Leelanau Sports Guy’s World at sportspig.com

Richie Zobak and Jonathan Juliano scored early goals and the Traverse City North Stars were able to make it stand up as they claimed a 2-1 victory over the top-seed USNTP U-17 team and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five North Division semifinal series. Goalie Jeremy Kaleniecki stopped 35 of 36 shots.

Game 2 is tonight at 7 PM in Ann Arbor, and the series shifts to Centre ICE for games 3 & 4 (if necessary) starting April 7th.

Read Stars Claim Opener at TraverseCityNorthStars.com

My prayers have been answered! Okay maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but the news that WCCW AM-1310 is expanding to 24 hour a day coverage is fantastic. Michigan fans could have used it last night as U of M played South Carolina in the NIT Final, although the Wolverines lost, it would have been nice to listen.

The Tigers will also join 1310 ESPN starting on Opening Day next week and the station will expand it’s ESPN coverage for around the clock broadcasting. This is great news for those of us sports fans “Up North”! The change to 24 hour coverage should happen sometime next week.

Now if they would only bring back The Huge Show!

Read Tigers moving to WCCW AM-1310 in the Record Eagle

Below are the upcoming spring girls soccer schedules for Suttons Bay and Glen Lake. You can see all of the sports schedules on our Upcoming Schedules Page.

Glen Lake Lakers
Games start at 5 p.m.
Apr. 6 at Elk Rapids
Apr. 11 at Benzie Central
Apr. 13 Forest Area
Apr. 18 Suttons Bay
Apr. 20 T-C West JV
Apr. 24 at T-C Central JV
Apr. 26 T-C West JH
Apr. 28 Charlevoix
May 1 T-C Liberty
May 6 at Benzie Central Tourney
May 8 Benzie Central
May 10 at Manistee JV
May 11 at T-C West JV
May 16 at Suttons Bay
May 18 T-C Central JV
May 23 Elk Rapids
May 25 at Forest Area

Suttons Bay Norsemen
Games start at 5 p.m., unless otherwise noted
Apr. 6 at T-C Liberty (TBAYS field)
Apr. 13 Roscommon
Apr. 17 at Elk Rapids
Apr. 22 at Ludington Invitation, TBA
Apr. 25 at Harbor Springs
Apr. 27 Cadillac
Apr. 28 Cheboygan
May 2 at Benzie Central
May 5 Suttons Bay Invitational, 9 a.m.
May 9 Charlevoix
May 12 at Harbor Springs, TBA
May 13 Marquette or Kingsford at Elk Rapids, 9 a.m.
May 16 T-C Liberty
May 19 at Cheboygan
May 20 T-C West, TBA
May 22 Gaylord
May 24 Muskegon Catholic Central
May 26 at Charlevoix

Just got this email, although unfortunately I don’t get the show anymore… will have to try to listen online…

STAYED TUNED TO THE HUGE SHOW LATER TODAY!

LIONS QUARTERBACK JOSH MCCOWN IS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR ON THE HUGE SHOW AT 3:30

The Huge Show

Northport has announced that it will not field a baseball or softball team this spring, but will offer a co-ed tennis team. The Cherryland Conference is now left with just three teams – Leland, Lake Leelanau St. Mary, and Traverse City Christian.

Read Ball teams are shut out in the Enterprise

Lots of excitement as the NFL looks for a new internet deal.

Read NFL calls signals for Internet play in the Chicago Tribune

The NFL schedule is starting to take form and the Lions now know there preseason opponents.

August 10-14 vs. Denver
August 17-21 at Cleveland
August 24-28 at Oakland
August 31-September 2 vs. Buffalo

The only other date set is on Thanksgiving when the Lions will host the Miami Dolphins.

Here’s an article from Absolute Michigan with lots of great info about the future of Tiger Stadium.

Read What Will Happen to Tiger Stadium? at Absolute Michigan

My View: I have lots of great memories of Tiger Stadium, the roof shots, batting practice, game-winning homeruns, my favorite seats in the first row of the left field upper deck, and the great hot dogs! It would be a shame if nothing can be salvaged and used again in some capacity.

Here are some of my favorite Tiger Stadium memories…

• Meeting Sparky Anderson. What an honor

• Alan Trammell’s game-winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth in game 1 of a doubleheader
• Sitting in the bleachers and watching batting practice, especially when Cecil was around, AMAZING!
• Watching Nolan Ryan warmup. He was throwing strikes from the outfield and the ball never went higher than like 7 feet, I still can’t believe it to this day. I was young, so I might be overstating this, but I don’t think so.
• Mickey Tettleton’s roof shot above us in right field. It seemed like it only took a second to get there.

