So, I have mixed feelings about sequels. Now there have been some good ones. Off the top of my head I can rattle off....Terminator 2:Judgement Day, The Dark Knight (and the new one coming this summer should be amazing), and the original three Star Wars. Quick side note about the new Batman, titled The Dark Knight Rises, my friend Eric got to be an extra. The film company put him up in Pittsburgh. He got to go to Three Rivers. He got free food all day. He got a Gotham Rogues t-shirt. More importantly, he gets to be an obscure face in the crowd in a scene you should be able to see in the trailer. He also got to catch a Pirates game.

Yeah. That was Hines Ward.

Still, more often than not they are severely under whelming. See most of the Rocky movies and the X-Men movies past the first. You can even see it in comics. I bet Frag will agree that while the issues like Spiderman or Batman are great, some of the smaller titles are so much cooler. If you've read the Watchmen or V for Vendetta, you might agree. 

That, of course brings us to this Sunday's game. Now, there are some pretty good sports re-matches. I loved watching the 49er-Cowboy battles during the 90's, but was always bummed by the Cowboys-Bills Super Bowls. The Super Bowls of 1993-94 were less than sporting, as normally is true. 

Super Bowl XLII back in 2008 was a good game. I was pulling for the Giants, just because I get tired of seeing the same team win. It was a slow game and low scoring. Even lower scoring than Super Bowl XL, which a lot of people complained about. Of course it was capped off by one of the best Super Bowl plays in recent memory. 

Still, I can't help but see this as something of a let down. I have some recent precedent, of course. The college national championship was a rematch. While the first Alabama-LSU game didn't live up to the game of the century hype, I liked it. I like good, old defensive battles. A few of you liked it too. The actual national championship was so long after that game that LSU just looked rusty. It was all Bama and never entertaining. Is this what we're looking at Sunday? I hope not. The playoffs have been great this year. There were upsets galore and a lot of close shaves. Ideally, I want this to follow suit and go to the wire, but I fear this might just be the next super letdown.

Also, I can't help but note some folks saying that a loss by New England is a black mark on Brady and Belichek. That just seems stupid. Look, I know they have an unusually bad record against the Giants. That stat has been thrown around like pies in a Three Stooges short this week. You're talking about a coach that many hail as a defensive guru. A second string QB who took advantage of his one big shot and went on to win three Super Bowls. I find it hard to see how losing to one team twice would tarnish that kind of legend.

Big news for Jeff's AL team: Ron Washington got a two year extension. The Rangers have Washington locked up til 2014.

So, just when you thought we had enough sports, the History Channel is bringing out a (relatively) new one...

Really makes you miss Heath Ledger. Well, it's not quite this awesome. The History Channel will air Full Metal Jousting. Guys will dress up in Iron Man like suits and joust. Just like at the Ren Fest, but without guys like this....

Well, that's it for me this week. Thanks as always for stopping by. As far as the game, I think I'm going to root for the Pats this time. I just hope it'll be a good one. Take care and see you at the discussion. Don't forget about the Puppy Bowl with this years pep rally pigs. (Yeah, it might seem corny, but it'll be better than Madonna.) I'll leave you with your word of the week, but with a special twist. 

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So, if you happened to be listening to our coordinates here in Detroit, MI, you may have heard something like this...

And with that the Detroit Tigers showed that I thought like an idiot last week. Rather than going for a cheap replacement or bringing up young talent (though Jeff did show that while we have good young arms, we are lacking bats on the farm), the Tigers signed Prince Fielder. We didn't just sign Fielder. We sign him for 9 years. We also paid him $214 million. 

Yeah. Dave Dombruski and Mike Ilitch found a spare $214 million laying about. It must be nice. We ranked 10th in MLB in terms of team salary before Fielder. Adding Fielder would roughly bring us over Chicago (AL) to fifth on the list. 

I won't wine too much. I loved watching Prince's dad growing up. Of course, Prince won't have the benefit of old Tigers Stadium like his dad did, but he should still hit a good number and protect our boys. 

Elsewhere, San Fran decided to pay Tim Lincecum. Lincecum signed a two year deal worth around $40.5 mil. He is still eligable for free agency in the off season.

In other MLB news. Jeff's guys in Texas signed YuDarvish, the latest import from Japan, to a six year contract. In light of recent Japanese pitching products, I'd be somewhat nervous here. The Twins picked up former Tiger's flamethrower Joel Zumaya. Jorge Posada decided to call it quits and I saw he finished 9th on the Yankees all time HR list. Crazy thought. At least IHM will be able to watch the All-Star game without bitching about Posada whoring his kids to the camera.

In the NFL, no one had a worse weekend than Kyle Williams of the 49ers. Ted Ginn, Jr was out, so Williams had to step in as the return man. From what I saw, it didn't look like he got much practice. That last fumble showed Williams looking strange holding that ball. Clearly it was tough to watch, like this:

My apologies to Beeze and my dad.

Honestly, though, people need to lighten up on the kid, especially San Francisco fans. Now I don't know if this year's wines were more fermented or had more alcohol content than years past, but those fuckers were violent this year. They have decided to end the year on a bad note by issuing death threats to Williams. There's not much to say to that aside from stay classy, San Francisco.

