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  October 19, 2018 11:49 AM EEST

  Its a few minutes past 11 on a Friday night at Detroits Ford Field. Jack Morris Jersey . Most of the 46,000 people who just watched No. 15 Western Michigan clinch the MAC championship and improve to 13-0 on the year filed out the exits and are steering their way toward home.P.J. Fleck is ready to leave, too, but the rest of the Broncos faithful who stuck around to celebrate are not going to let him slip away so easily.The Broncos coach is standing 120 yards -- a football field and two end zones -- away from the tunnel leading to his teams locker room. He and his players just finished singing their fight song with the marching band and a few dozen fans. Several strain their arms for a high-five with Fleck. One of them, a woman in a Broncos T-shirt, is holding a sign with Flecks headshot in the corner and the words, We [heart] you. Please dont row away.The problem with watching a spirited, 36-year-old coach take your favorite team from a 1-11 doormat to the Group of 5s best program in the course of four years is that everybody else starts to watch him, too. That nebulous everybody else has deep pockets, big stadiums and prestigious history, while youre sitting there with a hoarse voice and a cardboard sign and a distant hope that if you yell loud enough, maybe hell listen.It probably wasnt the sign that did it, but a week has passed and Fleck remains the coach at Western Michigan. No Power 5 coaching slots remain unfilled. There werent many to begin with in 2016, and that certainly has helped the Broncos hang on to him to this point. Those that were open didnt show sufficient interest in the coach, or at least sufficient interest in waiting for him to wrap things up with this season, which culminates with a trip to the Cotton Bowl to take on No. 8 Wisconsin.Fleck told reporters in Detroit he hadnt talked to any other teams as of that Friday night. He parried away speculation about his future by saying if hes learned anything in his young coaching career, its that this job will eat you alive if you cant figure out how to just live in the moment.At the moment, hes made it a couple of yards out of the corner of the field and is locked in an embrace with prominent Western Michigan donor Bill Johnston. If youve read anything about Fleck in the past year or two it wont surprise you to learn hes not a pull-away, one-armed hugger. Hes a rib-cage-squeezing, chin-tucked-on-your-shoulder, hand-on-the-back-of-your-head kind of hugger. So Fleck and Johnston sway next to the end zone pylon whispering to each other about how this is exactly what they imagined it would look like when they met four years ago.Johnston is one of the folks who have been instrumental in providing funds for the football program to grow. There appears to be more where that came from. He and his wife, Ronda Stryker, donated $100 million to seed a medical school at Western Michigan a couple of years ago. Kalamazoo is a town that takes pride in its philanthropy. (Its one of the few towns in the country that has raised private money to promise to pay full tuition to in-state colleges for any graduates of its public schools.) It isnt afraid to shell out some money for the things it deems important. Johnston played on the 1966 Broncos team that also won a MAC championship and sees Fleck as someone who ignites the community.Weve had a real legacy in the MAC of some of the best coaches in the history of football, Johnston said a few days after the Broncos big win. One of the things the conference hasnt [done] is to retain one of those legacy coaches. Perhaps universities didnt have an appetite to do that. ... I think you can create an environment where a coach could say, Yeah I can be a legacy coach here.Johnston and Fleck separate, and Fleck finds his wifes hand as they trot past a couple of more back-patters. Lt. Jeff Lillard, the Western Michigan police officer charged with keeping Fleck safe, wheels around and tries to keep pace. There was a team of five who rotated through the football coach security detail during Flecks first season. The other four dont do it anymore.A pair of Western Michigan dance squad members pop into his path at the 20-yard line and ask if hell stop for a photo. Of course, he says, and the rest of the girls come jogging out to crowd around the coach.The fans are next. A young man wearing a silver hardhat leans over the stadium wall near midfield and summons the coach for a selfie. A few others get high-fives. Fleck backs away and waves. He turns as someone beside the fan in the hardhat yells, Wherever you go, thank you! Thank you!A player stops for a hug. Then a staffer holding the MAC trophy wants a photo. A man in a long brown overcoat pulls Fleck in for a long one -- its his agent. Hes at the 20, the 10, the 5, then he spots a couple of young fans with programs in the front row waiting for him. He changes course and signs a few autographs, a few more pictures.Kathy Beauregard stands nearby and watches. The Western Michigan athletic director got her hug a little earlier in the night. She hired Fleck four years ago without the aid of a search firm by asking herself in part what her then-20-year-old son would look for in a new coach.Shes got her own fans leaning over stadium walls these days. A couple of weeks ago a young alum at a home game hollered down from the stands: Ive got a $50 bill. Will that help you keep Coach Fleck? She promised to do her best and let him hang on to the cash. Thats not the first time its happened.Beauregard says theres a plan in place to try to keep Fleck. She traveled to Boise with him for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl two years ago and together they tried to dissect the Boise State program and how those Broncos inserted themselves in the realm normally reserved for college footballs bluebloods and cash cows. They talked about the possibility of building something similar with their Broncos.Boise, of course, doesnt have two Big Ten powers and Notre Dame within an easy Saturday mornings drive. Keeping a fans attention and loyalty in Kalamazoo takes more work. It takes a team or a personality that one cant help but keep watching to get them to stick around. Beauregard found that in Fleck. Now she has to find a way to keep him around, too.He needed to see progress. He needed to see commitment and passion, she said. He saw the response.Beauregard