The Hopp Stop

Truly a sad day for man

And I'm not just referring to the expected scarcity of the iPhone. No, folks, NFL Europa has been shut down. No more shall we see the Barcelona Dragons meet the Rhein Fire in an epic battle watched by no one but Germans. Does this mean that the MLS is next to go?

Michigan sports links

Big-timer Steven Ross, the developer who donated $100mm to the Michigan GSB, has donated $5mm toward the football stadium renovations. He is becoming the Michigan equivalent to Stanford's John Arrillaga, who fronted the entire $100mm cost of Stanford's new football stadium so that construction could move forward before the school received the full amount in alumni donations. Not to mention that there are about several other athletic buildings on campus that bear Arrillaga's name.

Good deeds by Jalen Rose: he's donating money for scholarships in Michigan. See here. I can't wait until he retires and becomes a studio analyst--sure to be hilarious. If he's on with Barkley on the TNT show...

Good news for Wolverine fans, as the school has rewarded the baseball coach with a new deal and fought off Tennessee to keep him at Michigan. The MGoBlogger Brian was pretty worried about losing Maloney (the coach), so good news here. Note that this is consistent with Michigan investing a fair chunk of change into upgrading the baseball stadium and related facilities; they've made a commitment to the program. Hopefully when Blielen finds success with the hoops team (fingers crossed), they'll do the same for crappy Crisler Arena.

A couple side notes on college baseball: Why is the coach a "coach"? In the bigs, he is a manager, not a coach, so why the change for college ball? I only played through 8th grade, but I think we referred to that guy as our manager, not our coach. Also, the Zot Zotters of UCIrvine were eliminated from the College World Series last night, but a nice run for them (Go Go Go!). I love that their jerseys say "Eaters" on the front.

June 13, 1997: Sad day in Red Wings history

The Free Press has an article revisiting the tragic limo crash
involving Vladimir Konstantinov shortly after their Cup triumph over Philly. While it hurt the Wings on the ice to lose one of their top two or three defensemen, reading the "where are they now" reminds me of the personal cost to those involved in the crash. Apparently Vlad is living apart from his wife, who has moved to the East Coast with their daughter. Very sad.

Dirk Diggler!

Here's a hilarious but frightening video made by some fan of Nowitzki's...