Detroit Free Press

I guess we ought to talk about this Andre Waters guy, since everybody else is. Dan Dierdorf of "Monday Night Football" pretty much nailed the Philadelphia safety to the wall, calling him a "cheap-shot artist" and saying there's "no place for that kind of stuff in the NFL." The league, meanwhile, fined Waters $10,000 for cheap-shot tackles. All around the NFL, Waters is known as the kind of guy who would shake your hand and slam his knee into your groin.

Like most people, I wanted to be liked. I wanted to walk into every room and have people smile, reach for my hand, slap me on the back.I picked the wrong job.I became a sportswriter.My kind are greeted with sighs, smirks, head shakes and spit. Occasionally a poke in the chest. Now and then, a bucket of water. I am blamed, vilified, avoided, ignored, sometimes tolerated, never trusted.I am a sportswriter.And I wonder what went wrong.

THE LIVE ALBOM* Every one of Cecil Fiedler's home runs is impressive, but here it is Thursday night, bottom of the eighth, two outs, nobody on, the stadium is falling asleep, and Dennis Lamp of the Red Sox knows he really doesn't have to pitch to Cecil. Doesn't have to give him anything. And what happens? Lamp gets two strikes, then puts a pretty good sinker down low. And Fielder, who has been swinging at air since last weekend, takes this pitch and smacks it into the bleachers for his 49th home run.

MINNEAPOLIS -- I have stopped listening to Bobby Knight.I no longer attend his press conferences. I do not interview him. I had no interest in his insulting words these last few weeks of the NCAA basketball tournament. And I did not go to hear him after Indiana's semifinal Saturday against Duke.I see no point. My reason is simple: Why would anyone willingly enter a room when he knew he was about to have garbage dumped on his head?

NEWS ITEM: The editors of DC Comics, publishers of Superman, announced plans to kill off the 54-year-old comic book hero. The Man of Steel is scheduled to die in issue No. 75 of Superman classics while "saving as many people on earth as he can," sources say."Well, I was just shocked," Batman said, when reached Saturday in Gotham City. "I mean, I knew Supes wasn't doing great, but dead? I thought he couldn't die. That's what he used to say whenever I told him how much more money my movies made than his. 'Hey, pal, at least I'll never die.' That always shut me up.

On the morning of the last day of the best days of his life, Ernie Harwell got up and put a cassette into the small recorder he had plugged in under the sink. "This is Sammy Fain singing," he said. The recorder spit out scratchy sounds of an old man and a piano, a ballad, a pretty melody. We came together young and strongThe summer smiled and touched us with a songfor that one summerthat one sweet summer

The truth is, you don't coach NBA players anymore, you manage them. They are richer than you. More famous than you. More important than you. So they have the power.