Author: Phil Callihan

Editor-in-Chief, UMGoBlue.COM -- AKA BLUE LEADER -- 1993 University of Michigan Graduate -- GO BLUE!
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A Tale of Two Cities- Boston, Detroit, Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium

I spent Thursday evening at historic Fenway Park in Boston.  On Friday I returned to Michigan to read that Detroit has made plans to tear down historic Tiger Stadium.  Both stadiums opened in 1912 but Fenway Park has a bright future while Tiger Stadium is destined for the wrecking ball.

And it’s sad.

As a season ticketholder the new Tiger stadium I love my nice padded seats, spacious aisles, and variety of modern concesssions.  But sitting in Fenway Park I felt nostalgic for old Tiger Stadium.  I noticed that Fenway has the same type of pillar construction that results in some obstructed views and tiny seats with little leg room.  I recalled all the great players who had played there and history that the place represents.  It along with Yankee Stadium (slated to be replaced in the next decade) and Wrigley Field are truly cathedrals of the game.

The Tigers did a great job of convincing the public of the need for a new stadium.  They stopped doing basic maintenance the last few seasons and let people convince themselves that cracked paint somehow proved that the old stadium was unable to be saved.  Make no mistake- the decision to replace Tiger Stadium was a choice and different ownership could have made a decision to renovate rather then build new.

Sitting in Fenway and seeing an old ball park meticously preserved reminded me that the decision to leave Tiger Stadium for the gleaming new park says more about us as sports fans than anything else.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said today that tearing down old Tiger Stadium gives the surrounding neighborhood the best chance to rebound.  No Mr. Mayor, the best chance for the surrounding neighborhood was to not desert Tiger Stadium in the first place.

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You can’t hit what you’re not aiming at

For years Michigan football coaches have chanted same mantra:

Big Ten Championship, Rose Bowl…

Big Ten Championship, Rose Bowl…

But things have changed.  The Rose Bowl is no longer the exclusive domain of the Big Ten and Pac Ten conferences.  Now Included in the BCS rotation, the Rose Bowl periodically becomes the home of the National Championship game.

And it’s time for Michigan to change with the times.  And it doesn’t mean that the Big Ten Title is any less desirable but there’s now a higher goal.

Other Michigan teams regularly aim for a National Championhship and manage to win their conference title along the way. 

No softball team east of the Mississippi river had evert won a National Championship.  It didn’t stop the Michigan softball team from aiming year in and year out for a National Championship.  Did they treasure their Big Ten Championships?  Sure, but there was a larger goal, one that they were able to achieve despite participating in a sport dominated by warm weather schools. 

Does the Michigan football team lack the same gumption to shoot for the highest goal available?

True, football does regularly lose players early to the NFL which hampers the Wolverine cause.  But no sport have been ravaged by early departures worse than Michigan hockey.  But every season coach Red Berenson leads his team in an attempt to capture a National Championship.  It doesn’t matter how many freshman need to play critical roles during the upcoming season. 

The goal is the same…National Championship or bust.  And it doesn’t dim their desire for a conference championship.

Does the Michigan football team lack the resources available to the hockey team?

Of course not.  The only thing lacking is an acknolwdgement that a National Champinship shoould now be the goal every season.

Two Titles,  National & Big Ten…

Two Titles,  National & Big Ten…

It’s time to re-examine and the lore of Michigan football history.  The Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl were the goal because that was the ultimate goal available for most of Michigan football history.  The goal has been moved, it’s time for Michigan football to expand its vision. 

This isn’t a betrayal of Michigan tradition.  The “Leaders and Best” should aim for the highest goal available.

After all you can’t hit what you’re not aiming at.

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Twas the Night Before Practice

Today I visited the Big House and Schembechler Hall in anticipation of the first day of practice tomorrow..  I was thinking about writing an aticle called, “The Calm Before the Storm,” but as I walked around I kept thinking how it was really more like the night before Christmas.

 

‘Twas the night before Fall practice, and all through the Big House

Not a creature was stirring, not even a gopher;

The helmets were hung by the lockers with care,

In hopes that a National Championship soon would be there;

The players were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of hotties danced in their heads;

With my wife sleeping soundly, and I resting too,

Had just settled down for a long summer’s nap,

When at Fort Schembechler there arose such a clatter,

I drove in from Pittsfield to see what was the matter.

Away to the athletic campus I flew like a flash,

Jumped out of car and ran to the Stadium.

The moon on the breast of prescription athletic turf below

Gave the lustre of mid-day to the scoreboards above,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But the Michigan Assistant Coaches, harnessed like reindeer,

With a stern old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it had to be Lloyd!

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Debord! now, Campbell! now, English and Jackson!

On, Loeffler! on Moeller! on, Stripling and Szabo!

From Endzone to endzone! Now to the Press Box you go!

Now blitz away! pass away! tackle away all!”

As old programs that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the Big House the coursers they flew,

With a book full of plays, and Lloyd Carr too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard the pacing and stirring of each coach’s foot.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down to the sideline came Lloyd with a bound.

He was dressed all in blue, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all from Nike with Maize accents to boot;

A bundle of playbooks he had flung on his back,

Ready for the new season soon to begin.

His eyes — how they burned! his jaw was set firm!

His cheeks were pale, while his nose fared like a bull!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And his hair had specks of white from last year’s 7-5 toll;

He had a serious face and hardly no belly,

But his jowls shook, when he screamed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was stern and serious, hardly a jolly old elf,

But I smirked when I saw him, in spite of myself;

For I know that opponents of Michigan were in for a shock!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And flipping through playbooks; he then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose, as if to lecture a ref,

he seemed ready for the challenge ahead

He gave a final nod, and through the tunnel he strode;

To his coaches gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, as he disappeared out of sight,

“Team Sleep well, for tomorrow WE GET TO WORK!”