mgoblue.com Halloween night at Yost was a big one for Red Berenson’s boys as they took down a gutty Buckeye team 4-3. I know there’s many of you around town that have been to a couple games, maybe none, yet you enjoy the Red Wings and perhaps even watch the Wolverines on occasion. You’ve got to get down to Yost–it’s such a great product. Louie Caporusso and Aaron Palushaj are fantastic. There are tickets available to some of the home games this year, get down there. The students are off the hook dominating the east of the arena, the band keeps the place hyped up, the hockey is phenomenal, and if you get down there early enough you can win the 50-50 raffle (Ticket number 1 was the big winner last night). mgoblue.com I’ve ripped on Michigan fans at the Big House lately, time to rip on an opponent. So there’s a Buckeye fan behind me in his late 50s or so, moustache of course. He’s yelling the whole game at a couple of Michigan players, e.g., after a Michigan player shoves a guy, “WHY DON’T YOU TAKE UP BOXING???” and bitching about referee calls the whole game. He’s loud but there’s some kind strange pitch in his voice that gets in your head. I’m actually ok with the guy…
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Carty Interview Part III: Radio, Evil Wojo, Blogging and Bruce
Continuing the interview with former News columnist Jim Carty. In Part I we talked about his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription and his feud with Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. In Part II we talked about some of his critics, access at the Capital One Bowl, on the accusations the News misled some student athletes during the athademics series, and on when he called Bill Martin ‘Barnacle Bill’ during the coaching search. In the last installment, We discuss radio, the good vs. evil in the world of sports journalism, bloggers and their place in the media and finally, we wrap up with my plea to make Bruce Springsteen shut his yap and just sing. MVictors: I see you’re still doing the WTKA Bud Light Victors Lounge, are you able to “enjoy” the lounge now that you don’t have to run over to cover the games now? Jim Carty: I’m trying to do them all, sometimes law school prevents that. There’s a WTKA staff rule, no booze for the talent [laughs]. MVictors: Are you on the payroll for those gigs? Jim Carty: For the Monday appearance and for the Saturday appearance I’m paid a grand total of $100 [laughs]. MVictors: You do a great job on the radio, you seem very comfortable.…
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Carty Interview Part II: Critics, Kolarik and Barnacle Bill
Continuing the interview with former News columnist Jim Carty. In Part I we talked about his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription, and his feud with Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. In Part II we talk about some of his critics and its impact on his personal life, on his access to the team at the Capital One Bowl, on the accusations the News misled some student-athletes during the athademics series, and finally, on dubbing Michigan athletic director Bill Martin ‘Barnacle Bill’ during the coaching search: MVictors: How big of a concern was some of the criticism of your work at the News reaching your family?Jim Carty: My kids I think are too little at this point, my oldest daughter is eight and I don’t think she’s ever been aware of the controversy I create. She just sort of thinks it’s cool that I worked for the newspaper and didn’t understand why I would go back to school. At one point during the Bernard Robinson thing, when I was writing that he should be kicked out of U-M, there were some phone calls to the house that really freaked my wife out. And in general, during the backlash from the project [academic series] I think that was very disturbing to my wife.…
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Quarterback problem solved?
Does he have any eligibility left? Check out the arm on this Phillies fan who dead-eyed the drunk atop the street sign with an empty bottle last night. While we’re talking recruiting, can Beilein call this cat? And I mean cat like quick and clever. Check out this video of a UK-based street ball legend Stuart Tanner hustling New Jersey Net Devin Harris, thanks to BiggieMunn for passing this along:
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Jim Carty Interview: Part I, Getting to Know JC
Jim Carty is not a popular figure in the blogosphere but I think this town was better off for having a guy at the News who was willing to say what he felt, despite of the fallout. Judging by my recent poll on the subject, most of you were happy to see Jim out of your morning fishwrap but wished Carty would have chosen law school in Haiti instead of Toledo. Some folks put him in the category of a Drew Sharp who appears to create controversial opinions for the sake of pissing you off and thus getting your attention. I’ve met Jim Carty before briefly and he never struck me as that guy. He’s busier than ever in his life, so he was very gracious to sit down and spend an hour with me answering a few (sometimes silly) questions. Like some other recent interviews, I’ll break it down into a few parts. In Part I we touch on his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription thanks to a JC column, some recent criticism he launched at his former employer, and finally….his no-holds-barred feud with Michigan syndicated radio host Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. MVictors: You left a position at the Ann Arbor News where you were rabidly criticized by fans,…
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Power Index Week 9: Penn State back to the top
No surprise, after swapping the top spot with Ohio State over the past couple weeks, the Lions are back on top. Two questions: 1. What does JoePa listen to on those headphones in the booth – Paul Harvey? Matlock? 2. Is it possible that Michigan hid Sam McGuffie inside the Paul Bunyan trophy in an attempt at a modern day Trojan horse gambit? Gilliam the Badger is revived “If Texas loses to Texas Tech next weekend, Penn State has a shot at the national title game. The Michigan – Michigan State game was fun, but you can see why the pollsters favor the SEC and the Big 12. Dantonio is the right kind of coach for that program: disciplined and classy. If Rich Rod is going to start recruiting smaller, faster athletes from out of state, then he better be sure he’s getting every one of the best Michigan defensive players to coming up. Michigan State’s defense is better than Wisconsin’s, so I give State the advantage next weekend. Ohio State and Penn State are the new Big Two. What a great PSU team this year. Apparently Tim Brewster was a good choice for the Gophers. He’s going to start keeping a lot more kids in-state. It’s going to hurt Bret Beilema’s recruiting in the future.” Lew, the Hoosier (this…
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Wayne Wants a WVU Refund
I’ve been keeping an eye on the letters section of the Ann Arbor News to see the stream of Rodriguez hate letters, especially after the Toledo loss. Here’s a beauty: I hear this take a lot. Rodriguez should alter his style to get the most out of the players he has, and therefore we wouldn’t be in this mess. Translation: run Lloyd Carr’s offense. Look, Michigan hired Rodriguez based on his track record. Few deny that Rodriguez can coach; he’s proved this everywhere. But he proved it doing things a certain way, that is, running his offense. There’s a reason why coaches would travel to Morgantown to see him and learn from him. I know they weren’t there for the fine dining. There is clearly a learning curve that needs to be traversed to pick up this system. For Rodriguez (or Beilein while were at it) to abandon his scheme that now that he’s hit the big time would be asinine. Getting players is part of it but it’s not like Michigan has sub-Toledo talent. It has a lot to do with players being comfortable in their role on the field and having the confidence to fly to their spot once the ball is snapped.
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Rodriguez Contract and Tax neutralization: Shand was right
Thanks for the comments, emails and the feedback on the Dave Shand interview. The Blog that Yost Built called it “one of the best things I’ve read on the blogosphere. Ever.” And there’s been all kinds of discussion on various parts of the interviews on blogs and on all the major message boards. It’s always fun to see how people react to things you post, this was a thrill. Anyway, with Coach Rodriguez signing his contract last week we’ve got some specifics on the deal and at least part of what Shand revealed in the interview is confirmed. Recall that Shand said he heard that Rodriguez didn’t realize that the buy-out portion that Michigan paid to West Virginia was taxable, here’s part of the interview: So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Michigan… has paid taxes on the [buy-out funds] it paid on his behalf which is all taxable income… Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract), see section 3.02, part (g): Shand also said he heard that the University paid all…
