It will serve as the team’s practice facility and corporate headquarters. The building will include a comprehensive sports medicine, treatment and rehabilitation facility managed by Henry Ford Health System.
Showing posts with label Detroit Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detroit Sports. Show all posts
Groundbreaking kicked off this morning for the new Henry Ford-Detroit Pistons Performance Center in the New Center area of Detroit.
It will serve as the team’s practice facility and corporate headquarters. The building will include a comprehensive sports medicine, treatment and rehabilitation facility managed by Henry Ford Health System.
It will serve as the team’s practice facility and corporate headquarters. The building will include a comprehensive sports medicine, treatment and rehabilitation facility managed by Henry Ford Health System.
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| Photo: Robert Allen/Detroit Free Press |
Name: The Michigan Cider Mill Donut
Weight: 4 pounds
Filling: Michigan apple filling
Servings: 2-4
Cost: $15
The Detroit qualifier for Red Bull Reign, an interstate 3x3 basketball tournament where the finals are held in Chicago on July 16th, returns for its second year on June 25th to the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse. The winners of the qualifiers will head to Chicago’s Seward Park for the Red Bull Reign finals to face off against each other in hopes of winning the ultimate street ball competition.
Qualifiers Schedule:
May 28th New Orleans
June 11th Philadelphia
June 18th Cleveland
June 25th Detroit
July 8th Indianapolis
July 9th Chicago
Joe Dumars Fieldhouse
1120 West State Fair
Detroit, MI 48203
Saturday, June 25th
9:00 AM - Registration Opens
10:00 AM - Competition Begins
Endurance is the name of the game: it’s not just one round – teams must go multiple rounds if they want to rule the court of victory. 24 teams will be selected from the pool of registrants. Round 1 and 2 games will be pool-play and each game will last eight minutes. The final round will be a bracketed tournament and will run 10-minute games, with the winning team earning their spot in the Red Bull Reign Finals in Chicago. The winning team from the qualifier must have the same roster to participate in the Chicago finals. The qualifier is open to amateur and pros alike, however players must be 18 years of age or older to participate.
Twenty-four of Detroit’s most talented 3x3 basketball squads fighting tooth and nail to earn a spot to compete in the Finals in Chicago. Only the top team from Detroit will advance.
For info on competing, players should visit www.redbull.com/reign.
A collection of sports cards estimated to be worth more than $1million has been discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Detroit.
Millions of the Topps cards were packed away in dust-covered crates, with thousands more strewn over the floor of the derelict building.
The mint-condition collectibles, dating from the late 1980s and 90s, were discovered by a team of urban explorers whose hobby is to venture into forgotten man-made structures.
While only estimated to be individually worth between 99 cents and $5.99, the collective haul of hundreds of cases would potentially fetch millions if ever put on the market.
Click HERE For The Full Article!
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| Photo: Freep |
It's probably an Olympic record we don't want, and it's not marked with any banner or highway sign.
But no other city in the world has made more Summer Olympic bids than Detroit — seven — and never landed the games.
The closest Detroit ever came was its 1963 proposal for the 1968 games, when it finished second to Mexico City. City leaders more or less stopped trying once the 1972 games went to Munich.
As I watched Boston's $4.6-billion bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics collapse several weeks ago amid financial concerns, I started wondering if Detroit could ever get into physical condition for an eighth bid at Olympic glory.
Click HERE For The Full Article!
The Detroit qualifier for Red Bull Reign, a 3x3 basketball tournament where the finals are held in Chicago – with the winner’s grabbing a slot at the FIBA North American Finals. In 2014, Red Bull Reign started in the Windy City with host Anthony Davis inviting 32 teams from around the city to see which team would reign on the court. On August 22, 16 teams will head to Chicago’s Seward Park for the Red Bull Reign finals to face off against each other in hopes of going to the FIBA North America Finals.
Endurance is the name of the game: it’s not just one round – teams must go multiple rounds if they want to rule the court of victory. 24 teams will be selected from the pool of registrants. Round 1 and 2 games will be pool-play and each game will last eight minutes. The final round will be a bracketed tournament and will run 10-minute games, with the winning team earning their spot in the Red Bull Reign Finals in Chicago. The winning team from the qualifier must have the same roster to participate in the Chicago finals. The qualifier is open to amateur and pros alike, however players must be 18 years of age or older to participate.
Twenty-four of Detroit’s most talented 3x3 basketball squads fighting tooth and nail to earn a spot to compete in the Finals in Chicago. Only the top team from Detroit will advance. For info on competing, players should visit www.redbull.com/reign.
