Paging Marge: Get Your Sewing Machine Out. Wolverine Devotee discovered while watching a Big Ten Elite on 1989 Illinois that the cagers used to have a banner. I found video of that game on Youtube but unfortunately the banner ceremony didn't make it into the tape.
WD then suggested the banner be brought back/expanded to other sports and I am for it. The intended meaning when Al Renfrew's wife Marge and her friend sewed the original was all of the lettermen from various sports coming to support that one. That sentiment is certainly genuine—throw a dart at the outfield bleachers of a Michigan softball game and chances are you'll spear an offensive lineman (MGoBlog does not support the throwing of darts at offensive linemen).
One argument against is it's been the football team's thing for so long, but remember football wore wings on their helmets since the Thirties and didn't start adding them to other sports until Brendan Morrison. When I posed it to Brian he suggested it'd be kind of impractical for e.g. hockey, but as you see in the pic above banners are adaptable to the building and conditions (have a six-foot one they skate under when they come out for warmups).
When Can I Eff this Ess-Aech? Like the rest of you in this winding down the Red Era, I've been having a hard time really looking away even though every so often there's an event that causes you to swear up and down that you're going to look away. For Canadian, it was when the team blatantly deleted all the text in his MGoDiary after painstaking work on pairwise updates and html charting.
Look, we all know that it's not up to the high standards you've come to expect from your weekly This Week in College Hockey diary. In fact you may even be tempted to read Wolverine in Exile's pairwise diary instead because he's been doing some excellent work over there. But then Wisconsin beats Minnesota, and basketball…, and you think maybe there's a spot after all, and Gee Dee it, we're watching hockey again. What I wouldn't do for some sustained good news from a major sport right now.
Baseball?
Is still an improving mid-major team and will be until either the Big Ten secedes from a league run by people too cowardly to live around snow, or that league decides to play baseball when non-silly places aren't covered by the stuff. But you still should start to recognize the name Jackson Glines. Michigan's senior center fielder gets on base three times a game, gets a hit in the majority of his at-bats, and scores a run a game. The other guy to know is lefty leadoff hitter and closer Jacob Cronenworth.
Best of the Board
SOFTBALL!!!!
…yesterday suffered its first two losses since falling 2-1 on opening day to No. 1 Florida in Tampa. The first was to Arizona State before another Florida loss; starting to not like those girls. Until then Michigan climbed up to #3 in the country, with two-game sweeps over top ten powers Florida State and Alabama. The Judi Garmon continues today with #9 Baylor the evening game. They come home a week from tomorrow.
BO IN THE LOCKER ROOM
Bauhlieve has assembled 12 pre-game, half-time, or post-game speeches in the locker room by Bo. Surprisingly few gems but some definite themes: proud of resilience, let's win the Big Ten championship, and the greatest fight song in the world is…. If you watch one, 1971 post-Iowa:
Your Moment of Zen: