With a week to go before a critical midterm election, the president, his supporters and most of the media acted as if the most important issue in America wasn't a costly war, failed international policies, failed domestic policies or the battle between religion and science. Instead, what apparently mattered most was a bad joke.If you don't do well in school ... "you get stuck in Iraq." That was the punch line of an ill-advised, badly delivered attempt at humor by Sen. John Kerry, who has never been strong in that department.
"Where you going?"It was manager Jim Leyland yelling from his small office in the visitors' clubhouse. This was late Friday night, after his team had lost the World Series in a sometimes embarrassing fashion, throwing balls over players' heads, getting caught in rundowns, losing wild pitches. It had been a great ride but a bumpy finish, and Leyland was sitting silently now in the office with several coaches staring at the floor or the walls, so I continued past, out of respect."Where you going?"I stepped back to the door frame.
I witnessed something recently that said a lot about who we are in America. It took place not on a big stage on a Saturday night in New York, but on a daytime talk show in the middle of the week. I was to be a guest on that TV show. It was one of those shows liable to have a cooking segment, followed by a pets segment, then a segment on sexy Halloween costumes.
ST. LOUIS - In the end, they only could watch: watch balls go flying past their gloves, watch pitches go zipping past their bats, watch another team do the infield dance they had dreamed of doing once upon a time, when they were a hot team.You remember. A week ago?
ST. LOUIS - This is what the brink looks like. It looks like a ball flying over your head and you chase it running backward and your legs go out from under you, like someone pulled the tablecloth, down you go, down in wet grass, and you scramble to your feet but the ball is coming down, too late, too late, a sure out has turned into a double. Your uniform is wet. Your face is red.
Let's play the next three barefoot! No, wait. Let's play them without gloves! No, hang on. For the next three games, clean-up hitters get only two strikes!
Moses parts the water, but Kenny Rogers turns the tide.On a night when the weather said it's time to stop playing baseball, Rogers took the mound and said no, we play on, we play like Game 1 never happened, we play like this magical Detroit year is still, well, magical. For the third time in this postseason, Rogers lifted his teammates' chins, said, "Watch the old man do it," went out there and hurled a masterpiece.
Moses parts the water, but Kenny Rogers turns the tide.On a night when the weather said it's time to stop playing baseball, Rogers took the mound Sunday night and said no, we play on, we play like Game 1 never happened, we play like this magical Detroit year is still, well, magical. For the third time in this postseason, Rogers lifted his teammates' chins, said, "Watch the old man do it," and went out there and hurled a masterpiece.
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.
