Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores has reportedly informed Lawrence Frank that his services will no longer be needed: He has been fired, according to a tweet by ESPN's Marc Stein. 

Story going online now: Pistons have notified Lawrence Frank that won't be retained as coach. Link on way momentarily

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 18, 2013

Tom Gores had unreasonably high expectations for the Pistons this year (playoffs!? playoffs!?) and when the team finished the season 29-53, worse than last year, someone had to take the fall. Talk of firing Frank started after the Pistons started 0-8 this season and with the way the Pistons played in March, he didn't really stand a chance. 

No speculation as to who the next coach might be, but he will cost Gores an additional $4 million, as that's how much Frank is owed for next season. 

Goodbye our little Frank.

Clinging to the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference playoff picture and a 21-year playoff streak, the Red Wings could've used a win against the not-very-good Calgary Flames on the road. Instead, they gave away two brutal goals and lost 3-2. 

At 47 points, the Wings are still holding on to the No. 8 spot due to having the tie breaker over the Columbus Blue Jackets, also at 47 points. However, the Blue Jackets are playing right now and are tied 2-2 in the third period. 

UPDATE: Columbus beat the Ducks in overtime, 3-2, picking up two points and moving ahead of the Wings in the Western Conference. The Blue Jackets have played one more game than the Red Wings, though. 

GIFs, if you couldn't tell, are via SB Nation 

After throwing out the first pitch for the Tigers and spiking it into the ground, Denard Robinson had a chance to kind of redeem himself before a Michigan baseball game on Tuesday. Not donning jeans and wearing Jackie Robinson's No. 42, @DenardX made it to home plate with his throw this time ... 

... at maybe 40 miles per hour.  Totally redeemed himself. 

H/T Freep

Just two days after the inexplicably senseless bombings at the Boston Marathon, the Boston Bruins hosted the Buffalo Sabres at the TD Garden. During the national anthem, things got dusty and flat out fucking awesome. This is what America is all about right here, folks: 

UNITY. 

We mentioned on our Facebook page yesterday that in the world of sports, Boston is our archenemies. In the world of human decency, everyone in Boston, especially the victims of Monday's tragedy, are in our sincerest thoughts and prayers. 

My favorite Piston of the New Bad Boys era, Rasheed Wallace, has officially retired for the second time in his career because of foot surgery. In his prime, he was as tough of a matchup as there was in the league, and his mid-season acquisition was the main reason Detroit won a championship in 2004. He also made everyone hate Darko slightly less.

But that’s probably not all we’ll remember the enigmatic star for. So in honor of his second retirement, let’s play a little Rasheed Wallace Free Word Association game:

Sun tattoo, technical foul, technical foul record, suspension, great teammate, headband, yessir!, left handed three, All-Star, North Carolina, blonde spot, wait that’s not a blond spot? Oh it’s a bald spot – OK, defense, I wish he actually would have beat up Tim Donaghy, high-release jumper, guaranSheed, championship belt, 30, 36, 30, hilarity, Robert Horry’s wide open…Sheed don’t leave your man NOOOOOOOO!, game winning three quarter court shot, both teams played hard, passion, 2004 NBA championship...

And everybody’s favorite –

BALL DON’T LIE!

Anything I left out?

Jose Valverde is coming through again in the pinch!

According to LHP Ryan Longstreth on Twitter, Valverde bought his new minor league bros a lot of Dominos: 

@papagrande46 comin up big and gettin us all dominos tonight #clutch

— Ryan Longstreth (@rlongstreth13) April 15, 2013

Guido Knudson, tweeting from the pizza-less 2nd floor, was concerned he missed out. Longstreth tweeted back that there was probably some left in the lobby because, of course, Papa Grande's pizza joint brought a lot. 

In case you're wondering about non-pizza news, Valverde threw a scoreless inning in his first action since signing a minor league deal with the Tigers.

Josh Donaldson nearly hurting himself thinking he needed to get out of the way of a Rick Porcello pitch in the 9th inning, only to realize it was a breaking ball and he didn't, was the most embarrassing thing to be captured on tape of anyone wearing A's gear on Sunday. (Yes, way more embarrassing than the young A's fan who threw a foul ball back after his Dad gave it to him as a present from a stranger.)

Donaldson is a grown man playing a professional baseball game and this should never happen to the former in the latter: 

They don't call them knee-buckling breaking balls for nothin', but you don't often see them resulting in the hitter falling to his knees, hand saving him from falling completely over, and possibly hurting himself.

Mario Impemba said during the telecast he doesn't think he's ever seen something like it before. A quick google search gives me a similar result to Alexei Ramirez, but there's no hint of injury after. Donaldson got so jelly legged, he couldn't hold himself up, falling to the dirt in shame. He was then slow to get up and clearly wincing before daring to dig back in.

It will be even more embarrassing for Donaldson when his teammates rib him by playing it in the clubhouse and Donaldson realizes Porcello's breaking ball wasn't *that* nasty. I mean, it was definitely good, but probably not test-the-strength-of-the-hitter's-ACLs good. Sharp nonetheless. 

I'm really happy for Porcello, too. No matter what he does in his career now, he shall always be remembered for making not one but now TWO grown men look foolish. 

College basketball's National Player of the Year, Trey Burke, announced Sunday afternoon that he will forego his junior and senior seasons at the University of Michigan to enter the 2013 NBA Draft, where he will likely be made a lottery pick by some lucky team (hopefully the Pistons). 

Shortly after making the announcement, Burke posted twice on his Facebook page, discussing the decision and ultimately thanking his fans for all the support. The second message also linked to a fan video commemorating Burke's legendary two-year college career, which I have embedded for your pleasure below:  

Thank you for the memories, Trey Burke. 

Awww, right? This David-Wells-looking Dad gets a foul ball from a nice gentleman a couple rows back, gives it to his kid and, while Dad's thanking the foul ball donor, the kid throws it away. I wouldn't want a ball from a game in which my team is down so many runs, either! 

Here's spliced video courtesty of Fox Sports Detroit: 

Tigers announcers Mario Impemba and Rod Allen paid a lot of attention to this situation the rest of the game -- that's what happens when you're calling a 10-1 game on the road; you pay a lot of attention to sad fans of the other team.

But don't worry. After presumably being yelled at by Dad and both children looking like they were not having any fun, someone from the A's brought them some baseballs to take home. No word on whether or not they threw those back, too. 

The fake life-sized Justin Verlander just wasn't cutting it, so Fox Sports Detroit decided to bring in the real-life Justin Verlander to bobble his real-life head alongside the mini version they're giving away at an upcoming game - Wednesday, April 24 - to the first 10,000 fans. Mesmermizing stuff.