It’s been 19 long years, some longer than others, but the Detroit Tigers are heading back to the playoffs for the first time since 1987. After an 11-4 win over the Kansas City Royals, the Tigers celebrated and enjoyed the moment!

“One-hundred-nineteen to a playoff,” said pitcher Jeremy Bonderman, referencing the number of times the team lost in 2003. “Unbelievable.”

That is a perfect word to sum it up. Back in spring training who knew that adding manager Jim Leyland, starting pitcher Kenny Rogers and reliever Todd Jones would help springboard the team to a playoff berth and a possible division championship? Some of us thought health would be the key and it has been, but the maturation of Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya, and Curtis Granderson was another big part of it as well!

Listening to ESPN last night on the old AM radio, they were talking about watching out for the Tigers. They are suddenly on a winning streak, the Yankees are losing (they are playing some younger guys), but a team that gets hot can do a whole lot of damage in the playoffs (just look at the White Sox last year). I am just saying, don’t count out these Tigers!

Read Cheers and tears: Finally, Tigers get an Octoberfest in the Freep

Just received this from one of my readers…

More Honors for Alisha Glass. She was voted Most Valuable Player at this weekend’s Penn State Classic Tournament. If you, or anyone, wants to read or see more, go to gopsusports.com under Women’s Volleyball —- there’s some good shots of her playing under the website’s Photo Gallery.

The Big Ten opener with Ohio State will be televised on CSTV this Wednesday at 7 p.m.—- thats on Dish or Direct TV. We have Charter Cable, so I go over to my wife’s employer who has Dish TV.

Thanks Bob!

Here’s the Official Penn State Women’s Volleyball site

Opinions on five current Detroit & national sports topics from yours truly…

1. Tigers - Clinging to a one game lead in the Central and alot of Tiger fans are feeling very nervous. Don’t be. The Tigers have the easiest schedule of the three remaining contenders and will start it off with a sweep of the Orioles. How do I know this? Because they are going to score some runs tonight!

The Tigers, though, may have a good opportunity to break out against Baltimore’s Hayden Penn (0-2, 36.82).

The 21-year-old right-hander lasted only three innings and was pounded for seven runs and nine hits, including three homers, in a 9-4 loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday. Penn actually reduced his ERA from 108.00.

2. Lions - I listened to the first game off and on Sunday and came away like everyone else, impressed with the defense, and puzzled by the offense. Of course sure enough on the final game-winning Seahawk drive our “D” goes soft and gives up a couple of big plays in a row to give up the easy field goal. I can’t really blame them though, they single-handedly kept the Lions in the game. I think Kitna is a “huge” improvement over Joey and he will be able to direct the Lions to some wins. Sorry Roy, just not this week.

3. Red Wings - The Wings are in TC, and the town is buzzing with excitement. I was thinking about trying to score some tickets, for the games next week. I did go to training camp a few years ago and really enjoyed it. You get to be real close to the action and interact with the players in a casual atmosphere. If you are a big Wings fan, I would definitely check it out one of these years, there are some tickets still available this year as well!

4. Wolverines Football - The biggest game of the weekend as the Wolverines travel down to Notre Dame. I might have to just breakdown and call up the biggest Wolverine fan I know (the father-in-law) and see if I can come watch the game on his new HD TV. I have this funny feeling Michigan is going to pull off the upset, behind the running of Michael Hart. Before the season started I thought Michigan might be able to contend for the title, and I still see a battle of unbeatens when they meet Ohio State at the end!

5. Spartans Football - Not really sure what to expect out of Sparty. MSU has looked very good one moment and very bad the next. That won’t cut it against a quality opponent. If MSU can pull this one out, then I look for Notre Dame to be 2-2 after next weekend!

If you want to let the me know what you think, you can always send me an email at leelanausportsguy@sportspig.com or post a comment!

Girls Basketball: Frankfort tops Leland, Suttons Bay slips by St. Mary
Erin Sneed scored 26 but it wasn’t enough as Leland lost to Frankfort 66-39.

