2B - April 16, 2012
0
The Michigan Daily -michigandaily.com
SPORT SMOND tgb ,n0gb tM
I want to go back I need to go back to Michigan
D ear Mom,
I'm sorry it took four
years for me to apologize.
You were in the kitchen,
remember? I told you to shut up,
like the punk
who used to
say things
like that to his
mother.
It was just'
as we were
leaving the
house, on our
way to Ann TIM
Arbor for my ROHAN
freshman year,
and you were
singing:
I want togo back to Michigan,
To dear Ann Arbor town,
I want to go back; I got to go
back,
To Mich-i-gan.
I didn't know I would be hum-
ming the famous Michigan Glee
Club tune in my head as I drove
back, withoutyou, three years
later for my senior year. Maya
took me back, but now I wish you
had, too. I've shared this place
with so many people, but you
were the first.
That day, before freshman year,
you were smiling wide, I remem-
ber, and pumpi g your fists, and I
was shushing you.
Im sorry.
Back then, I hadn't sat and
talked all nightwith people who
would be considered strangers, if
only we hadn't gone to the same
university. I hadn't shown up at
a friend's Seder as a practicing
Catholic, expectingto know two
people, and known the whole
dinner party from somewhere
or another. I hadn't gone on a
midnight slushie run with Matt
Campbell. I hadn't dropped
everything, on one of those brisk
springnights to play midnight
games of one-on-one and to catch
up with Joe Stapleton on the
basketball courts outside of the
CCRB.
I hadn't known how lucky I
would be to have a mother who
shared her school with me.
Mom, thanks. It's been long
overdue.
Wandering one afternoon -
while I probably should've been
studying (sorry) - I went out of
my way to find your old room in
South Quad. It's still there. So
filled out the cast and made this
Michigan, my Michigan.
On the day I wrote this letter,
I went to lunch at Zingerman's
Deli for the first time at the urg-
ing of Zach Helfand, Everett
Cook and Neal Rothschild. I had
the No. 54, a chicken sandwich,
the best chicken sandwich I've
ever had. Too full to move after
lunch, I drove my friends down to
Michigan Stadium and pointed to
the Big House and to the under-
construction Crisler Arena. I told
the two aspiring sportswriters
and economics whiz-kida lesson
I came to learn when Dad died:
prioritize as you wish, but there is
more to life than what happens in
those two buildings.
Stop and look around every
once in a while.
Mom, I've run into Jed Moch
on a Thursday afternoon and
cancelled my day's plans to head
to Dominick's. I've spent most of
my Friday afternoons at the IM
Building - where you used to
; . swim laps - playing basketball
with Matt Kautz and Nick Mat-
tar. I've stayed up until six in the
morning freestyle rapping - with
varying levels of coherency -
'A with Abhi and Tepatti and Kondo
and Benevides and Nelson.
Coutesy of Christine Soha Hopefully not too far from
now, everyone mentioned in
this letter and those not will
nning streak doesn't come back and reminisce, hav-
I'm gone. ing shared this Michigan with
:rrelle Pryor and each other. I wouldn't have been
lock arms with their here without you, and now, as I'm
Haying together as leaving, I realize my Michigan is
seshoe serenaded your Michigan as yours is mine.
of me, for my own And the next time we come back
eye fight-song con- together, you and I, we'll sing
in the endzone. together and the words will mean
in my head was the somethingto me.
ed to sing, with as I want to go back to Michigan,
"The Victors": To dearAnn Arbor town,
Ohio State I want to go back;Igot to go
nothingpar-ty back,
To Mich-i-gan.
ks for funding my Love, Tim
0
0
9
Former Managing Sports Editor Tim Rohan (right) at age 4, carving a pumpkin with his father, Tom Rohan.
is the Tri-Delt house where you
once lived; so is the old engineer-
ing school that you pointed out
when you first brought me here.
I was no older than 14, and
James must've been 12, but we
were too naive to appreciate those
places. I hope you weren't too
mad at us.
Racingthrough the Law Quad
while you reminisced, James and
I tossed the football back and
forth over Tappan Street. You
wanted to stop and look around;
we wanted to keep going.
