by Mitch Albom | Dec 25, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
IT’S Christmas, you’ve seen “It’s A Wonderful Life” a million times, so you know the concept: Jimmy Stewart keeps trying to get out of his rut, but in the end, winds up back in the same old place.
Who knew that movie was really about our football team?
Bah, humbug. The Lions keep telling us they are not the same old Lions. Then, in the most important games of the year, they go out and play like …the same old Lions. Oh, sure, Sunday’s loss took some extra effort. There are blown games, there are blown seasons and there are works of art.
by Mitch Albom | Dec 24, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
Ihear a knock. I open the door. Look who I see come a caroling …
Democrats singing “Here Comes Santa Claus”
Here comes W, Here comes W W’s on his way See him bouncing, mispronouncing, He’s the prez today! Let Dick Cheney run the show Let Colin take the snaps Condi Rice makes everything nice While W takes a nap.
Al Gore, “Joy To the World”
Wait! Stop the world! Just one more time And let’s recount the votes We’ll beat inauguration Let’s do some calculations There’s still some ballots out Some chads lying about I’m sure I can win this thing With one more count.
by Mitch Albom | Dec 21, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
IF A guy asks a girl out and she turns him down, you cheer him up. If she turns him down again, you console him. If she turns him down again, you feel sorry for him.And if he keeps asking, you roll your eyes and say he’s pathetic.Why wasn’t the same...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 18, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
EASTRUTHERFORD, N.J. — On the bus ride to the stadium, the other Lions were exhorting him, saying,
“This your kinda day, baby, look out there, baby, your kind of day!” James Stewart looked out the window, saw the dark winter clouds, the gushing rain, and he must have thought: Great. So now I’m a mudder?
Well. If the cleat fits . . .
by Mitch Albom | Dec 17, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
At the height of the madness in this 5-week presidential election, someone on TV — probably NBC’s Tim Russert, with his ever-present Magic Marker tote board — came up with the doomsday scenario.The Florida Legislature, dominated by Republicans, would...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 13, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
THERE’S THIS older woman, named Sarah, who for years ran an elevator at Tiger Stadium. Every summer, she would sit in that rickety, cell-like thing, which had no ventilation. During July and August it was a furnace.
“Do you think the Tigers could do anything?” she would gently ask, wiping her brow. “Put in air-conditioning, or get me a fan?”
Year after year, nothing was done.
by Mitch Albom | Dec 10, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
What do we mourn when we mourn John Lennon? He was, after all, only one-fourth of a famous band. The Beatles might have been to rock ‘n’ roll what Michael Jordan was to the NBA, but excellence alone would not explain the emotional eruption that occurs...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 8, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
COACHING IS dead.
The whistle is buried. The chalkboard is blank. The days when a coach spoke and a player listened?
Those days are gone.
There is no coaching anymore — not in the NBA, anyhow, where $100-million players are a way of life.
Coaching there has been replaced by “managing.” Managing means keeping a player happy. Managing means keeping an ego in check. Managing is what Paul Westphal tried unsuccessfully to do in Seattle, with sulking multimillionaires like Gary Payton and Vin Baker.
by Mitch Albom | Dec 3, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
Last week, as Americans fought over ballots as if they were life and death, the Dutch passed a law that really was about life and death: namely, when is it acceptable to end one and welcome the other?
Their answer? When a patient is suffering. Not necessarily dying. Suffering. Inconsolably. Unbearably.
When that happens, under the new law — the first of its kind in the world — any patient older than 16 need only discuss it with a doctor, agree that the pain is too much, and ask for a peaceful death.
by Mitch Albom | Nov 30, 2000 | Detroit Free Press
EASTLANSING — Less than a minute into Wednesday night’s Michigan State-North Carolina game, the shot clocks went out, and someone had to root around in the storage closets and drag out the old corner units. Prop ’em up. Plug ’em in. So already, the night was going back in time.
