Leelanau Sports Guy’s World

An interesting movie title? Nope, just the interesting world of Detroit and Michigan Sports!

Rogers pitches strong in Tigers win

For everyone that said Kenny Rogers was done, and is a bad second half pitcher, he sure is coming on strong.

Rogers (13-6) gave up four hits and walked only one over seven innings, his third straight strong outing.

That sounds like a pitcher I would want to have down the stretch run as my team was battling for a division title. Lucky for us, the Tigers have him.

Marcus Thames led the offense with a homerun and a triple, and Fernando Rodney pitched two scoreless innnings of relief as the Tigers took game 2 of a crucial 4-game series with the White Sox. The division lead is back up to 7 1/2 and the Tigers are looking like their current funk could be finished!

Read Tigers’ Rogers shuts down White Sox at Yahoo! Sports

Lidstrom to follow Yzerman as Wings Captain
It’s going to take a while to get used to seeing someone else with a “C” permanently on their Wings jersey, but it’s a no-brainer that the player should be Niklas Lidstrom.

This pretty much sums up why he’s the right choice…

Lidstrom, 36, joined the team for the 1991-92 season. He is the longest-serving member of the squad and arguably the Wing’s best player. In June he won his fourth straight Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.

Read Just call him Captain Lidstrom in the Freep

The Fall of Smoker
Detroit News writer Lynn Henning has another book coming out called Spartan Seasons II that follows some of the ups and downs of MSU sports. The following article is an excerpt from his book about Jeff Smoker and the 2002 MSU Football team that showed lots of potential, but ultimately fell flat.

Here’s a description of the book…

All the key figures live and breathe, spar and parry in these pages. The great athletes and those who strived greatly. Coaches Nick Saban and George Perles. Bobby Williams and John L. Smith. Jud Heathcote and Tom Izzo. The MSU presidents, athletic directors, and University trustees who influenced the ups and downs of MSU sports. Henning sought them out for their versions of who said what and who took the actions that made for wins or losses on the playing field and put MSU again and again into the headlines.

Read Inside story on turmoil of an MSU star in the Detroit News
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