On A Pale Horse

I don't know about other states football rivalries but here in Michigan we've got this huge one - The University of Michigan Wolverines versus Ohio State Buckeyes. Whoo hoo. I suppose I care a little more now that I don't have to hide my head in embarrassment. My ex and I would walk into our local watering hole and he would wear his Ohio State shirt among a sea of Blue & Maize. Well this would usually raise a few insults and some back & forth stat throwing generally ending up in someone saying "Well Ohio just sucks" and/or "UofM is just a bunch of spoiled rich kid brats". Good times.

Bo Schembechler is a LEGENDARY football coach. He coached the Wolverines from 1969 through the end of the 1989 season. He won 235 games. He went to 17 bowl games in 21 years, 10 of those games were the Rose Bowl. Even though he was born in Ohio (and earned his Masters Degree at Ohio State), Schembechler became a fixture in Michigan sports. He was the Athletic Director at UofM from 89-90, President of the Detroit Tigers from 90-92 and stayed on as a sports anaylst for the show "The Big Ten Ticket" at Channel 7 - Detroits ABC affiliate.

The UofM & OS game is traditionally the last game of the year for both teams. This year is particularly an important match up because Ohio State is ranked Number 1 while UofM holds on to the Number 2 spot in the Big 10. Schembechler recently stated about this weekends upcoming game that it was "About as big as it gets, I see this game as being a great classic." I'm sure it's going to be although shrouded with this unfortunate tragedy.

Mr. Schembechler collapsed during a broadcast in October. He was hospitalized and device was implanted in his chest to regulate his heart beat. He returned to work shortly after the procedure. He again collapsed again while taping his show and passed away from an apparent heart attack.

April 1, 1929 - November 17, 2006
RIP

Labels: 1929 births, 2006 November deaths, heart attack, Michigan, sports

I've been trying to think back over my life and find something that I was truly spectacular at...something that would make me stand out among the rest...something that people would be in awe of now AND years from now. I couldn't come up with one damn thing, well there is that one thing but I don't want to brag. Besides I might have to charge a $29.99 monthly fee. I figure all I need is a domain, some good pics, a webmaster (heh heh) probably a couple of hundred dollar investment and then I could post my new site up on the world wide web. Within a year I could easily gross around $250 bucks, right? Right.

But seriously there isn't anything about me that would lend itself to having a fan club. You know the cool kind with membership cards, buttons and newsletters. So I'm just a bit sad when I read about a horse that has a fan club. I love horses. I miss riding. But I don't think I've ever loved a horse enough to dedicate a website for one. But Desert Orchid wasn't any old horse, he was a legend in England. He won the King George VI Chase a record four times and was adored for his racing performances and his incredible jumps. One of his more fascinating wins was in 1989...

A crowd of over 58,000 witnessed Desert Orchid's immense effort to overhaul the mud-loving Yahoo in the final stages of the race. After his one and a half length victory, Desert Orchid's rider, Simon Sherwood said: "I've never known a horse so brave. He hated every step of the way in the ground and dug as deep as he could possibly go". Three cheers were called as Desert Orchid was unsaddled, surrounded bythousands of approving fans. The nation's favourite steeplechaser had not let them down. http://www.famousracehorses.co.uk/dessie/descareer.htm

Retirement, in 1991, couldn't keep the old boy down. He was often seen at charity events and would make special appearances. On Christmas and for his Birthday he would receive cards and treats every year from his legions of adoring fans. His legend and name will live on when on December 27, 2006 the Inaugural Desert Orchid Chase will be run at Kempton Park.

April 11, 1979 - November 13, 2006.

Labels: 1979 births, 2006 November deaths, animal, sports

I've been depressed pretty much as long as I can remember. I've tried drugs and loved them and want to do more but have been so cheap that I wasn't willing to dole out the cash, mainly because I loved having heat and food more. Call me crazy.

It always pains me to see people that have a huge opportunity that whittle away this chance because of drugs.

Darrell Russell was drafted out of USC in 1997 to the Oakland Raiders and was a two time Pro-Bowl player. In 2001 he was tested and ultimately banned from the NFL for a banned substance. He returned in 2003 by playing eight games with the Redskins; he last played with the Tampa Bay Bucceneers testing positive again.

He was killed December 15th in a car crash with fellow USC player Michael Bastianelli.

May 27, 1976 - December 15, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1976 births, 2005 December deaths, accident, sports

In 1991 my Grandpa M. passed away which gave way to the second inheritance that I blew through like a whore on Michigan Avenue. I dropped coin on some of the dumbest things ever: comic books, aquarium supplies, feeder fish (what fun), Tyco racetrack sets, velvet Bruce Springsteen paintings, endless hours of playing Street Fighter II and, the point of this rant, tickets to WWF matches. And yes, they were WWF matches, not this WWE shit. I'm talking about the early 90's here when wrestling was going through a major wane, when you could get up front and personal with the wrestlers because there wasn't a damn soul in the Palace of Auburn Hills, when I was dating Booby. Aw god was it great.

I never saw Eddie Guerrero wrestle. I don't give a rat's tushy about wrestling anymore - it's just another thing that I make fun of my husband for watching.

On November 13th Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota at the Marriott City Center Hotel. The autopsy concluded that he passed away from heart failure from an undiagnosed heart disease possibly brought on by his past troubles with alcohol and drug abuse.

