Story Time #2

A couple quick hitters, then a story since I don't have much else to talk about this weekend. God this time of the year is dull.

-I like the Flip Murray signing. Even though I believe I called him "the worst player in the NBA" several times during the playoffs (obviously exaggerating), he's a slasher, he can put the ball in the basket (though he didn't really show that against Detroit), and his contract is VERY reasonable. Now, if he had accepted the offer of the entire midlevel which we supposedly offered him, you would've seen a VERY angry Yost Built post. But for $1.8 million per? I love it. Flip, ya might wanna dump that agent.

-I also like the Krys Kolanos signing for the Wings. Low risk, potentially high reward. You're probably not going to get anything great out of the guy but it doesn't hurt to take a look. He's probably another Boyd Devereaux, but if he can put the concussions behind him we could have a pretty decent player. I don't get not making an effort to sign Donald MacLean though. He was the AHL MVP and was effective in his stint up with the Wings. If they're going to need cheap player to fill out the roster, why not keep your most effective minor leaguer?

-Mike Spath reported that a "very good source" is telling him that Pat Kane will be playing college hockey next year and it will be between Michigan and BU. He'll be enrolling in January after finishing up his high school course work and playing in the USHL. That'll be just a huge pickup for one of those teams, and God do I hope it's us. I've said before that the USA players that have wowed me the first time I saw them the way he did were: TJ Hensick, Jack Johnson, Robbie Earl, Phil Kessel, and Peter Mueller. Not a bad group. That wouldn't be the worst way to recover from the loss of Trevor Lewis. Here's hoping Red and Co. can get it done.

Now time for a story about the famous Michigan/MSU triple OT game:

I wasn't supposed to be there, when Braylon Edwards started snatching those passes out of the air. I work on the stat crew for Michigan volleyball, and they had a game originally slated for 7:00. They came on over the PA and announced the game had been bumped back to 7:30 and I figured I was fine. But as the game started to drag on, I realized that there was going to be trouble. Michigan was down by 17, and my time at the stadium was drawing to a close. Braylon caught the pass that sparked the comeback when I had about 5 minutes remaining.

Everyone started swinging their hats in the air for the ensuing kickoff, myself included. What I forgot was that as the sun went down, I took off my sunglasses and put them on my hat. So when I started swinging my hat in the air, I flung my sunglasses about 50 feet down the row. And of course they were Oakleys, not some $5 pair that I bought at Walmart.

I went to search for them, but in all the excitement after the touchdown, I didn't have a prayer. But I made my decision right then. I was staying. I wasn't going to leave a $150 pair of sunglasses under the bleachers to go get paid $15 for working a volleyball game.

You know the rest of the story in the game. Michigan came from behind in one of the most unbelievable football games of this era. As the fans finally filed to the exits, I started walking up and down the rows. Lo-and-behold, my sunglasses were still there. And as luck would have it, when I flung them, they slid underneath a bleacher so that no one stepped on them.

I sprinted from Michigan Stadium over to Cliff Keen Arena, and arrived an hour late for the game. I told my boss "I know you're going to think this is the biggest bullshit excuse in the world, but...." and explained the story. Luckily he didn't care. I'm still not convinced he believed it. I wouldn't have. But I was all set to leave the greatest game ever played. And even though it didn't seem lucky at the time--I think my exact words were, "Great, we're going to lose to State, and I lost my Oakley sunglasses"--flinging my sunglasses kept me from missing everything.