Tim got a new camera. What better way to test it out than head down to the corner of Main and East Stadium.

I work on the top floor of South Quad so I can kind of get an aerial view of the stadium. The construction is definitely impressive. It’s going to look amazing when it’s done.

Posted under Misc.

The new Recruiting Board is up, so I thought I should go over some of the new features.

When Tim and I were discussing what would be ideal, we started thinking something that was basically a message board with each prospect getting his own thread. The only problem there was formatting the information and making it look nice and convey the information quickly. And then there are the issues of maintenance and moderation inherent in message boards.

It seemed like a hybrid would be the best solution, so now you can comment on each and everyone of the recruits individually. Any info or articles, rumors you’ve heard, an opinion/gut feeling you have, anything that could give a more rounded picture of the prospect can be posted there. You have to register, but that is really quick and no personal information is required (the registration link is at the bottom of the board as well as under the comments section- Tim). This helps prevents spambots from doing what they do and gives troll another hurdle.

I hope everyone will contribute so we can have a super complete, informative source for the 2009 class.

Posted under Blog News, Recruiting

A friend of mine e-mailed me the brochure that the Athletic Department put together to explain the stadium renovation and “enhanced giving opportunities” to the University that are resulting from the construction. I hadn’t seen this before, so I thought I’d throw out some high lights.

You can click on any image for a higher resolution version.This is probably my favorite page, simply because of the ludicrous amounts of money they’re asking for and how I can’t believe they won’t get it all. The naming rights on this page (except for the Stadium Door Reception Wall) total up to $38.5M, almost 20% of the total construction budget.

These are the club seats that will be under the suites on the Crisler side of the stadium. I wonder how much more the necessary annual contribution is for these than say the 50 yard line row 20. Anyway, if we say the seats average about $2,500 and there are 3,000 of them, that means at least $7.5M per year in gifts in addition to the cost of season tickets. This comes on top of keeping the premium seats in the bowl as well if the rich people want to be with the unwashed masses.
These aren’t super exciting, and I can’t really get a number, but the rendering is pretty cool…

And now the big money makers:
There are 83 available suites (46 on the West side, 37 on the East Side). They come with free parking and “premium food and beverage service.” How premium?

Q13. Will beverage alcohol be available for premium seating patrons?
No. Michigan Stadium, including all premium seating areas, will be an alcohol free environment.

Not premium enough. So continuing with our math, lets assume the suites average $70,000 per year. That totals about $5.8M a year, and that doesn’t even count the gifts one would have to make to the Athletic department in order to get to the point in line to buy a suite.

So let’s recap:

Not too shabby. Assuming an overly simplistic model where all the prices stay the same and no interest has to be paid on the $226M construction costs, just the money from the premium seating could and capital gifts could pay back the costs in 13 years.

Posted under Blog News

I took some pictures at the beginning of the game of the atmosphere. The combination of being pretty far away from the action, not having a telephoto lens, the sky looking like it was ready to open at any time and my desire to enjoy the game kept me from taking more pictures.

I went to the game on Saturday against Arizona. I didn’t make it out to the UK game today and it doesn’t look like there’s a great opportunity for another chance against Arizona (currently 11 – 6 Wildcats). I’ll post a recap on Monday.

Without further adieu… pictures:

Posted under Baseball, Photo Album

Like a crazy amount of other people on Friday, I went down to Ray Fisher Stadium despite the ominous forecast and sky. Walking down State street it almost felt like a football game (except it being at night and the crowd skewing older). Tons of people were making the trek down State for the game.

I got to the ticket window by 6:45 and it looked as though they’d been selling only standing room only tickets for a while. Luckily, standing room only basically meant general admission outside the grand stand. I had a camera (pictures up probably Sunday or Monday), so I figured I’d find a nice spot on the rail. Before the starting line-ups were done, the rail was full up both baselines. Two people deep at some places. Most of the bleachers were filling up too.

By the time the game started, the place was packed. The spot I found was along the 3rd baseline by the Yost entrance. It also seemed to be where the Athletic Department big wigs were handing out. Bill Martin was standing in the crowd looking as happy as I’ve ever seen him, soaking in the environment. The alumni band was in the stands led by a very energetic sousaphonist. The crowd was totally ready to go. It felt like a big league game, or at least double A.

Putnam got the start and had a shaky start. Gave up early hits and a cheap run in the second with only one out. He looked nervous. His pitches were either balls or line drives. So with one out and runners on the corners, he trying to pick off the man on first. He does this two or three times. Then he fakes the pick-off throw to first and guns it over to third and catches the runner in a pickle. That really seemed to get him going. He struck out the batter and then was lights out the rest of the night.

The bottom of the second started with Putnam up to bat. It seemed all the confidence he got at the end of the last side came from UK’s starter, Rusin. Putnam got walked on four pitches. Got over to third on a hit and run and scored on an RBI single. The Wolverines scored four more runs that inning. Luckily my friend who played baseball and understands the strategy was there to explain what was happening to me. The conclusion, Maloney has balls that Les Miles would envy. In the second inning, Maloney called two hit and runs and a suicide squeeze. Both the hit and runs advanced the runner from first to third and the squeeze scored one. Rusin was pulled before he got the second out that inning.

Michigan looked like it was cruising and Putnam was dealing, but then the lightning started and they suspended the game. I didn’t make to the Fish for the game this morning, but I’ll be heading back tonight at 7pm for the game against Arizona. Hopefully the Fish will be just as packed and ready to go as it was last night.

