Light Rail: Motor City Movin'

Federal officials have signed a final environmental impact statement with the city of Detroit that moves forward plans to build a $500 million light rail system along Woodward Avenue.

Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday's signing with the Federal Transit Administration eventually will allow the city to use a $25 million grant.

"This is a landmark moment in Detroit's journey to make light rail a reality in our city," said Bing. "With the support of FTA staff we have reached this target faster than many believed was possible. From the beginning, we pledged that this administration would work tirelessly to get this project off the ground and today we are one step closer."

The U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to enter a final decision Sept. 1, which will lay out how Detroit can spend more than $300 million in federal funds.

Bing said engineering work on the project already has started.

The first 3.4-mile first phase between the New Center area and downtown is expected to be completed by 2016. The route eventually will have 19 passenger stations stretching north to the city limits at Eight Mile Road.

Watch Full Demo Here

Knight In Shining Armor

The Pistons just landed a gem.

This fall Brandon Knight, unanimously considered a top 3 pick, will take his talents to Auburn Hills. The Pistons passed on Kemba Walker and took Knight with pick #8. Steal. Brandon is just this years version of the John Calipari 1 and done. I mean lets look at Calipari's PG in the past 4 NBA drafts.

Derrick Rose. Tyreke Evans. John Wall. Brandon Knight. I have a real good feeling about this.

Still, it seems that every year...many NBA prospects in the NBA draft gives any team reason to be optimistic and eventually end up as busts (Dork-O), but there is no denying the raw talent Knight brings to the Pistons. He should immediatly slide into the starting PG position, thus moving Stuckey to SG.

With Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight the Pistons now have 2 budding stars in their lineup.
This marks the beginning of the Tom Gores era...and what a good start it has been. Let us hope for many more to come.

* NOTE

The Pistons rounded out the draft by taking Kyle Singler and Vernon Macklin with their 2nd and 3rd picks.

Grade: A

Yahoo! Opens Fantasy Football 2011: Merry Christmas

Register Here
by Jacob Allen
Fantasy Baseball is fine (I guess)...and I don't mean to complain, but it gives me the same feeling that I get the morning after Thanksgiving.  That next morning I'm always "thankful" that it's it is over.  I can only get so excited about Lance Berkman (Or literally plug in any professional baseball player's name here...I promise it is all the same) and his .300 NL leading batting average.  I mean the dude was ranked as the #2 overall player for most of the season and is a "stud", but lets me down 7 out of every 10 times he steps in the box.  As if this insane rate of failure is not enough, these "professionals" just plain old don't make the roster certain days because APPARENTLY the skipper thinks they need "rest".

"REST?!?!?!?!  Are you fuckin kidding me?  Hey LaRosa...stop acting like such a pussy and get Lance and his bat in the GAME.  Please.  I've got a head to head match-up to win...and surprisingly enough I've heard that you have a ball game the St. Louis Cardinals are paying you to win.  What do you think this is some kind of a joke?"

King of the Hillis plans on winning the Shiva Bowl in 11'

This is just great Berkman.  Just great.  So let me get this straight.  You are not JUST going to fail me 70% of the time.  No...what you are going to do, In addition to the failure, is take a few days off every couple of weeks.  For rest.  You faggy little girl.   Heres a dose of reality Grandps...I have 7 days every week to ride you and your and your aging body.  I do this willingly meanwhile day in and day out you can find me fighting for my statistical life.   What that boils down to is this; I am putting in the effort and you are not.  Notice how many times in the next few sentences the word "you" is going to be used.  I should not be surprised at your selfishness, but still I keep giving you chances and still you keep screwing me over.  If YOU decide that it is "ok" for YOU to rest, well apparently YOU know best so YOU must be right.  Lance, there is no time to rest.  That better be the last time I have to say it.  If YOU are going to continue to skip games because YOU  need rest, well on those days you might as well buy a plane ticket to Detroit...take a cab to my house...and piss directly on my face.  That's what it feels like you are doing anyways.  Fantasy baseballers like me deal with this shit daily, but somehow are supposed to find the whole thing fun, rewarding, and enjoyable.  News flash.  Fantasy baseball is not fun, it's certainly not rewarding, and is not even close to enjoyable.  Line 1 of this post said "I don't mean to complain", but boy was that comment inaccurate.  Complaining is exactly what I mean to do.  Fantasy baseball sucks.

This post is one of joy not pain...for today is a happy day.  Today is my day.  Didn't even check my baseball match-up once.  Don't want to.  Don't care.  Want to know why?  Because as of today, no longer is there a hurdle between me and the big dance.  This goes back to my point of Fantasy Baseball leaving me unfulfilled like Thanksgiving.  The day after Thanksgiving officially marks end of the wait and the beginning of the real countdown.  That's right.  I am saying it.  Fantasy Football is my Christmas and anything else (that includes you baseball) that dares to get in between ME and my PESENTS is going to get hit sticked.

