In his 10 years as a professional baseball player, Bill Lajoie reached Opening Day just once. Kansas City, 1963. He got to the park early. He was ready. He was excited. He was sold.Sold?"Sorry, Bill," his manager told him a few hours before game time, "we just sold your contract to another team."Lajoie packed his bag and left.So you can lower that pie now. The man "who let Lance Parrish get away" is no stranger to rejection. He didn't do it to be a jerk.
This is Lisa Bonder's fourth trip to Wimbledon. By now, she knows the ups and downs. The ups, for example, are winning a first-round match and having the next day off. On Wednesday, such a day off; the 20-year-old player from Saline went shopping for a coat along fashionable Kings Road in London. She has been traveling 10 weeks. This was her way of rewarding herself."I haven't bought anything in months," she said, smiling.Thursday, however, was not such a happy day. Bonder lost her second-round match, 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, to Anne Minter of Australia.
Words, words. Where would we sports fans be without words? Nnnn O ggggitt, i pqqqoo EEE! That's where we'd be.But alas. A simple word is no longer enough. Today, nearly everything in sports is a double entendre, which is French for "I don't get it. What are you talking about?"For example, when I say, "He was high," am I referring to the pitcher's curveball, or the rest of him? You see the problem.
PHILADELPHIA -- Darryl Rogers woke up with his face in a textbook. His eyes were bloodshot. Empty coffee cups crowded his desk. The dorm room was half-buried in playbooks, film, and stacks of paper filled with little X's and O's.He glanced over at the alarm clock. Friday, 7:30 a.m. Oh, Lord.The pre-season study period was over.The final exam was just minutes away.He pulled on an NFL sweatshirt, and fixed the freshman beanie on his head. "Gosh, I hope I crammed enough," he thought. "This summer semester went by so darn fast."
"You look like a piece of crud. The people watching say, 'Man, what a geek.' "-- Mike Black, on his muffed punt in the Lions' 31-7 loss to Dallas. It doesn't take much. Punters and placekickers are forever this close to being cut, anyhow. In the NFL pet shop, they are like litter boxes; most people don't notice them until they stink, and then they get dumped.
If Herschel Walker, whose talents still did not lead to a single victory for the Dallas Cowboys this season, was worth 12 players, a new house, a Mercedes and an extra $1.5 million cash above his salary, just think what other NFL stars might fetch:* Eric Dickerson: 15 players, three condominiums, $2 million cash and a lifetime supply of goggles.* Randall Cunningham: 23 players, apartment complex, $3 million and a Coca-Cola bottling plant. * Joe Montana: 45 players, most of Bloomfield Hills, $8 million and General Motors.
NEW YORK -- I'm sorry, but it's a question whose time has come.Why are Swedish tennis players so dull?This has become a major issue here at the U.S. Open, after three Swedes made the men's quarterfinals and they had to pass out No-Doz. Personally, the idea has intrigued me since the day a sports writer fell asleep on my shoulder during a Mats Wilander press conference. And he hadn't even been drinking.
WIMBLEDON, England -- I am sitting with a yellow pad in the shade at an empty tennis court. I am trying to figure out where I went wrong as a child."Kindergarten?" I ask myself, nibbling at the pencil. "If I had only cut out kindergarten. Or bedtime stories. . . . "I have just finished watching Michael Chang play at Wimbledon. I have just finished listening to Chang conduct a post-match press conference. I have been watching Chang for days here at Wimbledon. This is my overriding impression: How old is this kid?
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.