Joe Dumar’s Fieldhouse
1120 W. State Fair Street/8 Mile
Detroit, MI, 48203
Saturday, August 8th
9:30 AM - Registration Opens
10:30 AM - Competition Begins
The Bad Boys and members of the 1989 NBA Championship team are coming together to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their first NBA Championship, a title that energized the City of Detroit and solidified the Bad Boys’ place in basketball history. A special charity fundraising event called “Bad Boys Unite” will take place on Thursday March, 27 at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in Detroit. Team members will gather the following day for a special halftime celebration on Friday, March 28 when the Pistons take on the Miami HEAT at The Palace of Auburn Hills (7:30 p.m.).
The 1988-89 Detroit Pistons won 63 regular-season games and stormed through the postseason beating the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and finally the Los Angeles Lakers. Team members included Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, John Salley, Mark Aguirre, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards, Rick Mahorn, John Long, Fennis Dembo and Micheal Williams. Constructed by Jack McCloskey and coached by the legendary Chuck Daly, Brendan Malone and Brendan Suhr, the 1989 team was cherished by fans in Detroit and gained national notoriety for their physical style of play.
Hosted by the Come Together Foundation, “Bad Boys Unite” will raise funds for six local charities – Forgotten Harvest, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Cornerstone Schools, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Rhonda Walker Foundation and CATCH (Sparky Anderson’s Charity for Children).
“The Bad Boys mean so much to our franchise, our fans and the City of Detroit,” said Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores. “They played with toughness, passion and heart. They are champions. They reflect the spirit of the people of Michigan in so many ways. It is an honor to celebrate their legacy in a way that continues to inspire and give back to the community.”
For fans interested in joining in the 25th anniversary celebration and cheering on this historic group of Pistons Legends, the Pistons vs. HEAT game on Friday, March 28 will include a special halftime ceremony featuring player introductions and video tributes that honor the “Bad Boys” and the 1989 NBA Championship team.
“The 1989 NBA Championship is a special moment in our franchise’s history,” said Pistons President of Basketball Operations and 1989 NBA Finals MVP Joe Dumars. “Detroit fans supported our team with great passion and it’s fitting to commemorate the 25th anniversary of that team in a way that supports the city and connects with our fans.”
“I’m pleased to help bring our team together again in a way that impacts the turnaround of this great city through education, youth development and basic needs.” said former team captain Isiah Thomas. “The Detroit community has always been important to us and I look forward to celebrating the history and tradition of the Pistons organization in a meaningful way.”
“Everything you’ve heard about Detroit is true” screams the headline in the most recent ad from the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Risky? Not so much. Under that headline are some truths about the city. Here’s the rest of the copy.
Okay, it’s true: We filed for bankruptcy. It’s true: We’ve got some serious financial challenges.
But here’s what else is true about Detroit …
True: More than $11 billion in new private economic investment and development in the past two years that’s helped transform downtown’s buildings, businesses, and riverfront into a lively and appealing urban center.
True: The $279 million transformation of Cobo Center into a state-of-the-art meeting and convention facility, with more than 4,500 nearby hotel rooms.
True: The construction of a new $140 million downtown light rail system that will connect residents and visitors to restaurants, shopping, sporting venues, and cultural activities along a three-mile span.
True: A completely remodeled, state-of-the-art airport that handles 1,200 flights every day to and from 150 destinations on four continents.
True: A rich array of cultural attractions, professional sports teams, outdoor activities, and one of the largest theater districts in the U.S., with over 13,000 seats in just a two-block radius.
True: A true two-nation destination, with the charms of Ontario, Canada just 10 minutes away by bridge or tunnel.
As Stephen Colbert once said, “I don’t know whether it’s a new thing, but it’s certainly a current thing, in that it doesn’t seem to matter what facts are. It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that’s not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything.”
With that in mind the DMCVB also created tools for its planners that include a Detroit Perceptions and Realities document. Here are some the perceptions and the realities.
Perception: Downtown Detroit is unsafe
Reality: Downtown Detroit is safe and secure
A coordinated vigilance is present downtown and response times are low. For added assurance and responsiveness, the police emergency department has recently secured 100 new cars and 23 EMS units. Downtown is also blanketed with security provided by the pooled resources of Project Lighthouse, a public-private partnership involving Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, FBI, Customs and Border Patrol, state, county and city police departments, and all private security companies.
