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Joel Zumaya: Zoom-Zooming Out of Motown
Last we saw Joel Zumaya on a big-league diamond, he was throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at Comerica Park. He acknowledged the big cheers, and for the briefest of moments, it was 2006 all over again...
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Detroit Lions Playoff Loss Is GM Martin Mayhew's Mulligan
They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight. Well, the Detroit Lions didn’t; they brought a shotgun. Trouble is, the New Orleans Saints have a howitzer...
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The Detroit Lions: Team of the 2010s?
So here they come marching into New Orleans, this previously bedraggled pro football franchise, in search of something which has eluded them 53 of the past 54 years...
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The Year in Detroit Sports, 2011: The Best (and Worst) of Greg Eno
In a flash, a whirr and a blur, another year in sports came and went. 2011, it seemed, might have been missed had you blinked. And what a year it was for Detroit sports...
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Detroit Lions Coach Jim Schwartz About to Begin New Era of Success
(note: this column was written BEFORE Saturday's Lions-Chargers game) Wayne Fontes was a rotund, big bear of a man, a cigar-chomping, round-faced football coach of Portuguese descent...
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Detroit Lions' Win in Oakland Biggest for Franchise in Years
The man with half a foot and a stump for an arm trotted onto the field at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans on Nov. 8, 1970. The least likely pro football record holder was a pudgy, roly-poly man with what looked like a block of wood for a right foot...
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Detroit Pistons: Coach Lawrence Frank Has to Make the Team Likable
Auburn Hills is a 35-minute drive north of Detroit. Make that almost an hour if you dare try it in the shadow of 5:00 traffic...
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Detroit Lions Win, but Not Before Their Playoff Lives Flash Before Their Eyes
The penalty was for one yard. Three measly feet. Yet it seemed like a mile, and it felt like a reminder to us of Lions ineptitude and bad timing...
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Gerald Laird Returns to Detroit Tigers, This Time To Be "Mr. Backup"
The only difference, as far as I can see, between the backup catcher in baseball and the backup quarterback in football is that no one clamors for the former to play...
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Detroit Lions: The NFL's Not-Ready-for-Prime Time Players
October seems like eons ago. It was a grand time, October was. The Tigers were thrilling us in the playoffs. The Red Wings were about to begin another Cup quest. The Pistons were forcibly removed from our thoughts, thank God...
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Detroit Red Wings Jimmy Howard Has Ended Team's Goalie Controversies
The most celebrated goaltender in Detroit Red Wings history—indeed, maybe in NHL history—was a tormented man...
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Detroit Lions Ndamukong Suh: His Style Would Have Fit NFL Nicely 40+ Years Ago
Ndamukong Suh was born about 40 years too late. Suh, the Lions' defensive tackle with a fuse shorter than Verne Troyer, would have been right at home playing in the NFL of the 1960s and '70s...
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Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander Is on Track for a Hall of Fame Career
If Justin Verlander can ever figure out how to pitch in the month of April, he might flirt with 30 wins every year, not 20. Verlander, the AL Cy Young and MVP winner for 2011, went to Lakeland last February on a mission...
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Detroit Lions Kevin Smith: A Story Too Good To Be True, Long-Term?
The Lions have a shiny 7-3 record because of a quarterback who came to Detroit after 0-16 and a defensive tackle who came a year after that...
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Former Detroit Lions Guard Mike Utley Determined to Do His Own "Walk-Off"
I don’t know if it’s in the front of the NFL player’s mind, the middle, or the back, but it’s in there somewhere. The idea that when you run onto the field, you might not run off is in there somewhere...
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Matthew Stafford Needs to Be Fixed If Detroit Lions Are to Make a Playoff Run
Maybe Matthew Stafford wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints as he committed crimes against football humanity...
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Penn State Scandal: Paterno's Self-Suppression of Power Protected Wrong People
The irony is, Joe Paterno could have covered the spread easily. He had home field advantage. He had all the weapons at his disposal. It was a cupcake on the schedule...
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Do I Miss the NBA? Depends on Which One You Mean
Right about now, if the Hatfields and the McCoys had been able to settle their differences (that would be the players and the owners, or vice versa), the NBA season would be just underway...
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Magglio Ordonez: Career of Detroit Tigers Slugger Didn't End as It Should Have
When Magglio Ordonez first put on a Detroit Tigers uniform, he could barely move. The Tigers signed Ordonez from the Chicago White Sox as a free agent after the 2004 season...
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The 2011 Detroit Lions Definitely Not the 2007 Version
This time, the other guys are disillusioned about their supposed franchise quarterback. This time, the other team has its falsely-hoped, tenuously-raucous crowd taken out of the game in the very first quarter...
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Detroit Red Wings: Fans, Team Not Prepared for Life Without Nicklas Lidstrom
Nick Lidstrom doesn’t block shots. He doesn’t body check anyone. He’s never thrown an elbow. His next fight will be his first...
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Detroit Red Wings: Will the 7-Year Itch Strike With Coach Mike Babcock?
It’s hockey season in Detroit again. Time to put up with another 82-game grind. In our self-ascribed “Hockeytown,” it’s considered par, not impolite, to look ...
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Detroit Tigers: Where Do They Go from Here?
Burning Questions in the wake of the Tigers ’ 15-5 loss to the Texas Rangers in Game 6 of the ALCS: OK, you have had a couple days to chew on this...
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2011 MLB Playoffs: Miguel Cabrera's Ricochet Might Spark Amazing Comeback
I’d like to be writing this after Game 7 of the ALCS, after the Tigers complete their comeback from a 3-1 deficit to oust the defending American League champion Texas Rangers ...
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2011 MLB Playoffs: Burning Questions After Game 5 of the ALCS
Burning Questions in the wake of the Tigers ’ 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers in Game 5 of the ALCS: It wasn’t classic Justin Verlander , was it? Well, we really haven’t seen that Verlander in several starts now...
