sports commentary

A tip for amateur athletes: The pros are way better than you think

John U. Bacon — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 06:00:00 +0000

A lot of amateur athletes think they’re not that far from the people who play their sports for a living.

Well, when Michigan Radio Sports commentator John U. Bacon tried out for Detroit’s minor league hockey team, he found out that just isn’t so – and he found out the hard way.

A few years ago – okay, a bunch of years ago – I bit on a bet I never should have touched.

I was writing for the Detroit News, and a top minor league hockey team called the Detroit Vipers played at the Palace.

So, I got to thinking: just how big is the gap, really, between the pros, and beer league players like me?

Good question. And even better if I didn’t try to answer it. But, being the hard-hitting investigative journalist that I am, I had to go down to the Palace, and find out.

An unqualified success: The story of Eddie Kahn

John U. Bacon — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:00:00 +0000

In the Michigan hockey program’s 90-year history, some 600 players have scored more than 10,000 total goals. But the man who scored the team’s very first goal 90 years ago, might still be the most impressive one of the bunch.

This is the story of Eddie Kahn.

Big money pushing kids out of the Big House

John U. Bacon — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:39:52 +0000

A 'seat license' is a fee fans pay just to reserve the right to buy the tickets.

They call it a donation, even though every single one of us apparently decided to donate the exact same amount, or lose our tickets. But that allows us to call it a tax deduction.

It's hard to call that honest, or cheap.

In fairness, Michigan was the last of the top 20 programs to adopt a seat license program, in 2005.

It started gradually, and left endzone fans alone.

But this week, Michigan pushed the seat license for the best tickets up to $600, and even people in the endzone will have to cough up $150 per ticket, just for the right to buy them.

In the past decade, the total cost of my two tickets on the ten-yard line has more than tripled, to over $1,700, which makes you wonder just how we got here.

The Olympics and The Things You Actually Want to Watch

John U. Bacon — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:30:00 +0000

The London Olympics features 26 summer sports, with 39 disciplines, and 302 separate competitions, in a desperate attempt to get everyone to watch.

So you’ve got the Ancient Sports, or the Events No One Watches Anymore, like horse riding, rifle range, and archery -- also known as, Things You Did in Summer Camp, But Stopped Doing After You Learned How To Drive and Talk To Girls. Why not include making moccasins and key fobs?

College Football playoff problem solved!

John U. Bacon — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:01:03 +0000

A committee of 12 university presidents recently approved a plan to create a four-team playoff for Division I college football – the last major sport to have one. That has Michigan Radio sports commentator John U. Bacon wondering what good will come of it – if any.

Well, it’s finally upon us. No, not the apocalypse – Mayan calendar be damned – but a bona fide, Division I, college football playoff.