More Prince Fielder links? Get used to it. Here are 44 things we learned from yesterday's introductory press conference, with special emphasis on number 33. Jaden Fielder is indeed awesome.

Pavel Datsyuk was selected first overall in the NHL All-Star fantasy draft, which has about as much meaning to me as these Super Bowl prop bets.

Speaking of meaningless games, Jim Schwartz thinks that Comeback Player of the Year Matthew Stafford should be at the Pro Bowl.

Colts owner Jim Irsay wasn't happy with some of Peyton Manning's recent comments, so he called Manning a politician. Hey, it could have been worse.

I have no idea why the hell you would ever jump a snowmobile off of a 10-foot-high ramp and then let go of it, but apparently Colton Moore was ultimately successful... and then he Tebowed.

We're always looking toward the future to provide you the best content possible here at D4L, so we had to applaud EDSBS's 2031 preseason rankings for doing the same.

It wouldn't be Super Bowl week without bad Super Bowl raps. Although, now that I think about it, this one might be better than the original (which still isn't saying much).

In the "seriously, WTF" category: Drake thinks he could play President Obama in a movie. As long as he doesn't rap, it might actually work.

You know the economy is tough when Ferris Bueller has to work on a Sunday.

Even Time Magazine is shy about putting a soccer player on their cover in the United States.

You know that awkward moment when it's the day after Prince Fielder Day and nothing really sounds as interesting because it's not about Prince Fielder? We don-MASCOT PHOTOBOMB!

OK I lied, because I have a couple more Fielder-related links. Brennan Boesch is as excited as this little guy, except about hitting in front of Cabrera and Fielder. Speaking of Cabrera, Miggy's looking ripped. And no, you're not crying about this one, you just had a bug fly into your eye. But seriously, pass the Kleenex.

The Red Wings got the French kicked out of them in Montreal last night. In order to make you feel better, The Production Line gives an appropriate ooh la la to Alex Morgan.

The Washington Wizards fired head coach Flip Saunders on Tuesday. Opinions range from "fire everybody but John Wall" to "Sam Cassell needs to be our coach." The Wizards' owner even chimed in, sans the Comic Sans (but enough semicolons to make your English teacher turn over in her grave).

Life lessons: don't spray a dude the size of Ndamukong Suh with silly string if you want to keep your job (or your life, for that matter).

Alex Ovechkin is skipping the NHL All-Star Game and The Chief is not happy about it. He points to a historical precedent to explain why. Speaking of missing important events, Tim Tebow will not be playing in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am sponsored by 12 companies that I don't feel like copying and pasting right now.

Michigan State is planning on putting in some new scoreboards at Spartan Stadium. Unfortunately, there is no CLOVERFIELDTRON in the works.

This might just be Roger Goodell drunk off his new contract, but NFL players will be allowed to tweet at this year's Pro Bowl. Good thing Brett Favre won't be there, or things could get ugly.

Speaking of drunk, Pat Sajak is.

Check out Pensblog for maximum trollage of St. Louis Blues fans that any Red Wings fan can appreciate. Also trolling: Darren Rovell to this church singer.

With Starbucks starting to sell beer and wine on a limited basis, I finally have a use for that Starbucks card I got for Christmas... in 2008.

When the German NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki is hurt, he likes to grab a mic, put in the ear piece, update the Dallas announcers on his health, and add a little commentary when it's appropriate, little man. Yah, it's good stuff.

Well, he sat out Wednesday night's game after the team received their championship rings, so he joined the broadcast again and got really into it when Jason Terry and Brandan Wright took a tour of lob city:  

"OH MY GOD. OHHHHHHH. SHUT IT DOWN. LET'S GO HOME!" 
 

I expect Dirk's announcing career to be auto-tuned soon and "shut it down, let's go home!" to replace Semisonic, effective immediately.  

NBC Sports featured Detroit Red Wings defenseman and captain Nicklas Lidstrom on "NHL 36" tonight before the Red Wings laid down to the Montreal Canadiens. It was every bit of awesome as Red Wings fans anticipated, following Lidstrom and the Wings around for 36 hours during one of their latest back-to-backs. 



The invasive cameras from two weeks ago must have passed the flu bug to Lidstrom because he had to miss tonight's game after "NHL 36" aired, ending his 213-game streak. The last time Lidstrom missed a game was the 2008-2009 season finale to rest up for the playoffs. I don't think it's any coincidence that the Red Wings gave up seven goals to the Habs tonight, which should make one thing pretty clear: Nicklas Lidstrom can never retire. Someone put him in a bubble between games until his children are old enough to lace them up for the Wings.

I haven't gotten the chance to watch this yet, but I can't imagine it's not worth passing along. The Journey, a show on Big Ten Network, has been pretty entertaining from afar (with tidbits on Indiana, Wisconsin, and the like), so it should be fun to see what they do with something that hits closer to home.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention and congratulate Tom Izzo's 400th win at Michigan State. MSU beat Minnesota 68-52 this evening.

[UM Hoops]

Thanks to Rob for getting the links disbursed to you loyal readers the last couple days. I thinks he's riding on the DC Metro today, so I'm going to handle today's. 

If you haven't been writing on a typewriter or golfing all the time, you should know that the Tigers made a relatively large addition to their lineup; his name is Prince and the killer clowns in your town raising all hell.  How the deal went down is as good as anyone's guess, but anything that includes a hasty senile (and awesome) Ilitch is probably a good one.