Fantasy Football Nation:  Today I am proud to announce, "Santa Claus is coming to town."  Yahoo! is open and it's on like Donkey Kong.  Sept. 8 marks the first day games are played (unless this lockout is the real deal) and that means we have...about....96 days until the jolly old fat man makes his way down our chimneys.   I'm sure I've been naughty not very nice....but I'm making my list and checking it twice anyways.  After all, fantasy is coming to town.

/* Side Note:

The sequence of events leading up to this blog post:

1.  Creeping around on FaceBook

2.  Spot hint on wall post

3.  Mouse to navigation bar

4.  Type in www.yahoo.com

5.  Jizz in my pants

6.  Change pants
*/

Yahoo! opening up the floodgates means more to people than just the fact that commissioners are now allowed to start inviting managers back into leagues.  It also means that the most important and influential player rankings are set and to those who plan on winning...it starts right now.

So while I had started doing my draft homework before this was realized, there is no doubt that I am a little stunned by some of the rankings and this post is purely driven by emotions.  I have settled down a little bit, but those that know me can just imagine.  I was freaking.

Me:  "Wheres Hillis going to be ranked?"

I'm flying through these ranking and articles like a Audi R8 on the autobahn.

Me:  "How long can I wait on Phillip Rivers?"

Chumps and busters must have been just inhaling my dust.

Me:  "What about the Lions Defense?  Wasn't I just blogging about that?"

I was losing control and losing it quickly.

Fast forward to the end, and I'll refrain from posting the latter portion of no less than 150 questions to myself later. I feel like I know less than when I started.

/* Side Note: 
To anybody thats brave enough to tell me that any other website outside of Yahoo! is king of the fantasy world, well you should also be brave enough to admit to me that you don't know shit...you might as well take this time now and face the music.  That comment proves that it is true.  You REALLY don't know shit.  It's 2011, time to get with it asshole.  Put down your flip phone and join the rest of us.

"ESPN is WAAAAAYYYY better than Yahoo! for Fantasy Football.", you might hear these guys saying.

These are the same jabronis that use Bing search instead of Google because "it's a decision engine" and "TRUST them it's better."

No..guy, it's not.
*/


Rankings are fun but also misleading and do not do all that good of a job predicting what a player is going to do and for the most part look at his season as a whole instead of what this cat is going to give you week to week.  Especially early season rankings.  They are based solely on last seasons performance, as an entire body of work.  A million number of things can and will change before kickoff Sept. 8th.

The best part of the early ranking experience is checking out where everybody is ranked on your "last years" squad.  I did it.  Immediately looked at, and griped about where my players were ranked from last year.  Some because I thought they were not getting enough credit...others because I thought they would be ranked lower and that it was possible that I was the only person noticing them putting up 30 points a week in 2010 and maybe I could get them with a bargain pick in the 4th.  Well, I can't...but wishing and scheming is all part of what makes it so fun.

It is unreal how true to form each draft goes to Yahoo!'s pre-draft player ranks.  For example.  Last year, 2010,  rookies Ryan Matthews and Jahvid Best were ranked as the #7 and #27 overall players pre-draft.  I did a lot of mock drafts and more often than not I would see Matthews get snagged in round 1 and Best in round 3.  In our draft Matthews got taken #7 on the money and Best was taken #28....as rookies.  That's crazy.  All it took was Yahoo! to say jump...and experienced fantasy ballers jumped.   I have a theory that simply states to just do not draft rookies.  What is the downside to drafting a vet that has a body of work instead of a college player?  It's so simple, yet if Yahoo! says that you need to dance with these noobs, then odds are you're dancing.  The fantasy gurus over there really do know more than you, or me...but they are not the end all.  Go with your gut  sometimes not your Yahoo! O-Rank list.  In this case they were mostly wrong, as both Matthews and Best struggled in 10'.

My point is that these rankings are the rankings that are going to put the players on peoples teams.  Like it or not if you see that LeSean McCoy is ranked as the 11 overall player....well that means that if you were hoping you could sneak him in late round 2 or early round 3...you can't.  He will go first round.  Write it down and send it in.  He may very well not be first round talent, but if the Yahoo! guys say he is...and they have...then hes going to go where they say.