I also hate to tell people on ESPN anything about sports, but the end of the 49ers game definitely sucked more than Cundiff missing that field goal. Two fumbles on special teams sucks worse in my opinion. Not sure why people are calling for Cundiff to be cut either. He was hitting over 75%. Out of the guys remaining: Tynes hit 79%, Gostkowski was at 84%. Pro-Football Reference has Cundiff ranked 9th. 

Honestly, if one person should be sticking up for Cundiff it should be Lee Evens. If Evens woulda held on, Cundiff woulda been off the hook. Plus, Cundiffs miss pissed enough people off that they forgot about him. 

Finally, there's talk of the Colts getting rid of Peyton Manning. They may do it soon, as he'll be given $28 mil in about a month and a week. Sure, they have a chance to start over with Luck, but I have never been a fan of just throwing a guy in there. Sure you have great recent examples (Cam Newton for one), but there are just as many failures. 

Speaking of failures, many of us have asked: where were the rest of the Colts? We never knew Peyton played on the defense too. Sure, the defense was always a weak spot, but I never thought they were that bad. I don't know how you can make Peyton the goat here, but I guess loyalty left sports when free agency swooped in.

So, that's it for me this week. I've gotta say that as odd as I'd find it to see the AFC hold the Lombardi, I prefer to see the Pats win it. I'm kinda assed out by the re-match angle. Bust em up, Belichek. Thanks for reading as always. I'm off to teach some English at East Detroit High (which is not actually in Detroit). Take care and...enjoy that Pro Bowl. Or college basketball.

eye brocoli, noun

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If anyone out there was listening carefully enough this afternoon around 3 o'clock, they may have heard something like this coming from Michigan....

If you haven't heard, the Detroit Tigers have lost Victor Martinez to a torn ACL before spring training even starts. It's likely he's out for the year and even if you're an optimist, he misses the bulk of the season. What that means for us is that we lost a 300 level hitter who is generally good for around 100 RBIs. Martinez didn't put up the same HR numbers (12), but then again he played in Comerica all year, which probably took a decent number of homers away.

Now, this doesn't hurt us behind the plate. Odds are Martinez wouldn't play behind the plate too often. We have a great first option in Alex Avila, who is a beast and started 141 games, the bulk of those at catcher. While I'm not too confident in our back-up, Gerald Laird, I think he's serviceable enough on defense that he might be able to help so long as he can stay healthy.

It hurts like hell at DH. The only other guy we have on the depth chart is Delmon Young and he'll likely start in left. There isn't a lot of help in free agency either. The guys will more than likely be too old (Johnny Damon), too highly price (Prince Fielder) or too highly price and too old (Vlad and Derek Lee). Besides, Prince isn't going to want to be hampered into a DH role yet. He's got some decent leather and stands to do much better as a first baseman. That is only a hypothetical option and one that is pretty close to impossible. Also, Craig Council is out as he retired this week. (Kidding of course, but I genuinely liked Council. That guy played with genuine hustle and was a scrappy little bastard). 

That leaves us with one option I have seen that intrigues me: Ryan Ludwick. Last season wasn't his best: .237 with 13 HR and 75 RBIs. He's put up big numbers in the past, however, most notably in St. Louis in 08. Ludwick got plenty of playing time that season (152 games) and hit .299 with 37 HR and 113 RBI. Those numbers are similar to Martinez's and Ludwick will also benefit from not being the main focus of the opposing pitchers. Like the Cards had Pujols in 08, Detroit has a premier bat in Miguel Cabrera which should afford a guy like Ludwick enough protection to produce. 

So, If the Tigers are listening, they should consider Ludwick. If nothing else, he'd free up Delmon Young to DH. It's worth a shot since he comes at a nearly $7 mil, which is about as much as we pay for Inge, Benoit, and Young.

Eslewhere in baseball, I guess Pujols and Tony LaRussa both missed out on the trip to the White House. They've both been before, but you figure they'd make one last show of it...

Speaking of Michigan sports: UofM finally beat MSU on the court. It's been sometime since I've seen that and I just watched it go down. I can't help but wonder if Izzo has lost some of his touch. The guy's had a solid career and a lot of people mention that he's done it all without any huge name NBA players among his former players. He's definately one of the greats, but I hope this is just a lull and not the end.

In a rare instance of not minding one's manners in tennis, Rafel Nadal called out Rodger Federer this past week for not doing enough to speak out against the treatment of players. Apparently, tennis players are at odds with the folks running the Grand Slam events over the length of the season and the fact that tournament prize money hasn't grown in proportion with profits. Much like other sports, the players believe the owners are getting too much from the player's labor. Soem players say that their travel costs and taxes often leave them with little. 

I tend to believe them. Guys like Nadal and Federer should be expected to speak out. Both have made plenty and are now reaping the rewards of endorsements, but a lot of guys are scraping by on what they might be able to win. I agree with Nadal that the stars of a sport should be on the front lines, yet I can see that calling Federer out in the media was out of line and not in keeping with the culture of tennis. 

Nadal has recently apologized and patched things up with Rodger. Try to keep it on the court guys.

Well, that's it for me this week. Despite Felber's threats, I'd like to say I'm pulling for the 9ers. I think it'd be a strange twist to the season to see the AFC get the Lombardi. Whenever someone seemed to step up there, they'd get it taken to them from a weaker AFC team or a so-so NFC team. Either way, I'm looking forward to this weekend's slate of games.

Take it easy Gabbers. I leave you with your weekly vocab.

hugh wear, noun

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