PASADENA, Calif. -- Suddenly the magic was gone, dried up in the California wind and blown out to sea. Jim Harbaugh took his first snap of the third quarter -- how many first snaps of the third quarter had signaled Wolverine fireworks this year? -- and he overthrew Greg McMurtry. By a mile. Harbaugh took the second snap and tried to run. He was stuffed. He took the third snap, scrambled around, and dumped the simplest of lobs to Jamie Morris. Morris dropped it.
BOSTON -- You want made-for-TV baseball? OK, you got it. Here is what it looks like: pitchers losing one-hoppers in the sun. Second basemen botching easy fly balls. Infielders bobbling grounders, batters flailing at pitches, major leaguers looking stupid, feeling embarrassed.You like it so far? Oh. Hold it. Let's pause for a commercial message.
I like words. Words are my business. But usually, as the sports year draws to a close, all we look back on is action. The great plays. The winning moments. Nobody remembers the colorful, fascinating, and often boneheaded things that people said during the course of the year. Sure. They would rather forget them.Not so fast. I have spent all year saving up great nuggets of sportstalk. And I have spent the last week digging them out from behind my desk. Some, in retrospect, look wise. Some look foolish. And some look just plain . . . ridiculous.
LAKELAND, FLA -- They keep coming, like ducks in a penny arcade. New rivals for Tom Brookens. Baseball in springtime is oh so poetic, the awakening of grass beneath a player's feet and all that. Yeah. Unless you happen to be fighting for your job. And then the grass beneath your feet doesn't feel so steady. That's the other side of sports. Always someone before you, always someone right behind. Tom Brookens knows it.
MIAMI -- I have a confession to make. Four years ago, when Joe Montana was last playing in a Super Bowl, a certain Florida sports columnist wrote that he was a "wimp."It was meant tongue-in-cheek. After all, Montana was the enemy, leading his 49ers against the hometown Dolphins.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Thomas Hearns was clean. Smooth skin. Not a mark on him. He was talking to a couple of women in tight dresses, and his entourage had a party on its mind. And this was about 30 minutes after his fight.Marvin Hagler wasn't so clean. It took him an hour to emerge after his bout, and he wore sunglasses to cover the swollen tissue over his eyes. He moved slowly, everything was beginning to ache, and when someone asked him for an autograph he answered softly: "I can't do that for you right now. I can't sign with my hand. How about we just shake instead, OK?"
The New Guy was already on the phone Monday morning when the old guy came in to tell him he was leaving."You can have the office now," said Darryl Rogers."Oh, no, that's not necessary," said Wayne Fontes."It's OK. I got all my stuff out.""Thanks . . . I'll just stay here for a while."
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Who lost?How could anyone lose in this? This was a classic. A battle of guts. All right, so Michigan State comes home today, their NCAA tournament over two wins shy of the Final Four.Don't look for tears here. This was more of a Spartans' victory than a lot of victories, this 96-86 loss to Kansas. For this was a night when the team that drew its life's blood from a jut-jawed young man named Scott Skiles, suddenly found itself without him for seven minutes that could have killed the Spartans. They didn't shrivel. They didn't bleed. They didn't die.
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.