Lets go over their top players at each position.  I will share some of my thoughts and opinions about players that I had last year and maybe a few who I was hoping to get this year.  I might tell you where I "thought" they would be, where I "wanted" them to be, and where I fully expect them to go.  Since my league, Detroit MI CCY, and the lions share of Yahoo! leagues are 12 team leagues, I will show the top 12 players or the first string guys in each position.  And no, I'm not including the kicker.  Kickers are gay.  You know what else is gay?  My computer being 3000 degrees right now.  My wrists are sweating.


Actually let's stop this post here.  I will do more research and post my thoughts and my rambles in the next day or so giving me time to think before I blog.  Thanks for reading.


To be continued................

Beautiful Jazz in Beautiful Detroit

I’ll tell you what, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge proves southern hospitality is nothing compared to the welcome one will receive while exploring Detroit’s Jazz scene. A group of buddies and I ventured to the world’s longest running Jazz bar, Baker’s and were given a crash course in courtesy.

We strolled in through the front doors around 10:45 P.M. and were awkwardly standing in the middle of a conversation circle started by the greeter and a few guests. Thankfully, before the awkwardness could affect our moods the employee to our right said, with a smile and a tilt of his head “Welcome, make yourselves at home” as he motioned with his hand to the source of the alluring music.

I pushed the tattered red velvet curtain hiding the lounge’s entrance to the side and the ambiance created by the bar’s 75+ years of history gave me an out of body experience I haven’t felt since Bonnaroo 09’. I felt like Dean Martin going to knock back a few drinks with Frank Sinatra at a bar reserved for only the classist of Hollywood stars.

We grabbed the furthest table located in the corner which only magnified the level of coolness I was feeling as corner tables have a strange way of turning me on. Our waitress came over to see what we were drinking as we listened in silence to the musicians who were speaking to us threw their music.

I order a vodka tonic and the BBQ Rib Sandwich.

When the waitress finished taking our order the band’s singer said something that made everyone I was with feel tense.

“All right everybody we are going to play one more song as these guys [Bakers] are trying to close up.”

How can the these guys close up, I thought, if we just put in our order. Then it hit me, they can’t.

We were the group of people who were preventing all the workers from going home and if you have ever worked in the restaurant industry then you know those people suck. When our waitress came back with our drinks, we asked what time they closed and she said 11P.M.

I looked at my watch, it was 11:15 P.M. and we had just placed our orders. Our waitress assured us, by making fun of our discomfort, that no one (employees/customers) would mind staying until we were ready to leave. And she had a point, as everyone was still in deep conversation and had their drinks to finish.

Since the customers decided that Baker’s was staying open the singer invited his mentor, who was in the audience, up to the stage to show off her talent.

Not a single person at Baker’s was upset about staying open an extra hour and thirty minutes which showed me something I am not use to seeing from a business. Baker’s operates based on the idea that if people are looking for a good time, give them one. What surprised me the most was, despite Detroit’s bad rap this is the only business I have ever been to that showed me that kind of hospitality and to me...That’s Amore.

Detroit's Positive Change Has Offically Hit the Air Waves

The media is catching on brothers and Detroit’s local 7 Action News Team proves it, as they were the 1st news team to start broadcasting to the world, how badass Detroit is.

Fuck Anderson Copper and Bill O’reilly man, not one of them puts in enough effort to uncover what will be the world’s most inspirational feel good story.

You need a real hard working news team to uncover that kind a story, a news team that doesn’t fuck around when it comes to breaking news. The kind of news team that knows what struggle is, a kind of news team that was breed straight from the mean streets of Detroit.

There are only two reporters who put in the elbow greased required to uncover a story of this magnitude in such an early stage of the reformation. That’s right, I am talking about Detroit’s very own Dave LewAllen and the always sexy Ms. Glenda Lewis.

They just reported last night on the Hostel being built in Detroit, MI. Become a fan of their facebook page by click here.

Just like every great city Detroit now has an affordable place for travelers who want to come be part of a youth movement that is 100% committed to making Detroit the most inspirational city in the world. I for one am incredibly excited for this and am looking forward to staying here for a night to really take in the city. Check out the news covering by the country’s most hard working news team.

What kind of experience do you think people staying at this hostel in 10 years will have? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Pistons Take a Shit on Keuster

This team is officially dead in the water. Joe Dumars turned down a trade for Tayshaun yesterday; basically saying "nah, we're all set here at the bottom of the Eastern Conference." Now half the team doesn't show up to practice? Two words Joe: Government Bailout. Its time to rebuild from the ground up and you can start by firing Keuster and bringing in a legit coach. Hell, pull a Pat Riley and coach the team yourself in the mean time. Just 86 this mother faulkner. As sure as I'm taking a shit while I blog 75% of my posts, this team is going nowhere this season. This has to be the last straw. If I'm Kuester, I'd be on my way to Joe's office, pop my head in and say "I should just go fuck off right?"


