Want to get a little serious tomorrow with the Derby? I recommend this link on the official website that has the entire field. Click on a horse and you’ll be taken to you a page that has all the results, recaps and video of previous races. It’s perfect. It even includes details on the horse’s pedigree, recent workouts and observations from around the stables. While I’ve been to a few thoroughbred races in my day and witnessed two Derbys, my handicapping skills are on par with throwing a dart. That said, scanning the video of a few horses I must say I was impressed by how the 4 (Court Vision) finishes races and this might make a good box candidate for you. The current chalk Big Brown – 20 looks unbelievable in limited action and it’s tough to leave this horse out. The sentiment on the site blogs seems to be “sure, Big Brown could blow everyone away but he’s the favorite…” as if there’s a) a jinx, or b) it’s not cool to pick chalk. From what I’ve seen, I’d look to box up 4 and 20 and maybe toss in 10.
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Not again! Another Rose Bowl ring auctioned
Come on former Wolverines, these rings need to stop ending up on the eBay! This one’s priced at $3000 take it or leave it, Coach Bill McCartney’s 1980 ring sold for just over $2000 last year. This one isn’t quite as pretty as the 1980/81 version although it appears as though the top is a likeness of old Michigan stadium, press box and all, although it could be the Rose Bowl as well as there’s no tunnel. On the downside, the designer dropped the ball on one side deciding to go with a cute bear sitting on top of Jan Stenerud’s helmet.
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Rich Rod in Dearborn (YouTube)
Having been at the Ann Arbor version of “Rich Rod on the Road” tour, I can tell you that Coach Rodriguez added some material for the Dearborn version. User WolverinesFTW had a camera onsite and consolidated the talk down to under 10 minutes for your enjoyment: Good stuff, he did a nice job. And unless my peepers deceive, Coach is donning a tie for this go round. Coach Rod strikes me as a guy that only carries a couple ties in his closet and I don’t think the polish meets his shoes very often. Like I said before, some new stories and some old, but all good.
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SI’s Spring Game Coverage (Finally)
Murphy and Joe Schad (ESPN) talking with Threet Sports Illustrated finally released its recap of Michigan’s April 12th spring game at Saline High. Austin Murphy covered the game and to little surprise given the size (barely half a page) and its release almost three weeks since the final whistle, there’s not much that you don’t know. It did end with quotes from M legend Ricky Leach who told SI “This offense would’ve been tailor-made for me”, and added that, “the defense is going to have to really step up.” Murphy did give a mention to the Michigan nerdosphere: Three offensive linemen bailed out of the program, including returning starter Justin Boren, who transferred to Ohio State (and is known in the maize-and-blue blogosphere as Judas) I’ll take credit for that although in the M nerdiverse, the webmasters of this and a dozen other sites are huddled inside Apollo 15 listening to Ufer 8-tracks on a loop, orbiting BC’s Jupiter. And ok, maybe a Uranus.
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Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934
In April 2008, an eBay auction popped up featuring a 1934 Michigan student ticket book. It actually had tear-away coupons for each event inside, most of which remained unused that season. According to the conditions written jacket, the tickets were to be used for athletic events in general but for football “reserved seating” in particular. As a U-M student in the early nineties, I recall we were required to use the coupon books and I thought this was primarily a means to stem the sale of individual games. Apparently, this wasn’t just a recent phenomenon as there was definitely an attempt by the University to crack down on anyone using these tickets beyond the rightful owner. The student was required to sign off on a set of conditions and the fine print within the ticket jacket included a strong warning: “If presented for admission by any person other than the owner the book will be forfeited, taken up at the time of improper presentation and full admission collected.” The owner of these student tickets certainly realized that there would be some challenges on the field in the upcoming season. Kipke lost three All-Americans (Charles Bernard, Francis Wistert, and Ted Petoskey) and a host of other key players. Sound familiar? The 1934 season is probably most recognizable for the presence of…
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Draft Takes
So the draft concluded today with a few surprises for the Michigan Wolverines. From Jake Long as the #1 pick, to the controversy surrounding Manningham to the speculation over where Hart and Henne would fall, the Blue played a major role in drama of the 2008 draft. A few takes on these guys: Chad Henne: The guy is going to be a very good quarterback if things fall his way, and I think they will. Without getting too far into the comparisons I just don’t understand how a guy like Flacco can be taken way ahead of Henne. Brohm and Ryan? Fine. Now I hear the scouts say Flacco’s arm is stronger (which is also hard to believe) but based on the solely on the four years of experience at Michigan I just don’t get it. I guess we’ll see. Mario Manningham: He kind of lost me during the Wisconsin game this past fall. Bitching at Mallett and at times, seemingly dogging it…I just don’t have any patience for that. So when the drug stuff came down followed by the bite sized Wonderlic score, well, I just started to feel like the guy was getting a taste of what he deserved. He was projected as recently as today (the current ESPN rating) to go late first round and he ended…
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Chalk Talk with Rodriguez
The Free Press dug up this video with Coach Rod in session teaching the offense:
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Carr Calls foul on Dispatch Report
Check out Jim Carty’s blog tonight. Carr told Bruce Madej [above, with Coach Rod at the Spring game] that the Columbus Dispatch report that claims Carr helped Justin Boren land at Ohio State is false: Carr denied the Dispatch report via Michigan athletics spokesperson Bruce Madej, who said the coach was unavailable for an interview Friday night. “Lloyd told me that’s a lie,” Madej said. Here’s the claim made by a “source” to the Dispatch: Maybe they should take a cue from previous Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who according to a source close to the situation worked behind the scenes to help Boren obtain his scholarship release from Michigan. Carr even assured Boren that Ohio State is the closest thing to Michigan that he would find and that there are “good people” in Columbus. Elsewhere: As Coach Rod advised during the his ‘On the Road’ tour, sometimes you just need to let those who stray from the V formation go off….and die (geese metaphorically). Let’s focus on those that are here and that means some recruits. So while everyone’s still excited about Virginia QB Kevin Newsome, here’s a Spring Game outtake of Coach Fred Jackson closing the deal:
