Thoughts for the Day, St. Patrick's Day: March Madness and more.

March Madness

It all starts in earnest on Thursday. Congratulations to the men’s and women’s teams of the Spartans and Wolverines for making the NCAA tournament. The Spartan men are a two seed, The Spartan women are a nine seed. The Wolverine men are a five seed. The Wolverine women are a six seed.

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Dusty May

U of M coach Dusty May spent a few years as a graduate assistant under the legendary Indiana coach Bob Knight, who was one of the most controlling coaches in history. It was Knight’s way or the highway. Day’s history with Knight makes the following quote by May, very interesting and informative about how May has developed his own style of coaching.

“We are trying to be a player led program,” May said. “We are trying to train and create independent thinkers. (And) these guys are on it ... they know we have a high high ceiling, and we haven’t come close to reaching it.”

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Jack Miles

Sunday morning the MHSAA, high school sports, and the Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp lost one of its finest. Jack Miles succumbed to esophageal cancer yesterday. Jack has been a mainstay in high school officiating the last 30 plus years. He officiated football, basketball and umpired baseball. He was part of the staff at the SEMUC where he taught the rules of the game to new and experienced umpires. Jack was my go-to when it came to baseball rules.

Although I never umpired a game with Jack (whenever we were scheduled, the game was rained out or one of us was reassigned to another game) I was able to observe Jack on a few occasions. To this day, the game he umpired behind the plate in the pre-district game at Dexter between Brighton and Skyline was one of the best plate games and one of the best umpired high school games I have ever observed. My role that day was to observe the umpires and report back to my assignor. As I recall, the game lasted 9 innings and Skyline upset Brighton. I was behind the backstop for the entire game, and I don’t recall Jack missing one pitch. He was in a zone and everyone knew it. No complaints from anywhere. There were bang-bang plays on the bases and Jack and his partner Jeff Carpenter got them all correct. After the game, I told them both that it was one of the finest umpired games I had ever seen.

In the last ten years, Jack moved to Drummond Island where he could have easily given up officiating due to the complexity of having to catch the ferry to and from every game he officiated. It was nothing for Jack to spend two hours in his car one way to officiate a football or basketball game. Sometimes, he would stay overnight if he had to go to the lower peninsula. For Jack, it was never about the inconvenience of travel, it was about the kids and the game.

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Showdown with the Federal Courts

It has started. We saw this coming a few weeks ago. What will happen when the Musk/Trump presidency deliberately defies a federal judge order is now front and center?

Per the NY Times and multiple media sites. A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon. Lebanon is not included on a draft list of nations from which the Trump administration is considering banning entry to the United States.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

A hearing in Dr. Alawieh’s case took place Monday and will continue Tuesday.

This leads to my Question of the Day. Why would the U.S. detain and deport a kidney transplant specialist who is saving lives daily at Brown University?

The Rule of Law is being stretched to the limit by the Musk/Trump presidency.

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Kirk Gibson

Kirk Gibson is leaving the broadcast booth.

Gibson, the Detroit Tigers and FanDuel Sports Network Detroit made the joint announcement Monday morning, less than two weeks before the Tigers begin the 2025 season. Gibson has been a member of the Tigers' broadcast team for 15 years ― most recently, since 2015, and before that, he was in the television broadcast booth from 1998-2002.

"Although I may be leaving the booth, my connection with the Tigers remains strong," Gibson said in a statement Monday. "Over the past 25 years, I have been honored to introduce integral parts of the game from my experiences as a player, manager, and coach. I’m incredibly grateful for the support from the Tigers organization, the Ilitch family, and Detroit’s loyal baseball fans."

Gibson, 67, said that stepping away from the broadcast booth will allow him to focus more on his foundation, which he's used as a platform for Parkinson's Disease patients. Gibson was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2015.

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Are we Bringing back the 50s and 60s. I hope not.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I have never considered myself a climate change advocate, however, I have always believed it is our responsibility to take care of our planet for future generations.

From the industrial revolution to the late 1960’s, our country was not a good steward for our environment. Then in June 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire and it was captured in a photo and the environmental movement started.

