by Mitch Albom | Sep 12, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
Ahhh.
Feels good.
Toss me some suds, will ya?
Yep. Here we are, neck-high in this tub full of champagne, me and my Southern literary agent, Mr. Bobby Will Getcha. Been here since Sunday. Just jumped in with all our clothes on.
You do that kind of stuff when your team is undefeated. Like ours is.
The Detroit Lions, I’m talking about.
Un-deeee-feated. A perfect season.
1-0.
Hear that Miami? San Fran? Washington? A big fat zero in the loss column.
Bet you guys wish you were us, huh?
Tough.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 11, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
The way I see it, the Great Baseball Fan in the Sky is trying to tell us something.Why else would we have Pete Rose going for baseball’s all- time hit record the same day Yogi Berra’s son is confessing a cocaine habit to a judge?Why else would teams in the...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 9, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — This place had always treated him like garbage, and there he was in the gutter again. A zero. A big fat zero. Thirteen stinking minutes into the U.S. Open final, in front of millions of people, and he hadn’t even won a game from John McEnroe...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 8, 1985 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
NEW YORK — Say what you will about John McEnroe, the Prince of Pout, the Court Crybaby, the No. 1 male tennis player in the world. If nothing else, he is a fighter. And on center court at the U.S. Open, when your survival is on the line and it’s about a million degrees and you’re losing bad and 20,000 New Yorkers are screaming at you and a Swedish robot across the net is picking you apart, well, being a fighter is what it’s about.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 8, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — She was flat on her back in the middle of center court, her eyes squeezed shut in glory, as if she had to lie down to absorb what she’d just accomplished.
7-6, 1-6, 7-6.
Mandlikova beats Navratilova.
Incredible.
What a match! What a spectacular match! A showdown that was never supposed to be. Everyone knows that just as dessert comes at the end of the meal, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd come at the end of a women’s tennis tournament.
Chris vs. Martina, punch after punch, rematch after rematch, Ali and Frazier in tennis dress.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 8, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — Say what you will about John McEnroe, the Prince of Pout, the Court Crybaby, the No. 1 male tennis player in the world. If nothing else, he is a fighter. And on center court at the U.S. Open, when your survival is on the line and it’s about a million degrees and you’re losing bad and 20,000 New Yorkers are screaming at you and a Swedish robot across the net is picking you apart, well, being a fighter is what it’s about.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 8, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
There is a time for logic, a time for fact, a time for cold, hard analysis. I think that time is 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon.But Sunday morning, well, that’s another story. Everyone is a dreamer on Sunday morning, at least until the kids wake you up, which is why...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 6, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
Ah, football. The crack of pads. The crack of helmets. The crack of pretzels. Once again, a new NFL season is upon us.And here are a few things I’d like to see this time around . . . A placekicker with both shoes on.Wilbert Montgomery in 1979 form.Darryl Rogers...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 6, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — I’m sorry, but it’s a question whose time has come.
Why are Swedish tennis players so dull?
This has become a major issue here at the U.S. Open, after three Swedes made the men’s quarterfinals and they had to pass out No-Doz. Personally, the idea has intrigued me since the day a sports writer fell asleep on my shoulder during a Mats Wilander press conference. And he hadn’t even been drinking.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 4, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — Carol Berger handed her hotel key to the man behind the desk.”Checking out,” she said.This was last Wednesday, the day her son, Jay, was to play his first match in the U.S. Open tennis tournament.Don’t misunderstand. She loves him...