Rob answers the questions abounding regarding the nine-year contract that very few are worried about right now. It is absolutely fruitless to  look beyond a single season, because a lot can can change, man, so let's just focus on the 2012 Tigers. Cabrera-Fielder. Fielder-Cabrera. Those two in the middle of the lineup is over 500 pounds of mash, automatically one of the best 1-2 punches, if not the best, in baseball. Fearful. 

And there are legitimate questions about what the signing means for the 2012 Tigers. Is Prince going to DH? Is Cabrera? Was Brandon Inge's reaction "Holy, I'm going back to Toledo!"? Miguel Cabrera confirmed that he's moving back to his "natural" position, third base, which means the Tigers defense could be much worse and a lot of sick children won't be receiving home run promises from Inge, unless he lies and Inge never tells a lie.

Hey, here's what Peter Gammons had to say about the deal.

Meanwhile, Sportscenter asked the Freep's Drew Sharp, of all people, to weigh in on the news. At the end of the linked video is a 12-year-old Prince Fielder taking switchy BP off Terry Francona at old Tiger Stadium. There's a lot to digest there, but yes, 12-year-old Prince Fielder, who used to hit balls out of the stadium at Michigan and Trumbull, is taking batting practice off Francona, who was a third base coach for the Tigers in 1996. A whole lot of zubaz. 

Austin Jackson was asked about Fielder coming to Detroit and he likened it to something you would do with your roster on MLB2k (that game Verlander is on the cover for this season).  

One of my favorite former Tigers, Tony Phillips said "this is awesome." He used to wrestle Prince in the clubhouse, but says he wouldn't want to nowadays. Wait, why would he want to back then? Prince was still bigger than him.

A storyline that you'll probably see a million times over the next nine years is the fact that Prince Fielder is the son of former Tigers' home run basher Big Daddy. They had a falling out,  so far out that Prince once said that Cecil was dead to him. I hope this helps their improving relationship. 

Here's a story from the Freep from 20 years ago about 8-year-old Prince having his dad's skill with a bat. EIGHT YEARS OLD. The above pic is from that article. 

HEFTY. Heh.

National Eat Little Caesars Day should be everyday. I'm doing my part, and I'm seriously considering buying at least a crazy bread every day. 

Now let's go get Yoenis Cespedes. Right? Right? 

Oh, before I go: seriously, pack up your shit, Tayshaun. I wasn't kidding.

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Before I say anything, just let this sink in for a minute.

That lineup is D-I-double-R durrrrrrty. With the addition of the non-inept version of Ryan Raburn and possibly even Victor Martinez come August (though I'm doubtful about the latter), there isn't a pitcher in baseball that would have a good night's sleep before facing this team. Of course, with any deal there are questions to be answered. Hit the jump to see our answers to what you're probably asking right now.

I so predicted this two days ago... Okay, I didn't, but wow. Just wow. That little fat kid holding the baseball in the picture above (who was hitting home runs out of Tiger stadium when he was 12!) is now a Detroit Tiger, just like his old man was. As I said on Twitter, there's a new Prince in town. Tayshaun, you have 48 hours to pack up your shit.

The Pistons got spanked by the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. Maybe it was because they were shooed out of the gym during practice so that a movie could be filmed? Or maybe it was because they don't have Kevin Durant. At least they didn't get beat as bad as the Wizards did.

That last sentence should be the Pistons' new marketing slogan. I expect my paycheck by the end of the week, Mr. Gores.

Things we forgot to mention last night: Some guy named Lindstom plays for the Red Wings now and the Tigers are very interested in this Yoenis Cespedes character.

Former MSU Spartan Jason Richardson wanted to get a few extra seconds of rest in his game against the Boston Celtics. With how cramped the NBA schedule is this season, I don't blame him.

The San Antonio Spurs are going to retire Bruce Bowen's jersey. For a franchise who has honored the likes of George Gervin and David Robinson in the past, this seems a bit cheap to me. However, their fans are happy, so I guess that's cool. I'm just happy that I grew up in a region where jersey retirements mean something special.

Looks like the "family" in Family Feud no longer applies. Apparently this is a regular occurrence now, because I wasted an hour of my life watching similar videos on Youtube last night.

Zombie Joe Flacco.

If you watch It's Always Sunny, this .gif slideshow is definitely not a waste of an hour. If you need the rest of the show title to know what I'm talking about, just move on.

I don't know how Steve Nash has the free time to be making these videos. Speaking of videos, I was just pointed towahds this one about shahks and stuff.

Check out that rapper that dissed Turtle in Entourage wearing a Pittsburgh hat.

Green hat or not, the Red Wings are streaking in a great way right now. The Wings beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 to stay in first place in the Central Division, Western Conference, and entire NHL (yes, all in one night). The win was their 7th straight overall and 17th straight at home, the latter of which is a franchise record.

The Wings started off sluggish, but Brad Stuart sent Alex Pietrangelo through the quad and into the gymnasium with a big hit towards the end of the first period (which Chris Stewart didn't seem to appreciate).

The end result of this scrap was a Red Wings powerplay goal in the early 2nd period, and the Wings never looked back.

Standings? Standings.

A first round series with Colorado, followed by the winner of Chicago-St. Louis? I think the Wings would take that any day of the week.