"Holy Motormouth, Batman!"Jimmy Carson, when asked to describe Shawn BurrHe was 2 years old when he first heard the voices. They came from downstairs. Laughing. Talking. Beautiful noise. He had to find it. He pulled himself over his crib and wandered down the steps."Shawn, what are you doing down here?" his parents said. They laughed and apologized to their guests. They carried the baby upstairs. Into the crib. Kiss goodnight.Five minutes later, he was back."Shawn, what are you doing out again?"Up the stairs. Into the crib.
CHICAGO -- I am going to be optimistic and say that was as bad as the Pistons will play this season, because if they play any worse, their season will be history.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- One good thing Bo Schembechler is accomplishing with this Ernie Harwell fiasco: he is making Gary Moeller's job a lot easier.Face it. When Moeller took over at Michigan, his biggest hurdle was not teaching the boys how to block and tackle. It was escaping the Schembechler ghost. Schembechler was worshiped as a football coach. Had he merely retired, then hung around Ann Arbor, his shadow would have dwarfed Moeller for years.
I know, I know. The suspense is killing you. So I'll save you a few anxious hours as you await today's Game 7 between the Pistons and Bulls. After all, we know what's going to happen, don't we? . . .
A lot of people will be rooting for the Lions to beat the Washington Redskins today, and for many reasons.Some say it's only fair, since Washington goes to the Super Bowl year after year, while Detroit sits home, waiting for the auto show to open.Others think it would teach a lesson to Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, so tunnel-visioned about his job -- sleeping at the stadium much of the week -- that he recently asked an aide whether President Truman needed tickets.
You can't run your own farewell party. Sometimes, you can't even attend it. Today, in his house in Bloomfield Hills, crutches by his side, heel in a splint, Isiah Thomas no doubt realizes this.And it must bother him. He had hoped for a better ending, a cleansing rinse on his long career, dotted toward the end with unanswered questions, bad press, injuries, and snickers from longtime critics.
LOS ANGELES -- Go ahead. Break my heart. Tell me Magic Johnson is serious when he says, "I'm thinking about retiring. I'll go home after this season and see if I want to come back." There comes a time in every athlete's life when words like that escape his lips. And with some guys, you are only too happy to hear it. But with others. . . .
WIMBLEDON, England -- I whiz into customs on my skateboard, the Walkman blaring in my ears. "Your destination, sir?" asks the customs man."Wimbledon," I say.I open my suitcase filled with stuffed giraffes and fuzzy teddy bears. I unzip the bag containing 14 copies of the New Kids on the Block album, and the latest issues of Tiger Beat magazine."Where did you say you were going, sir?" the agent asks again.I repeat, 'Wimbledon."
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.