October 9, 1968 - November 13, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1968 births, 2005 November deaths, heart failure, sports

I have a sweat fetish. I know, I know, that's pretty damn nasty but we all have those little things that gets us off, don't we?
Over the course of many years I've developed a discriminating nose for sweat and I must say that basketball players have THE best sweat of them all, followed closely by hockey players. And wouldn't you know it, I loathe both of those sports. Go figure.
Which means that I probably would have appreciated Jason Collier but scent but wouldn't know who the hell he was if he passed me in the street.

Mr. Collier started his NBA career in 2000 when he was drafted out of Georgia Tech. He was most recently playing with the Atlanta Hawks.

He passed away from cardiac arrest while being transported to the hospital.

September 8, 1977 - October 15, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1977 births, 2006 October deaths, cardiac arrest, sports

When I was a kid fishing was fun. My grandpa or camp counsler would thread a worm on to a hook, I would drop it in the water, then sit around and get a tan. That's what I called fishing. However there would be the rare moment when something would actually nip at my worm and catch a bit of hook and viola I had caught a fish. I'd reel it back into the boat someone would take it off the hook and drop it back into the water. Later on in life I'd go fishing with my boyfriend as an excuse to sit out on the lake and screw. I think his parents knew which made the 'Did you have any luck?' question pretty darn funny. Now fishing is just a pain in the ass. Last time I went out on a boat in the middle of god-knows-where-lake with my boyfriend & his brother. I didn't tan, in fact I got baked to a crispy red and I had to hang my butt over the back of the boat to pee - right in front of my boyfriends brother, a guy I had only met a few times.
So when my husband now says to me he's going fishing I let him have his day - I actually encourage him just so I can be by myself sometimes. But he's always talking about that he needs this for this kind of fish and that for this kind of water, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Elwood Perry is the reason that my husband speaks this weird foreign language.

In 1984, George Pazik, publisher of Fishing Facts magazine, said Mr. Perry began the "whole modern era of freshwater fishing." In 2000, In-Fisherman magazine named Mr. Perry, a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, one of the nation's 25 most influential anglers. His bread & butter came from developing the Spoonplug, a different kind of lure but his style of fishing won him his respect.

July 10, 1915 - August 12, 2005

Labels: 1915 births, 2005 August deaths, sports, undisclosed causes

Football is the one sport that I can actually sit through and not be completely bored.
I loathe basketball, bored to no end with baseball, and even though I come from Hockeytown, I'm not much of a hockey fan. This is a manly sport. You've got big burly linesmen, little quarterbacks and migit kickers. The one thing I don't like about football, as with most things, it comes earlier and earlier every year. Pretty soon we're going to have football starting in June. There I go again...mumbling on about how fast time flies. I don't know much about Thomas Herrion, I know he was a football player and I know he was pretty damn young. It's pretty much common sense that you shouldn't stay out in really hot weather for too long of a period because you get heat stroke. They scold you if you leave your dog out too long...but if you're paying $50/ticket those players better damn well sweat their ass off in hot muggy weather for as long as they have to, so you can get your moneys worth. Just to be fair I shouldn't say that the heat was the cause of Mr. Herrions death, there's family history, there's diet, overall health (which the NFL monitors) it could be a number of things time will only tell.

December 15, 1981 d. August 21, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1981 births, 2005 August deaths, sports, undisclosed causes

Back in grade school one of my friends bragged that her dad was on pit crew. She was pretty excited about it, I on the other hand, had absolutely no clue what a pit crew was and why that was important. I spent the night at her house once and she asked her dad to tell some stories and show off the trophies and pictures. I was still baffled.
Many, many, many years later I marry a NASCAR fan. He knows what a pit crew is, he knows what a spotter is, he knows all this crap about racing and now I do too.
Clifton "Coo Coo" Marlin, father of Sterling Martin, raced NASCAR from 1966 to 1980. He never won a race in his 165 races but finished in the top 10 in nearly a third of the races he started.

He passed away after battling lung cancer in his home town of Columbia, Tennessee, 300 Miles from Bristol.

RIP
January 3, 1932 - August 14, 2005

Labels: 1932 births, 2005 August deaths, cancer, related to someone famous, sports

I rag on Detroit a lot. The city deserves it. We clean up nice for the cameras (All Star Game, Superbowl XXL) but the city is still a shithole. We've got the Tigers, the Red Wings, the Pistons, the Shock, MSU but we don't have a football team and we haven't had one since William Clay Ford Sr bought the team in the early 60's. But that doesn't mean we haven't had great players like Barry Sanders, Billy Sims, Lem Barney, Gus Frerotte - well I liked him. We've had our share of jokes: Scott Mitchell, Wayne Fonts, Monte Clark, Charlie Batch but even though these guys performed they never really got us anywhere.
But enough bitching...
Ray Oldman, a corner back, played with the Lions 1980 - 1982 passed away on Saturday, July 23rd during a bicycle ride.
By the time he reached the Lions he was a seasoned veteran having won the Super Bowl in 1978 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also played with the New York Giants and the now defunct Baltimore Colts. He finished up his 10 year career and moved to Tennessee where he was working as a consultant for FranChoice.
I know this is horrid time to mention my personal creed but that is just my style "Eat Well, Exercise and Die Anyway"

February 22, 1951 - July 23, 2005
R.I.P.

Labels: 1951 births, 2005 July deaths, Michigan, sports