THIS COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE
QUICK QUIZ
Name the only National Basketball Association player ever to lead the NBA in scoring and assists in the same season.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“The moment you let your emotions dictate your actions on the field, you’re already defeated.” – Former New York Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera.
“Anything that goes up that high and travels that far ought to have a stewardess on it.” – Sam Deluca, describing a Ray Guy punt.
“Goaltending is a normal job. Sure! How would you like it in your job if every time you make a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and fifteen thousand people stood up and yelled at you?” – Former NHL netminder Jacques Plante.
SPIRIT ICERS OPEN TRAINING CAMP AT SAGINAW BAY ICE ARENA
A total of 45 players will hit the ice this week for the Saginaw Spirit hockey team’s 2023 training camp.
Spirit General Manager Dave Drinkill recently released his full roster for the training camp, which features 24 forwards, 14 defenseman, and seven goaltenders. They will hit the ice at the Saginaw-Bay Ice Areana, 6129 Bay Road, August 28-30.
The training camp is open to the public.
The roster includes 19 returning players from the 2022-2023 squad. Overagers are Davis ‘T-Bone’ Codd, Braden Haché, Dean Loukus, and Roberto Mancini.
Making a bid to make the team are forwards David Brown, Cooper Bordeaux, Jacobh Cloutier, Codd, Cruz Ferguson, Sebastien Gervais, Duncan Grube, Griffin Grundner, Hunter Haight, Carson Harmer, Harrison Koszubowski, Ryan Koss, Loukus, Colem Mangone, Luke McNamara, Collumk McAuley, Michael Misa, Lincoln Moore, Matyas Sapovaliv, Nic Sima, Liam Storch, Joey Willis, Aieden Young, and Valentin Zhugin.
Vying for defenseman jobs are Hayden Barch, Will Bishop, P.J. Forgione, Josh Glavin, James Guo, Hache, Graydon Jones, Mancini, Tyler McGuire, Candon O’Neill, Zayne Parekh, Julian Stubgen, Adam Varga, and Tyler Vorstadt.
Netminder hopefuls include Xavier Bussiere, John Chartrand, Sammy DiBlasi, Brett Fullerton, Calvin Gardner, Andrew Oke, and Kaleb Papineau.
* * *
The Saginaw Spirit has extended the contract of general manager Dave Drinkill and head coach Chris Lazary through the 2023-24 season.
Drinkill will begin his sixth season with the Spirit after COVID-19 wiped out the 2020-21 Ontario Hockey League campaign. He is the winningest general manager in Spirit history.
“On behalf of owner Dick Garber, we recognize the strong effort that Dave Drinkill and Chris Lazary demonstrate every day as our General Manager and Head Coach,” said Spirit President and Managing Partner Craig Goslin.
“Our ultimate goal is to win an OHL Championship for our community. Dave, Chris, and their entire staff has built a championship-contending roster with back-to-back West Division Championships and a culture of development for our players that, we feel, is second to none. The total player development program mirrors the Saginaw Spirit core values of strong work ethic, loyalty, pride, integrity, empathy, respect and honesty, as well as matches our mission statement of developing young talented athletes into successful people, on and off the ice.”
Lazary, meanwhile, enters his second full season as head coach and fifth year behind the Spirit bench after being named associate coach prior to the 2016-17 season. His .704 regular-season winning percentage is the highest of any head coach in Spirit franchise history.
The Saginaw Spirit will return to the ice for the Ontario Hockey League season which is set to start on October 7.
For more information on the 2023-2024 season, visit saginawspirit.com or follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
IDLE THOUGHTS
In 1935, longtime minor league umpire Harry “Steamboat” Johnson published a book about his career and brought copies to ballparks to sell to fans before games. One day in Mobile, Alabama, Johnson made a bad call and dozens of books came flying down from the stands. He had the batboy collect all of the books so he could sell them the next day in another city.
Detroit Lions receiver Jameson Williams, suspended for the first six games of the season, said he was unaware of the National Football League gambling policy that he violated. The league suspended former Lions players Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore, along with Washington’s Shaka Toney, for the entire 2023 season for betting on NFL games last year, adding that they may petition for reinstatement. Williams, the No. 12 overall pick in 2022, and teammate Stanley Berryhill were suspended for six games for betting on non-NFL games at a league facility. The former Alabama star, who missed much of his rookie season with a knee injury, bet on college football games while at the Lions’ training facility. For those that don’t know, NFL teams bring in people from outside the organization to talk to the players about off-field rules. It’s a significant loss for Detroit, but it’ll also be a hit to Williams’ bank account. According to Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap, Williams will lose at least $382,906 in salary, as well as $6.877 million in guaranteed salary – $5.37 million of which was set to come in 2024 and 2025.
The Timbers Golf Club is for sale. It is a 6,600-yard, championship course sitting on approximately 213 acres with a maintenance shop, clubhouse, restaurant and banquet facility that holds 275+ people to be entertained. The restaurant and banquet areas have all the kitchen equipment, and tables and chairs. The course was built in 1995 with bent grass tees, fairways and greens that put you in an "Up North" setting without the "Up North" drive. Maintenance equipment is included and stored all year long in the 4,000-square foot maintenance facility. The property also holds the potential to build condominiums that can be used for hospitality purposes such as "Stay and Play Packages" The golf course and practice facility is irrigated with a state of the art, computerized irrigation system utilizing radio control. Over 500 sprinklers ensure the course condition is at its peak. It is listed by Robert Zientek and the listing office is Modern Realty – Midland.
