where people are making resolutions (Big Al isn’t going to like #8!) and putting together best of lists for 2007, so it’s a perfect time to add a link to the Record Eagle’s Top 10 Sports Stories of 2007.

One of their stories is about former Leland volleyball star Alisha Glass helping Penn State win the 2007 NCAA Volleyball Championship.

Updated!
Here is the Leelanau Enterprise’s 2007 Year in Review!

After reading a couple of articles previewing this game, I had a feeling this might happen. The Detroit Pistons used the depth of their starting lineup to halt the Boston Celtics home winning streak with a 87-85 win. Chauncey Billups led the Pistons with 28 points including 12 in the 4th quarter. The Celtics are talented but beyond the Big 3, they are young and Billups made them pay with his strong finish. It’s only December, so I’m not going to get too excited, but the Pistons are deeper and match up particularly well against the Celtics.

Read Pistons hand Celtics first home loss at Yahoo! Sports

I am proud to be one of the Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes and vote in the annual DIBS Tiger awards for the year.

Here’s the official release (finally)…

ORDONEZ NAMED TIGERS PLAYER OF YEAR
Verlander top pitcher, Granderson breakout player

DETROIT — The Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes are proud to announce the results of the 2007 DIBS Awards balloting.

DIBS (Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes) is a collection of independent Web sites that cover the Detroit Tigers. Formed by Brian Borawski, Bill Ferris and Ryan Sosin in 2005 with the idea of uniting a community of fans and writers, DIBS is focused on improving and promoting the quality sports coverage taking place on the internet.

Magglio Ordonez was selected by 14 of 16 DIBS voters as the player of the year. The Tigers’ right fielder finished second in Most Valuable Player balloting by baseball writers this season. His .434 on-base-percentage coupled with a .595 slugging (1.029 OPS) made Ordonez a force at the plate all season. He hit 28 home runs and 54 doubles to go with 139 RBI. Curtis Granderson received the remaining two first-place votes. His 20 stolen bases, 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs season put him in rare air, allowing him to join just Willie Mays and Frank “Wildfire” Schulte at the time. A left-handed center fielder, Granderson got on base a .361 rate and slugged .552 (.913OPS). Placido Polanco, who completed an errorless season at second base, placed third overall with two second-place votes an 11 third.

Right-handed starter Justin Verlander was the unanimous selection for Tigers pitcher of the year. His no-hitter pitched against Milwaukee June 12 is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Tigers season, but he was consistent throughout the year and finished 18-6 with an ERA of 3.66 and 1.23 WHIP. He struck out 183 and walked 67 in 201-2/3 innings pitched. Closer Todd Jones finished runner-up with 10 second-place and one third-place votes. He made 38 saves in 44 chances (86.4 percent success) and had a 4.26 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Left-handed middle reliever Bobby Seay placed third overall with two second-place and eight third-place votes. He had a 2.33 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He struck out 38 and walked 15 in 46-1/3 innings pitched.

Granderson was also named breakout player of the year with nine of 16 first-place votes. Utilityman Ryan Raburn, called up from Triple-A Toledo in July, finished second in balloting with four first-place, four second-place and four third-place votes. He got on base at a .304 rate and slugged .507 (.847 OPS) while playing in 49 games. He had four home runs, 12 doubles, two triples and 27 RBI. Pitcher Jair Jurrjens, now a member of the Atlanta Braves organization after being included in a trade for shortstop Edgar Renteria, finished third in voting with one first-place vote, five second-place votes and five third-place votes. Jurrjens started seven games for the Tigers. His ERA was 4.70 to go with a 1.14 WHIP. He struck out 13 and walked 11 in 30-2/3 innings pitched. Receiving his first start Aug. 15, Jurrjens pitched a span of games from Aug. 21 to Sept. 16 where he gave up just one run per game.

The blogs that voted included:

Roar of the Tigers
Mack Avenue Tigers
Out of Bounds/Johnny Grubb
Wayne Fontes Experience
Daily Fungo
Detroit Tiger Tales
Bless You Boys
Leelanau Sports Guy
The Fanhouse
D Town Baseball
Take 75 North
Grandy Report
From the Copa
Detroit Tigers Weblog
Tigerblog
Motown Sports Revival

My picks this year were…

Player of the Year
1. Magglio Ordonez
2. Curtis Granderson
3. Placido Polanco

Pitcher of the Year
1. Justin Verlander
2. Todd Jones
3. Bobby Seay

Breakout of the Year
1. Curtis Granderson
2. Ryan Raburn
3. Jair Jurrjens

Post a comment and share your Tigers of the Year!

Traverse City Beach Bums Vice President and Director of Baseball Operations Jason Wuerfel is gaining one title but losing another. Wuerfel is the Beach Bums new hitting coach but will give up his duties as “DJ Jazzy Jay”.

“I really enjoyed being DJ Jazzy Jay,” said Wuerfel, “but I’m a baseball guy. Baseball is my passion and if I can’t play anymore, I want to be coaching. I need to be coaching.”

Read Wuerfel joins Beach Bums coaching staff at TCBeachBums.com

New Beach Bums Blog!
You can now follow the latest news from the Beach Bums at their new blog www.tcbeachbums.blogspot.com.

WhatIfSports.com has teamed up with Fox Sports and CollegeFootballNews.com to offer 2007 December Madness. Looks like it would be a very interesting playoff if it was real. Sure it’s got it’s drawbacks, like the 11 major conference champions in the field, as clearly some real good teams are missing. But then again, to be crowned National Champion you should have to win your conference!

Check it out at WhatIfSports.com: December Madness 2007