My Top 10 Favorite Detroit Sports Moments

Sports have given me some of the most exciting moments of my life. Here is a list of ten of my favorite moments by the teams in the city of Detroit. Even though some of them happened when I was young, I can still remember watching them and I know how excited they made me.

10.Sergei Federov scores all five goals for the Detroit Red Wings to beat the Washington Capitals 5-4.
9.Austin Jackson makes a catch in left center field to preserve what was at the time Armando Galaraga's perfect game.
8.Calvin Johnson scores touchdown in week 1 of the 2010 season to beat the Chicago Bears (despite what the NFL rule book says).
7.Richard "Rip" Hamilton scores 31 points in game 3 of 2004 NBA finals against Los Angeles Lakers.
6.Pavel Datsyuk scores unbelievable goal against the Minnesota Wild in a shootout.
5.J.D. Martinez hits go ahead home run in first at bat after returning from broken elbow. (Video courtesy of MLB.com: http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/70087564/v1005872483)
4.Detroit Pistons win the 2004 NBA Championship over the Los Angeles Lakers.
3.Detroit Red Wings win 1997 Stanley Cup.
2.Magglio Ordonez hits walk-off home run to send the Detroit Tigers to the World Series.
1.Steve Yzerman double overtime goal in game 7 against the St. Louis Blues.

Red Wings 25 Year Postseason Streak in Doubt

The Detroit Red Wings have made the postseason every year since the 1989-90 season. This is undoubtedly an incredible streak; but it will most likely be ending shortly. I'm sure this is not the way ownership wanted to see the franchises' time at Joe Louis Arena end.

But maybe that's exactly what the franchise needs. A fresh start. A chance to start a new streak at their new home, Little Caesers Arena (which some fans have already dubbed the dough Joe in homage to Joe Louis Arena). Clever, right? Maybe Wings fans are just laughing to keep themselves from crying at the thought that this impressive streak may be no more than just a fond memory.

It could be argued that the franchise is a victim of its own success. The fact that they have made the playoffs all these years that they get a lower draft pick during the next draft. This is why some teams (not pointing any fingers) have resorted to tanking, or putting less talented players on the ice in order to ensure that they lose as many games as possible to improve their draft position. This goes against everything that sports is supposed to be about.

One thing that has not helped the team is that the general manager, Ken Holland, likes to keep younger players in the minor league system until they are "overripe." This does not make sense to me because if a player is talented enough for them to be drafted, they should be playing as soon as they are ready. On the other hand, some players need to be rushed up to the NHL because of a lack of success at the position (detractors will point to this gif as evidence that Jared Coreau is not the Red Wings' goalie of the future).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh nooooo Jared Coreau 😵 <a href="https://t.co/Itnvh53b5J">pic.twitter.com/Itnvh53b5J</a></p>&mdash; NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLonNBCSports/status/830904749624946688">February 12, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This season has been tough but that is only because the Red Wings have spoiled their fans by making it to the playoffs every year and winning 4 Stanley Cups in the last 11 years. Thank you to the late Mike Ilitch for making it possible and for believing in the city of Detroit.

NFL Skills Showdown Recap

Ten Pro Bowlers from the AFC and NFC competed in a skills challenge in advance of the Pro Bowl on Saturday in Orlando, Florida at ESPN's Wide World of Sports. The event pitted the players in five different games; the best hands challenge, the power relay, the wide receiver drone drop, the precision passing challenge, and the highlight of the event, a dodge ball game.

The best hands challenge and precision passing challenge were pretty basic and uneventful. The drone drop was a very inventive idea introducing new technology into the game of football. Odell Beckham Jr., one of the NFL's most popular players among its younger audience won the event catching a football dropped from a drone from an astonishing height of 125 feet! His performance just proves what amazing things you can do when you are not preoccupied with kicking nets.

Everyone that was going to watch the Pro Bowl was interested in one event especially, the dodge ball game. Just think what it would be like watching your favorite NFL players playing the game that you used to in elementary school!

One humorous part of the dodge ball game was when Alex Smith, the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, went to throw a ball at the NFC team. It did not go well, as you can see in the YouTube clip above. Thinking that Smith was an NFL quarterback, the NFC team all stepped back in anticipation of the throw, only to see it land harmlessly in front of them. The internet, as it is wont to do, proceeded to mercilessly make fun of Smith.

The good news for Smith is that he is under contract for the Chiefs for 2017, a contract that will cost the team $16.9 million! It's a good thing that he signed this contract years before his pitiful dodge ball performance.

Recap: AFC and NFC Championship Games

Both the AFC and NFC Championship games turned out to be blowouts for the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. Atlanta beat the Green Bay Packers by a score of 44-21. The 23 point loss was nothing compared to the hit that Falcons rookie cornerback Brian Poole put on him (video courtesy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCojyGFb8W2xxSsJ5c_XburQ). The Green Bay defense had no answer for the tandem of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and wide receiver Julio Jones.