Perception: Job opportunities in downtown Detroit are scarce
Reality: Thousands of jobs are in Detroit and millions are being invested in new business
Click HERE for the full article!
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Nothing goes better with basketball than free Detroit-style pizza! That’s why the Oakland University (OU) Grizzlies and the University of Detroit-Mercy (UDM)’s Titans basketball players and fans are amped up to win.
Both the OU and UDM athletic programs are participating in a basketball points promotion which offers event-goers one free 4-square cheese pizza each, with a ticket stub or coupon, when the men’s teams win with 80 or more points and when the women’s teams win with 65 or more points.
UDM Director of Athletic Marketing and Promotions Brandon J. Longmeier said the partnership between Buddy’s Pizza and the school has been beneficial for both parties. “We’re so appreciative of what Buddy’s is doing for our athletic program,” said Longmeier. “The points promotion really motivates the team and gets the crowd excited for free Buddy’s pizza after the game.” Titan fans are additionally offered $3 off 8-square pizzas when their team wins.
Just like at UDM, the students and fans at OU can be heard chanting for “Pizza” during Grizzly basketball games. “The points promotion electrifies the atmosphere during our games,” said Tim Dameron, assistant athletic director for OU marketing and sponsorships and a longtime Buddy’s Pizza fan. “The fans’ excitement helps the team perform better, and everyone gets to celebrate with a delicious Buddy’s pizza.” Grizzly fans additionally receive coupons valid for $4 off 8-square pizzas at each game.
Basketball fans following their favorite teams through the NCAA Tournament can do more than cheer on their favorite teams this year; they can enter for a chance to become one of Buddy’s Final Four Finalists during a Facebook sweepstakes beginning mid-March.
Participants need only enter their name and email into the designated Facebook app. Weekly winners will be chosen to receive four free “Elite 8-square Buddy’s Pizzas” throughout the course of the month-long promotion. At the end of the sweepstakes, one grand prize winner will be selected at random among the Buddy’s Final Four Finalists to receive a Buddy’s Pizza Ultimate Fan Basket.
The sweepstakes begins at midnight on March 18, 2013 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 11, 2013. For details and official rules visit www.facebook.com/buddyspizza.
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| Photo: Detroit News |
Road trip, thy name is trepidation.
What’s the source of this dread I’m feeling? It’s not the fact that I left my Alphabet City apartment in the predawn dark on Tuesday and pointed the snout of my rust-bucket 1989 Mazda west toward my hometown, Detroit, 600 miles distant. It’s not even the sheer lunacy of my day’s itinerary — across the George Washington Bridge and the Garden State, then over the corduroy hump of Pennsylvania, and finally across that enormous dinner plate of a battleground state called Ohio.
All of this just to go back home to see my beloved Detroit Tigers take on the Yankees on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
(Wait a minute, you’re thinking, a man in the 21st century wants to get from New York to Detroit to see a baseball game, and he drives? Well, yes, because I was born and raised in Detroit, and when a Detroit guy wants to go somewhere, he gets into a car and drives there. It beats showing up at La Guardia six hours before your scheduled departure and then being treated like a criminal. I rest my case for keeping my wheels on the road.)
Most surprising of all, my dread is not coming from a feeling that the Yankees’ batters are going to wake from their collective coma and start Ping-Ponging hits all over the park.
No, my dread comes from something much simpler, a question: What if my very first visit to Comerica Park stinks? What if the successor to Tiger Stadium is a “cookie cutter,” as I’ve heard it described? What if the fans are obnoxious? What if the whole experience is just another dreary episode in The Great Overpriced American Racket of Keeping the People Entertained?
To fully understand my anxiety, you need to understand that I grew up in Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s, attending baseball and football games at a glorious old pile of a stadium that hosted its first game in 1912, a few weeks after the Titanic sank. It was called Navin Field back then. When I first visited, it was known as Briggs Stadium, and the name was changed again in 1961 to Tiger Stadium.
It was a great green open-air room that held about 50,000 fans but somehow felt intimate because everyone was close to the action. The stadium was enclosed, meaning you couldn’t see anything but the game that was being played before your eyes. The world went away for a few hours when you were in that place, and that was a big part of its magic.
If you loved the Tigers in the years of my youth, it was a given that you also despised the Yankees. In the first decade of my life, the Yankees won the American League all but two times — in 1954, when Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians awoke, briefly, and in 1959 when the Chicago White Sox had a rare and uncharacteristic summer of success.
Click HERE to read the full article on The New York Times!
Another masterful performance from the starting rotation has the Detroit Tigers two wins away from their first World Series appearance since 2006.
