This is one event I wish I could have been at. Steve Yzerman’s jersey was retired by the Detroit Red Wings last night, as family, friends, fans, teammates and club officials honored “The Captain” one last time.

Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images

The ceremony lasted around an hour and a half and afterwards the Wings defeated the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 to move into a tie for first place in the Central Division.

Steve Yzerman is many fans favorite All-Time Red Wing, for many different reasons. My reasons are his work ethic and leadership. He was a quiet leader, who led by example, and always did whatever was asked of him. Even after years of being the top scorer he adjusted his game for the better of the team. Not just anyone would do that.

Yzerman is currently learning the ropes of the business side of hockey and about running a team, and hopefully will remain with the Wings for a long time.

You can view some of Yzerman’s top moments and more here.

Read Red Wings honor Yzerman, beat Ducks 2-1 at Yahoo! Sports

Thanks again for all the memories.

The Detroit News has compiled a list of the Top Michigan athletes by jersey number. Check it out and let them know of any they missed…

Read Top 99 Athletes in the Detroit News

My View: Here’s some of my favorite jersey numbers from the list above…

#20 - Billy Sims is the main reason, but Barry Sanders has something to do with it too.

#19 - My all-time favorite Red Wing.

#52 - Hey, she’s from Leelanau County, plus she’s a great player!

#11 & #4 - They will always be together in my book as the duo led the Pistons to their first two titles.

#3 - My all-time favorite Tiger.

Sorry for the lack of posts, alot of the Detroit Sports Blogs I visit seem to have hit the same wall, namely postseason baseball! The Tigers have taken up lots of my spare time and along with the regular everyday busy life the blog has suffered. Nevertheless, here’s my thoughts on the current state of Detroit Sports!

Detroit Tigers - WOW! and WOW! Everyone in northern Michigan seems to be buzzing with World Series fever as the Tigers get set to face the Cardinals/Mets winner. I am pulling for the Cards because their offense doesn’t seem as scary. I know, I know, what about Pujols? He is scary, but I think top to bottom the Mets lineup is stronger. Plus I would love to see a Leyland vs. LaRussa World Series. I know, they don’t actually play, but seeing them match wits head to head would be alot of fun.

I will be travelling down to the Motor City this weekend, no tickets unfortunately, but will probably try to cruise down and check out the craziness that will be at Comerica Park. I can’t wait to see it!

Check out lots of Detroit Tigers Info at Absolute Michigan

Detroit Lions - Lost in World Series fever is the fact that our beloved Lions won their first game of the season. Coach Rod Marinelli was awarded the game ball and he deserves it. I know it doesn’t show up in the overall record, but I am seeing some good things out of our Detroit Lions. They have been competitive in every game but one, and could easily be .500 with a break here or there. I think Marinelli will get this turned around, despite Millen’s goofs and I expect a playoff team possibly next season, but for sure in Marinelli Season 3.

Detroit Pistons - I have seen lots of positive press about Jason Maxiell and I have to say I am excited about the upcoming Pistons season. They will miss Big Ben, but this team will score more and be much better offensively, which might be necessary as the “D” might be down from what Pistons fans have seen the last few seasons. Either way, the Pistons will contend for the Eastern crown.

Detroit Red Wings - I will admit, haven’t really given much attention to the Wings yet, but once the World Series is over, they will be back on my radar.

Detroit Shock - Their second WNBA Title came without much of a word from me, so for that I must apologize. Congrats! I keep wondering why no NBA team has made Bill Laimbeer an NBA coach!

Michigan Wolverines - #3 in the BCS and could be setting things up for a #1 vs. #2 matchup when they travel to Ohio State. That’s something I have been predicting all along and now it’s beginning to look like I may have finally been right about something.

Michigan State Spartans - After the Illinois loss, I have been down on my Spartans. Now 3-4 and clinging to a possible bowl bid, they are through the worst of the schedule. I don’t know if there’s enough left in the tank, but John L. will give it his best shot.

That’s a quick look into the mind, not much going on as you can tell, but I will try to post more frequently and will try to snag some photos from my Detroit trip.

Go Tigers!*

*From what I can tell this is the new way to say Good-bye in northern Michigan!

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!

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

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

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
Order the Books

Want to meet a former Red Wing and help support a good cause? You can on Saturday, August 19th at the Best Buy in Traverse City. Former Red Wing Larionov will be signing copies of his DVD “Farewell from Moscow - The Igor Larionov Farewell Game” from 11:30am to 1 pm. A portion of the proceeds from DVD sales will benefit the Igor Larionov Youth Hockey Charitable Foundation.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release…

The award-winning “Farewell From Moscow: The Igor Larionov Farewell Game” is a must-have for the sports-lover’s collection. Chrome Bumper Film’s A-list director John “QUIG” Quigley, was named “Best Director ~ Documentary” at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (NYIIFVF) for his work on the documentary/DVD which chronicles all the excitement, energy and passion of Larionov’s final game in its entirety while also giving fans a rare behind-the-scenes look at Larionov with candid interviews from him and former teammates and coaches. The documentary also chronicles the players’ entire weekend in Moscow as part of the cutting-edge DVD and is also loaded with many extras, including game highlights spanning Larionov’s career, and more than 150 photos.

