat of lawsuit came up because there wasn't ample opportunity offered to excluded schools. If a school district isn't tendered an invite to a proposed league, what does opportunity have to do with it? Who owes whom when it comes to opportunity? The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) is already well-versed in this discourse. The word opportunity has become a launching pad of problematic litigation for high school sports in Michigan.

I've asked this open-ended question several other times without finding a good answer in reply: How did school sports get sidetracked in this manner? High school sports is about getting a quality education while broadening your experiences. It's about setting goals and testing your abilities. It's about learning that win or lose, you accept the outcome and yearn to improve on both the good and bad in your performance as an individual and within the team structure.

High school sports was never intended to be about gender discrimination lawsuits, and it wasn't created for lawsuits of race discrimination. I think the kids playing still get it. Can the adults leading the way say the same thing, and can it be fixed before it's mangled beyond recognition?

Trying To Cover Some MEGA-sized Tracks?

Today Mick McCabe, the Detroit Free Press scholastic sports writer, refuted my report three days ago that the MEGA conference is ready to crumble but the threat of legal action prevented the formation of a new league.

Guess what? None of that information has changed. McCabe's article leaves one legitimate question unanswered: If there's no threat of legal ramifications, real or otherwise imagined, what is stopping these eight schools from leaving at the absolute point they were ready to form their league? Ernando Minghine, superintendent of the school district that includes Dearborn Heights Robichaud, is quoted as admitting he said, "Let's not allow ourselves to get tangled up in some kind of legal consequence."

Doesn't that sound a lot avoiding legal action? I'll be fair and say this: Minghine's comments are a quote, not the full body of his words, but I'm at a loss to discover the legitimate reasons the proposed Downriver League failed in McCabe's article. Don't misconstrue that statement as me saying McCabe's article is inaccurate -- different positions are going to be stated from different people in positions of power as this power struggle plays itself out. Mick McCabe is a good writer, a bit misguided when his views turn to officiating, but I'll concede that's an issue near-and-dear to my heart. While I've done his job, he's probably never done mine as an official, and that changes our collective scope in some regards.

However, if there was no threat of legal ramifications, why is this new league dead? When the MEGA formed some nearly 15 years ago, the lawsuit of race discrimination was so strongly seeded, a judge decreed the league had to remain intact with all members aboard for a time not less that five years. I'm certain no district leader, whether it be a superintendent, principal or athletic director wants to own up to their district playing the "I'll sue you" card, but the truth is, athletic directors run athletic departments. They, along with coaches and transportation directors, know the problems associated with these giant-sized conferences.

If I were a superintendent, I'd be speed-dialing the bigger papers to put out those fires. I expected it, and seriously, did anyone not expect it?

Edsel Ford Athletic Director Bob Picano was the first to tell me the threat of lawsuit was strong. That was confirmed by another MEGA athletic director, one with credentials above any other current MEGA athletic director. Bottom line, I haven't heard or seen anything that changes my opinion.

The double-digit school conference idea is one that has outlived it's usefulness. Trust me when I say as a three-sport high school official, a former high school and college letter winner and a journalist who has covered high school, college and pro sports that nothing compares to the genuine excitement and fervor of a genuine high school rivalry. Sure, Detroit versus Colorado on the ice or the Tigers and Blue Jays from the 1980s was great theater, but sooner or later the venom subsides, one team fades and the game's energy dies. Plus, how many of us can afford the $200 it takes to go to a pro game with your friends or family?

High school rivalries have died under the weight of countless, meaningless games played for the simple fact it was easy to schedule them as a crossover in a vast sea of affiliated schools. School sports used to be about offering a great opportunity for a school's student body. Then it became how easy can we make a difficult job. We're seeing buyer's remorse in the MEGA as economic conditions and school traditions have suffered at the hands of the frequent flyer miles it takes to be part of the Costco-sized leagues.

