Backtime 2012 Big Finished

So 2013 began with an alarm sounding at 3:45 AM CT, a 70-minute drive and two flights home. But relaxation time wasn't to be had. There would be no curling up the toes in the Tybee sand.

When I got home, the porch lights were burned out, the mail was piled up, and I felt like I'd been gone a lot longer. I had to turn on the heat and get groceries and balance the checkbook - which should get a little heavier after this trip.

Here were the final tallies:

13 days on the road
4 live events
11 hours of live programming
10 flight segments on 3 airlines
6 different hotels
3 rental cars
4 time zones (includes layover in Salt Lake City)

So after Waco-Vegas-Detroit-San Fran-Stillwater, it was time for a day of mindless football watching and video games with the kids. If my daughter wants to watch back-to-back-to-back episodes of Full House, go for it.

The events of Monday, the day after the NFL season concluded are not lost on the Backtime editorial department. More on that when the batteries are recharged tomorrow.

Backtime 2012 Big Finish: Day 8

OK the blog streak ended at 165 days (just 200 short in a non-election year), and lasted way longer than my plants. I was just too busy working, with the responsibilities of a TV producer and digging myself out of a blizzard. Or as they call it in Detroit, "snow," a mere 4-6 inches doesn't qualify as anything more.

My 7th Detroit Bowl game was a lot like many of the previous ones, wild. The 4th quarter involved a (carried over) 9-minute drive, a 7-minute drive, a TD with a fumble upheld, a TD run overturned, a blocked punt in the end zone, and a very questionable 4th down play call. Central Michigan ultimately prevailed over Western Kentucky.

The 19 buses from Bowling Green, Kentucky all managed to arrive in Detroit for the game, and several pulled up in front of our hotel after the game. It was a mad house. Not only were there 5 inches of unplowed snow in front of the hotel but they couldn't even take may car for close to an hour. The story works better visually, but I just can't take pictures everywhere I go.

It was still fully dark when I dropped off the rental car in the slush at Detroit Metro in the morning. While I undersell the holidays, I know what to ask Santa for before my next Christmas in Detroit: a hat, gloves, scarf, and boots. Almost none of which are needed in Savannah...ever.

My seat assignment from Detroit to San Francisco, 21D, reminded me of my first day as a Delta Platinum in 2008. I was traveling from Detroit to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio and I drew 29E - a middle seat. Welcome to Platinum. Well I must have more clout now, because I was the first one called to be upgraded.

And traveling at 30,000 feet with Wi-Fi and a charger, it was a productive and relaxing experience. I didn't mind the snow so much...while flying over Yosemite.

Backtime Walkabout: Christmas Morning In Detroit

"Twas Christmas morning in Downtown Detroit. Not a creature was skating, but the trees were just the right hoit."

This is my 7th Christmas in Detroit assignment, so it's become very familiar to me. Being in the TV business, I'm not a big holidays guy.

I've worked full-time on college basketball since '93 and college football since '96, however when I wanted to break in as a MLB producer in 2000, the opportunities were rare. But there was almost always a slot for me on Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day, when the network would run games all day.

And for years I worked the Egg Bowl, the annual battle between Mississippi and Mississippi State on Thanksgiving Day. That's actually how I met the mother of my children - a story for another time.

So I rarely make plans with family or friends on the holidays, I try and fill my schedule. I use the time to provide for my family instead of spend it with them.

While I'm desensitized to Christmas (because I am a working professional and Jewish), I'm not exactly bah humbug. I still get into the spirit somewhat. I've seen It's A Wonderful Life dozens of times, and I enjoy Christmas music. Except for Baby It's Cold Outside, which has been described as a date-rape anthem.

In previous years we would stay at the GM Renaissance Center, which wasn't bad, but removed from downtown Detroit. It's farther away than it looks, and on the 70th floor you're practically in Canadian airspace where cell phone service is very dicey.

So this morning I took a walk. It was kind of a ghost town on Christmas morning. Even though hockey is out, the Zamboni guy was working the rink at Campus Martius. There was a dusting of snow from Christmas Eve, and no sun this morning. Having lived in Michigan for three years that's not unusual.

And if my soul was any bit empty from the dreariness, solitude, and cold, that got remedied at American Coney Island with a 10:30 AM chili dog.

OK, back to business. But first a side trip to see my sister and brother-in-law in Toledo, who are doing the holidays with his family. Everybody in the world has family in Ohio.

Merry Christmas.

Backtime Dateline: Hockeytown

Detroit is a great sports town but one of its beloved sports teams is MIA. It hasn't been on my radar much, I haven't followed hockey with any regularity since I was in my early 20s. But I know the Red Wings are a big thing around here, and for the second time in less than ten years their fans may be deprived of even a single game this season.

I know that the absence of hockey hasn't made much of a dent in the national sports landscape (which is part of the owners' point in hard-lining player salary structures), but it does affect a lot of people. That includes the mostly-local TV crew I am working with here in Detroit, who count on the home NHL team to provide 40 events they can put on their calendar - not including playoffs.

