Celebrating Life, not just in Death

  Everyday we find out people that people have died.  It's sad, but it happens everyday and at some point they become regular, routine. Most of the time, perhaps fortunately for us, we don't know who they are. Sometimes it's a soldier killed in battle, or a celebrity death or someone you never met in a town somewhere you've never been. But sometimes, it's someone we know. The longer we are fortunate to live and the more the more people we are fortunate enough to meet, the more likely these daily occurrences will hit close to home, elevating the regular or routine to a painful reflex ranging from tear jerking to heart breaking. I'd have to imagine that most people would, given the chance, eliminate these painful points in their lives. 

   I'm not sure good it'll do, but I'd like to propose maybe it's not so bad. When someone dies, the first thing that happens is we try to come to terms with knowing we'll never see that person here again. But in addition to the sadness that comes from thinking of the future there is a fondness that comes from remembering the past. We are told how they died, but we remember how they lived. We gather round the ones we love and the ones who our loved one lost loved; we laugh, we joke, we cry, we smile...finally. We share stories, remind each other of memories lost or set aside. We confess secrets, fill in the blanks we never got around to filling in ourselves. We celebrate their lives. We do this when people die, but it has nothing to do with death. It's type of emotion that can only life can inspire. 

   I think the mistake we most commonly make is to limit this celebration to the immediate time following their passing. When we're ready to move on from their death we usually seem to move on from their life as well. But why? Life is short, by any measure in the grand scheme painfully so. And the uncertainty, all that is certain is that we won't be here a lot longer than we will be. For those whose time runs out before our own, the most fitting and fulfilling tribute is to never forget, never stop remembering, sharing, celebrating their life for the rest of our own. Living our life to the fullest by honoring what they did to help it be so full and doing so in the company of others, not just alone or in our dreams. When we talk about the ones we loved, tell people about them, they live again. In our words, our hearts and minds, they carry on.

   Last week, during one of those daily occurrences, the person who died was someone I knew. Someone who died well before they should, they I don't imagine there is every a good time for people to lose their loved ones. I hadn't seen or even talked to Brandon Jacks in years, a decade probably. But I was very sad to hear the news because of how happy I am to have known him when I did. Brandon had cancer, stage four, that's what ended his life here. But's it's not what defined him, his strength, courage and positivity and poise are what I'll remember about him, what'll I'll tell people about him. The fight with cancer that took Brandon's life is also what gave hope, inspiration and life to so many others. He first encountered cancer when he was in the eighth grade, the same year that I lost my father to cancer. I was never able to fully grasp what was happening with my Dad, and seeing Brandon being so normal while going through something so extraordinary was one of things that gave me the strength to try and be normal again too. He won his first battle with cancer, willing it into remission and going on to experience high school with his classmates, move on into the real world, get married and have children. But eventually the cancer came back and this time even someone as strong as Brandon, with so much love behind him could not overcome it.

  I will not forget Brandon, and I don't think many other people who were lucky enough to know him will either. My wife knows him now, so do the people I work with, so do a lot of my new friends who I met after Brandon's and my own path lead us in different directions. I told them about him because his story is worth telling and worth hearing. I'll tell my children about him so they know how fortunate they are and how fragile life is. His children will, I can only hope and imagine, constantly be reminded of him by the people who knew him in good times and bad. His family and loved ones, unquestionably hurting now will realize soon I hope, if they haven't already, that while they will not see him here anymore, he is not gone. He doesn't have to be just a memory, none of our loved ones lost do. We just have to make sure we see to it that they live on in our words, in our actions, and in our lives just as we would have in theirs. 

Reversing the Rivalry:Michigan State vs. Michigan

:Dear Michigan fans, 

 
     You now know what it was like to be us (MSU fans), before 2009. Your team can't beat ours unless we make so few plays or so many mistakes it happens on accident. We're now, over the last six years, way better in every facet of football. So the roles have reversed, sort of. The difference is what hasn't changed. For the past 25 years you were supposed to be better and you still are. You have better recruits, spend and make more money and stretch your academic standards further (by proxy of Michigan's outstanding academic reputation of course). In East Lansing, little brother has to make due with three star recruits more often than not, in A squared, five star recruits are annually en vogue. So why doesn't Michigan still make mince meat out of the seemingly second-rate Spartans?

