Detroit Free Press

BRONX BLUES NOW OR NEVER TIME TO PLAY LIKE IT’S SEPT.

BRONX BLUES NOW OR NEVER TIME TO PLAY LIKE IT’S SEPT.

As soon as the Tigers wake up this morning, they should go to their calendars and rip out the current page that reads "August."It's September now.Oh, maybe not by the moon and the stars, but by the little white ball that measures the season. "September" is really a frame of mind in baseball. It means crunch time, the shedding of the fat, every game and inning with consequence for the playoffs.
U.S. RUNS DRY IN OLD GOLD PLACES

U.S. RUNS DRY IN OLD GOLD PLACES

DAY 13: Old gold. New gold. And a little white ball.BEIJING - Let me throw some names at you. Carl Lewis. Bob Beamon. Bob Hayes. Evelyn Ashford. Bob Seagren. Cassius Clay. Sugar Ray Leonard. Greg Louganis. These are athletes who became famous by winning Olympic gold in sports in which the U.S. once excelled - the 100 meters, long jump, pole vault, boxing, diving. There was a time where you could check off American medals in certain events before we even marched in the Opening Ceremonies.
CLOTHES MAKE MAN; A GOD MUST RUN

CLOTHES MAKE MAN; A GOD MUST RUN

DAY 12: Major duds and a major dud.BEIJING - In a moment, we will get to the injury and abrupt quit of the biggest sports star in China, an event that, on Monday morning, brought this nation of 1.3 billion people to tears. But first, the big news: The suits are back, and they fit great!So do the shirts, which I bought five more of, along with three more suits, two more sport coats, all handmade, and I think I got change from my dollar.
ROGER OVER ROOKIE

ROGER OVER ROOKIE

NEW YORK - Two nights earlier, he was sleeping at a hotel in Altoona, Pa., sharing a room with a minor league teammate.Friday night, he had his own key at the Hilton in New York City.And here he was now, Saturday afternoon, at the plate in Yankee Stadium, facing Roger Clemens, a future Hall of Fame pitcher who had already won 40 major league games before the kid was even born.
30 YEARS LATER, STILL LOVING HIM TENDER

30 YEARS LATER, STILL LOVING HIM TENDER

Elvis thinks people have forgotten him.This is nearly five decades ago. Elvis is fresh off a two-year stint in the Army, much of it spent in West Germany. Now he fears everything is gone, that the public has moved on. Elvis takes a train to tape a TV show with Frank Sinatra. "He was scared to death," Ray Walker tells me. Walker, in his 70s now, was a member of the Jordanaires, Elvis' backup group. He still remembers that train ride.
A TRIP TO THE WALL, TO WORLD RECORD

A TRIP TO THE WALL, TO WORLD RECORD

DAY 10: The big race, the big climb, the big difference.BEIJING -"Fruits? Almonds?" he says in Chinese.His "store" is a table. He sits on it, offering plastic bags to visitors. The sun is hot and the mountains loom overhead, and there are half a dozen vendors trying to sell us the same stuff, and besides, on the way into this village we passed a donkey sitting in the middle of the street, so to be honest, business is slow."Can you take us up to the Wall?" we ask.
VAULTER SCALES HEIGHTS TO SAVE HER LITTLE BOY

VAULTER SCALES HEIGHTS TO SAVE HER LITTLE BOY

DAY 11: The Mommy factor.BEIJING - You can't just go to church on Sunday if you're Chinese, not under a government whose official religion is atheism. But you still can find inspiration. I found some Sunday in, of all places, the women's gymnastics competition.Normally, this is where apple-cheeked Tinkerbells flip and twist, while spectators use magnifying glasses to find them. The minimum age is 16, and teams want their girls as close to that as possible.
WHEN A BALLPARK DIES, PART OF US DOES, TOO

WHEN A BALLPARK DIES, PART OF US DOES, TOO

I took a drive last week to say good-bye to an old friend. I came off the highway, turned down a familiar street and there she was, right in front of me.She did not look good. She was pale and broken down. Even the work she'd had done a few years ago now had decayed. She was spilling out, peeling, her fabrics were torn, and she looked none too steady on her feet. The summer sky was gray and she seemed to have a cloud affixed permanently over her head - along with cranes, tractors and trucks by her sides.

Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.

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