Greetings and Salutations...into the first rant

Welcome one and all to my initial post! This is my new speakerbox, a way to tell the world how I feel about sports (mostly), and anything else that I find worthy of a rant.

Today we start with my beloved Tigers finally getting the better of the White Sox, thanks to a Craig Monroe grand slam. All I can say is that it's about damn time! We were having the worst time getting a hit for the better part of two games, and all of a sudden we put it together for one inning, and escape with the victory. Here's hoping that Kenny Rogers can take care of business tomorrow, and we can take the series. It won't be an easy task, however, since Jose Contreras has been pitching spectacularly this season, with one loss on the books in 2006. Should be a good game.

In other sports news that I care about, the Arsenal are about to sell left fullback Ashley Cole to rivals Chelsea, because he is stupid. It's a bit to explain, but basically he and his agent were found to have had an illegal meeting with Chelsea last season, and Cole got upset because the Arsenal were not sticking up for him in the trial that followed. Ok, hold on a second, you go behind our backs to arrange a move to a rival club (when you're under contract), and then you want us to help keep you out of trouble? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *breathes* hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Oh, sorry, you were being serious? Good luck to him, and by that, I mean "Piss off" to Chelsea, jerk!

Pistons announce the signings of Ronald 'Flip' Murray, Nazr Mohammed, Ronald Dupree, and the resigning of Lindsey Hunter. Well, I hope the poor man's Ben Wallace (Mohammed) can at least make 50% of his free throws (on a side rant, no one is worth 60 million dollars if they cannot hit at least 50% from the line, or at least show improvement from season to season. Good luck, Chicago, when 2-3 years down the line your cap room is "mysteriously" non-existant). I do like the signing of 'Flip' Murray, as we needed another consistant scorer on our bench, but I hope he doesn't take away minutes from Carlos Delfino, or we will lose another talented player simply because we do not give him enough minutes to develop (see: Darko Milicic). Expect less wins, but another trip to the conference finals.

Wings...haven't done squat this off-season. What's up, Ken Holland?? The deals I've seen free agents sign this off-season haven't been monumental, and a signing or two would go a long way (and I'm not talking about Ed Belfour. If we have all of these talented goalkeepers, then start one of them, and have 'em learn on the ropes. Otherwise, it's time to start trading our minor league stockpile). I know our salary cap is decimated because of the sudden change due to work stoppage, but we need to at least show some intent on making the team better than last year's...and losing "The Captain" and Brendan Shanahan, and gaining no one doesn't seem to be doing it.

The Michigan Wolverines have received verbal commitments from 2 4-star shooting guards in the past week (according to scout.com). Alex Legion, a 6'4" shooting guard who had previously decommitted from Michigan, recommits, and joins fellow 6'4" SG Corperryale Harris in the 2007 class, joining PG Kelvin Grady, and SG Martell Webb. Hopefully, this will be the year for the men's hoops team to make the NCAA tournament, instead of the U-MIT, uhh, I mean NIT.

U-M's football recruiting class for next year is also looking promising, with 9 verbal commitments, lead by 5-star QB Ryan Mallet and 5-star S Jerimy Finch. Kind of shocking to see that no top linemen have committed to U-M yet, as we tend to do well in that category, but it's early, and I'm sure that when it's all said and done, we will get our usual 5 linemen, and all will be ok.

Which leaves me with...the Lions...poor, poor Lions. Hopefully, this is the year we turn it around. I already like the new coaching staff, and their philosophies, and the offensive line should be GREATLY improved this year. But, as coach Marinelli says, "I want to see it on the film". If it's on the film, it's during a game, and we can have our first non losing season since 2000.

Anything I missed, or should talk about? Leave a comment!