So much has been written, broadcast and debated about Brian Ellerbe -- the job he has done with Michigan basketball, good, bad, whether he should get to keep it -- and over and over, people keep missing the points.First of all, his biggest accomplishment was not winning over his players, it was winning over his assistant coaches.
The sticks played taps. Twenty-three sticks, lightly banging a wooden applause, as the banner began to rise to the rafters. This is how hockey players show respect and admiration. Tap the sticks. Curved wood against frozen ice. Louder now. Tap-tap-tap-tap.
This was the last magic trick, the final yank of the tablecloth. The Red Wings, just hours before the NHL trading deadline, burned up the phone lines, said "deal," "deal," "deal," "deal," and acquired four new players, three of them major personalities, in hopes of finally straightening the wheels on their wagon roll to a third straight Stanley Cup."I went to bed last night with a wish list," general manager Ken Holland said. "We had lots of irons in the fire. We had lots of lines in the lake."
NEW YORK -- The glittering stage above the mosh pit at the MTV Video Awards is a strange place to find a female U.S. Open tennis champion -- especially the night before a big match. But there was Monica Seles at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, live, in front of millions of viewers, giggling and reading off the cue cards. Seles, in her clipped English, announced the contenders for some award, "Hootie and the Blowfish" and "Michael and Janet Jackson" and then she came to a video with a rather strange name.
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- The flight took off Monday morning, before sunrise, with stars still dotting the Detroit sky. Within an hour, there was breakfast served, cheese omelettes, muffins, piping hot coffee. Newspapers were passed around. Conversations were spirited. Nineteen people, including an NBA coach, a local businessman, airline reps, a TV executive, an ambassador and several journalists, had come together to do some good. Or so we thought. We were bringing supplies to a hurricane-ravaged area. We felt excited, maybe even a little bloated in how benevolent a thing this was.
Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. -- long before the other players would arrive -- Mike Ramsey entered the Red Wings' locker room. It was empty, freshly vacuumed, the music playing softly over the stereo. Ramsey went to his locker, grabbed his two pairs of skates, his pads and his helmet. The only other thing he had brought with him three weeks ago were his sticks. He decided to leave them behind.As he headed for the door, he stopped at the blackboard. He picked up the chalk and squeaked out a message."Thanks guys. Good luck, (signed) Rammer."
Alvin Harper was so alone, he could have shot off a flare. He waved his hands. He jumped up and down. And, as is often the case with his team, he watched as the ball went somewhere else, the wrong place, thrown by a quarterback who has a lot to learn. Harper walked slowly back to the Tampa Bay huddle, shaking his head, wearing those silly orange pants.
Welcome, welcome, yes, you're in the right place, the U.S. Open, at Oakland Hills -- hey, you with the sandals on, it's OK. Stop hiding in the corner. No one's going to kick you out. This might be the most exclusive country club in the metro Detroit area, and on most weeks they wouldn't let you near here with a bazooka, but today, everyone is love 'n' knickers. That's the great thing about the U.S. Open. It's American! You pay for a ticket, they have to let you in -- no matter how badly you're dressed.
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.
