Part of Barney’s awesome Baseball as Art set (slideshow).
Check it out bigger.
The Triumphal March: Detroit Red Wings 2008 Victory Celebration
The Triumphal March, photo by Airplane Lane.
Airplane Lane took this photo of the throngs cheering Detroit Red Wings Captain Nicklas Lidstrom holding the Stanley Cup aloft in celebration as he rode down Woodward Ave during the Red Wings victory parade.
You can check out a ton more photos in this Flickr slideshow of Detroit Red Wings victory parade (just the photos).
Welcome Back, Stanley! Detroit Red Wings win Stanley Cup!!
Welcome Back, Stanley!, photo by radiospike photography
Spike writes that this photo of Red Wings captain Nik Lidstrom was taken after the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins to secure their 11th Stanley Cup. He has a ton of great Wings shots and says that his complete gallery of Red Wings photos will be on sale within hours.
For a while it looked to Wingnuts like the Red Wings were going to take fans to the edge of heaven and leave them there after a crushing game 5 loss. Last night fans gathered around their TVs, in the Joe Louis Arena and (lucky few) at Mellon Arena where their beloved Wings:
…played a perfect road game Wednesday night at Mellon Arena, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, in Game 6 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final to go wire-to-wire as the best team in the National Hockey League this season.
“It’s never easy,” Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. “Toughest trophy in sports to win; it lives for that name every year, that nickname. It was difficult, again. Pittsburgh is a great young team … gave us all we could handle. Probably one of the most difficult series I’ve played in a while. They have a talented team. They held on right to the end again. They kept pushing us still.”
Detroit Red Wings’ players, coaches and staff will participate in a parade to celebrate the 2008 Stanley Cup championship tomorrow (Friday, June 6) starting at 11 AM. The parade will end with a celebration rally at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Click for all the details!
You can check Wikipedia’s 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs entry for the Wings route to Lord Stanley’s Cup. Here’s a slideshow of photos from the Detroit Red Wings 2008 playoff run on Flickr (just the photos) and you’ll also want check out the Detroit Red Wings group, and this slideshow of Game 6 photos from the Red Wings site.
Detroit Tigers: Who’s safe at third?
Safe at Third, photo courtesy Library of Congress
The Library of Congress captioned this photo Detroit ball player slides safely into third base as fielder reaches to the left for ball on the ground during baseball game. It’s from a game between the Washington Senators and the Detroit Tigers sometime between 1910 and 1930, but beyond that, it’s one of the many photographic mysteries waiting to be solved.
Be sure to click through and check it out larger – that third base is amazingly tattered … sort of like our Detroit Tigers.
LC-USZ62-135402
Team Spirit: Exposure.Detroit Ann Arbor Exhibit
Team Spirit, photo by A2 Cathy.
Cathy says that Michigan means enjoying school sports. She’s one of many members of the Exposure.Detroit group on Flickr who are offering their photos for consideration in the juried June 6, 2008 Exposure.Detroit Exhibition in Ann Arbor.
The show will be held at Sweetwaters in Ann Arbor and hangs through July (and the Ann Arbor Art Fair). All you have to do to have a shot at the show is click over to Exposure.Detroit and follow the instructions (which basically boil down to “post a photo that shows what Michigan means to you”)! Even if you don’t want to be in the show, you will want to see all the different things that Michigan means to folks!
Tour de Leelanau bike race – Memorial Day Weekend
Here They Come (1), photo by corremadrid.
The annual Tour de Leelanau bicycle race takes place next Sunday (May 25) and features international and US pro cycling teams on a USA Pro Tour sanctioned race. The course winds through the hills of Leelanau County in northern Michigan and features a variety of climbs and sprints that create an atmosphere reminiscent of a European road race.
If you happen to be attending it this year, bring your camera because the race organizers are sponsoring a $500 Tour de Leelanau photo contest where your photo can also be the cover of their 2009 publication!
Joel has some cool Tour de Leelanau photos and you can see many more in the Tour de Leelanau group on Flickr and in this cool Tour de Leelanau slideshow.
I also wrote a Tour de Leelanau post on Leelanau.com that you might like. Have a great weekend!
Michigan March Madness: University Arena at Western Michigan University
University Arena, photo by Western Michigan University
University Arena is located in Read Fieldhouse at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It is home to the WMU Broncos men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleybal, and gymnastics teams and seats 5,421. The building opened in 1957 and was named in honor of legendary coach Herbert “Buck” Read who coached the Broncos to a 345-169 record.
Wikipedia’s entry on Western Michigan Broncos Men’s Basketball says that the Broncos have appeared in three NCAA Tournaments (1976, 1998 & 2004). Alumni who have reached the NBA include Don Boven, Dillard Crocker, Paul Griffin, Ben Handlogten, Reggie Lacefield and Walker Russell.
