MINNEAPOLIS -- Drop dead. I hope you die. You are trash. You are scum. I get letters like this all the time. So do most journalists I know. And most politicians, civil rights leaders, talk-show hosts, and movie stars. Just about anyone in the public eye can scoop through the mailbag and come up with a few juicy gems about how "your type of people" should take the next boat to Russia, Africa or hell -- depending on who was offended.
MINNEAPOLIS -- You can't smoke at your seat inside the Metrodome, only in the concrete corridors, and I swear halfway through the last game of maybe the best World Series every played, those corridors were stuffed with people too nervous to go without a drag, hundreds and hundreds of fans puffing away like expectant fathers, straining to see the TV sets, puffing some more, dying with every swing, puffing some more, waiting, waiting for the one crack in this choking drama that would give us a king of baseball for this wonderful crazy season.
CINCINNATI -- This has always been the way to beat Goliath: Take a stone and aim right for the forehead. Go for the brain. Hit him where he thinks. Two years ago, Kirk Gibson hobbled to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and sent a Dennis Eckersley pitch into the seats. It was the first game, but it won the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not because it, by itself, was such a devastating blow. But because it stirred the brain cells. It made the Athletics, heavy favorites, feel vulnerable. They lost three of the next four; they went home scratching their heads.
THE LIVE ALBOM* Johnny came marching home Thursday morning -- John Salley, that is. A few choice thoughts from his morning repertoire at the Palace: * Q: John, how do you like Miami?
He was walking through the field to get to his father and suddenly, there it was. A big black snake."Were you scared?" the boy is asked. "No," he says now.The snake had a yellow belly. It was poisonous. The boy did what he was taught to do in his Guatemalan mountain village: he did not run. He watched the snake, saw it move towards him."Then what happened?" "Bit me," he says.
LIONS 23, JETS 16: Personally, I don't have any problem with Wayne Fontes saying he wants to go to the Super Bowl this year. I wouldn't want to be his travel agent, but I don't have any problem with him saying it.CHICAGO 21, GREEN BAY 14: Although the Bears have lost two in a row, Mike Ditka did not yell at them this week. That's because he chewed off his tongue last week, thinking it was gum.
MINNEAPOLIS -- I am greeted at the airport by yellow balloons and a woman with a name tag, who smiles and says "You here for the game?" I say yes and she points to the coordinator. He smiles and says "You here for the game?" I say yes and he points to a the bus driver. "You here for the game?" the bus driver says.I say yes. He waves me on.I am a sports writer.This is the Super Bowl.
Nothing for nothing. That's the bottom line of the Bob Probert equation. You watch him walk out the door now, motorcycle helmet under his arm, off to make big cash and who knows what trouble someplace else, and all you can do is shake your head and say what a mess, what a waste, what an ending. For all the stupid sympathy the Red Wings gave this guy, all the excuses, the lying, the coddling, the protection, the rehab -- not to mention the money -- in the end, he gives them his worst season and walks freely out the door, thanks mostly to their mistake. Nothing for nothing.
SEATTLE -- There are nights when the Michigan Wolverines play basketball as if God controlled their bodies, and there are nights when they play as if they were asleep in church. Friday was the latter.Congratulations, fellas. In a season full of amazing feats, this was a real coup: You managed to win a tournament game and lose respect."It wasn't our best effort," said Jalen Rose, after Michigan survived against 12th-seeded George Washington, 72-64, and advanced to the final eight. "We need a little fine-tuning."
Snow covers most of the house now, the front door, the mailbox, the circular driveway. From the outside, it is just another suburban home, a place where children might build a snowman on the front lawn. But there are no children here, no snow man. The doors and windows are shut tight. People whisper and point when they pass. Here is why: Beneath the snow, the word "NIGGER" is written in the grass. Someone took weed killer one night and burned it in giant letters.
We lost a great man this week. He died in a hospital bed in Philadelphia. Few people noticed, because he didn't have a hit TV show or a People magazine cover. You make your living playing jazz saxophone in America, you don't expect a big funeral.
* DOLPHINS 31, LIONS 17: I remember in 1985, when Don Shula was dealing with the Lions in a possible trade for the NFL rights to Anthony Carter. The Lions got picky. Shula said, "Who do these guys think they are?" And he traded Carter to Minnesota instead. Six years later, Shula has the same attitude toward the Lions. And, unfortunately, he's gonna get his way again.* NY GIANTS 23, CHICAGO 20: Lawrence Taylor is complaining. He says he gets mugged by opponents on every play. Hey, LT. You're from New York. They're just trying to make you feel at home.
