Detroit Free Press

The last time the Red Wings went this far, his hair was dyed, it was red, white and brown. Looked like a half-gallon of supermarket ice cream. I felt like pouring hot fudge on his head."We only did that because someone said, 'Let's grow playoff beards,' " Shawn Burr now admits, "and I didn't have enough facial hair to grow one."Today, seven years later, Burr has facial hair. Not a lot. Enough for a blond mustache, which, thickness-wise, is somewhere between Larry Bird and Rik Smits. In other words, not completely finished. But then, neither is Burr.

Marcus Ray knows better. He's a senior, he's a captain, he had all last year to hang with his buddy Charles Woodson and witness, up close, the vultures that come swirling when you have NFL potential. He's seen fast talkers. He's seen the jewelry and the nice suits and the fast cars.

ATLANTA -- That sound you heard was a bomb. The explosion at Centennial Park that claimed one life and affected thousands of others may be your first memory when someone says, "Olympics, 1996."But not your last.

The ball came down from the lights the way a pitchfork might come down from the lights, the way a live grenade might come down from the lights, you could watch its frightening descent and know exactly the terrible thing that was about to happen and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, you could do about it.There. I've just summed up a day in the life of the Lions' secondary.

You wouldn't say "My family is sick and dying, but my life is good." You wouldn't say "Everyone at work is in danger, but my life is swell."So I'm confused by the latest nationwide poll in which most Americans say they are happy with their lives, even though the country is in trouble.Hello? This is like saying "My car is about to go off that cliff, but no worries, I'm wearing my seat belt."

The crack of the bat sent them all in motion, three Tigers base runners, one ground ball, 12 innings and a Detroit fairy tale hanging in the balance. What a story in those six moving feet! What a magnificent tale, an all-afternoon adventure, a baseball game played like one of those old serial movies, where danger lurks at every turn and all you know is the heroes prevail at the end.

And now, three words about Darrell Evans.Home Run King.OK. So he doesn't have the title clinched yet -- there are still four games left -- but he'll get it, as long as God makes little green apples and Piggy loves Kermit and somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, good things come to those who wait.Because Evans has been waiting 38 years.And nobody deserves it more.This is a professional, a leader, a guy who'd keep an even keel in an earthquake, who always faces the cameras, good or bad, who epitomizes the words gentleman, dignity, grace.