Crystal Dittrich scored 16 points to lead Suttons Bay to a 38-32 win over Lake Leelanau St. Mary. Suttons Bay improves to 3-2. The Eagles were led by Alyssa Korson’s 14 as they fall to 2-4.

Boys Soccer: Northport, Leland get high-scoring wins
Northport found the back of the net eight times to defeat Cadillac Heritage 8-1. Cody Brown and Drew Mitchell each scored 2 as Northport improved to 7-2.

Brad Dunklow’s hat trick helped Leland to a 7-2 Cherryland Conference win over Buckley. Leland is now 8-3, and 2-3 in the conference.

Read Manistee CC tops TC Christian in the Record Eagle

Boys Golf: St. Mary’s wins, Glen Lake falls
Freshman Tyler Shaffran shot a 42 to lead Lake Leelanau St. Mary (180) to victory over Kingsley (195) and Frankfort (230).

Glen Lake got a 50 from Austin Novak but it wasn’t enough as they fell to Traverse City Christian 205-244.

Read St. Mary’s takes golf match in the Record Eagle

Boys Soccer: Season Overview
Check out the article below from the Record Eagle with a complete look at the area soccer season.

Read Elk Rapids, West aiming for titles in the Record Eagle.

Girls Basketball: Rough night for Leelanau County teams
Suttons Bay and Glen Lake both had rough games against the top two teams in the Northwest Conference. Undefeated Frankfort topped the Norsemen 54-12 and 5-1 Kingsley stopped the Lakers 63-18.

In non-conference action, Lake Leelanau St. Mary got 18 points from Alyssa Korson, but it wasn’t enough as Elk Rapids earned a 66-60 win. Leland lost by 10 to Manistee Catholic 38-28 as they fell to 1-2.

Boys Soccer: T.C. Christian earns shutout of Northport, SB tops Leland
Traverse City Christian defeated Northport 2-0 to improve to 6-0 in the Cherryland Conference.

Suttons Bay used a goal by Ben Darling late in the first half to earn a 1-0 Cherryland Conference win over Leland to improve to 2-1 in the conference and 6-2 overall.

Boys Golf: Norsemen once again dominate Northwest Jamboree
Nate Kelly shot a 37, and Josh Schaub and Chris Wanroy each a 40 to lead Suttons Bay over Kingsley, Mesick, Manton, Glen Lake and Frankfort. Dusty Popa led the Lakers with a 46.

Cross-Country: Glen Lake, Suttons Bay have strong showings at McBain
Glen Lake’s Marissa Treece was the overall girls winner in 18:41, and Suttons Bay came in 5th as a team behind Elizabeth Adams 10th place finish in 23:22. Glen Lake’s John Lee captured the boys race.

Read Blazers top St. Francis in the Record Eagle

Almost 200 riders are set for the 2nd Annual Tour de Leelanau this Saturday. The men’s race starts at 10:00 AM in Leland, while the women start at approximately 11:35 at the Homestead near Glen Arbor. Both races are longer than last year. Visit the official site below for a race course map and more info.

Read Nearly 200 set for Tour de Leelanau in the Record Eagle
View Photos from 2005 Race at Flickr (including some by yours truly)
Visit the Official Site

Traverse City will be overrun by Red Wings fans starting Friday and running through Wednesday, September 20th, as the Wings annual Training Camp comes to town for another year.

Some faces are the same, Chris Chelios, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, and son on. Some will be missed, including Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, while still others are back after an absence, like goalie Dominik Hasek.

There are question marks for the Wings, despite coming off an 124-point season and the best record in the league. Who will replace the goals lost by the departure of Shanahan and the retirement of Yzerman? How will Hasek hold up? Can the Wings get past the first round?

Here’s what Chelios had to say…

“We’re fortunate that we have the depth compared to other teams,” Chelios said. “We’ve got some great young players coming up. I’m looking for big things from Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Jason Williams. The guys are going to get more of an opportunity with the absence of Steve and Brendan.”

