The Knee Jerks

On tonight's show: It's all Eno and Big Al, as we are without a guest. So we'll get right to the latest in Detroit sports at the top of the podcast. We'll cover the following: The Detroit Tigers signing Justin Verlander to an $80 million deal, the Red Wings trading Ville Leino to the Flyers for a warm body and a draft pick, all in order to create cap space for the soon to return Johan Franzen, the Pistons continue to play out the string, 22.5 GB in the Central, tied for the 2nd worst record in the east, and 5th worst overall in the NBA, and retired Lions CB Dick LaBeau being named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We'll be sure to have plenty to say about the Super Bowl, and name our respective Jerk of the Week at then of the show! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's big show: We have a special guest for our first show at our new 7PM start time! The Knee Jerks will interview former Detroit Pistons General Manager Jack McCloskey! Known as "Trader" Jack during his days in Detroit, McCloskey was the architect behind the legendary Bad Boys teams.

Jack was GM of the Pistons from 1979 to 1992, and as you all know, won NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. In 2008, the Pistons honored the man who turned the Pistons into one of the NBA's model franchises by raising his name into the rafters of The Palace, alongside many of the players he either drafted (Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars) or traded for (Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson).

We'll get Jack's thoughts on the current state of the Pistons and the NBA. We'll also reminisce about the wild, wonderful 1980's, the era when Jack took a long-time league doormat, and with smart drafting and smarter (sometimes risky) trades, turned the Pistons into an NBA power.

After we spend time with one of the best GM's in Detroit sports history, the Jerks will turn our thoughts over to the past week in Detroit sports.

At the end of the show, we'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week!

Be here at 11PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: We delve deep into the what's been an eventful couple of weeks at the Palace, as we talk Detroit Pistons with the beat writer at The Oakland Press, Dave Pemberton. His Pistons blog can be found at http://pistonspoint.blogspot.com/, and you can follow Dave on Twitter at http://twitter.com/drpemberton. As you might guess, the news the team is up for sale, and what the future might hold after what's become a disappointing season will be high on the discussion docket.

After pounding the Pistons, we'll move on to the latest in Detroit sports. The topics we cover will include: The Detroit Tigers had their annual TigerFest, where Dave Dombrowski gave his thoughts on Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, their need for a LH bat, to name only 3. The Detroit Lions hired Stan Kwan's replacement, and lose their QB coach. The Detroit Red Wings have developed a bad habit of blowing 3rd period leads and had a moronic fan climb into the rafters at The Joe Saturday night. We'll also touch on the NFL's wild conference championship games. If you live by the Favre, you die by the Favre. As always, the Jerks will name our respective Jerk of the Week! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: We talk MAC hoops with the head coach of the Eastern Michigan University Eagles, Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey, who is in his 5th season running the Eagles, is a Yspilanti native and an alumnus of EMU. Before taking over at his alma mater in 2005, Ramsey was an assistant basketball coach at EMU, California and the University of Michigan.

Ramsey's best season at EMU the 07-08 campaign, as the Eagles finished 2nd in the MAC's West Division, with an 8-8 in conference record and 14-17 overall.

We'll discuss with Ramsey the good and bad of the Eagles current season (9-6, 1-1 in the MAC), trying to coach in the shadow of the Michigan Wolverines, and get his thoughts on the future of the EMU basketball program.

After our EMU chat, we'll move on the latest and greatest in Detroit sports. We'll cover the Tigers signing of closer Jose Valverde, the Red Wings getting jobbed over the weekend by the NHL referees, and sift through the rumors claiming the Pistons are for sale. At the end of the show, we'll also name our respective Jerk of the week! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: We have another returning guest! This time, it's Jamie Samuelson of the Detroit Free Press, and 94.7 FM WCSX. Of course, he also the former morning man of the once great sports talk station, WDFN. Back in August, when Jamie last stopped by to talk with the Jerks, we covered the demise of DFN. This time, expect us to immediately dive into the latest news in Detroit sports.

