Normally, when you have a baby, you get hugs from well-wishers, some flowers, maybe balloons. Then you come home from the hospital and begin your new life.That's normally.There is very little normal when a woman gives birth to seven babies at once. And in this country, when something abnormal happens, it can echo forever.Which brings us to the now famous Iowa couple, Ken and Bobbi McCaughey, whose seven new children have become "America's family" -- if family is something you watch and watch over.
In an effort to bond with our hockey friends from California, let's try this exercise at home:Look quickly over your left shoulder.Now quickly over your right. Now left, now right, now left, right, leftrightleftright . . . Congratulations. You now know how a San Jose Shark feels.What was the combined score from Games 1 and 2 of this playoff series? Detroit 12, San Jose 2? That's not hockey, that's target practice. One rumor says the Sharks left town on a plane Tuesday night. A bigger rumor is that they were here at all.
O.J. Simpson had nine months to tell his story. He didn't speak. His lawyers said, "We can't risk it." So he sat silent during his trial, as experts suggested he killed his ex-wife and her friend in cold blood. He sat silent, and he won his freedom. And after the verdict, one of his lawyers admitted, "Had he talked, one mistake would have ruined him."
Sometimes, it's what's not in the picture that tells the story. Here was Doug Collins, a hard-working, passionate coach, making an announcement about his return to the Pistons -- with a restructured contract no less. Sounds good, right? Sounds like a happy occasion?But the owner of the Pistons, Bill Davidson, wasn't there. He left the building a few minutes before the informal press conference began. And Pistons president Tom Wilson, who negotiated the deal, wasn't there, either. He was on vacation in Hawaii. It was Collins, a press release and a microphone.
Joe Dumars will be back for his 13th season with the Pistons.They announced Wednesday that Dumars, a free-agent guard, had signed a contract for one season that Dumars said was for $3 million.His return was no surprise. "Since being drafted by the Pistons in 1985, I have never considered playing anywhere else," Dumars said.He had sought a two-year contract, but the Pistons wanted to take it a year at a time. The team's initial offer supposedly was around $2.5 million. Dumars made $5 million against the salary cap last season.
I remember the good old days, when Denver was a place your plane stopped on the way to the West Coast?"Hey, nice mountains you got here," you'd say to some cowboy-hatted local who was hanging around the airport.And he'd pause for a minute, spit some tobacco and say, "Yep."Then you'd get back on the plane and go someplace else.Back then, the city had only one big sports franchise, a football team, the Broncos. They wore orange uniforms and were lucky if they won four games a season. Five victories, they held a parade.
The Lions play their last game of the season tonight, and then we find out just how much Christmas spirit Wayne Fontes can count on.Fontes and owner William Clay Ford have always had a good relationship, but a season like 1996 could make Romeo and Juliet sleep in separate bedrooms.So perhaps Wayne is looking to tweak Mr. Ford's holiday cheer. Why, I can just envision their meeting Christmas Eve, when Wayne will suggest -- before they do anything rash -- that they share a few Christmas carols.Christmas carols?
I went away for a while, and now I'm back. I always know when it's time to come back because I'm usually traveling far from home and I see something on the news that makes me yell, "You've got to be kidding!"So there I was, down in Mexico, the surf rolling in, the margaritas flowing like a Las Vegas lobby fountain. And I picked up a day-old copy of the Los Angeles Times and I saw a report that said Red Wing goalie Mike Vernon, the hero of the Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, was about to be traded to the San Jose Sharks for a couple of draft picks.
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.