 The reason, and few if any of you will admit it, is that your coach stinks. Brady Hoke, a bumbling ball of ineptitude, tired cliches and plagiarized rhetoric is arguably the worst coach in Michigan History. Say what you will about Rich Rodriguez, but he failed because Michigan University and it old guard/good ole boy network set him up to do so. They convinced players to transfer, leaked true and false information to the press about Rodriguez, and even got NCAA violations charged against their own team. Some Michigan fans rooted against the Wolverines hoping for his firing. And now, three years later Michigan is mired in a methodical regression as the aforementioned Rodriguez' recruits continue to start over the supposedly superior and frequently five-starred Hokeamaniacs. Gardner, Fitz, Gallon, Lewan, Ryan, Schofield, Countess are all RichRod recruits. Many more as well. 

   So why do I know that Hoke stinks? Well aside from the fact that Michigan has never beaten a quality opponent in two and a half years with his heftiness at the helm, and the fact that they have no identity on offense or defense and never seem to develop any players at any position, most notable in the trenches were Michigan had always been elite under Carr, Moeller and Bo...HE DOESN'T WEAR A HEADSET. Guess who else doesn't wear a headset, NO ONE. All other FBS coaches do. Hoke calls them overrated, like his recruiting classes. Meanwhile his team is among the worst in close games during his tenure of any major conference contender, losing three times for every win against a ranked opponent. The only other major program coaches I remember without headsets in the last decade are ceremonial figure heads Bobby Bowden and fellow Octogenarian Joe Paterno. Perhaps if Paterno had a headset he would have been aware of what was going on within his pedophile friendly program. For Hoke the hope is maybe he'll put one on now after a third embarrassing loss in five rivalry games and another on the way against Urban Meyer and the Bucks. If nothing else maybe he can listen to Kanye Wests' Yeezus, I love that album.

Top Ten Coaches/Managers in Detroit Sports History

   With the recent retirement of Detroit Tigers skipper Jim Leyland and the announcement of his replacement Brad Ausmus, I thought it apropos to recall the very best of Detroit Sports head honchos spanning the past century plus. I'm limiting my selections to professional sports teams from the four majors; the Tigers, Lions, Pistons and Red Wings. Factors considered include but are not limited to; Championships won, regular season success, longevity, legacy reputation in Detroit, Responsibilities relative to the era the coached in. 

10. Mayo Smith - 363-285, 4 seasons, Won 1968 World Series
-Far from the teams first choice, Mayo Smith became manager by default for the Tigers in 1967. The next season, 1968, the year of the pitcher, Smith directed a talented pitching staff featuring Mickey Lolich and 31-game winner Denny McClain and a deep and diverse offense that featured nine players with double digit home-run totals despite the all-time low earned run averages being posted around baseball that summer. In his first three seasons the Tigers averaged 95 wins but Smith was let go following a disappointing 79-83 1970 season in favor or a more noteworthy name, Billy Martin. 

9. Mickey Cochrane - 348-250, parts of six five seasons, Won 1935 World Series
-"Black Mike" as he was none was a tough as nails ball player who won two MVP's in a short but exceptional career as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and later the Tigers. So respected was Cochrane as a player during his tenure in Detroit that at the age of 31 he was named player/manager and won the MVP despite Lou Gehrig winning the triple crown. And this was without the WAR stat. Cochrane transformed the Tigers into contenders with a great will to win and a fearless approach. Detroit won the pennant in 1934 and thw World series the following year. In 1937 however Cochrane took a pitch to the head which ended his career and threatened his life. He never returning full-time to baseball as a player or manager. 

8. Larry Brown - 108-56, 2 seasons, Won 2004 NBA Championship
-Larry Brown, LB, or pound for pound as he was dubbed by Rasheed Wallace, is one of basketballs great coaching vagabonds. Brown has coached and won in the NBA, the ABA, the NCAA and the Olympics. But his finest hour came with Detroit in 2004. He was brought to the Pistons to replace a successful young up and coming coach in Rick Carisle and help Detroit win a title. He accomplished that goal in just over nine months. The next season the Pistons were one play away from making it back-to-back, but fell short in seven games to the San Antonio Spurs. And though Brown departed on anything but good terms, it's hard to imagine the Goin' to Work Pistons would have the same legacy without the guy who taught them to "play the right way". 

7. Jim Leyland - 700-597, 8 seasons, Reached World Series in 2006 & 2012
-Though there were many detractors during his time as manager of the Tigers and while not winning a World Series during his eight year tenure will always sting a little, there is no disputing the place in Detroit History that Jim Leyland has earned. The most consistently successful manager in Detroit Tigers history, Leyland took the Tigers to the postseason in five of his eight seasons, won three division titles and took the AL pennant twice reaching the World Series in 2006 and 2012. Leyland ended a 19-year playoff drought for the Tigers, a 22-year Pennant drought and made more postseason appearances than any manager in Detroit Tigers history. We will miss Jim Leyland even if we don't realize it now. 

