And we're back

Been away on trips to New York and Las Vegas so there has been no activity on the site of late but there is so much to get to, let's begin with recruiting.

• The Summer Football Camp has come and gone and there are two new commitments, with one impending one as well this weekend. Rocko Khoury got the offer he was waiting for and committed a few days after receiving the offer. He becomes the 4th OL to join this class but we will still be looking to add another one or two. The other camp commitment was junior DT William Campbell from Cass Tech in Detroit, same school as Boubacar Cissoko, it's rare to see a junior commitment be released so early but it's definitely great to see us continue to lock up in-state talent and show that last year was a fluke.
  
• The impending commitment looks like it will come from Texas WR Daryl Stonum. He was just up at Michigan this past week and his top three was supposed to be Michigan, Florida State and USC. His original plan was to visit FSU in July and USC in August, but now he has changed his mind and will announce this coming Sunday on TV in Dallas. That is a great sign for the Maize and Blue.
  
• There are so many Lakers rumors out there right now it's tough to figure out what is going on. What we do know is that the front office is actually trying to make something happen and bring in some big name talent whether it be Jermaine O'Neal or Kevin Garnett. The rumored 4 team deal that spread on Monday is now dead and supposedly Phoenix is now the leader to pick up KG. But some of the pieces don't add up. No matter what is rumored, unless Amare Stoudamire's knee requires more work down the line I find it hard to believe that the Suns are willing to trade him for KG. There was rumors of the Lakers bringing in Atlanta to make a deal and I thought that would be the best way for it to work. Use Atlanta instead of Boston in the 4 way deal and then you have happy campers all the way around. Atlanta gets a veteran big in O'Neal to solidify their team with Joe Johnson, Minnesota gets the high draft pick they desire at #3 as well as expiring K in the form of Kwame Brown, Indiana gets Bynum/Odom which they wanted all along and the Lakers get the Big Ticket which would immediately create the buzz in LA that would makes Staples Center the place to be again. So while the Suns may be the leader I'm not counting the Lakers out yet. The interesting note is that if KG is traded after July 1st his trade kicker counts fully against this year, as opposed to before July 1st the trade kicker can be spread out over two years. In that case, we know Jerry Buss is willing to take on Garnett's contract even if it means luxury tax, while we know Robert Sarver, Suns owner, does not want to pay any more luxury tax than is necessary. Throw that in with the fact that Dr. Buss did tell the Wolves that he is willing to re-sign KG to an extension and I still like our chances. Do I like them as much as I did a few days ago? No, but I still think we have a chance to get it done.
  
• Oregon State repeated as National Champs in baseball but UC Irvine made a great run including being the first team to win back to back extra inning games in the CWS. I hope to catch some games next year when I'm down there.
• I was in Vegas over the weekend and was able to catch the Ricky Hatton-Jose Luis Castillo fight. The fight was good for the time it lasted, only four rounds, but what made the fight worth it was the atmosphere. Thousands and thousands of English fans made the trip across the pond and created a setting like I've never seen before. It gave me a taste of what watching a soccer game in England would probably be like. There were groups of friends all wearing shirts they had made for the trip along with horns, a band and a number of songs they had created for their fighter Ricky Hatton, who ended up winning with a 4th round KO. The interesting thing afterwards was Hatton calling out Floyd Mayweather and even more interesting now is the fact that Floyd says he'll fight. Hatton is a very good fighter but he will be no match for Pretty Boy Floyd. Hatton recently has been holding a lot during fights after getting his punches in but Floyd would not allow that to happen. Also Hatton has not seen the speed of Floyd before and that will be difficult for him to handle. If this fight really goes down, chalk it up for Floyd by decision.
  

Friday Roundup

Been a while since I last updated and a lot has gone on but covered by most already so I'll keep it brief:

• Michigan football received two more commitments for the 08 class from NJ LB Marcus Witherspoon and in-state DT Mike Martin. Both are 4 stars according to Rivals and are in the Rivals 250. Gotta love the fact that the staff is hitting NJ so hard this year with Witherspoon already in the fold as well as being in the top 3-5's of so many highly ranked NJ kids as well. In addition, getting Martin adds to the number of in-state kids we are locking up. There was some concern after last year's in-state recruiting debacle but it doesn't look like it's going to happen again as we are in great shape to lock up the majority of the top 10 in state this season. As always MGoBlog has more details on Witherspoon and Martin.
  
• After the big upset over the #1 team in the country Vanderbilt, the Michigan baseball team continues its quest to get to Omaha and the College World Series tomorrow as they travel to Corvallis, Oregon to take on the Beavers of Oregon State in the Super Regionals. Oregon State is the defending national champion and will be a tough opponent but after beating Vandy, anything is possible. Especially with the great road record the team has this year.
  
• All quiet on the Lakers front as it looks like it will be a couple weeks, closer to draft time, before anything happens. Also since free agency doesn't begin until July 1st any possible sign and trade deals can't happen until then so we will have to be patient to see what the front office can do. The pressure is on Mitch Kupchak and company to get something done
  

Thursday Roundup

Dodgers Lose Again and Bonds is a cheater - The Dodgers lost their 3rd game in a row, 2nd to the Giants 6-4 last night as Barry Bonds hit HR 741. The Doyers as they are called by the locals, jumped out to a strong start but have struggled as of late, as is expected at some point during the long baseball season so I am not worried. I will take this moment to discuss my thoughts on Barry Bonds as he closes in on breaking Hank Aaron's home run record. Sure you may take this as a hater rant since I am a Dodgers fan but anyone out there that thinks that Barry Bonds did not take steroids is out of their fucking mind. Look at Barry Bonds before and after, you cannot tell me he grew that much at his age completely naturally. There is no way. Granted I am not saying that he isn't a great player, he was a great player and still is, but he has been aided by steroids in getting the home run record.

