SI's online Assignment Detroit intro is up

[lilpup]

SI's online Assignment Detroit intro is up: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...nment.detroit/

[lilpup]

Updated index page: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...oit/index.html

Note that SI has a feedback page and suggestions for topics are welcome.

[thefishwrap]

This is a really cool project, and I'm glad some national media has taken some real time and money to look at the city. It's been said before, but kudos to Time.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Plus next weeks issue of SI has Detroit on the cover and a story about Mike Illitch and the Tigers.

[lilpup]

It's the issue that hits newsstands tomorrow.

[lilpup]

Nice Ernie Harwell piece posted today ~ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/09/23/ernie.harwell/index.html

[[and another in USA Today ~ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...ll-cover_N.htm )

[vetalalumni]

Recently retired PSL athletic director Lafayette Evans would make for an interesting interview. He served many different roles during his 42 year tenure. During that time "Coach Laf" influenced many lives.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...-regrets?imw=Y

[RealityCheck]

Here's a link to the cover article by Lee Jenkins, headlined The Righteous Franchise, that Cincy Kid and Lilpup mentioned Tuesday.

The sweetest image of this baseball season is the sight of Comerica Park, filled from the box seats to the bleachers. . . . Comerica Park may be located in the heart of the majors' most depressed market, but you wouldn't know it on game days.

. . . In a development as unexpected as Chevy's unveiling of the Volt, the Tigers have provided a jolt for the city.

Yeah, Jenkins sounds like a rookie by calling the Volt launch unexpected . . . just to set up a jolt rhyme. And he force-feeds us an obligatory quote from Kid Rock, who's evidently adopted by the Time family.

But it's a solid piece overall.

[BShea]

My only beefs with the story [[one of which was pointed out first elsewhere) are:

1. He doesn't note that Ilitch raised some ticket prices before the season, which certainly contributed to the attendance decline and may have kept the rebound from being larger. Forbes was critical of this earlier this year.

2. I don't buy into the Tigers-as-welcome-distraction theory, at least not to the degree suggested by SI. I just don't see the evidence. Someone has suggested the reverse may be true: The recession is keeping the Tigers from being the It Thing this fall. My feeling is that we saw more of a fan embrace in 2006 than now. Maybe I'm totally out of touch, but I'm not feeling like there's a Detroit version going on of that montage in "Major League" where the team starts winning and the city falls in love. The Tigers were already good.

That all said, it's great that they're in contention. If they were the Indians, it would just be another kick while we're down. Let's just not over play it.