The Packers were supposed to be the hottest team in the NFL coming in to the game but they had various injuries on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Most notable of these injuries was their wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who suffered multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung in the Packers' previous playoff game against the New York Giants.

The AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers was not any closer. Tom Brady will play in his record-setting seventh Super Bowl in two weeks in Houston Texas. This is a great accomplishment for a sixth round draft pick out of the University of Michigan. No one could have predicted this when Brady was the backup quarterback for Drew Bledsoe at the beginning of his career. However, some will continue to point out that he was suspended for the first four games of this season because of his supposed role in the deflategate saga. I do not feel that the air pressure of footballs played any role in him making it to seven Super Bowls.

Hopefully the fact that both the Patriots and the Falcons won in such a convincing fashion means that the Super Bowl will be a good game. Both quarterbacks are playing at a high level with entirely different personnel. The Patriots' defense has been ranked at the top of the league for almost the entire season. It would be disappointing if the only reason people are watching the Super Bowl in the second half is for the commercials.

Brad Ausmus was not happy about this third strike call, and his hoodie was one of the casualties

The Detroit Tigers had been struggling. Being swept in a three game series against the Washington Nationals (the presumptive favorite to represent the National League in the World Series), will do that to a baseball team. They were struggling to score runs and had not fared much better in the pitching department. So you could say the mood at Comerica Park was tense, to say the least. But what happened next was maybe the most entertaining thing to happen during the Detroit Tigers season to that point.

Oh, and not to mention the Tigers were in the midst of blowing an 8 run lead against the last placed team in the division.

The manager (for now) of the team, Brad Ausmus, was so angry about a called third strike against Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos. The resulting argument with home-plate umpire Doug Eddings was one of the best ejections on a baseball field I've ever seen. It concluded with Ausmus taking off his MLB issued Detroit Tigers hoodie and adding a few choice words for Eddings.

You might say that Ausmus blew a gasket and you would be 100% right in this assessment. Lets just remember that managers/coaches are people to.

Video courtesy: Reilly Raymond

Happy Birthday to my favorite athlete!

Today is Steve Yzerman's 51st birthday. Yzerman was my favorite athlete growing up a Red Wings fan. My mom will tell stories of me introducing myself as Yzerman as a youngster (I can neither confirm or deny). This does sound like something a young Andrew Walsh would do. I cannot say anything bad about him. His play taught me to stay humble and work hard. However, he is now the general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning who are the team that have defeated the Detroit Red Wings in the playoffs last year and again this year. This year's series was not much of a contest given the fact that the Red Wing's power play (a power play happens when one team is called for a penalty and the player who committed the penalty is sent to the penalty box giving the other team the opportunity to play with one more team on the ice for a maximum of either two or five minutes).

I will never forget one goal that Steve Yzerman scored in particular. It happened on May 17, 1996 when I was seven years old so I may have some of the details wrong. That's exactly what Google was invented for, if you ask me. The Red Wings won the game on a slap shot by Yzerman from just outside the blue-line of their offensive zone. It must have fooled the goalie for the St. Louis Blues, Jon Casey, barely moved to stop the puck. What ensued can only be described as pure, unadulterated joy. Every time I see a replay of that particular goal, a smile comes across my face.

Steph Curry to be re-evaluated for knee sprain in 2 weeks

Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors slipped on a wet spot on the court during the end of the first half of game 4 of their series with the Houston Rockets, a team that everyone with eyes knows does not want to be on the court with one another anymore. This is sad because the Warriors are easily the most entertaining team to watch in sports right now.

This injury will be especially devastating if it prevents the team from winning the NBA championship for a second straight year. The Warriors just set the NBA record for wins in a season with 73, a record that was set by the Chicago Bulls in 1995-96. This Chicago Bulls team had the best player in the league at that point (and some might even say he is still the best player in the league), Michael Jordan and other great players such as Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and 3-point shooting specialist Steve Kerr (who is now the head coach for the Golden State Warriors. The fact that Curry was injured at this point in the season does not mean that they shouldn't have tried to break the Bulls' record, but the cynics will say that the ultimate goal of team sports is to win a championship. I will not be one of those cynics.

The NBA has needed a storyline that will draw the casual fan into watching games, and this great team with a player that is universally loved has done just that. There are no villains in the league now that LeBron James has gone back to Cleveland after a four year stint with the Miami Heat, a move that was vilified at the time because he had left his "home" team, the Cleveland Cavaliers in a one hour special on ESPN in which he infamously said he would be taking his talents to South Beach. Cavaliers fans were so upset that they even began burning their Lebron James jerseys in a fit of rage (no worries, it's not like he'll ever come back to play for the Cavs again).