Good fortune

On Jan. 2 the Michigan State football team fell to Texas Tech, 41-31, in the Alamo Bowl, deceiving considering the game was played in San Antonio and the Red Raiders’ campus is in Lubbock. The other anomally in this equation was the firing of head coach Mike Leach days before kickoff after he supposedly dealt with wide receiver Adam James’ concussion by placing him in a dark storage closet for an extended time period.

On Dec. 30, Tech issued a response to its decision on the school’s website, stating: “(Leach’s) contemporaneous statements make it clear that the coach’s actions against the player were meant to demean, humiliate and punish rather than to serve the team’s best interest. This action, along with his continuous acts of insubordination, resulted in irreconcilable differences that make it impossible for coach Leach to remain at Texas Tech.”

While James felt the crowd’s hostility while standing on the sidelines against the Spartans, he at least has the good fortune to have an NFL veteran father in Craig James, a New England Patriots running back from 1984-88. As the 1986 Pro- Bowler also works with the ESPN college football broadcast team, he gave these accusations more credibility

and attention than most

people ever could’ve. In

return, Leach stood firm in his belief he did nothing to make the player’s physical condition worse, a fine line depending on whether or not his job description is governed by safety concerns or legal standing.

Snapped up

Ever since Pete Rose was banned from baseball in 1989, the bottom has fallen out of the sports memorabilia business, and the 1994-95 MLB players strike only served to solidify that trend as fact. Apparently not everyone got the memo, as ABC 12 reported Jan. 4, that a local man is trying to unload his current collection of over a million baseball, football and basketball cards.

While the man’s layoff is an obvious motivator, a recent study by the Conference Board Research group shows only 45 percent of today’s work force is satisfied in their current employment, down from 49 percent in 2008 and 61 percent in 1987. Until incomes get back to keeping up with inflation and health insurance stops absorbing so much of workers take-home pay, perhaps your sports-based investments are better directed towards frivolities of a less tumultuous nature, like catching something similiar to the 513 lb. Blue Fin Tuna three sushi restaurants snapped up Jan. 5 in Japan for $177,000.

Cold enough

Because of mortgages allegedly defaulted on by Dr. Khaled Shukairy, Flints’ Perani and Iceland Arenas were recently acquired by the Standard Insurance Company for a combined $7.5 million at a Genesee County sherriff’s auction. Shortly thereafter (on Jan. 2), Perani was damaged by vandals, noteworthy because the venue can’t even keep the ice cold enough for skating during a Michigan winter.

Did somebody really think the place had some kind of hidden booty of pirate treasure, or was this more of a good riddance to bad rubbish gesture toward Shukairy?

Lights out

Apparently Ann Arbor native and multi-time boxing titlist James Toney is considering mixed martial arts. While “Lights Out” has rarely, if ever, backed down from a challenge, even “Iron” Mike Tyson wouldn’t tread those waters during his heyday, stating repeatedly he’d fight any future challengers under the same format he’d faced all past opponents; The Marquess of Queensbury rules.

Generally considered the laws of boxing, maybe Toney should restrict himself to these statutes, otherwise MMA light heavyweights like Lansings’ Rashad “Sugar” Evans might just put his lights out for good.