by Mitch Albom | May 8, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
You could feel the walls closing in, like one of those black-and-white horror movies. Joe Louis Arena was actually getting smaller, tighter, shrinking like a leaky balloon. The Dallas Stars had just scored a fluke goal, the puck had banged in off Bob Errey’s skate, and here we were again, first round of the playoffs, first game against an inferior team, it’s the third period, and the score is suddenly tied.
“Oh, God,” you could hear the fans moan. If buildings wore collars, the whole place would have been gasping.
Except the Red Wings’ bench.
by Mitch Albom | May 5, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
One false move. That’s all you get now. One false move and they chop your head off, leave you hanging upside down in the spotlight. Too bad, see ya, thanks for joining us in The Public Life. A good man is without his job this morning. He might never coach again, all for a mistake that is made a thousand times every day all over this country. Gary Moeller’s crime was not getting drunk and making a fool of himself — heck, they’d have to fire half the football people in America for that.
by Mitch Albom | May 3, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
Good news from the Home Opener! We saw some impressive arms down at Tiger Stadium!
Unfortunately, they were all throwing toilet paper.
And pizza boxes. And little plastic magnets. And, oh yes, beach balls. There were, according to one unofficial count, 22 beach balls tossed onto the field in the first inning alone. They bounced around, the game was stopped, security workers scooped them up, and the bleacher crowd roared.
Only in the ’90s could beach balls become social protest.
by Mitch Albom | May 2, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
First of all, get out of Gary Moeller’s head. You don’t belong there, neither do I. All these armchair psychiatrists who are rooting around his brain as if it’s their personal attic — “I think he’s under too much pressure. . . .” “The eight losses in two years have gotten to him” — they have no idea what they’re talking about and never will.
by Mitch Albom | May 1, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
No hardware this season. Sergei Fedorov does not need space on the shelf. No awards will be coming. No trophies will be delivered. Last year he won just about everything known to man — the Hart Trophy for most valuable player, the Selke Trophy for best defensive...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 30, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
It is foolish to think whoever bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City only did it because of radio.It is also foolish to think that’s impossible.The horror of the Oklahoma wreckage — and the suggestion that the perpetrators followed a militaristic...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 28, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
I was supposed to have today off. And I could have used it. The red-eye flight from Los Angeles left me groggy and slow, tripping over my bags as I trudged through the airport. I had filled my weekly quota of columns. The cab dropped me off at home. The sun was coming...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 27, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — He buttons his shirt and pulls a tie over his head. It is seven hours before the first pitch. The stadium is just across the street. Still, he moves like a man with a plane to catch.”Let me grab my jacket,” he says. The hotel suite...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 26, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
“I believe in the church of baseball.”
From the movie “Bull Durham” ANAHEIM, Calif. — We have a problem. We’ve had a fight. We have fallen out of love with the sport that used to delight us, and now baseball has come back, holding flowers, asking for forgiveness.
This will not come quickly. For some, it might not come at all. I begin to make my peace the way I knew I would once I arrived here, at the hotel, for tonight’s Tigers opener against the California Angels.
I call John Doherty’s room. At 9 a.m.
Sleeping.
I call at 10.
Still sleeping.
by Mitch Albom | Apr 26, 1995 | Detroit Free Press
Gene GuidiGo ahead, call me a homer, but I’m picking the Tigers to escape the cellar and finish fourth ahead of the Red Sox. The reason? I think the Tigers’ pitching and defense will improve enough to lift them a notch in the standings. A.L East —...
