SEATTLE -- So I guess the winning streak is over?Then again, we saw that coming, as soon as we saw the plane on the runway. Football, coaches yell, is 60 minutes of war. Unless you are the Lions on the road, in which case, you start raising the white flag during the national anthem.
So now 12-year-old baseball players are thumping their chests and goose-stepping around the base paths with the same sneering, I'm-the-man attitude that already taints so many professional athletes.Great. We have cloned the monster, and it's pre-pubescent.
DENVER -- Last year, at about this time, Fredrik Olausson was in a hospital bed in Bern, Switzerland, with a ruptured spleen. The idea of scoring an overtime goal in the Western Conference finals was as likely as his getting up and doing the rumba.But time passes and things change, and here he was, one year later, on Wednesday night, in overtime, taking a pass in from Steve Yzerman and lining up a big slap shot that somehow did what all the other great Detroit shots could not do on this night -- got past Colorado's Patrick Roy.
On the morning of Oct. 12, a homeless man was pushing a shopping cart down Lincoln Street in Highland Park. He came upon a body, lying near the sidewalk. It was a slender body, tall, athletic, only a teen, wrapped in two T-shirts, jeans and black athletic shoes. The homeless man took a better look. Maybe it was sleeping. Then he backed away. There was a bullet hole in the rear of the teen's head and another in the front where the bullet exited -- police call that a "through and through" -- and this body wasn't sleeping and it wasn't waking up, not that morning, not ever.
CLEVELAND -- Only the Lions, on a day when football was supposed to inspire, could leave their fans throwing up.Holy Retread, Sports Fans! The second "start" of the season was worse than the first.Endless penalties, porous defense and the coup de grace, a passing game that made up for its two interceptions in the season opener."We can do better," the Lions vowed.They did. This time they threw seven.
BECAUSE A flipping puck came off Chris Osgood the wrong way, because that puck wound up in the net, because the Red Wings went from a lead to a tie, a tie to overtime, overtime to a breakout, and a breakout to an Avalanche goal that ended Game 4 -- because of that, explanations abound.
Until Monday, Comerica Park was a big building with a home plate. Now the Tigers have something to put behind it.His name is Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez, he's a catcher, a leader, a newly minted world champion -- and he just became the face of Detroit baseball. With his stocky build, shiny black hair and big-toothed smile, he does not look anything like Steve Yzerman, the Red Wings' charismatic captain.But he does to one man: Mike Ilitch, the guy who signs the checks.He just signed his baseball Yzerman.He's betting $40 million on it.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- It was only a number. It was only one shot. And Brett Hull has taken a million shots in nearly two decades in this league. But here he was Monday in the Stanley Cup finals, taking a beautiful feed from Boyd Devereaux, dropping to one knee and firing away. The "ping" off the post was like a magic password that opened the trap door. The puck ricocheted into the net, a secret tree house appeared, and Hull climbed into a very exclusive club.
In this country, land of the free, the Supreme Court just heard arguments over whether grandparents have rights to see their grandchildren.Those in favor say a child needs a grandparent's love. Nothing, they say, is more important than family.In this same country, land of the free, lawyers claim that a 6-year-old boy is better off away from his father than with him. They say that returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, where his father lives, would be bad for the boy. Some things, they say, are more important than family.I ask the obvious question:Which is it?
NEW YORK -- No. No. A thousand red lights no! New York City hosting the Olympic Games? Who came up with this idea? Someone stuck in a taxi, trying to get across town? Yeah, here's what we need. More . . . people!Somehow, in a runoff that makes Mondale-Coleman look normal, New York was selected as America's official bid for the 2012 Summer Games. The city it beat out was -- and I hope you're sitting down -- San Francisco. Right. Because when it comes to late August, where would you rather be -- alongside a breezy Pacific Ocean or inhaling bus fumes in 90-degree heat?
Tracy McGrady was surrounded by doom. He tried to lose Michael Curry on a screen, but Chauncey Billups slid over. He tried to lose Billups, but Cliff Robinson slid over. He tried to go past Robinson, but here came Curry again, with Ben Wallace on the way, and McGrady fell, grabbed at the ball and, with no other option, looked desperately to the ref and called time out.
The last time baseball was played at Comerica Park, the crowd was on its feet for the final out. Six months later, Thursday afternoon, as shadows fell on a misty Opening Day, the scene repeated itself, with fans once more on their feet as the Tigers left the field.There is only one difference between the ovations, but it is all the difference in the world.The last time was pity. This time was praise.
