2 1 IThursday, July 24, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Nonprofit surveys candidates on the arts

Thursday, July 24, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

11l

Arts Alliance
highlights lack of
institutional support
for creative sector
By SHOHAM GEVA
ManagingNews Editor
Wednesday, nonprofit group the
Arts Alliance released the results
of a survey sent out to electoral can-
didates about their involvement in
and stance on support for various
aspects of the arts in Washtenaw
County.
The Alliance also held a forum
Wednesday morning with several
& the candidates'to discuss the
results.
Debra Polich, executive director
of the Arts Alliance, said the group
conducted the survey and forum
to increase focus on the arts both
for the community at large and for
elected officials by demonstrating
the impact of the creative sector on
the county.
"The importance there is again,"
Polich said, "(the creative sector)
is a voting block, and people want
their elected officials to pay atten-
tion to these issues and the policies
that can impact the sector and keep
it vibrant."

She said while there's plenty of
local engagement with the arts and
high levels of individual support in
the area, where Washtenaw County
faces a challenge in comparison to
the rest of Michigan is institutional
support, making the role of elected
officials important.
"We don't have public invest-
ment," she said. "And I mean that
public investment by dollars, but
I also mean public policy invest-
ment, making policy decisions that
really foster a climate, an environ-
ment, thatmakes the creative sector
a priority, and so that's part of the
change and that's part of the work
that we need to be doing, as advo-
cates for arts and culture for the
creative sector."
Of the candidates sent surveys,
23 returned them, including the
four Democratic candidates run-
ning for Ann Arbor mayor Ann
Arbor City Council, incumbent City
Council candidate Sumi Kailasapa-
thy (D-Ward 1), Ward 2 City Coun-
cil candidates Nancy Kaplan and
Kirk Westphal and Debbie Dingell,
who is running for the U.S. House of
Representatives in Michigan's 12th
District, which includes Ann Arbor.
When it came to the mayoral
candidates, all four expressed simi-
lar positions on the broader issue
of arts availability and engagement
in Washtenaw County, saying they

supported it. Coun-
cilmembers Sabra
Briere (D-Ward 1),
Sally Hart Petersen
(D-Ward 2) and
Christopher Taylor
(D-Ward 3) all also
identified them-
selves as having-
donated or contrib-
uted personally to
an arts, cultural, or
heritage organiza-
tion.
Though all four
said they broadly
supported pub-
lic investment in ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
the arts, options Debbie Dingell, 12th District US House candidate, speaks
diverged slightly at a forum held by the Arts Alliance Wednesday.
on how specifically the arts should port to an arts, cultural or heritage
be supported. Briere said she sup- organization.
ported governmental funding, with Dingell also said she supported
an emphasis on small grants to the arts availability and engagement in
arts. Councilmember Stephen Kun- the county, as well as identifying
selman (D-Ward 3) and Taylor both herself both as a personal donor to
identified line funding appropria- an arts, cultural or heritage orga-
tions or tax-based options as exam- nization and an artist. She identi-
ples of potential funding pathways. fied public-private partnerships as
Petersen said she supported crowd- a primary way to support creativity
funding based initiatives, as well as in the county.
use of public space. Polich said the trend in the sur-
Kailasapathy, Kaplan and West- veyhasgenerally beentowards sup-
phal similarly identified support port, though the manifestation of it
for the arts. Kailasapathy said she is sometimes less concrete.
preferred a mix of private and pub- "What I hear a lot of is yes; yes
lic funding, while Kaplan said she this sounds like a good idea, but,
supported reaching out to private you know, really we don't have the
donors and Westphal advocated resources to make it happen," she
the creation and maintenance of an said. "The fact is if something is
economy that allows artists to earn important, you can find resources.
a living and attracts more to the You can find ways to make it hap-
area. All three said arts availability pen. It's a belief system and an
and engagement were important investment. It's both saying it's
and also identified themselves as important, and making it impor-
having personally donated to sup- tant."