WMU has a small photo gallery of University Arena and links to some photographers with WMU sports photos for sale.
More Michpics Michigan March Madness!
Michigan March Madness: Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan
Gophers at Crisler Arena, photo by B Cohen
Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan hosts men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s gymnastics and women’s gymnastics. It opened in 1967, was named for Fritz Crisler, legendary UM football coach and athletic director and designed by Dan Dworsky. Wikipedia’s page on Crisler Arena says that is is often called “The House that Cazzie Built,” a reference to superstar Cazzie Russell. Russell led UM to Big Ten titles ’64-66 and his popularity caused the team’s fanbase to outgrow Yost Fieldhouse. The arena seats almost 14,000 and you can read more about it at the Crisler Arena page at MGOBLUE.com.
Wikipedia’s entry for the University of Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball says:
The Wolverines have won 12 Big Ten regular-season conference titles, as well as the inaugural Big Ten Tournament in 1998, which it later forfeited due to NCAA violations. The team has appeared in the NCAA Final Four on six occasions (1964, 1965, 1976, 1989, 1992* and 1993*) and won the national championship in 1989 under Steve Fisher. The program later forfeited its 1992 and 1993 Final Four appearances due to NCAA violations. Other notable players who played for Michigan include Daniel Horton, Bernard Robinson, Gary Grant, Terry Mills, Glen Rice, Jalen Rose, Rumeal Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Cazzie Russell, and Mark Hughes. (I’ll add Robert Traylor, Rudy Tomjanovich and Phil Hubbard to that list)
More items of interest for you include a biggee-sized view from up high, this photoset titled Paging the Fab Five and a couple of photos of Crisler Arena from the Bentley Historical Library.
Michigan March Madness: Jack Breslin Student Events Center, Michigan State University
The Breslin Center, Michigan State University, photo by jgeorge_2006
The Jack Breslin Student Events Center at Michigan State University was named in honor of Battle Creek native and MSU grad Jack Breslin. In 1989, it replaced Jenison Fieldhouse as the site for MSU men’s basketball and women’s basketball games. Wikipedia’s entry on the Breslin Center says that although the arena nominally contains 16,280 seats, seating is about 15,000 for most events.
The arena’s current basketball court is the same floor where the Spartans won the 2000 NCAA Men’s Tournament, which was at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The school purchased the floor from the NCAA and Final Four floor installer Horner Flooring (based in Dollar Bay, Michigan) after the title game, and had a plaque installed on the baseline near the Michigan State tunnel to commemorate the floor’s purpose in the school’s history.
The Spartans have won two NCAA championships and ten Big Ten championships in men’s basketball. The Spartans won the National Championship in both 1979 and 2000 NCAA Tournaments. MSU alumns who play or have played in the NBA include Maurice Ager, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Greg Kelser, Morris Peterson, Zach Randolph, Shawn Respert, Jason Richardson, Scott Skiles, Steve Smith, Eric Snow, Jay Vincent and Kevin Willis.
I’m not entirely certain who jgeorge is, but they have uploaded the photo above large enough for great wallpaper and have many more MSU sports photos.
For more pictures, check out a Flickr search for Breslin Center, the MSU Basketball set by Blackbeard Ben and this incredible shot of the Breslin Center at MSU’s Convocation by Patrick T Power. The photo gallery at BeASpartan.com has a few photos from the Breslin including this beauty.
Michigan March Madness: Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center
Convocation Center, photo courtesy Eastern Michigan University
From Wikipedia’s Eastern Michigan University entry I learned that the school was founded in Ypsilanti in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the first normal school created outside the original 13 colonies. It became the Michigan State Normal College in 1899, Eastern Michigan College in 1956 and ultimately Eastern Michigan University in 1959. In 1991, the school become one of the first to abandon a Native American mascot (the Hurons) for the current name of Eagles. In 1991, when EMU qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, announcer Brent Musburger referred to the team on-air as the “No-Names” and there is apparently still a campaign to restore the Huron. EMU is in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and:
Eastern’s men’s basketball team has appeared in four NCAA Division I tournaments, and have a 3-4 record, tied for third best among Michigan colleges. In the 1996 Men’s Basketball Tournament, Eastern Michigan defeated the Duke Blue Devils in the opening round; it would be the Blue Devils’ last first- or second-round defeat until 2007, when they were upended by VCU in the opening round.
EMU plays their games at Convocation Center, a nearly 205,000 sq ft structure that was completed in 1998. Here’s a photo of the arena dressed up for convocation. They don’t list what programs use the facility, but here’s a link to their women’s basketball (2008 MAC champions) and men’s basketball programs. Basketball Reference lists a number of notable EMU grads in the NBA including Earl Boynkins.
Michigan in Pictures 
