What a shocker! WDFN 1130AM, the leading voice for Detroit sports radio, cut most or all of its local talent including the prolific drive-time standby, the Stoney and Wojo Show. Obviously, I’m stunned. The show, which features Mike “Stoney” Stone and Detroit News columnist Bob “Wojo” Wojnowski, had been the go-to show in Detroit since its debut in April 1995. Wojo’s paper got the scoop and quotes from the hosts: “It’s a really sad day because I loved working at that station,” Wojnowski said. “And I know a lot of Detroiters have loved listening to the station for the past 14-15 years. It’s just another sign of the times, a very sad sign.” Said Stone: “I will miss it terribly. People tell me the show meant something to (them). That’s amazing. Hopefully, somebody will want to pick up ‘Stoney and Wojo.” This site has (had?) a relationship with WDFN on its Michigan football page and I’ve swapped emails with WDFN program director Rona Danziger in the past. I sent her an email tonight hoping for some reaction. Included in the cuts was solid mid-morning man Sean Baligian (of ‘It is what it is‘) who apparently didn’t learn of the cuts until after this morning’s broadcast. Said Baligian, “..we’ve all been hearing rumors for a while that something big was going…
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G-Rob hired
Hey, I like the first name. Jim Carty, former AA News columnist and Syracuse grad mustered up the following ringing endorsement of new Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson: “he’s a very, very nice man.”
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Carl Dougovito is a bad MoFo | Michigan Wrestling (1931-32)
The next edition of eBay Watch takes a foray onto uncharted waters--Michigan wrestling. A couple scorecards from wrestling meets were offered up on the online auction site this past week, one from the February 14, 1931 battle against Ohio State, the next from a January 9, 1932 meet against the University of Toronto. Both were held at Yost Field House.
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Colin Cowherd can’t send email thanks to “that guy at the M Zone”
Thanks to Craig Ross (the author of The Obscene Diaries of a Michigan fan) for pointing this out. Earlier this week Colin Cowherd was talking about the necessary separation of communication between fans and folks like owners and the media. The ESPN radio host discussed his own experience and loosely mentions the incident years back between he and the now defunct M Zone. He tells his listeners, “that guy, at the M Zone, is the reason you guys can send me emails all day and I can’t send them back.” Here’s a snippet of the audio (from ESPN’s free podcasts): [display_podcast] . Of course he didn’t really explain the story or why he was peppered with email. Cowherd says, “I don’t even know what happened”. Right. His show completely ripped off a post on M Zone back in 2006 and provided no attribution for the source. M Zone and Cowherd eventually smoked peace pipe after Cowherd took responsibility for borrowing the content. Maybe the feud’s back on!? I’ll stop there. This may be old news but I got a kick out of it. I’m going to shoot an email over to the excellent offspring of the M Zone to see if they want to break this down and get some takes from those directly involved. Update 1/18: Andy at Spawn…
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Buckeye B.J. Mullens is Duncish and Gaumless (YouTube)
Just posted on YouTube, a quick interview with Ohio State center B.J. Mullens this week on the upcoming Michigan game. Interviewer: Let’s be honest, give me your thoughts on the University of Michigan.Mullens: They suck. I mean come on. We’re going to go up there and beat them pretty bad. That’s a rival and that’s how it’s going to be.Interviewer: Do you give a damn for that whole state?Mullens: No. Not at all. So that’s fine, I don’t have an issue with a Buckeye trashing Michigan or vice versa, even dropping a “sucks” here and there. But the final question inadvertently produces a great moment in the history of this rivalry: Interviewer: In as many S.A.T vocabulary words as you can, your opinion of Michigan.Mullens: Boo. Isn’t that grounds for an NCAA investigation? A cow could have scored as well on that question. I love it because you know the interviewer is a Buckeye grad, yet he inadvertently delivers a perfect Stuttering John question. Update 1/17: Good question from Biggie Munn, ‘what in the hell sport did this raj cat play that he did not lose to um in 4 years?‘. Midway through the interview, Raj offers that he “went four years and never lost to Michigan”. The best I can tell Raj was in the homecoming class and his…
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The Vague Anxiety and Bill Frieder
That's that alpha and omega of my recollection, so thankfully I have a copy Craig Ross's tome, Obscene Diaries of a Michigan Fan, published in 2006. If you enjoy the tone, feel and prose of blogs like mgoblog and even this site, I suggest you get a copy of this book. I had a chance to meet Ross, a local attorney, author and raconteur, for lunch in December. I'm a good way through it and it's fabulous. Ross takes a good portion of chapter four in discussing cheating in college hoops in general, and takes a look at Johnny Orr, Bill Frieder, Ed Martin and Steve Fisher through this lens.
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Interview: Pete Tiernan of bracketscience.com
This week I sat down with Pete Tiernan, founder of bracketscience.com, a website with a comprehensive database that allows subscribers to slice and dice historical NCAA tournament data. Tiernan also provides statistical trends, charts, tips and strategies for busting up your pools. Over the past several years he’s contributed a column to ESPN.com insider$ and in 2009 will be featured at CBSSports.com. Tiernan holds two degrees from Michigan and taught for a while within the English department. His ties to the M basketball program run deep as his dad, ‘Boom Boom’ Tom Tiernan, laced them up for the Maize & Blue back when they played at Yost Field House in the early 1950s. We met in downtown Saline at the excellent Brecon Grille and over a few pints, he was kind enough to answer questions about Beilein, Michigan, tourney trends, the selection committee and more. We close with a cool story about his son who played for the Grand Valley State team that shocked Michigan State at Breslin last year. Enjoy: MVictors: Michigan basketball is becoming relevant again thanks to John Beilein. Let’s cut right to it, how does Beilein’s tournament coaching record stack up? Tiernan: Michigan made a very good choice. John Beilein is the top overperforming active coach of the modern tournament era. There’s a statistic that I have…
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Robinson spills the beans
Come on Rumeal! The star guard on Steve Fisher’s 1989 NCAA champions basically confirms that guys on the team were paid, from Mark Snyder’s post (with a surprisingly tame headline!): “You got nine pros and none of them left school early? If you’re taking care of players the right way, you understand the process to make it work. Otherwise, a player’s got to go out and look for help, it’s going to happen…” like with the Martin scandal. OK – so he doesn’t specifically say what that means but [cough, clear throat] maybe by “taking care of players the right way” he means furnishing them with Cottage Inn vouchers. Later he added, “Coaches have a lot of pressure to recruit the best players, and they have to turn to alumni for help. Alumni can’t help their school? I guess you’ve got to draw the line somewhere.” Robinson said he thinks they should call his team, with nine players that went to the pros, the Fab Nine.