There are countless others and this list would probably be different tomorrow or maybe in five minutes.

It still comes down to the magic word “health”, but another sportswriter has tagged the Tigers as a possible playoff contender…

5. Who will emerge from the gruesome fray in the AL Central?

Consider the comers in the AL Central – the defending-champion White Sox, the up-and-coming Indians, the perennially solid Twins and the underrated Tigers. That’s four teams that, given health and good fortune, could contend for a playoff spot. Given the unbalanced schedule, you should perhaps pity the Royals more than usual. Whoever emerges from this scrum will be bloodied and battle-tested.

Read Top 10 burning questions for 2006 at FoxSports.com

At least I have! A good, solid, playoff-type performance from our Pistons in a 97-90 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Sure they beat the Heat last week, but after losing to the Nets and struggling at times, the Pistons showed us when it counts they will perform. Not that we had any doubts, but it’s the time of year you want to see your team start to get a little tougher and focused for the playoff run. There’s no doubt Dirk Nowitzki knows the Pistons are ready. Nowitzki scored 25 points, but needed 23 shots to do it. Chauncey Billups was the man down the stretch and Rasheed Wallace turned in another solid game. The Pistons evened the season series with the Mavs in what might have been an NBA Finals preview. If that’s the case I like Detroit’s chances.

Just surfing around at lunch today and here’s some cool stuff I stumbled upon…

Baseball is Back at Luke Waltons Forehead
A great poem to get you excited for the upcoming Tigers season. Although the poem also gave me chills thinking back to trying to write poetry in school.

KA.com Presents “Man, That Ticks Me Off!” at KevinAntcliff.com
Great stuff (as usual) from KA! I agree 100% on the Pistons, it’s time to start turning it up a notch!

Marinelli’s Defining Moment Yet To Come at Out of Bounds
Marinelli is going to go down as the best move Millen ever made!

Bracketville meets Pleasant-ville by Dan Shanoff at ESPN
Damn, my brackets stunk compared to this guy and just about everyone elses. Next year I am just going to go with my first hunch and not overthink my bracket, I’m positive I can’t do any worse.

2005-06 AP All-America Basketball Team at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Maurice Ager and Paul Davis were named honorable mention All-American’s by the AP. Ager deserved it, but Davis, I don’t think so. He never really improved after his sophomore season. I for one won’t miss him next year.

Leland and Suttons Bay both had stellar volleyball seasons with the Comets capturing the Class D state title and the Norsemen making the state semifinals and both were rewarded with individual all-state honors.

In Class D Leland’s Alisha Glass, Jennifer Hecht and Whitney Grant were named to the first team while Daina Parent earned an honorable mention spot.

Suttons Bay’s Holly Orban was named to the Class C first team and teammate Kelsey Wick earned honorable mention.

Read Area nets quintet of all-staters in the Record Eagle

Spring Training is winding down, the Tigers have had a very good spring (over .500) and the young pitchers have given Leyland some tough decisions to make.

But the Tigers 2006 season is going to be decided by one word, “Health”, and basically if the Tigers have it, they will contend, and if they don’t, they won’t.

It’s that simple for most teams in sports, however the solid organizations – the ones at the top of the standings, can overcome an injury to a major player and still win. The Tigers are getting close to being there as well, as the minor leagues gets deeper and more talented and the pitching arms get younger and stronger, but for 2006, that’s not the case. Any major injury to one of the Tigers regulars means another disappointing season in Motown.

All I have to say is if they can stay relatively healthy then watch out AL Central!

Read Health the Key for the Tigers in ‘06 from Scout.com & Yahoo! Sports

The Record Eagle’s Mark Urban recaps the state championships from the fall and winter by our area teams and puts the pressure on the spring teams to bring home some more hardware.

Read It’s time for spring to take the title fling in the Record Eagle

I don’t like Duke and I am betting Leelanau County fans don’t either, after the Lady Blue Devils eliminated Liz Shimek and the Michigan State Spartans 86-61 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament. Shimek had a rough day only taking 5 shots and scoring 5 points in her college finale. Her and Classmate Lindsay Bowen helped put MSU women’s basketball on the map and will be missed.

Shimek finished her career as MSU’s career leader in points, rebounds and field goals. Congrats to Liz on a great career, and here’s hoping it continues in the WNBA!

Read Shimek-Bowen era has come to an end in the Detroit News
Read (1) Duke 86, (4) Michigan St. 61 at Yahoo! Sports

I know I would definitely check this out!

Read Movie theaters aim for live 3D sports at CNET