So Motor City, can you taste it?
With three games upcoming at Comerica Park, Detroiters have reason to believe that their blessed boys will drive a stake through the Yankees some time in the next week.
And as an impartial observer, I'm buying it.
Five reasons why...
1. Swing-and-Miss Stuff
Among baseball's final four, no starting rotation is better at punching out opponents than Detroit's.
Each one of the Tigers' postseason starters—Justin Verlander, Doug Fister, and Anibal Sanchez —struck out more than 7.5 batters per nine innings this season and boasted a SO:BB ratio north of 3.45. No other postseason foursome can make either claim.
Translation: Tigers starters are really hard to hit.
Of course, in any month, generating whiffs is a recipe for success. It's one of the few outcomes where a pitcher isn't at the mercy of his defense.
But in postseason play, the ability to strike batters out can carry an extra special situational boon. In games where runs are at a premium, holding baserunners at third with less than two outs takes on added importance. Strikeouts are the best way to do that. And so often we see teams strategize with that very outcome in mind.
Now, when most teams need a strikeout to prevent damage, they're forced to lean on their relief corps—even if that means removing a starter who's been reasonably effective. Take a look at the top K/9 rates in baseball this year and you'll see why.
But not the Tigers. With two starters averaging a strikeout an inning or more (Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer), manager Jim Leyland can ride his horses in situations where opposing manager might have to tax the 'pen.
Click HERE to read the full article on the Bleacher Report!
Behold the second annual ranking of how well the 122 franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB spend their money. We’ve used payroll data (from USA Today, Basketball-Reference.com, NBC Sports, and NFL.com) to calculate how much teams spent per win over the last five seasons. (For baseball, we also include the first half of the current season.) We then compared every team against league average, producing a total score we call the efficiency index. The median score for every league is zero. The lower the score, the less a team spent for its wins.
This year, we’ve added bonuses for the victories that matter most: wins above .500, playoff wins, and championships. Our scale counts regular season wins once, with a half-win bonus for every win over .500. Playoff wins count for 10 percent of a season; championships for half a season. In their Super Bowl winning season in 2011, for instance, the New York Giants got credit for 9 regular season wins, plus a .5 game bonus for their ninth win—the one that put them above .500. Their 4 playoff wins earned them 6.4 more wins. And the Super Bowl victory 8 more, for a total of 23.9 “weighted” wins.
Click HERE to see which Ilitch owned franchise slid into the #3 spot.......
It started, Mark Penxa says, as a tribute to his grandfather -- an artistic "journey through American sports lore" that featured special renderings of famous athletes, and ones long forgotten.
Called Stealing Signs, the first part featured baseball: 100 paintings and sketches, similar to the Derek Jeter. Then came hockey: 76 of them. All offered special elements -- stats, names, other items -- and their slightly abstract style set them apart from straight-up portraits.
Now Penxa, a Detroit-area native who also works at a screen and printing shop, is embarking on his most ambitious project yet: a visual "road trip" from state to state, inspired by stories and suggestions from readers and fans who were touched by his original works. He's going beyond baseball this time, too. All sports are open. All eras, too.
Recently we caught up via email with Penxa, who has "visited" Pennsylvania so far on his trip. New Jersey is underway. New York is coming in July.
And he knows he's got a long, long way to go to get through all 50 -- it'll take years. So suggestions are welcome on his Facebook page (portraits can be purchased, as well).
Tell me about the beginning of the project.
The project started off as a thank-you card to my grandfather. He had been sick for a long time and getting worse. Baseball was the center of our conversations since I was little, he took me to every Tigers game that he could and we would watch every game together.
There was a gap where I wasn't around very much because of traveling and work and the usual day-to-day stuff. I hadn't watched a game with him or heard one of his stories in a long time, and now his memory was really bad and communication was limited to handshakes, hugs and tears. So, I painted a portrait of Al Kaline (seen below is a remake of the original), then Jim Northrup, Hank Greenberg, Norm Cash and so on, to serve as visual flash cards. It was the only way I could think of to still talk about baseball.
After I did those initial paintings, I couldn't stop making them and before I knew it, I had over 100 of them scattered across my apartment floor. So, I put them online on my personal site just to have new content and one day [ESPN Playbook writer] Paul Lukas mentioned it on his Uni Watch blog. The next thing I knew, I was receiving emails from all over the world with people telling me their stories about what their dads and grandfathers told them. It was amazing.
Click HERE to read the rest of this story on ESPN (dot) com!
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