Tickets are still available, find out more at CentreICE.org!

Read Wings make annual trip north in the Record Eagle
Read Wings will use lower expectations as motivation at MLive.com
Read Wings make change in the goal, but goal is unchanged in the Record Eagle

Photo from GoPSUsports.com

The awards keep rolling in for freshman setter Alisha Glass. The former Leland Comet star has taken her game to Penn State, but that hasn’t stopped her from winning. The Nittany Lions are ranked #2 in the country and are off to a 8-0 start.

Here’s why she picked up the honors…

Versus the No. 7 Longhorns, Glass had a career-high 63 assists and recorded eight kills and 16 digs. She also tied her career bests for hitting (.438) and blocks (seven).

and

For the weekend, Glass averaged 13.38 assists per game, 2.88 digs per game and 1.50 blocks per game while directing the squad to a team hitting percentage of .327 with an average of 17.38 kills per game against two teams in the Top 15 in the nation. She also picked up her first career All-Tournament Team honor at the Time Warner Classic Texas Invitational.

Next up for Penn State is the Penn State Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Read Glass Tabbed Sports Imports/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week at GoPSUsports.com
Read Glass is Big Ten player of the week in the Record Eagle

Boys Soccer: Sabres shutout Lakers
Glen Lake fell to Traverse City Christian 5-0 as the Sabres remain undefeated in Cherryland Conference play.

Boys Soccer: Leland tops Benzie
Jordan Gibson, Brian Zaryczny and Adam Osiecki each scored a goal to lead Leland to a 3-1 non-conference win over Benzie Central. The Comets are 7-2 overall and 1-2 in the Cherryland.

Read West rips Rochester in the Record Eagle

Boys Soccer: Norse get two wins at Chippewa Invitational
Suttons Bay defeated Hart, 5-0 and Manistee, 2-1 to win their division at the Chippewa Invitational on Saturday.

Read Blues break scoring record in the Record Eagle

Cross-Country: Treece sets course record
Glen Lake’s Marissa Treece set a course record of 18:06 to capture the overall title at the Buckley Invitational. Her time helped the Lakers to a 5th place girls finish.

The Suttons Bay boys were led by a 10th place finish by Drew Palmer.

Read Fun in mud for Grieve, Petoskey in the Record Eagle

Boys Football: Suttons Bay improves to 3-0
Suttons Bay used a powerful running game to win their Northwest Conference opener 32-0 over previously undefeated Manton. Anthony Stewart led the Norsemen with 150 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

Boys Football: Glen Lake holds off Mesick
Glen Lake’s Weston Buchan scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to help the Lakers top Mesick 15-12 in the Northwest opener for both teams. Jason Kemp passed for 132 yards for the Lakers.

Read Gaylord stops Petoskey in Big North opener in the Record Eagle

Alisha Glass had a career-high 44 assists to help Penn State to a 30-19, 30-21, 30-21 win over fifteenth-ranked Missouri in the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational. The freshman setter also had three kills for the No. 2 Nittany Lions.

Penn State continues action against the seventh-ranked Texas Longhorns at 6:30 p.m. CT today.

Read Glass leads No. 2 Penn State in the Record Eagle
Read No. 2 Women’s Volleyball Claws No. 15 Missouri, 3-0 at GoPSUsports.com

Girls Basketball: Northport falls to TC Home School
Cecilia Kohler scored 7 points to lead Northport, but they couldn’t overcome the balance of the Traverse City Home School in a 61-24 loss.

Read Central opens up BNC with a victory in the Record Eagle

Boys Soccer: Suttons Bay blanks Buckley
Shane MacDonald, Alex Dingrando, Pat Crego and Niel Bell each scored a goal to lead Suttons Bay over Buckley 4-0 in a Cherryland Conference matchup. The Norsemen are 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Read TC Central shuts out Petoskey, 2-0 in the Record Eagle

Despite 58 wins and the President’s Cup, which is given to best regular season record, Mike Babcock knows his Red Wings must do something about their recent playoff troubles.