Now, I get it. I'm older, more
mature, but I've also lived here
for four years, trying my best to
channel my inner Ferris Buel-
ler, who said it best: "Life moves
pretty fast. If you don't stop and
look around once in a while, you
could miss it;"
It seems easier now to live like
the wheels in a clock, constantly
moving forward while witnessing
and living in the present and smil-
ing at the past.
It's easier for me, I think,
because Dad died when I was 7,
when he was first diagnosed, and
taught me to appreciate life up
until he passed away my fresh-
man year at Michigan.
Mom, thanks for raising James
and me as best you could.
And don't blame Dad, but his
Parkinson's disease drove me to
find something worth loving to do
for the rest of my life. I found The
Michigan Daily.
Mom, I'm sorry I'm not the
engineer you wanted me to be, but
the Daily never felt like work.
I know you're holding out hope,
hinting not-so-subtly how grad
school is an option "down the
road, Timmy."
But writingsports, I get the
same warm, fuzzy sensation
Taylor Lewan described after
winning the Sugar Bowl: "It's the
feeling you get when you see a box
of kittens."
My box-of-kittens passion isto
tell stories, to meet people worth
telling others about, to stop, to
look around, and to make sure I
don't miss a single moment.
I think that's why I have come
to (somewhat) amicable terms
with graduating - I've spent my
four years trying to find stories
either to write about and to live
out.
I've seen Notre Dame Stadium
go from deafeningto silent in
the span of one Denard Robin-
son miracle drive. I've seen Red
Berenson explain to Michael
Florek and me how today's hockey
pucks are made. I've seen another
Robinson miracle, a pass heading
right toward me on the sidelines,
land in Roy Roundtree's chest,
foiling Notre Dame again.
I've quarterbacked the Daily
to a comeback win over The State
News. I've lost my starting spot
and have been berated, and we
still beat the Michigan State stu-
dent newspaper. I've been unde-
feated in four years against them,
and I'll be damned, Mom, if our
seven-year wi
continue once
I've seen Te
DeVier Posey1
teammates, sw
the entire Hor
them in front'
personal Buck
cert as I stood
What I heardi
version you us
much vigor as
Down with:
It's a know-
school
Mom, than]
roadtrips and my unpaid intern-
ships - thanks, really, for funding
this passion that you still aren't a
fan of. Thanks for believing in me.
For a critical thinker like
you, it doesn't make sense that
your tuition money wasn't spent
entirely on classroom schooling.
If I claimed that, I'd be a liar. To
be honest, it wasn't all about the
Daily, either. It was about those
things, and the characters, who
Dad, I miss you. Mom, thank
you. Grandma and Grandpa,
thanks for reading. Little bro
James, good luck. Patches, thanks
for keeping me sane.
To everyone else, it'sbeen real.
-Rohan wants to thank you, the
reader, for taking the time to read
his sometimes offensively long,
always carefully crafted stories.
Despite injuries, youth, 'M' takes one from Penn State e
ByISABELLAACHENBACH
Daily Sports Writer
This weekend's three-game
series against Penn State sums
up the Michigan baseball team's
season pretty well - full of dra-
matic, and often unexpected, ups
and downs.
On Friday, Michigan won,
7-3. But Saturday's game took a
180-degree turn, and the Wolver-
ines suffered its greatest loss of
the season, 14-1. The team came
close to winning the series on
Sunday, but they couldn't quite
"get over the top," as Michigan
coach Rich Maloney says, and the
Wolverines lost again, 6-4.
A huge set-back for Michgan
right now is the amount of play-
ers who are out with injuries.
Freshman left fielder Will Drake,
sophomore right fielder Michael
O'Neill and redshirt senior right-
hander Travis Smith have all
recently been forced onto the
bench because of various hand
and foot-related injuries. Junior
shortstop Derek Dennis and red-
shirt senior right-hander Kolby
Wood are also out of the line-up
and have only made a few appear-
ances this entire season.
Redshirt junior left-hander
Bobby Brosnahan is another play-
er who's been hurting. Though he
does not have a serious nor iden-
tifiable injury, he hasn't had the
arm strength to start in games
the way he did in the start of the
season.
"He just needs to get (his arm)
stronger so it feels better for him
when he competes," Maloney
said. "Hopefully now that he's
had some time off he'll be coming
back pretty soon."
The lack of healthy starters
has put a lot of pressure on the
remaining players to perform
well in their place.
