Holy Grail of hockey

 

Jeff Day
— Sports Columnist

I must start out this article with last Friday night’s arrival of the Stanley Cup to the Polar Palace. I had the great fortune of getting my picture taken with the “Holy Grail”. It is one impressive piece of hardware. When you actually get to see all the names engraved on it and all the teams that have won the Stanley Cup it’s a beautiful thing. Let’s hope the Red Wings bring it back to the Motor City here in 2011. Waking up the sleeping giant

The Detroit Lions’ 26-game road losing streak ended with an overtime field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hey, break up this Lions football team! What is going on here? The 19-game division losing streak ended last week and now the road streak is over? Have the echos of the 1950’s Lions football been woken up? Let’s not get carried away with too much nonsense here. What the Lions did accomplish is backto back wins for the first time since October 2007. Yes, I said 2007! The Lions are playing hard and haven’t quit like they have in previous years. They have not been blown out all season long. When is the last time you could say that about a Lions’ football team in the last decade? We rip on them nonstop as fans and they have deserved it! However, this year is different in my eyes. I was growing tired of the close, but no cigar games ending in Lions’ losses. The NFL is about “W’s my friends, and Detroit now has 4 of them.

The job coach Jim Schwartz has done in such as short time is phenomenal. He understands about winning and moral victories mean absolutely nothing. Hey, it’s possible the Lions could win out and finish with a 6-10 record. How nice would that be? Pretty darn nice, i say, if it happens. The real improvement has been the defense. The front four have been absolutely dominant lately and pretty darned consistent all season long. Gunther Cunningham deserves credit for this, along with the players. Gunther is building a nice defense here in Detroit. That last sentence seems awful strange to write. Detroit and defense go together like Fat Guy and diet. Oh well, pass the salad! The Lions are no longer the laughing stock of the NFL and are a football team that is getting competitive and semi-respectable. I’ll take it for now, but will expect more of them next

season. Drew Stanton, congrats on playing your best game as a pro quarterback last Sunday.

Don’t change the channel

College football will be on the television set every single night for the next three weeks. There will be many football widows, who can’t believe football is on every night. I wish I could feel sorry for them, but I would be lying. I love

football and can watch it every single night; as matter of fact I will watch it every night! Sorry honey! Bring on the college bowl season…I am ready.

Diamond chatter

The baseball offseason has been real busy and some teams have loaded up on talent. The Red Sox and Phillies are the leaders in the clubhouse. Cliff Lee shocked the baseball experts when he took his talents to Philadelphia. Everyone takes their talents somewhere nowadays. The four man rotation of Cliff Lee, Doc Holiday, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt looks super strong to me. The Phillies will be the chalk in the National league. The Detroit Tigers resigned Magglio Ordonez to a one-year $10 million dollar deal. I think it’s a good solid move by the Detroit Tigers, as Ordonez was having a decent season until he hurt his ankle halfway through the year. Heck, somebody has to protect the Miguel in that lineup. A surprising move has Zack Greinke going to the Milwaukee Brewers. Once again the KC Royals trading away tremendous talent. No wonder they never win.

There are two weeks left in the NFL season and the playoff races are heating up. Hopefully, my picks will stay hot also.