Many people have said steroids can't help you with your hand-eye coordination to hit the ball, which is true, Bonds does have great eyes and can see pitches very well, the difference is that before steroids these shots he would hit that would be singles or doubles are now home runs because of his steroid use. There is also some debate over whether Hank Aaron should be in attendence, but he has said he won't and I believe he is right. Anyone with common sense knows that Barry Bonds has used some sort of steroids and Aaron does not want to be at the game when he breaks the record because that can be taken as a sign of approval that it was ok for him to cheat to break the record. I was hoping coming into this season that Bonds would suffer some sort of set back that would prevent him from reaching the record but it doesn't look like that will be the case.

Mundy to West Virginia - Former Michigan Safety Ryan Mundy is now at West Virginia waiting for an NCAA ruling for an appeal he made to be able to play for the Mountaineers this season. Mundy arrived at Michigan with a lot of expectations coming from the same high school as Steve Breaston, being highly ranked and at a position of need. Because of that he was never able to live up to expectations, also add in the nerve injury that caused him to miss the 03 season and he was a disappointment in the eyes of many Wolverine fans. So much so that Brian at MGoBlog came up with a new stat YAM, Yards After Mundy. But I have nothing bad to say about him, good luck to Ryan and hopefully he gets wins his appeal.

De La Hoya / Mayweather - The big fight is coming up next weekend as Floyd Mayweather Jr. takes on Oscar De La Hoya in what is the biggest boxing match I can remember in a long time. I know a lot of people have given up on boxing and moved to the MMA stuff but for some reason I'm still not into MMA as much as I am boxing. Not sure why but Boxing seems more skillful to me as you only use your hands and have numerous tactics while in MMA you just try to beat the shit out of each other with no strategy, that's just my take on it though.

I've never liked De La Hoya, I don't know what it is but I've never been a fan, something about the Golden Boy image I didn't like. For many Floyd is the bad boy of boxing, he runs his mouth, talks a lot of shit, and is cocky as hell which most of the public dislikes. For some reason I was always drawn to that add to the fact that he is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan and I've been a Floyd fan. Sort of like Kobe how many people consider him arrogant while I consider him confident. People hate the over the top confidence that Kobe and Floyd exude, nothing exemplifies this more than a fight I saw with Floyd where he came to the ring on a throne that was carried by 4 people so he didn't have to walk to the ring. I thought that was awesome, his haters thought it was ridiculous.

ESPN has a great article on Floyd which gives some more insight to who he is and may help others get a better understanding of him. After reading the article and watching the 2nd episode of De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7 I drew a lot of comparisons from Floyd to Tupac as well. Floyd's doctor who checks him before all his fights said he would get upset when he read bad things written about Floyd because that's not who he is in real life. His boxing persona, Pretty Boy Floyd is different than Floyd Mayweather Jr the person. I'd say the same is true of Tupac and how his media image was much different than how the person he was in real life. I can't wait for this fight and I'm going to enjoy it as it looks like it will be the biggest fight for a long time as rarely do fights of this magnitude get done in boxing.

Friday Roundup

Plenty of stuff going on in the sports world the past couple days. I'll start with the horrible road trip by the Lakers. I was going to give this its own post but decided against it because there's not much to say. The Lakers played terrible and just flat out got beat. They were in the games at halftime and just got blown out in the 3rd quarter. That is unacceptable. It's one thing when we were winning championships to get up for the good teams and play down to bad teams but right now every game matters for playoff seeding and we cannot afford to throw games away. Let's hope we can take care of business for this two game stretch at home against Orlando and Miami before the game at San Antonio next Wednesday.

There's a lot of talk about changes in the Michigan coaching staff as well as in our secondary. Rumors are all around about movement from DB and LB coaches to OC and OL as well. It will be interesting to see how everything shakes out. There is also talk of some members of the secondary that will not be returning next year as well. Which means come on down RoJo we've got immediate PT for you.

The big news of yesterday was David Beckham signing to play for the LA Galaxy. I love watching soccer when the World Cup is on or the Champions League but have never watched MLS. I think this will have some impact but not as big as the MLS would like to believe it will. It does generate more interest for soccer in the U.S. but unless the rest of MLS becomes better it won't do much. Sure I may go check out a game at Home Depot Center now because of this but I don't think it will take the place of baseball during the summer for me. Granted I still think that NASCAR is stupid and don't see how watching cars drive 500 laps around an oval is any fun to watch so I may be wrong.

The Dodgers announced new seating in the Right Field Pavillion that will be all you can eat. Unfortunately it won't include beer, only hot dogs, nachos, peanuts and soft drinks. It sounds like a good idea at first but when you think about it, it isn't. It will cost $35 pre sale or $40 on the day of the game to sit there. These are the second cheapest tickets in the ballpark usually that ran $8 a piece last season if I remember correctly. So take out $8 and you're charging $27 or $32 for all you can eat ballpark food. For some it may be worth it but for most it won't. Say you get a hot dog, nacho and a soft drink that still doesn't add up to $27. Some people will probably fall for it but most I think won't. The seats aren't that great, you could take the same money buy a better seat and still eat a good amount at Dodger Stadium. This is a mistake by Dodger management, I think the better way to go about this would have been to use some premium seats to entice fans with good seats and all you can eat food. The food is not enough to offset the bad seats. I'll probably end up going to one game with this promotion and then come back home so sick of hot dogs and nachos that I'll never want to eat them again.

Jersey list updated again, now up to 67 with the additions of a Kobe Bryant Road 24 Authentic and a Vince Young Alternate Authentic