Senior right-hander Bran-
don Sinnery is one of the start-
ing pitchers who has played
exceptionally well in the past
few weeks. He started off the
weekend after having one of his
best performances in last week's
series against Michigan State,
in which he left the field with a
standing ovation, having allowed
no runs in 8.1 innings of work.
On Friday, Sinnery pitched a
complete game for the second
time this season. He allowed 10
hits, but just two earned runs
and an unearned run. He struck
out six Penn State hitters and has
improved his record to 3-3.
"Sinnery was outstanding,"
Maloney said.
The fifth inning locked in the
win for Michigan. The Wolver-
ines were down by one, but senior
catcher Coley Crank and sopho-
more first baseman Brett Winger
each got an RBI and redshirt
junior left fielder Kevin Krantz
got two.
The Nittany Lions scored once
more in the fifth, but that was
their last run across home plate.
Michigan scored twice more -
once in the eighth inning and
once in the ninth.
Friday was the highlight of
the Wolverines' weekend. Satur-
day, on the other hand, was the
lowlight of the weekend, if not of
their entire season.
Because so many players are
injured, many of the younger guys
are having to step up. That might
have been part of the problem on
Saturday.
"Some of these guys are thrust
into the line-up and, in some
cases, we're seeing some good
results, and in other cases we're
not seeing such good results,"
Maloney said.
Five pitchers split the time on
the mound, but the decision in the
14-1 loss was given to freshman
left-hander Trent Szkutnik, who
pitched two innings and gave up
five hits and six earned runs.
0
PAULSHEMuN/Daily
Senior pitcher Brandon Sinnery pitched a complete game in Friday's win.
The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies presents
World Leaders Respond
to the European Crisis:
A View from Warsaw
and Prague
[ r
F.
Aleksandier Kwasniewski Petr Pithrmt
President of Poland Prire Minister of the Czech Repubic
1995-2005 19901992
TUESDAY, APRIL 17
.... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... ... ............................. . . . .. . . . .
4:00 PM
RACKHAM AMPHITHEATRE
.. ......... ..... ..... ..--.-. --.
915 E. WASHINGTON STREET
... .. E..... A..... N............ T........ ...........................................................
ANN ARBOR
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............... . .. . .................................................... . . . .. . . . .
www.ii.umich.edu/wced
WCEoO AT
"This outing, (Szkutnik) strug-
gled," Maloney said. "But he's a
freshman and he's got good stuff.
We believe in him."
Freshman right-hander James
Bourque relieved Szkutnik on
the mound. His performance was
not much better, though, and he
allowed three runs in 2.1 innings.
Freshman right-hander Mike
Dolloff finished off the game for
Michigan. Once again, one of the
freshman pitchers let down the
team. Dolloff allowed four runs
in his inning of work.
Junior center fielder Patrick
Biondi knocked in the only Mich-
igan run of the game on a base hit
to right field.
"Unfortunately, because of the
situation that we're in with all
these different people being out,
we have to throw some people
in earlier than we would have
liked to," Maloney said. "But we
are very confident, and we think
over time it will pay off in the big
scheme of things. There's going
to be some ups and downs when
you're dealing with that many
inexperienced players."
Junior right-hander Ben Bal-
lantine thinks all of the freshman
are a great addition to the team,
and he's glad that the younger
players are getting more opportu-
nities now.
"We love having the younger
guys with us," he said. "They're
real supportive. We have all of
these freshmen in the dugout
with us, and they're the loudest
ones, cheering us on."
Ballantine played the first six
innings in Sunday's game and
allowed only one earned run and
one unearned run.
By the beginning of the sev-
enth inning, Penn State was up,
2-0. By the end of the inning,
Penn State was still up but the
score had changed, 5-3.
Both teams scored one more
run in the eighth, but Michigan
couldn't catch up in the top of the
ninth.
"We came down here on a mis-
sion to get the job done, and we
were close to doing that, but we
just couldn't get over the top,"
Maloney said.
Maloney is expecting that
none of the injured players will
be healthy enough to play in this
weekend's series against North-
western.
"Hopefully we'll get some of
these guys back, but in the mean-
time we've got to claw our way to
victory and try to win a couple
series this year just by battling,"
Maloney said.