by Mitch Albom | Feb 15, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — They treated him like a freak, and he never deserved that. “The things I do, I’ve done all my life,” says Jim Eisenreich. But people just saw what they saw, a center fielder suddenly twitching and gasping for breath, bending at the waist, not sure he would ever find air again. Just like that it could happen. In the middle of the game. And he would call time out and run off the field, scared and embarrassed. He was suffering from a disease, he says, Tourette’s Syndrome, but he didn’t know it then, and his club, the Minnesota Twins, didn’t believe it.
by Mitch Albom | Feb 8, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — Now the waves can come and swallow this town again. For a few glorious days it was hanging ten on the world, the yachts were racing, the cameras whirring, but now that’s over and the crowds are thin and you can get a table easily in the good steak houses, even the ones near the water.
by Mitch Albom | Feb 6, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — By now you’re probably wondering how I pulled it off — keeping the America’s Cup down here in Australia — so I’ll tell you.It began with a story idea. An interview subject. I had heard tales of the legendary...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 5, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — The afternoon was hot and quiet, and Cyril Kenair, the security guard, swiped at a fly that was buzzing his head. A woman and two children came to the door of the Royal Perth Yacht Club and Cyril stood up quickly.
“We called this morning,” said the woman, her voice polite and hopeful. “Do you suppose we could see the Cup?”
“‘All right, mum,” he said. “But the kiddies — will you watch that they don’t put their hands on the glass?”
“Certainly.”
“Very good, then. Go on up.”
by Mitch Albom | Feb 4, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — You hear lots of things said here about Dennis Conner, but you do not hear anyone say he’s a nice guy. That’s usually a safe expression, no? “He’s a nice guy.” Especially when people don’t know what else to say. But descriptions of Dennis Conner go from “dedicated” to
“ruthless” to “an absolute bastard.” People skip “nice guy,” frankly, because he isn’t one.
by Mitch Albom | Feb 3, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — Dennis Conner was beating him this way and that way, in heavy winds and light winds and tacks and tactics, and then — just when things couldn’t possibly get worse — a rubber boat pulls alongside Iain Murray’s...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 2, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — Let’s catch up with John, the welder, who today has painted his face green and yellow and written “Kookaburra” down his arms and clipped a boxing kangaroo to his ear. This is John’s hometown, and John is drinking...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 1, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — A steady rain was falling by the time the skinny guy came out of the boat shed. He was dressed in a T- shirt and khaki shorts, and he poked his glasses back up his nose. All around him, the burly crew members of Stars & Stripes were shaking each others’ hands and picking a restaurant for dinner — a victory dinner, thank you, for they had just won the first race of the America’s Cup final, against Kookaburra III, in the weirdest weather anyone could imagine.
Anyone but their weather man.
“Not bad,” someone said to Chris Bedford.
by Mitch Albom | Jan 31, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — For a few minutes there, I had the story of this America’s Cup. I was bringing it home. I was about to deal for history, I was
. . .
But wait. Let’s start from the beginning. Friday afternoon. The day before the finals began. The coffee was gone. The note pad was empty.
by Mitch Albom | Jan 30, 1987 | Detroit Free Press
FREMANTLE, Australia — I am very far away. I am as far away as you can get. I am so far away, if I went any farther I would get closer.I am Down Under.”Why are you standing on your head?” says a voice. “Are you all right?””Just...