I grew up in River Rouge, in the 1950’s and 60’s which had the highest density of childhood asthma in the country. The Rouge River was nearly as bad as the Cuyahoga River. Ducks were known to land on the Rouge River, but none were known to fly away.

In River Rouge snow turned orange after three days. Cars had a permanent metallic finish due to the small particles of metal in the air. The town had its own smell. No matter which way the wind blew we were in a direct line of industrial waste coming from the seven sisters DTE, Peerless Cement, Great Lakes Steel, the Marathon Refinery or any of the other industries in our town. More than half the adults smoked. For a severe asthmatic like me, breathing was a daily challenge.

The Detroit River was beautiful, but the fish we caught had a high content of mercury. Lake Erie, which both the Rouge River and the Cuyahoga River fed into, was nearly dead.

Then in 1969 a miracle happened. The Cuyahoga River caught fire and the country woke up. In December 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency, under Republican Richard Nixon was formed. Suddenly there was hope.

For the last 50 years the EPA has been the country’s point on protecting the environment. Lake Erie is a thriving fresh water Great Lake. The air in cities like River Rouge is significantly cleaner and less polluted. Wastelands are protected and enhanced. The EPA has not been perfect, but it has been instrumental in making a positive difference in our environment, protecting our freshwater sources, preserving natural habitats for our animal friends, and cleaning up the air of industrial pollutants. The job is not finished, and more work is needed.

The EPA is now under attack by the Musk/Trump presidency. They are proposing up to a 65% reduction in staffing and the elimination of the over 30 regulations which have protected the environment.

In multiple announcements last week, the MuskTrump presidency said it would repeal dozens of the nation’s most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. It is even changing its mission.

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, reframed the purpose of the E.P.A. In a two-minute-and-18-second video posted to X, Zeldin boasted about the changes and said his agency’s mission is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.” Nowhere in the video did he refer to protecting the environment or public health, twin tenets that have guided the agency since its founding in 1970.

If you don’t like what is going on with the cuts to the EPA, speak up and speak out. Do not wait for someone else to do it.

Please call your members of Congress today. The U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re from and the operator will connect you to your representatives and senators. I tested this out today. It is very simple. They will ask for the congress member you want to contact. They will then switch you to that office

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Quote of the Day: "I am extremely proud of the way they (the Pistons) continued to compete — I'm disgusted by the way that game was officiated. The level of disrespect was above and beyond. They have a guy fall down and trip on his own teammate's foot, they review us for a hostile act. They throw an elbow to our chest-neck area; I ask for them to at least take a look at it. Just show us respect and take a look at it. No one would take a look at it. The disrespect has gone on far enough, and I'm not going to allow our guys to be treated the way they were treated tonight." Detroit Piston’s head coach J.B. Bickerstaff following the Pistons loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Orchid of the Day: Tom Izzo. He is leading the Spartans to their 27^th consecutive NCAA tournament bid. An amazing accomplishment. To put this in perspective, Gonzaga is second at 26, and Purdue is third at 10 consecutive years.

Onion of the Day: The B1G and the NCAA Men’s Selection Committee. Due to the lateness of the B1G men’s tournament championship game, winning the B1G tournament championship has no impact on the seeding in the NCAA tournament. This has been going on for years and it is time for the B1G to change the timing of its B1G Men’s tournament championship.

Since the B1G tournament and the NCAA selection show are both broadcast by CBS, a change to an earlier time in the day should be relatively easy.

Lyrics of the Day: So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine" He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969"
And still those voices are calling from far away. Wake you up in the middle of the night, just to hear them say

If you think you know the answer, send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to Lyrics of the Day for March 13, 2025: Suite: We’ve Tonight, Bob Seger

Question of the Day: Why would the U.S. detain and deport a kidney transplant specialist who is saving lives daily at Brown University?

Video of the Day: My all time favorite. Unless you have been in one of these you cannot appreciate how good this one is.

(720) Baltimore Oriole's Earl Weaver argues with Umpire Bill Haller in 1980. - YouTube

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