“Farewell From Moscow: The Igor Larionov Farewell Game” is currently available for purchase at Best Buy. The DVD signing at the Traverse City Best Buy is located at 2577 N US Highway 31 S. A portion of the proceeds from all DVD sales will be donated to The Igor Larionov Youth Hockey Charitable Foundation.

Here’s another…

No Lie. It is confirmed that Dominik Hasek will sign with the Red Wings for a 1 year deal.

Read Red Wings bring back Hasek for third time at ESPN.com

Detroit Red Wings annual training camp tickets, as well as the NHL Prospects Tournament will go on sale Saturday, July 29th from 10am to 3pm.

Red Wings training camp features scrimmages on September 15th, 16th and 17th, and the Gold Medal game on September 18th.

NHL Prospects Tournament will be Sept. 8th through 12th and feature the following eight teams - Detroit, Columbus, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Atlanta, St. Louis, N.Y. Rangers and Dallas.

IMPORTANT!

The only time tickets for the Red Wings training camp and the NHL Prospects Tournament will be on sale in person will be Saturday. After Aug. 1, tickets will be available at www.centreice.org.

Read Wings camp tickets on sale Saturday in the Record Eagle

Visit Centre I.C.E. on the web

Here’s a couple of articles I found this morning…

ESPN the Magazine’s EJ Hradek remembers his top 10 Steve Yzerman moments. I was going to try to pick my own top 10, but couldn’t come close to narrowing it down, so thought I might as well link to a good list that had all of mine on it…

Read My Top 10 Steve Yzerman moments at ESPN.com

ESPN’s Scott Burnside takes a look at the Captain’s career and some of the highlights along the way.

Read Stevie Y showed why success, stardom rarely co-exist at ESPN.com

Well, it happened, I ran out of time to put together a good post on the above mentioned subjects, so I went ahead and found some good bloggers and articles about them. Of course I will always leave my little comments!

The Captain retires
We all knew this day was coming and of course it’s a very sad day for Red Wings fans. The greatest Red Wing ever (I’m a child of the seventies) was fun to watch play and lead by his example. There would be no Hockeytown without Stevie Y.

Read Yzerman’s Backloaded Career Almost Happened In Ottawa at Out of Bounds

Big Ben signs with Bulls
I was 50/50 on whether I wanted him back or not, so it wasn’t a big surprise or a big letdown. I liked that Dumars wasn’t going to go overboard to keep him and thought he made a more than fair offer. I think Big Ben’s best days are behind him, so a 4-year deal was more than I wanted to see anyway. I will cheer him when he’s not playing the Pistons. Thanks for the memories Big Ben!

Read Big Ben’s gone, off to Chicago at Sweaty Men Endeavors

Another good article on both…

Read Double whammy in the Detroit News

Tigers still in 1st
Although listening to the “experts” on the radio, not many are giving them a chance to be in 1st at season’s end. It’s going to come down to the starting rotation if that can happen or not. I still believe it can. Regardless of what happens I think this season can be considered a success and a big building block for the future.

Read Tigers hope pitching rotation holds up during second half at MLive

Beach Bums win again!
So far the Traverse City Beach Bums are a perfect 3-0 when I am in attendance. Last night I honestly didn’t get to pay much attention to the 9-0 win as I was busy chasing a 3 year old and a 22 month old around in the lawn seats. The lawn by the way is a great place to watch from. The 4th of July fireworks were spectacular as well!

Read Casoli twirls third straight shutout in 9-0 Beach Bums win at TCBeachBums.com

Insider writes:

Sportsnet in Canada reports that Yzerman is retiring today @ 1 pm.

The Wings have announced a press conference at 1 pm today, and this was the speculation, stay tuned for more details…

Read Wings call news conference about Yzerman at Yahoo! Sports

IT’S OFFICIAL!

Thanks for the great memories Steve!

Sorry it’s been slow around here, but haven’t had much of a chance to get to the blog. Here’s my thoughts on the latest from the world of sports…

Tigers continue winning streak
The bats are alive again, and combine that with the continued success of the starting pitching means another winning streak for our Tigers! I can’t even imagine how lame Detroit sports would be right now without the Tigers leading the majors. Getting anxious for my first trip to Comerica in a couple of years on Sunday to see the Tigers and Cardinals go at it. You know things are going well when rotation fill-ins (rookie Zach Miner) throw five-hitters.

Wings looking at Luongo?
Rumor has it that as early as this weekend Florida Panthers goalie Robert Luongo could be traded. The Wings, Vancouver and Los Angeles are the frontrunners. This would be a great deal for Detroit and would give them a star goalie they didn’t have last year.

NBA Champion Miami Heat, argh!
I will admit I was cheering for Dallas, which could explain why they lost, so it hurt when the Miami Heat finished them off with four consecutive wins last night to claim the NBA Title. Dwayne Wade, all I can say is “that guy is good!” I am laughing though at people comparing him to Jordan though. Jordan never had a 7′ 2″ center to help him drive to the basket and create space. I am guessing that without Shaq, the Heat wouldn’t have won the title. End of story.

I really think this Marinelli guy is going to be good
The attitude and the attention to detail he is demanding is exactly what the Lions franchise needed. I am still a little nervous about the quarterback position, but it can’t get any worse, so I guess that’s a positive.

My busy week continues as tonight is a trip to Wuerfel Park to see the Beach Bums tangle with the Evansville Otters!