Tonight, we look at the catchers and infielders on the Tigers' 40-man roster as the team assembles in Lakeland this month. Leyland will tell you that it's much more the fault of the Tigers not hitting during the World Series than some pitching errors. This is mostly LeylandSpeak, but there's work that has been and that needs to be done with this ( Read more... )

I have been in the newspaper business now for exactly 37 days (it doesn't seem that long). I remain (by a matter of minutes), low man on the newsroom totem pole. Sort of. A packet was delivered to the paper from the Michigan DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources), addressed to the "Outdoors Editor." There was no doubt this was for me, and that brought up ( Read more... )

Now that Super Bowl XLI has been relegated to the dustbin of history (more on that in a bit), we've got a little time on our hands in the sports world. Selection Sunday is just over a month away, and until then, we've got about a month of the regular season grind in the NBA, NHL and college basketball, not to mention the odd story about the Latin ( Read more... )

For the first time in my life, I am proud to announce I have a "place of my own." It's that cozy one-bedroom above a coffee shop in downtown Escanaba, but now, it's my (well, for rental purposes) cozy one-bedroom. I'd encourage you to check Facebook or e-mail me if you want an address to send cards, or lavish housewarming gifts. One that would be ( Read more... )

We're going to try and make up the deficit in the journal using a rare tool: brevity. I'm expected to write tightly at work, and I sure don't do it here. So, I'm going to keep everything to a paragraph of historical details or less. There may be more allowance for opinion and side stuff, but I need sleep and don't need to discuss the relative ( Read more... )

Friends ( Read more... )

When I was in high school, I spent many Friday and Saturday nights at the Berry Events Center watching NMU's hockey team take on the CCHA and beyond. Because of living so far from Marquette, my hockey viewing while in college was normally no more than 1 or 2 games a season. Now that I'm at home and won't be working many Saturday nights, I have ( Read more... )

One of the vital duties of any small-town sports reporter is the covering of high school sports. Friday night is the biggest night for that, and therefore, I was in the office tonight, waiting for calls from coaches on the evening's results. After they called, we wrote them up as soon as we could so that they could go on the page as soon as ( Read more... )

I had a feeling today might be rough. After all, I was out of bed before 5:30 a.m. That's never a good sign. However, I didn't fall asleep at the wheel on the way down to Escanaba or on the way back, and in between, I learned several skills, met folks and performed several useful duties. As Rick told me when I was talking to him today, "The ( Read more... )

Every Wednesday afternoon, there is a staff meeting for the newsroom folks. Besides the usual pitching of stories and announcements for the good of the group, today, the newsroom staff introduced themselves. I already know quite a bit about Denny, my boss, but when he introduced himself to the group, he said, "And I have the best job in the ( Read more... )