Editors Note:

This blog was posted in a hurry as I am running out the door to get a haircut. This takes precedence over the blog for the moment because this is my first haircut since my last DISASTER from Lady Jane's. I need to gather pictures for reference of how potentially good my do can look. So please bear with me as I will later posts stories and/or pictures related to this topic.

Peathe out

Define "Alcoholic"

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) - Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski said last week that Cabrera would undergo treatment before arriving. Tigers position players reported on Feb. 18.

Cabrera didn’t deny that he had an alcohol problem, but said he was willing to undergo treatment and the Tigers have been working with doctors to find a solution. Cabrera said the incident was out of the ordinary and that he had been working on his treatment in Detroit and his hometown in Venezuela.

He refused to say he is an alcoholic.

“I have it under control,” Cabrera said. “It was just a bad decision. I plan to continue with treatment. I made a mistake this time, and all I can do is continue treatment.”

Ok, here's my take on this. I'm not expert on baseball, nor am I an expert on substance abuse. I am, however smart enough to see that the two often go hand in hand. There is something about these guys that they just love being buzzed. I think I can take it a step further and say they are obsessed with doing things to the extreme. Do you know how extreme you have to be to hit/throw an 85+ MPH anything? I've tried, and I simply stopped giving a shit literally minutes later. Just not that extreme.

Now I realize that there is a difference between using and abusing a substance, but you can't tell me that when a guy is going up to bat and he has a dip the size of a roll of quarters in his jaw, that he isn't abusing the substance. You can't tell me that a 175 lb (insert steroid junkie name here) didn't abuse the juice to become a solid 2 fiddy. Leyland smokes enough squares in the dugout that, if it was an enclosed area, the entire team would have second-hand lung cancer by the end of June.

Look, Miggy likes scotch, not because he's an alchi, but because scotch is fucking fantastic. They dude is over the top extreme. His competitive nature shows that. His passion with his family(albeit unnecessary to go as far as to lay a hand on a woman, which is pretty fucked in itself, but I'll never fully understand Hispanics. Completely different blog topic.) shows that. Obviously the guy goes about things the wrong way. Baseball is all he knows. Social and ethical norms aren't exactly this guy's forte. I'm sure educationally speaking the man isn't completely developed yet. He can't hold a press conference without a translator for fear of saying the wrong thing. I watch the guy on Tigers post-game on the regular. He speaks just fine.    

So cut the guy some slack. He's only got two strikes, and this is baseball after all.

Sharks vs. Wings

So I tried to blog live from the Joe and the Droid wasn't having it. I'll try to recap best I can.


6:55 - The Eat 'Em Up Tigers guy expanded his horizons buy catering to his target audience. The "Eat 'Em Up Red Wings" chant was in full force. I am semi-convinced he's a real bum.

7:03 - I take pictures of the cityscape, eager to blog. I look like a tourist. Slightly embarrassed and significantly buzzed, I stand in line to get in. My cheeks match my Red Wings sweater. The wind off the river is roaring.

7:12 - We realized the 7pm game time was a farce and the puck doesn't drop until 7:30. 2 tall Molson's please.

Somewhere in between, a hockey game happened. We ended up on the wrong end. Mere details compared to the people watching, those who called the Joe Louis their "escape" on a Tuesday night. From the man with a mullet rocking a Hasek jersey, to the 4th grade teacher sitting next to me, I have never been more proud to be a Detroit-er. These people have character goddammit. The teacher sitting next to me had  elaborate stories about the city that made it feel like less of a hockey game and more of an experience. I vaguely listen, smile, and nod, while I watch the action on the ice.

9:37 - We soak in the city. What do you have to offer on a Tuesday night Detroit, we challenge?

10:13 - Coco Joe's is on fire. Almost literally. Bartenders are lighting beer bottles on fire and spitting flammable alcohol into the flame. I can feel the heat on my face. Place is out cold.

10:37 - With the Spartans game on every TV this bar is ALIVE, even though we are down 9 and there is little faith in a struggling team.

10:46 - Spartans somehow pull off the notable victory we have been waiting for. This team looks ready to dance. Prove it!

10:47 - Girls are dancing on the bar. "Shake That Ass, Bitch" on blast. (video coming soon)

All in all, great night. It exceeded my expectations for a weeknight in the D. Place was unreal. I could only imagine if the Wings won. People know the Wings are getting ready for a Stanley Cup finals appearance, and one slight speed bump would not deter a good time.

This is our escape from the grind. This is our livelihood. Can't wait for it to get warm because for some reason this city is energized. I can feel it. This is the most hype I've seen Detroit in years. Go downtown if you don't believe me. A fantastic time is inevitable.