6. Buddy Parker - 47-23-2, 6 seasons, won 1952 & 1953 NFL Championships
-The only Lions coach to make the list, Parker, predictably predates the Superbowl era as Detroit's headman. Teaming with Bobby Layne for the first half of the fifties, Parker won two thirds of his games and two NFL titles with a "two-minute" offense that would fit better in today's game than the ground and pound era it succeeded in. The Lions success ended when injuries and age depleted their once revolutionary roster to little more than a memory. We're still waiting to return to the promised land as Lions fans. 

5. Mike Babcock - 376-170-76, 8 seasons and counting, Won 2008 Stanley Cup
-After the disappointing Dave Lewis era, Babcock was able to restore the Red Wings to their previous status as an annual contender for the cup. Taking over in 2005 he took Detroit to the playoffs as is the annual tradition, the next season they went to the conference finals, and in 2008 and 2009 they went to the Stanley Cups Finals hoisting the trophy in '08. Today Babcock continues to carry on the Detroit Tradition as a new era of Wings, with a third captain in thirty years, are still contending for titles every season. 

4. Jack Adams - 413-390-161, 21 seasons, Won 3 Stanley Cups  ('36,'37,'43)
-The first coach in Red Wing history, Adams took over the Detroit Cougars, who became the Falcons prior to the teams final change to the more familiar, permanent moniker. Adams was an innovator, a key figure in the early NHL who would eventually become one of the first modern general managers and have the honor of his name bearing the leagues coach of the year award. He won three Stanley Cups, guided the wings to six more, impressive even in an era of just six teams. 

3. Sparky Anderson - 1331-1248, 17 seasons, Won 1984 World Series
-Having proven doubters wrong previously in Cincinnati as manager of the Big Red Machine, winning two World Series and four pennants in the first nine-tenths of the seventies, Sparky Anderson came to a young and talented Tiger team in the ultra-competitive AL East in 1979 and boldly predicted that the middle of the pack Tigers would be a pennant winner in the next five years. It's seems unlikely that Sparky could have known how accurate his predication would come to be, but Detroit won the World Series five years later in 1984 fueled by a remarkable 35-5 start. Anderson became the first manager to win over 100 games with two different teams, the first to win a World Series in both leagues and the Tigers won an average of 92 games and finished third place or better for six straight years from 1983-1988. Anderson continued to manage until 1995, the year after the baseball strike, he claimed it was the state of baseball that a strike could happen that made him hang it up. His 2,194 wins as a manager put him sixth all-time. His 1,331 with the Tigers are most in franchise history. Sparky died in November of 2010, few people have had the long-term impact of Detroit sports that Anderson has., he will always be a Detroit Sports Icon.

2. Chuck Daly - 462-261, 9 seasons, Won 1989 & 1990 NBA Championships
-Along with "Trader Jack" McCloskey, Chuck Daly, nicknamed Daddy-Rich for his debonair style and suit selection, transformed the Pistons from Bad to Bad Boys, from Chumps to Champs and from an afterthought of Detroit Sports to an icon that has come to define the people of Metro Detroit as much or more so than any of Detroit's professional sport franchises. In a league with Bird's Celtics, Magic's Lakers and Jordan's Bulls, Daly made the Pistons the premier team, two-time Champions who were one call or twist of fate away from three-peating after being beaten by the Lakers in a controversial seven game finals in 1988. Daly did it with defense in a high-paced era of offensive offense, the Jordan Rules, exercising the demons of the Boston Garden, stopping the veteran Lakers and the surging young Blazers in equally dominate finals performances, Daly like Anderson behind him and Bowman ahead him is a fixture of Detroit Sports History that will always exist. 

1. Scotty Bowman - 410-193-88-10, 9 seasons, Won three Stanley Cups (97, 98, 02)
-The only coach on the list who could lay claim to a number one spot on an all-time list of all of his sport or any sport for that matters' list...Scotty Bowman is the epitome of a great coach. Elite success in multiple situations in multiple eras with multiple franchises. Bowman took the expansion Blues to three straight cup finals, won five Stanley Cups with Montreal, another with Pittsburgh and of course three with the Red Wings taking them from the prefaces of greatness to the summit. The Red Wings were known as the dead wings during the early and mid-1980's there was little interest in the city with the Pistons and Tigers competitive and the Lions having elite players in Billy Sims than Barry Sanders at running back. Bowman replaced Brian Murray and after a few hick-ups including a first round exit to the Sharks in 1994 and a Stanley Cup sweep at the hands of the underdog Devils in 1995, eventually made Detroit into a dependable powerhouse that remains the NHL's premier franchise and holds on to the Hockey Town Moniker established during his days.