Posted under Baseball

Tim was supposed to come back stateside today around five. Unfortunately, during one of the last night of his stay in Australia, Tim fell from his hotel room (roughly 3-4 stories up). Luckily, an awning broke his fall and Tim is still alive and well. He suffered a back injury, but still has full mobility. I haven’t called him yet (the combination of the time change and when I found out about this made it awkward), but what I’ve heard is that he could be released from the hospital in a day or two.

Needless to say I’m relieved this didn’t end as badly as it could have. I heard a partial story earlier today and didn’t get the details and (relatively) good news until late tonight.

Until Tim gets back to prime blogging form, you’ll have to put up with updates from your’s truly. Varsity Blue is truly Tim’s blog, and I cannot hope to cover recruiting in the detail he does. Luckily, there is a baseball regional going on this weekend, and my girlfriend is letting me go to it. Hopefully I can snag a good digital camera and have a nice photo album and reactions from the first regional game tomorrow.

Tim’s regular updates will resume whenever he is able to. If you want to send your thoughts or well wishes, his e-mail address is in the menu to the right or you can click here

Posted under Blog News

The University of Michigan has officially been selected as a host of one of the sixteen regional baseball tournaments. One of the reasons for this is surely the new stadium which I went to for Friday’s game against Purdue. It’s a great facility for a collegiate baseball program especially in the Midwest. With the new Ray Fisher stadium, Michigan has an advantage beyond the regional tournament.

The NCAA has let it be known that they’d like more geographical diversity in the baseball tournament. If Michigan can win its second straight regional title, they have a really good shot at hosting at the super-regional stage. Last year, if not for the construction, they likely could have hosted, but they did not have the facilities to even put in a bid. The team lost to Oregon State last year, the defending champs, out in Corvallis. With this more experienced team and home field advantage, this could be the Wolverines best chance of making it to Omaha for the College World Series.

Posted under Baseball

So at 7:05pm tonight University of Michigan will take on the University of Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament. For all of us in Ann Arbor, going to the game is a great option, despite the cold weather. Luckily for fans outside of Ann Arbor, there is a network dedicated to Big Ten sports which has coverage of every single conference championship. You would think that would be the case, but here’s BTN’s line up for tonight:

While I, like other Michigan fans, would like to see how the Wolverines won the Big Ten outdoor track title, isn’t things like the baseball tournament the reason BTN was made? It seems a bit ridiculous to run a pre-produced show about the track championships almost a week after they took place instead of showing the live baseball tournament.

I like the BTN and think, eventually, it will be good for Michigan fans, but it definitely needs some work to get where it ought to be.

Posted under Baseball

Most Michigan fans follow football in the fall and ice hockey (if you like watching a good team) or basketball (if you’re a masochist) in the winter. Many spring sports don’t seem to get the same attention that the other seasons do. It could be because there’s no revenue sport or, more likely, a large part of their seasons are played after students leave campus for the summer.

Well, I’ve been in Ann Arbor the past two summers and have noticed that the spring sports have been ridiculously good the past two years. Women’s track and field finished with a share of the Big Ten title last year and was runner up this year. The male runners won the title outright this year.

This year, women’s tennis made it to the second round NCAA tournament, while the men made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Both teams improved upon somewhat breakout seasons the year before.

Then there is baseball and softball. Both teams last year made it to the super regionals and gave the teams they played hell. I remember watching baseball’s first game against Oregon State in the Super Regional. Zach Putnam pitched a ridiculously good game. He only gave up one hit, but unfortunately that one hit brought in a run which was enough to earn Putnam the loss. It was one of the best baseball games I had seen.

As well as those teams did last year, the prospects are looking even better this year. One of the biggest reasons is the new Wilpon Baseball and Softball Palace Complex. Last year both teams played on the road in the Super Regional round. Michigan did not even put in a bid for either sport as the stands and press boxes were torn apart for the new construction. This year is different. Now Michigan has one of the nicer facilities, especially in the Midwest. Softball hosted and won its regional and will hope to do the same when it hopes the Super Regional this weekend. Baseball also has a very good chance of hosting it’s Super Regional series if it made it out of the regional round.

The new Ray Fisher Stadium will be getting it’s first test of a large baseball event when it hosts the Big Ten Tournament this weekend. In an e-mail from the media contact for baseball he said “With the new Press Box there is ample room, but I need to know who is coming so I can have Press Credentials waiting in your name.” which is a drastic change from last year when the media room was a tent behind Yost.

If you are in the area, check out baseball and softball this weekend. The schedule for the Big Ten tournament isn’t posted yet, but softball is set to play Virginia Tech at Noon this Saturday. Even if you’re not in town, you can catch the softball team on ESPN and I assume BTN will cover the tournament.

It could be a special year for both of these teams. They deserve all the support they can get.

UPDATE: Details about ticket prices and availability for baseball are here. Similar details for the softball super regional tickets are here. Take-home points: Baseball is $7 per game. Softball is $5 for general admission bleachers or $7-$8 for the nice, new grandstand.

Posted under Baseball

Taking a page out of the MGoBlue.com book, instead of having a heavy a page with a lot of images, you get a slide show!

If you’d like to get high quality versions of the images you can look through them here or just click on the picture. I guess you can even order prints if you’re into that kind of thing.

I’m going to try to get my initial impressions posted tonight before the standard college Saturday night starts. Look for player and coach interviews to be up tomorrow. The footage from the scrimmage, warm-ups and position drills will be posted throughout the week.

Posted under Blog News, Photo Album, Spring Coverage