If someone created all the bad news in the world, then he would be responsible for it.But if the bad news were already there, and that someone just told you about it, would he be the problem -- or a depressing reminder?That's the stand-off we have this morning, the day Reggie Lewis's number will be raised to the rafters of Boston Garden. A cloud of doubt will ride up that rope, alongside the green and white banner. And in a country never satisfied until we blame somebody, the fingers are pointing -- but in the wrong direction.
INDIANAPOLIS -- The game had the awkwardness of a teenager learning to dance, the stickiness of wet paint, the color of an unripe banana. Whacks, pokes, dumb passes, ill-advised shots. It simply was not polished basketball -- the inevitable problem with inexperienced feet being asked to walk the highest rope.And yet . . .
WIMBLEDON, England -- There's nothing wrong with men's tennis that a hamburger, some running shoes and a Coke wouldn't fix.Allow me to explain.Every year I come to Wimbledon, it's the same tongue-clucking story."The men's game is fizzling," critics moan. "There is no interest. No one is watching. Kids back home think a racket is what you make at a Hanson concert."To which I say these five words: Hey, dummy, remember the NBA?
Sometimes, this is the only thing more baffling than the people in sports: the people who try to get close to them.Take the cases of Marge Schott and Michael Irvin.
You cry when you lose Wimbledon. Some cry on the inside, and some cannot help it, the tears flow right there on Centre Court, in front of everyone.You wouldn't think there was much in common between Jana Novotna, the blond Czech who hopes to win her first Grand Slam today, and Boris Becker, the redheaded German who Thursday waved good-bye to this tournament forever. But they do share this: They have both shed tears for Wimbledon.
The little girl died of starvation. She was 4 years old. Her mother didn't like the way she looked -- said her face reminded her too much of her father -- so she didn't feed her. The child withered to skin and bones. When the cops found her dead body, they also found six other living children, who slept together on one mattress in the rat-infested New York City apartment. The 32-year-old mother, now facing murder charges, was pregnant again.
The sisters were doing it for themselves. There were two of them, Tonda and Trina, older and younger, 2 1/2 years apart. They would compete at every little thing, racing, eating, jumping. Tonda vs. Trina.And then along came baby brother."We figured we could double-team him," Tonda says now, laughing. "It would be the girls against the boy."
One false move. That's all you get now. One false move and they chop your head off, leave you hanging upside down in the spotlight. Too bad, see ya, thanks for joining us in The Public Life. A good man is without his job this morning. He might never coach again, all for a mistake that is made a thousand times every day all over this country. Gary Moeller's crime was not getting drunk and making a fool of himself -- heck, they'd have to fire half the football people in America for that.
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.