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Michigan's 'Music City Miracle' lives

EDITORIAL STAFF
Stephanie Shenouda

Managing Editor

S U D O K U

Shoham Geva ManagingNewsEditor
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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is
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By JASON RUBINSTEIN
DailySports Writer
NEW YORK - Though Tampa
Bay Rays ace David Price has
enjoyed an illustrious baseball
career, one single game continues
to linger in the back of his mind.
It's not the memory of when the
left-hander started the MLB All-
Star game in 2010. It's not when
Price recorded a save in Game 7 of
the 2008 ALCS to send the Rays
to their first-ever World Series.
Nor is it the games Price pitched
in 2012 en route to winning his
first Cy Young award.
It's the game Price entered
as a college junior on June 4,
2007 against Michigan, and then
exited in disgrace.
It was a beautiful night, in
the mid-80s, not a cloud to be
seen, a perfect night for baseball.
Price and No. 1 Vanderbilt had
reached extra innings against the
Wolverines in the deciding game
of the 2007 Nashville Regional.
The Commodores were
unquestionably the nation's best
team in the regular season. They
boasted a lineup that included
four current MLB players: Price,
the Pittsburgh Pirates' Pedro
Alvarez, the Atlanta Braves' Mike
Minor and the Baltimore Orioles'
Ryan Flaherty.
Michigan, meanwhile,
had success of its own, but to
Vanderbilt the
Wolverines -
were just ~
another minor "That'sZ
obstacle on
the way to the scar th
College World
Series. After never
all, Vanderbilt
had beaten
Michigan in the
2006 Regional with virtually the
same roster, so why would 2007
bring a new fate?
Already fortunate to take
the game to the 10th inning,
Michigan knew the deck needed
to be stacked in its favor to topple
Vanderbilt. And the Wolverines
found some luck in the barrel of
Alan Oaks' bat.
A freshman no-name who
wasn't even in the starting
lineup, Oaks silenced the 4,000
fans in attendance, hitting the
most gut-wrenching home run
in Vanderbilt history to dethrone
the Commodores, 4-3.
Seven years later, those

involved in the>game haven't
forgotten one detail of Michigan's
rendition of the "Music City
Miracle." Erik Bakich -
Michigan's current baseball
coach and Vanderbilt's hitting
coach in 2007 - can recite every
detail of the game, including
Vanderbilt's batting order, as
easily as a flight attendant can list
off safety procedures.
And neither Price nor Bakich
can forget the ball disappearing
into the perfect summer night to
complete the stunning upset.
"That's a painful scar that
will never heal," Bakich said in a
recent interview with the Daily.
"That was as high of a moment
for Michigan that was as low of
a moment for
our team at
a painful Vanderbilt."
tat will
" h ,, " If a team
were to dream
of one pitcher
being on the
mound in the
ninth inning of the deciding game
in the regional, it would be Price.
And luckily for the
Commodores, they got their wish
as Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin
brought Price in with a man on
first with no outs.
Price, the eventual first pick
of the 2007 MLB Draft, breezed
through the ninth, striking out
two.
He thought the 10th would be
just as easy with Michigan's best
hitter, Zach Putnam, subbed due
to a double switch.
In Putnam's place, Oaks
stepped into the batter's box, and
Vanderbilt pitching coach Derek

Johnson jogged out to advise
Price.
"He was like, 'hey, he's hitting
.188, with one home run and six
RBIs,' " Price said. " 'You know
he has slider bat speed, so if you
throw him a slider, make sure it's
a good one.'
"So I was like 'Alright, well he
hasn't seen my slider yet, so I am
going to throw him the nastiest
one I've ever thrown.'"
Meanwhile, the pinch hitter's
mind was a whirlwind.
"I hadn't had an at-bat in like
two weeks," Oaks said. "So that
was going through my mind. The
next thing I thought of was that
(Price) is the best pitcher in the
country, so close your eyes and
swing hard."
Price first threw one of his
trademark sliders, but it landed in
the dirt and Oaks didn't bite. But
he never planned to swing at any
sliders. Seconds before he stepped
to the plate, Michigan coach Rich
Maloney told Oaks, "I didn't put
you in there to walk. So if you get
a strike you better be swinging."
Oaks had slider bat speed, but
the righty struggled all season
hitting breaking balls. So, on the
second pitch, when Price threw a
fastball to the outside corner and
Oaks' bat stayed idle, he knew he
made a mistake. Would Price toss
another fastball?
"The second pitch was an
outside fastball for a strike," Oaks
said, "and I didn't swing and
looked down at (Maloney) and
he wouldn't even look at me - he
was so mad."
Price's next two pitches were
sliders in the dirt. Now in a
hitter's count, three balls to one
strike, Oaks knew only one pitch
was coming: a fastball.

Former baseball coach Rich Maloney's 2007 Michigan team stunned No.1
Vanderbilt, an upset that still haunts former Commodores to this day.