The Johnny Manziel documentary on Netflix reveals how many hours of tape he watched as a Cleveland Browns’ player – zero. Additionally, he had a fourth string college player take drug tests for him. His Dad almost faked a heart attack to get him out of his drug test at the combine. I have absolutely no idea why he didn’t pan out.
The University of Michigan’s name, image and likeness (NIL) efforts now have an important asset, as the Champions Circle, the major collective for student-athletes, has inked a deal as the official partner of Michigan Athletics. Champions Circle can now use the Block “M,” the school’s most recognized emblem, and anything considered Michigan intellectual property for the collective’s marketing and fundraising, as well as any other activities that raise money for NIL. "The Block ‘M’ is the most powerful brand in collegiate athletics,” Anna Britnell, director of Champions Circle, said in a release. “This partnership will afford Champions Circle the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Michigan to greatly enhance the NIL landscape for Michigan student-athletes.” The deal was brokered by LEARFIELD’s Michigan Sports Properties, which is U-M’s official media-rights partner. This agreement allows Champions Circle to collaborate with various Michigan sports properties to develop more NIL opportunities. Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh last month publicly endorsed Champions Circle, created by Valiant Management Group, and encouraged fans to contribute to the fund, of which 100% of net proceeds go to student-athletes. Valiant was founded in 2021 and has raised more than $5 million in NIL deals for Michigan athletes. The Champions Circle Golf Classic featuring Harbaugh was a major fundraiser on July 31 at Orchard Lake Country Club, bolstered by a live auction of unique experiences, including golf with Harbaugh and former Michigan quarterback Tom Brady, winner of seven Super Bowls, that went for $165,000.
A coach with Cuba’s first-ever Little League World Series team has gone missing, a tournament official said last Monday. Bayamo Little League coach Jose Perez left the Little League International Grove late Saturday night and did not return, Little League International spokesperson Kevin Fountain said. “Little League International has communicated to all appropriate authorities and will ensure the Bayamo Little League team continues to have the best support and experience while in Williamsport,” Fountain said. This was the Cuban team’s first visit to the LLWS, and Perez’s disappearance came hours after Little League and the Cuban Baseball Federation extended their relationship to 2025, The relationship between Little League and Cuba began in 2019 with the affiliation of 170 youth programs and an entry into the LLWS as part of the World Series expansion in 2021. To get the Cuban national champs from Bayamo to this year’s tournament, Little League worked with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department to get 20 visas for the Cuban team, plus coaches and baseball officials.
In 1893, a batter fouled off a pitch and broke the last bat at the park, so he walked over to a woodpile and picked up an axe. On the next pitch he swung and cut the ball in half – with one half going over the fence. The game ended with the score 2.5 to 2.
Nouvel Catholic Central basketball sharpshooter M.J. Yeager broke the Guinness World Record by drilling 13 three-pointers in one minute with one basketball and with nobody rebounding. The most basketball three pointers in one minute was 12 and was achieved by Anthony Miracola in Temperance (MI) on October 9, 2020. The previous record of 12 was then equaled by Jason Pryor in Yorktown, Virginia, on January 2, 2021.
Jeff Petry will wear uniform number 46 with the Detroit Red Wings, like his dad – Dan Petry – wore with the Detroit Tigers.
The Provo Angels is the only team in baseball that preferred clinching a championship on the road. The rookie league club shared their stadium with Brigham Young University’s baseball team and the ballpark was on BYU’s campus, where alcohol is banned. Provo swept Billings to win the 2004 Pioneer League championship and players sprayed soda, not champagne, in their clubhouse celebration.
Former Detroit Tiger Justin Verlander and Tigers designated hitter Miguel Cabrera tipped their cap/helmet to each other when the two faced each other for the final time on Sunday. Both will be first ballot Hall of Famers.
Saginaw Valley State University’s Cardinal Athletic Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for Friday, October 20th, at SVSU’s Curtiss Hall. The induction class is composed of five student-athletes, two coach/administrators, one athletic department contributor, and one team. Individual inductees include John Darga (cross country/track and field), Becca (Rudey) Schlaff (track and field), Andrea Buxton (volleyball), Liz Mulvaney-Garcia (track and field), Dale Brown (basketball), Robert Maybouer (track and field), Dr. Robert Pratt (basketball), and Joe Vogl (contributor). Additionally, the school’s 1997 national champion bowling team will also be honored.
It was just a tremendous finish to the 2023 Little League World Series’ championship game as California won on a walk-off solo home run by Louis Lappe for a 6-5 win over Curacao. Lappe hit more home runs than any player at the World Series. His fifth and final dinger came on the final swing of the tournament Sunday and put California on top of the Little League world once again. The 6-foot-1 third baseman crushed a walk-off homer in the sixth inning to life his team from El Segundo, Calif. past Curacao. California won five consecutive elimination games en route to it’s eighth Little League World Series title, the most of any state since the championship game was introduced in 1947.
The current National League strikeout leader is Kyle Schwarber with 160. Eugenio Suarez, meanwhile, is the current strikeout leader in the American League with 162. Just an FYI, Tony Gwynn struck out only 188 times during the entire decade of the 1990s.
Whatever happened to Omar Infante?
QUICK QUIZ ANSWER
B. Nate “Tiny” Archibald is the only NBA player to lead the league in both scoring and assists. Archibald averaged 34.0 points-per-game and 11 assists per game during the 1972-73 season.
.
info@review-mag.com
989-780-4162
Aug 28, 2023
Comments (0)