“The measuring stick for us is (how we do) at playoff time,” Babcock said. “That was a real sour ending.

“We were the fifth best team of all-time last season during the regular season. We were good offensively, good defensively. It seemed we were able to play any (type of) game. But we were unable to score and unable to keep it out at playoff time — and we got beat by a better team at playoff time in Edmonton. We have to address those things (that went awry).”

The Record Eagle’s Dennis Chase talked to the coach and got some of his thoughts on goaltending, the Captain’s retirement, and more heading into the 2006-07 season.

Read Babcock aims to change ’sour ending’ in the Record Eagle

More teams means more hockey at Centre ICE as the annual NHL Prospects Tournament starts tomorrow. The tournament now has eight teams up from five.

Among Wings players to watch, goalie Jimmy Howard will be one to watch.

An interesting situation is the Wings’ goaltending position, where Jimmy Howard, 22, and Stephan Liv, 25, are battling to be the top minor-league netminder and get a training camp shot behind Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood.

Tickets are just $5 per day and the camp runs through Tuesday night.

Read Prospects camp draws enlarged field in the Record Eagle
Visit CentreICE.org

Boys Golf: Norsemen capture Conference Jamboree
Suttons Bay captured the title, but all everyone was talking about was Glen Lake’s Austin Novak and Kingsley’s John Bodjack who both knocked in hole-in-one’s on the 139-yard 15th hole at the Leelanau Club.

“I’ve been coaching 10 years and I don’t even remember one hole-in-one in a Northwest match, let alone two,” said Suttons Bay coach Todd Hursey. “That’s pretty amazing.”

Suttons Bay carded a 159 easily ahead of second place Kingsley’s 193. Nate Kelly led the way with a 38, Charlie Olson & Drew Palmer scored 40’s, and Josh Schaub & David Tropf 41’s.

Novak finished with a 47. Glen Lake didn’t have enough golfers to qualify in the team competition.

Boys Soccer: Northport gets comeback win over Benzie Central
Northport scored three second-half goals to overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit and earn a 3-2 win over Benzie Central. Basil Stowe scored all three goals to earn the hat trick. Northport is now 6-1 overall, 3-0 in the Cherryland.

Boys Soccer: Comets fall to Sabres
Mike Rudolph scored with 2.6 seconds left to give Traverse City Christian a 2-1 Cherryland Conference win over Leland. Eric Jarsen scored for Leland.

Read Golfers card pair of aces in the Record Eagle

Boys Soccer: Northport scores late goal in comeback win
Glen Lake scored first, but Northport scored late to capture a 2-1 win as Ryan Blessing scored with 2:13 left. Northport is now 5-1 on the season.

Girls Basketball: Glen Lakes falls to Frankfort
Frankfort stayed undefeated with a 62-25 win over Glen Lake. The Lady Lakers were led by Amanda Lautner’s 6 points.

Girls Basketball: Lady Norsemen win
Suttons Bay defeated Mesick 37-33 behind Maggie Walters 12 points in the Northwest Conference opener for both teams.

Read Townsend sparks Titans in the Record Eagle

Lots of fun was had at the last Traverse City Beach Bums game of the season as the Bums scored six runs in the first inning and held off the Windy City Thunderbolts 8-4. In the process the Beach Bums set a first-year record for victories with 57 and passed the 200,000 mark for attendance, finishing with 203,574. Another great fireworks display was put on after the game as well!

“Actually, it was pretty emotional out there tonight,” said Bums infielder Nick Batkoski, who had two hits. “From the very first day, Ice (manager Jeff Isom) set the tone and said we’re going to be one of the best teams in the league. We didn’t make the playoffs, but we certainly were one of the best teams.

“To break the record for the most wins by a first-year franchise and be able to play in front of these fans — breaking 200,000 — what more can you say?”

The Beach Bums also were named East Division Organization of the year and Tony Casoli was named Pitcher of the Year.

Thanks for a wonderful (and fun) season!

Read A banner year for Bums in the Record Eagle