But what else is lost, is the identity of a city, and a fan base that may not return even after the sport does.

As a baseball guy first, I remember the MLB labor dispute in 1994 and what it cost my team. The Yankees were 70-43 and dominating the AL East. Paul O'Neill was hitting .359 and Jimmy Key was 17-4 when the season was interrupted and then ultimately disbanded.

What if the season had been completed? How would life have been different for Buck Showalter? Don Mattingly? Joe Girardi?

Only the Montreal Expos had a better record in 1994. But what if they went on to win it all? Could they have kept Pedro Martinez or Larry Walker a little longer? Could the franchise have been saved?

But today in the NHL, in Hockeytown, there aren't even "what ifs," only ifs.

Today's Odyssey Is Brought To You By The Letter O

The wakeup call in the Athens (OH) came at 6:30 AM. But instead of heading directly to the airport I grabbed some free Hampton Inn breakfast, went back to the room, flipped on Morning Joe and took apart 80 pages of West Virginia game notes.

I packed up, jumped into the Sonata around 9 AM and hit the road for Columbus. It was a nice day for a drive. I made a few calls, which took me a few minutes off course. But I pulled up at the Columbus airport rental car return at 10:45, just in time to hook up with the conference call with the West Virginia coaches at 11:00.

In the daylight I could see the posters that tickets were still available for the 2013 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus. Tickets are still available for the January 26-27 weekend.

If you're planning a vacation to see relatives in Ohio (every single person I know has one), Nate Silver is projecting an 89% chance there will be plenty of hotel rooms that weekend.

The West Virginia call got moved back to 11:30 so I went through security, found some workspace and listened in, before boarding my first flight to Detroit Metro.

I got a powernap, did some Oklahoma State prep work, and devoured a pastrami sandwich at the Irish Pub in Detroit's B Terminal. My flight to OKC was delayed about 30 minutes, but I settled into my first class seat, finished up on the Cowboys, and actually cracked open my book before we landed.

While I had status on the plane, I had none at the rental car counter. I waited about 20 minutes for a generic Malibu, and got stuck major rush hour traffic in downtown Oklahoma City. It was good timing that I could talk to the kids for a few minutes before my cell phone ran out of juice. The 70 minute drive was more like an hour forty-five.

So this long day's journey that started in Athens Ohio wound up at my Stillwater hotel at around 7:45 CT. The glamorous life of a national TV producer: out-of-the-way college towns, rental cars and long drives, commuter jets and delays, traffic jams and low cell phone batteries.

It's not too different from the adventure West Virginia fans will take to get here. At least I'm getting paid to do this. Welcome to the Big 12!

But like most stops in the Big 12, Stillwater is pretty OK once you get there. See you out tonight at Eskimo Joe's!

A-Rod, The Lightning Rod

"Now this looks like a job for me so everybody just follow me, 'cause we need a little controversy 'cause it feels so empty without me."

I could not let the 40th birthday of Eminem slide without injecting his brilliant words into the events that played out that day, especially in the hometown of the Detroit icon.

I had a number of things to tackle all afternoon in the house yesterday, and I had no interest in any more Hofstra debate post-mortem. So I made the mistake of turning on Mike Francesa - not because it wasn't compelling - but because it was. The feeding frenzy around Alex Rodriguez has reached epic proportions, as pictured above.

They Yankees are down and nearly out. Trailing 0-3 to the very legitimate Detroit Tigers isn't the story. The Yankees' exceptional pitching isn't the story. The anemic Yankee bats are. But Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Russell Martin didn't have the media swarmed on them. Only Alex.

Let me try to explain how a lightning rod works.

The building stands in the path of an oncoming electrical storm. 

In order to deflect attention from the vulnerable foundation, the lightning rod is there to attract the storm's blast and channel it away from the larger structure as a whole.

Sound familiar?

The lightning rod has no say in the matter. It's sole purpose is to stand idly and get struck by a bolt of lightning.

And while A-Rod seems often like an automaton who has no humanity or feelings, he shouldn't stand alone to take a strike.

Although Rodriguez isn't alone among Yankees experiencing offensive woes, he is the most visible. And none of this would be an issue if he were producing. He has been his own worst enemy, going 0-for-18 vs RH pitching in the playoffs.

A-Rod stood and faced the media storm yesterday. He was introspective, calm, and outwardly remained confident in both his ability to hit, and ability to contribute to the team. He dropped an "I don't give a shit" at one point, but it was his only real defiance. He was as professional as anyone could possibly be in that circumstance.

So the airwaves are clogged with A-Rod talk now. Was there a pickup attempted of an Australian model during an LCS game? Have the Yankees already discussed trading him to the Marlins? Will he ever see game action in a Yankee uniform again?

GM Brian Cashman met the media yesterday and called A-Rod's benching a "baseball decision" because of the splits versus right-handed pitching, inferring that he'd be in there against a lefty. The Tigers have no left-handed starters, and the Yankees are one game away from the 2012 season being over. And don't expect the storm to pass in the off-season.