The Harbaughs — and Their Godfather
[To listen to the audio version, please click here: Bacon_final_Harbaughbrother_with_intro_for_web_1-25-2013,wav] Even those who don’t follow sports probably know the Super Bowl is a week from Sunday. And, for the first time ever, in any major American sport, the opposing head coaches are brothers. More important for Michiganders, they are the Harbaugh brothers, John and Jim, who went to Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. So, you’ll probably start to hear lots of stories from the folks who met them along the way. Well, count me...
read moreA Fraud, A Hoax, and One Good Guy
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Bacon_final_1-18-13_College_Roundup_for_web] With the college football season finally behind us, I wanted to write a sweet little story about a very good guy who plays football for Michigan. But every time I tried, some bad news got in the way. The first obstacle was Lance Armstrong. In case you missed it – perhaps you live on Mars – it turns out the man who came back from cancer to win a record seven Tours de France and write two best selling books about his inspirational story, is a...
read moreThe Brain Freeze That Led to the Lock-Out
[To listen to the audio version, click here: NHL Lockout 1-13] I’ve played hockey my entire life, so I’m clearly biased. But when you combine ice skating, stick handling, passing, shooting and yes, body-checking, in one sport, you’ve got it all. Until they start playing lacrosse in the water, or golf on skis, hockey will remain the hardest sport to play, and the most impressive to see played well. There’s nothing like it. So, for Detroit Red Wings fans, the NHL lockout was a nightmare. This started the way all these things do: The...
read moreLooking Back at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2012
[To listen to the audio version, click here: 2012 Review 12-21-12] 2012 was a remarkable year in many ways, and the sports world was no exception. Here’s a look back on the sport year’s best and worst — and just plain silly. Just a few hours into the New Year, Michigan State and Michigan both won January bowl games over ranked teams in overtime, and both finished with eleven wins – Michigan’s best record since 2006. A good start to the new year. Not all the news was happy, of course. We said goodbye to some legends. Budd...
read moreTradition For Fun, But Mostly Profit
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Bacon_final_seat_license_for_web_12-14-12] This week, the University of Michigan announced an increase in the cost of ‘seat licenses’ for football season ticket holders. Before I dive into what all this means, let me explain what a ‘seat license’ is, because, if you’re a normal person, it won’t make much sense. A ‘seat license’ is a fee that teams make their fans pay just to reserve the right to buy the actual tickets. They call it a donation – which is a stretch, since every fan...
read more‘Tis the Season for Bowl Scams – Ho Ho Ho
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Bacon_final_bowl_sham_w_web_open_12-7-12] College football’s regular season ended Saturday, with the various conference championship games closing out a 14-week season. The next day, Sunday, the 35 bowl games sent out their invitations to 70 lucky teams. But when you look a little closer at their bowl offers, you have to wonder if those 70 teams were really that lucky at all. The people who sell bowl games need us to believe a few things: -Their games are rewards for teams that had a great...
read moreIt’s not whether you win or lose, it’s — oh, wait. It is.
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Bacon_Final_Hoke_11-30-12] Exactly one year ago, Brady Hoke was the darling of Michigan football fans. He’d charmed even the doubters at his first press conference – where he coined his now famous phrase, “This is Michigan, for God’s sake!” — then led a team that had averaged just five wins a season over the previous three years to a 10-2 regular-season record, including thrilling wins over Notre Dame, Nebraska and arch-rival Ohio State. Then he capped it all off with an overtime...
read moreAthletics Without Anthems?
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Veterans Day:Anthem] On Veterans Day, we generally honor our Veterans. It’s a good idea, for lots of reasons: they served our country, often in unpleasant places, and in great danger, to keep the worst of the world away from our homeland. My grandfather was a New York dentist who volunteered at age 39 to hop on a ship in the Pacific during World War II. My dad graduated from medical school, then enlisted in the U.S. Army, which sent him and his new bride to Fulda, Germany, to guard the...
read morePlaying Politics or Playing Sports: Which is Sillier?
[For the audio version, click here: Bacon_Politics2012_w-webopen-11-9-2012] Whether your candidates won or lost this week, we can all rejoice that it’s finally over. Or, we think it is. We can’t be sure anymore, can we? Watching the political contests and the sporting contests this week, I got to thinking: Which is sillier: playing politics, or playing sports? As silly as sports are – and I seem to devote half my commentaries to that very subject – after watching the 2012 campaigns, I can tell you, it’s not even close: Playing...
read moreA Sibling Rivalry Turned Ridiculous
[To listen to the audio version, click here: Huron-Pioneer 10-12] Last week, the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School football team went across town to play long-time rival Ann Arbor Huron. It wasn’t the players’ performance during the game that made news, however, but the coaches’ behavior afterward. And the news wasn’t good. Pioneer came into the annual rivalry with Huron sporting a solid 4-3 record and a good chance to make the playoffs. Huron hadn’t won a game all year, and was simply playing out the season. The only stakes were...
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