is realistic. She knows there might come a time in the not-so-distant future when Fleck needs to row on out of town. Heck, even Chris Petersen left Boise State eventually to get himself to the College Football Playoff. For now, though, Beauregard says she believes that Fleck thinks that there is still business to take care of here.Its a few minutes shy of 11:30 when Fleck finally makes it into the hallway beneath Ford Fields seats. His wife is by his side. Lt. Lillard is close behind catching his breath. He looks down at the FitBit on his wrist.Im at 14,000 steps, he says. This guy is hard to keep up with.Beauregard says that Western Michigan is in the midst of very positive negotiations to extend Flecks contract and almost certainly add a significant increase to what is already the highest salary among MAC coaches. There is nothing imminent, she says, but there are reasons for optimism in Kalamazoo.Fleck is hard to keep up with, and eventually hell be hard to keep. For now, Western Michigan is taking all the necessary steps. Alan Trammell Jersey . Newcastle dominated in the early stages but City weathered the storm and then raised its game in extra time. Negredo broke the deadlock from close range after a simple move in the 99th minute before Dzeko took the ball round goalkeeper Tim Krul to seal the victory in the 105th. Travis Wood Jersey . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. http://www.tigersgearshop.com/Tigers-Kirk-Gibson-Kids-Jersey/ ;. -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. MINNEAPOLIS -- Cole Hamels lost control of his signature cutter, and that led to another victory by last-place Minnesota over first-place Texas.I just all of a sudden couldnt find it, Hamels said Sunday after the Rangers 5-4 defeat.Hamels (9-2) was knocked out in the fifth inning of his shortest start this season and lost for the first time since May 27 and only the third time since Texas acquired him last summer.Hamels had won a Rangers record nine consecutive road decisions and went 4-0 in June with a 1.51 ERA over six starts. And after watching his team get routed 17-5 on Saturday, Texas was hoping he would spark a rebound.Instead, he allowed five runs and a season-high 10 hits while walking three. He left after walking his first two batters in the fifth.No pitchers immune to having a game like this, Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. He still continued to try to battle and give us as much as he could. I made the decision. That was about as far as I was willing to go.It was just the second time this season Hamels failed to complete five innings.They had a really good game plan going into the game, Banister said. They were going to make him work. It looked like he had trouble finding his rhythm, finding that good release pointBrian Dozier drove in two runs and scored a pair to back Kyle Gibson (2-5), who won his second straight start after going winless in his first seven. The Twins stranded plenty of runners against Hamels -- in the fourth, they had a double, two singles and stolen base, but still couldnt score. Even so, they did just enough damage as Hamels struggled to control his cutter.He had to go to his fastball and then he lost command and started leaving stuff over the middle of the plate, Dozier said. Against good pitchers like that you really have to take advantage of the mistakes, and we did that today.Shin-Soo Choo drove in three runs. He led off a game with a home run for the third time this year, a drive into the left-center seats. Gibson then retired eight straight batters -- he a stretch he repeated later in the game.Dozier hit a two-run triple in the third and scored on Robbie Grossmans single for a 3-1 lead.For me, I know Im going to face them aggain in my next start, so just get ready for that, keep the same sort of approach with being aggressive like I was in the first inning and try to maintain that for a little bit longer than that, Hamels said. Alex Wilson Jersey. AST GASPElvis Andrus singled in a run in the fifth, but the Twins opened a 5-2 lead in the bottom half when Max Kepler singled in a run and Eddie Rosario hit into a run-scoring forceout against Tony Barnette. Choo hit a two-run double in the seventh off Ryan Pressley to cut the lead to one run, but Brandon Kintzler pitched around Robinson Chirinos two-out double in the ninth for his fourth save in as many chances, retiring Choo on a game-ending groundout.PATRIOTIC RANGERSThe Rangers were in a patriotic mood as they headed to the airport after the game. The players wore matching outfits- a navy blue blazer covered in white stars, bright red pants, a white shirt, and a red-and-white striped tie. Many even had red or blue shoes for the special occasion. Fittingly, the team was flying to Boston, where they will face the Red Sox in a July 4 matinee.TRAINERS ROOMRangers: RHP Colby Lewis (right latissimus dorsi) was transferred to the 60-day DL to make room for newly promoted Michael Roth.Twins: 3B Trevor Plouffe was scratched before the game with sore ribs. ... INF Eduardo Escobar is day to day with a hamstring injury. General manager Terry Ryan said he isnt expecting a DL stint. ... Trevor May, who hasnt played since June 9 because of back spasms, was back in the clubhouse. Manager Paul Molitor said May wasnt activated Sunday because he was coming off pitching in back-to-back games in his minor league rehab assignment.UP NEXTRangers: Nick Martinez (1-1) is to make his fourth start this season when the Rangers travel to Boston to open a three-game series against the Red Sox. Martinez has not had a decision in his three previous starts.Twins: Minnesota opens a three-game set against Oakland, with Ricky Nolasco (3-6) set to make his team-leading 17th start. Nolasco is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three career starts against the Athletics. Cheap Soccer Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Hockey Jerseys Nike NFL Jerseys China Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys China Wholesale Baseball Jerseys China Wholesale College Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys Near Me Cheap Jerseys OnlineCheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Soccer Jerseys China Cheap NCAA Jerseys Authentic Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic MLB Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Throwback Jerseys Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China ' ' '