After we speak with "the big headed kid", we'll move on to the past week in Detroit sports. The demise of the Pistons, the resurgence of the Red Wings, and the dilemmas facing the Lions. We'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: It's our first of the New Year! No guests tonight, just Eno and Big Al taking on the latest in Detroit sports! We'll each name our biggest story in Detroit sports in 2009, cover the end of another disappointing Lions season, give our thoughts on the struggles of the Detroit Pistons and the on the upswing Detroit Red Wings. As always, we'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week at the end of the show! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: The final podcast of the year! Our guest will be Keith Avallone of plaay.com, where you can find the best in old-fashioned sports simulation board games, with cards, charts and dice! Plaay.com has board game simulations of everything from roller derby and demolition derby, to pro hockey and baseball. We won't be talking about those new-fangled video games tonight!

After we relive our youth spent playing Strat-o-Matic baseball, we'll move on the week in Detroit sports.

Topics will include...

Lions: Matt Stafford is placed on IR, was the Drew Stanton experiment a failure, the ridiculousness of naming a Lions all-decade team and the usual BS which goes along with their 13th loss of the season.

Pistons: 7 straight losses, Prince, Hamilton and Gordon return from injury, the rotation changes...again.

Red Wings: Has Todd Bertuzzi found the fountain of youth? We'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On today's show: It's our Christmas week episode, and the Knee Jerks finally have our much discussed and often delayed NHL Central Roundtable with writers from Bleacher Report. Joining the Jerks are:

Ed Cmar - Columbus BJ's

(http://bleacherreport.com/users/177138-ed-cmar)

Tab Bamford - Chicago Blackhawks)

(http://bleacherreport.com/users/43333-tab-bamford)

Mark Willoughby - Nashville Predators (http://bleacherreport.com/users/161424-mark-willoughby)

Jason Besancenez - St. Louis Blues

(http://bleacherreport.com/users/97683-jason-besancenez)

Topics will include:

1. Team MVP so far

2. Biggest disappointment, most pleasant surprise

3. Playoffs? Yes or no

After we talk NHL, we'll delve into what's been a fairly quiet week in Detroit sports. We'll spend most of out time talking about the Lions loss to the Cardinals, and the personnel moves made during the game, including the benching of Gosder Churilus and Daunte Culpepper.

As always, we'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week! at the end of the show. Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show (The first in our new time slot of 9 PM eastern, 8 PM central, 6 PM on the west coast and 10:30 PM in Newfoundland!): We take a slight detour on this episode of The Knee Jerks. We talk sports photography with Greg Shamus. Greg's site, filled with tons of great NHL shots, is www.shamusphoto.com. Greg's main gig is official photographer for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but we'll cut him some slack, as he is also a native Detroiter. He's a graduate of the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and got his start working for Downriver's News-Herald newspaper. Before working with the Pens, Greg was the NBA team photographer for the New Orleans Hornets for 6 years. His freelance photography can be found all over the national media landscape, and on the web, via Getty Images.

Once we move on from the shutterbug side of sports, you can expect a Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions centric show. The Detroit Tigers' hot stove was ablaze since our last podcast, with the trade of Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson going down. The Jerks will have plenty to say about the aftermath of what wasn't (according to Tigers' brass), but sure looked like (according to the rest of the baseball world), a fire sale. As for the Lions, they played their worst game of the season in a blowout loss to the Ravens. From Kevin Smith's season ending knee injury, to Jim Schwartz having his first "Bobby Ross moment", we'll cover the gamut when it comes to the worst franchise in sports. To end the show, as always, we'll name our respective Jerk of the Week! Be here at 9PM every Monday night for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!

On tonight's show: Thanks to Thanksgiving, a shortage in time and scheduling, no guests tonight. So it's Eno and Big Al talking Detroit sports for 90 minutes. You can expect us to touch on the latest from the Detroit Tigers' hot stove, the Lions losing another Thanksgiving Day game, the Red Wings doing their best to battle back from injuries and the Pistons' struggle to mesh on the court, and battle the injury bug. As always, we'll also name our respective Jerk of the Week! Be here at 11PM every Monday night (for only 2 more weeks, as we move to 9PM on 12/14) for the latest and greatest in sports talk...sports talk with a Detroit attitude!