Sports Phile

 If he does, it’s because he has (correctly) calcuated that this choice will give him maximum attention. If he chooses Michigan, he and Rodriguez will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Sep. 1. If he chooses Ohio State, he will be a backup quarterback Sep. 1.

SportingNews.com - Your expert source for NCAA Football stats, scores, standings, and blogs from NCAA Football columnists

Roy Hall, Pryor’s quarterbacks coach, told the Plain Dealer in Cleveland that he believes Pryor will choose Ohio State.But Reitz told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “I think Michigan has closed the gap some the past few weeks. Their coaches believe they have a shot.”

Camera Spots Wolverine in Sierra Nevada - The Huffington Post

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A research project aimed at weasels has turned up a bigger prize: a picture of a wolverine, an elusive animal scientists feared may have been driven out of the Sierra Nevada long ago by human activity.

The discovery could affect land-use decisions if the wolverine is declared an endangered species, a step the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering, although the animals typically live at high elevations where there is limited development.

A graduate student at Oregon State University, Katie Moriarty, got a picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-and-heat-detecting digital camera set up between Truckee and Sierraville, in the northern part of the mountain range.

Moriarty was trying to get pictures of martens, which are slender brown weasels, for a project she was doing with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station.

She said that when she saw the wolverine in the picture early last Sunday morning, it was a “complete shock. It was not something I would expect by any means.”

News of the picture surprised scientists, who thought wolverines, if they still inhabited the Sierra, would be found only in the southern part of the range, not in the Lake Tahoe area.

There had been sightings of wolverines by reputable people but no solid proof they were still in the Sierra, said Bill Zielinski, a research ecologist for the Forest Service who was working with Moriatry.

“The conventional wisdom was that they were pretty much gone from California,” said Zielinski. “There’s been a lot of other camera work and a variety of methods used to track rare carnivores. Those same methods, if wolverines had been around, would have detected them, we thought.”

Garner named West Virginian of the Year - Yahoo! News

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Actress Jennifer Garner has been honored as the 2007 West Virginian of the Year by her hometown newspaper.
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The Sunday Gazette-Mail says it chose Garner for her dedication, hard work and service as an ambassador and role model for West Virginia.

Rich Rodriguez wasn’t available?

Technorati Tags: jennifer garner, RichRod, OurRod, Michigan

I was a day late on this, but in this case, at least, better late than never.

Major announcement: Obama backs Bears - NFL - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, a potential presidential candidate, planned to end weeks of speculation Monday and tell a national audience … he supports his hometown Chicago Bears.

Having some fun with all the political hype, Obama mocked the frenzied interest by taping the introduction to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between his hometown Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams.

“So tonight I’d like to put all the doubts to rest. And tonight, after a lot of thought and a good deal of soul-searching, I would like to announce to my hometown of Chicago and all of America that I’m ready …”

And to top it all of he’s got a sense of humor!

Technorati Tags: Obama

SI.com - NBA - Shaq: My career is not in decline - Tuesday November 28, 2006 5:58PM

A year ago, when O’Neal sprained his ankle in Miami’s home opener and missed 18 games, there was talk his body was breaking down. He recovered, sat out only five more games and led the Heat to the NBA title for his fourth championship ring.

Now that he’s in the middle of another layoff, rumblings about slippage in his productivity have resurfaced. He dismisses detractors.

Are these people nuts? Did any of them see the Pistons series last year where Shaq ran the floor like a 20-year-old? His knee injury may mark a down spot, but he sure as hell wasn’t in decline six months ago.

Technorati Tags: Shaq

ESPN.com - NBA - Sources: Kobe switching to No. 24

Bryant’s switch is the NBA’s most significant jersey number change since the 1994-95 season,

What?

Caught Michigan’s spring football practice on Saturday. They looked pretty good.

Noteworthy: freshman running back Carlos Brown showed some jets. Sophomore Kevin Grady looked very, very comfortable catching passes one-on-one against the linebackers. Backup QB Jason Forcier is faster than Henne but threw several forced passes that were nearly picked for six. Wideout LaTyrrell Savoy (sp?) showed good hands and made a nice catch near the end zone that got the crowd buzzing.

My prediction after watching the scrimmage? 8-4.

Sam Walker’s FANTASYLAND (Viking) is justly earning high praise. It’s an extremely funny account of Walker’s experiences as a Wall Street Journal sports reporter who took a year off to participate in Tout Wars, a national fantasy baseball competition. The great thing about the book is the way that Sam both describes the madness of rotisserie baseball and succumbs to it.

I’ve known Sam Walker since he was only a few years old. His father, Jack Walker, was a colleague of my dad’s in the University of Michigan’s political science department, and they were best friends. They had season tickets together at the Big House for close to twenty years, and I sat with Jack on many occasions — the last being a drive down to Lexington, Kentucky for the SouthEast regional game in Michigan’s run to the 1989 NCAA basketball championship, with my dad and his then girlfriend Susan McClanahan. Jack died an untimely death at 55, blindsided by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign. Sam’s mother, Linda, is a writer and novelist, who was friends with my mom for many years too. After Cheryl and I were married in 1989, we were close with Linda, too; Linda and I had always shared a love for the written word, and she has a terrific sense of humor that resonated well with Cheryl’s.

FANTASYLAND reflects the best of Sam’s heritage. It combines sports mania, a passion for quantitative methods (something Michigan’s political science department is known for), a strong narrative drive, and many laugh-out-loud funny moments. This is a terrific book.