Detroit Free Press

WE’VE DIED AND GONE TO SPORTS FAN HEAVEN

WE’VE DIED AND GONE TO SPORTS FAN HEAVEN

LADIES AND gentlemen, kiss your sports fan good-bye.Check back in a week. Follow the trail of empty pop cans and pizza boxes. Listen for the sounds of a whimpering voice, hoarse from screaming. Sniff the aroma of unwashed jeans, dirty socks and ...OK, forget the sniffing part.You get the idea. We are about to enter the mother lode of sports hysteria. Seven days of playoffs without a break. Red Wings. Pistons. Red Wings. Pistons.Two sports. Two teams. Two playoff series.And -- get this -- alternate nights!
WHEN THE LIONS NEEDED IT MOST, MOORE WAS ALL HEART

WHEN THE LIONS NEEDED IT MOST, MOORE WAS ALL HEART

There were no warm-ups for Herman Moore. He began the week on crutches, and now, on Sunday morning, he took the first bus over to the stadium -- "The one with the players who like to get here and sleep," he would say later -- but he did not sleep. Nor did he stretch or even jog. He went straight to the trainer, Kent Falb, who hooked Herman's left foot to an electric stimulator: two pads, some conducting jelly and a flipped switch on a little black box.
NOT BAD FOR STARTERS, BUT BATCH NO CURE-ALL

NOT BAD FOR STARTERS, BUT BATCH NO CURE-ALL

MINNEAPOLIS -- With the sellout crowd roaring like an evil engine, and the Lions down to the last play that mattered, Charlie Batch took the snap, dropped back, looked desperately to the end zone -- and got absolutely flattened by John Randle.So there's one thing he and Scott Mitchell have in common.
AN ARGUMENT. A GUN. AND ANNETTE TOWNS LOSES HER 15-YEAR-OLD SON FOR NO REASON

AN ARGUMENT. A GUN. AND ANNETTE TOWNS LOSES HER 15-YEAR-OLD SON FOR NO REASON

The first thing Darryl Towns did, after he was shot, was stagger toward his mother's bedroom. She wasn't home. He knew that. But bleeding from the chest, the life oozing out of him, he retreated to the safest place he could think of: Mama's room.He had always been his mother's son. How many times, as a little boy, had he tiptoed down this same short hallway, curled up at the foot of her bed, and watched TV with the volume low until she woke up?
OLD LAWS WON’T SAVE US FROM OURSELVES

OLD LAWS WON’T SAVE US FROM OURSELVES

You're out for a family canoe trip. You have your two young children with you. You come around a bend, and there, in the water, is a soaking wet man who has just fallen out of his canoe. He is screaming mad. He is cursing. He uses the F-word, and he uses it again and again. You paddle past quickly, trying to cover your children's ears.You're upset. You worry for your kids.But do you have a lawsuit?

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.

Subscribe for bonus content and giveaways!