Butler Says Ferndale High School Isn't Leaving OAA

For as long as anyone can remember in Oakland County, there's been few communities that represented the county's bedrock better than Ferndale. Its' small but distinctive footprint from Eight Mile to I-696 (formerly known as Ten Mile Road) has been witness to tremendous change, both good and bad and good again in the past 60 years, but the one constant has been Ferndale High School.

Could it be that is about to change? Will the 2008-2009 school year be remembered as the final season Ferndale High competes in Oakland County? Today the Detroit Free Press reported that Ferndale High School is considering leaving the Oakland Activities Association (OAA) for a possible reformation of the defunct Northwest Suburban League, which folded in 1992 in the shadows of the Mega League's inception in 1993.

Ferndale Athletic Director Shaun Butler told me today nothing could be further from the truth.

"While it's true we're always looking for options to serve our student-athletes, we're very happy with the OAA right now and have no plans on leaving," Bulter said.

So how did Ferndale become one of the schools mentioned as possible deserters?

"In today's economic conditions, especially with the cost and time as it relates to travel in educational athletics, everyone's considering options. What really changed for us was Waterford's schools leaving the OAA," Bulter explained. "While I hated to see them go from a competition standpoint, because they were very competitive with us, it means I don't have to travel out to Waterford Kettering on a Tuesday afternoon. Going that far was a hard sell in educational athletics from a resource standpoint."

How long has Ferndale been part of the Oakland County landscape? Consider the school's football team, which regularly opened with Royal Oak High (later Royal Oak Dondero) for nearly 40 years. The Eagles played a huge league game with Royal Oak Kimball (now Royal Oak High) for nearly as long, and how many SMA championships were decided between the Southfield Blue Jays and Ferndale's Eagles? The school's grudge match with the neighboring Vikings of Hazel Park High is entering an 8th decade with the Vikings holding a 37-33 margin in 70 games.

The Eagles were part of the old Eastern Michigan League (EML) until 1964 and are charter members of both the Southeastern Michigan Association (1964-1993) and the OAA (1994-present). The Eagles also played an annual home-and-home game with Pontiac High (now Pontiac Central) that alternated between Wisner Stadium and Ferndale's stadium, now called Gus Hanson Field, pictured above.

"A lot of scuttlebutt was discussed when the northern Oakland County schools started coming into the OAA, but rest assured, we're not leaving the OAA," said Butler.

Today the Detroit Free Press reported that the Mega League, a 28-member high school league domiciled in Wayne County, is about to crumble. The paper reported eight schools will leave the Mega and form a new league, tentatively called the Downriver League, in early May, and another six schools seem poised to leave the Mega just as quickly to reform the Northwest Suburban League.

The charter Northwest Suburban League existed from 1963-1984 and included Oakland County schools Birmingham Groves, North Farmington High and Oak Park High. It also housed the first Class A football champion, 1975's Livonia Franklin Patriots. After a dormant 1985, the NSL reformed in 1986 until it folded in the shadows of the Mega.

The eight schools rumored to form the yet-to-confirmed Downriver League? Allen Park, Southgate, Woodhaven, Trenton, Gibraltar Carlson, Wyandotte and Taylor rivals Truman and Kennedy. The six schools contemplating leaving for the reformed NSL are Garden City, Dearborn Edsel Ford and competing rivals Crestwood and Annapolis from Dearborn Heights and Redford's Thurston and Union high schools.

That doesn't seem to include Ferndale. While not toney like the Bloomfields and Birmingham, Ferndale is distinct and unique without glitzy clubs and posh restaurants. It's got a little bit of grit and some strong flair of it's own. It's an Oakland County renaissance story. On the preps scene, Ferndale is still a long-standing competitor in many sports. Their football, basketball and baseball tradition remains strong and the school annually hosts one of the more well-attended boys' basketball quarterfinals.

Thankfully, we're not talking about another Michigan institution pulling up stakes. Ferndale's Eagles are staying put right where they belong.

(Photo of Gus Hanson courtesy of The Daily Tribune, Royal Oak, Michigan)