Seconds later, Oaks connected
on a heater and crushed the ball
over the fence in left-center field.
"There was a lot adrenaline
and excitement after I hit it," said
Oaks, who currently pitches for
the Normal CornBelters in the
Frontier League. "After I hit the
home run, I forgot a lot, because
it was so crazy.
"I just happened to be some
young punk to come in and hit a
home run."
Oaks'homerunwonMichigan's
first regional championship
since 1984 and put an end to one
of Vanderbilt's greatest teams.
Bakich called the 2007 Vanderbilt
team the most talented team he's
ever been a part of.
"It just seemed like it wasn't
meant to be," Minor said in a low
tone, recalling Oaks' hit.
Price can't erase the memory.
In seven years, a student can
earn an undergraduate degree
and a law degree. It's also a long
enough duration for an assistant
coach to become a head coach.
Bakich, Price and Minor's head
recruiter to Vanderbilt, has now
donned the maize and blue as
Michigan's head baseball coach.
And because of Oaks' heroics,
it's occasionally a hard pill to
swallow.
"I saw that he'd signed with
Michigan and initially it was a
little weird,"
Price said. "I
was happy for
Bakich that "After I
he got a head
coaching job, home run
but the last
place I ever a lot, bet
expected him
to go was was sot
Michigan."
But despite
the change

the No. 1 team in the country at
their home field at a regional,"
Bakich said. "That was an eye-
opening moment. At that point,
it was solidified in my mind, and
probably the minds of a lot of the
coaches across the country that
Michigan is a place in baseball
that can host regionals and go to
Omaha from."
More so, that game taught
Bakich an important lesson that
he preaches to his players every
day: that the best team doesn't
always win, and that anythingcan
happen in postseason baseball.
And while Michigan hasn't
hosted a regional or even
advanced to one yet in Bakich's
tenure, if his recruiting classes
are any indication,cthe Wolverines
are heading in the right direction.
While it's odd for Price to see
Bakich coaching Michigan, Price
said he knows Michigan will
thrive under Bakich.
In fact, Price couldn't think
of a better multi-faceted coach
between Bakich's health
expertise, intensity and baseball
knowledge, even if sometimes it
got a little bizarre.
Bakich was such a health nut
that he would put a Snickers bar
in his mouth, chew it up and spit
it out to avoid the calories. He
was so enthusiastic that he would
run around shirtless in freezing
late fall weather
to pump up his
team.
hit the Michigan
holds a 59-56
i, I forgot record under
. Bakich in
cause it his first two
,, seasons, but
crazy. he's fielded a
team of mostly
freshmen and
sophomores.
He's brought the Wolverines
to the Big Ten Tournament
two years in a row, already an
improvement from the years
leading up to his hiring.
Price and Minor both believe
any team under Bakich could
thrive.
Minor said there is no better
coach than Bakich at instilling
confidence in his players. But for
now, Bakich can only hope his
team can create a moment like the
one that still bothers David Price.

CHARTER 8-2, through Councilmembers also
From Page 1 expressed concerns about the lan-
guage of the resolution, the poten-
tial of wasting time on land that
they thought the Council should was not desirable to build a park on
not be reaching out to developers, or not available for purchase from
3 but rather letting the city's Park developers, and a reduction in tax
Advisory Committee make recom- revenue from the city buying more
mendations to them. land.
"I find myself wondering, well, "The city is already the largest
why are we not talking about the property owner, almost double that
places that are out there and that of UM," Sally Petersen (D-Ward 2)
no one is proposing development said. "We are always mad when the
on that appear to be trying to stop University takes land off the pay-
a development that has been well roll, and we are doing the same."
into the approval process?" Sabra Council also approved traffic
Briere (D-Ward 1) asked. and parking changes for the Uni-
The resolution to inquire into versity's move in dates, which is set
the willingness of developers to to change from previous years into
sell to the city and the desirabil- a more condensed process between
ity of the land eventually passed August 27 and 29.

of allegiance, Oaks' home run
against Bakich's Vanderbilt had
long-ranging implications.
For one, Bakich may not be
coaching in Ann Arbor if not for
that game.
Bakich's success as a recruiter
at Vanderbilt went a long way,
landing him the head coaching
job at Maryland before he landed
in Ann Arbor in 2013.
"I think there was a realization
for me to see the University of
Michigan come in and upset