Hey. I'm into participation sports, right?So there I am, naked, alone, inside a dark, fiberglass tank, floating in water.Floating? Yes. I am told this is the latest thing. I am told this is what the modern athlete does. Here is what I want to know: Where's the soap?"Flotation tanks are great for reducing stress, healing injuries, and allowing athletes to focus on performance," says Pete Panelli, owner of Tranquil Visions, 4514 N. Woodward in Birmingham."Uh-huh," I say. "They can't accidentally lock, can they?"
ST. LOUIS -- How would you feel if your boss suddenly said you could keep your job but not do any work?Quit cheering. It's a hypothetical question.Except in baseball.Consider Hal McRae, age 39. Occupation: Designated hitter, Kansas City Royals. Job Performance: Excellent. Experience: First rate. Priority to team: Highest.Starting Role in World Series: None.Reason: Rules.
CLEVELAND -- He was the perfect quarterback. Completed all of his passes. Never got hit. He was cool. He was unrazzled. He came into the locker room after the game and his uniform was still gleaming white, and he took it off and strolled casually in for a shower.Very cool."How many of those have you thrown in your career?" someone asked Brian Brennan of his dramatic big pass, the longest of the Lions-Browns game Sunday."Three," he said, wrapping a towel around himself. "I'm three-for-three. I am 1,000 percent."
The other day I saw something I could not believe, even for the NFL. During the broadcast of the Thanksgiving game, NBC employed a sports psychologist as an additional analyst to the regular color man. A sports psychologist? On the microphone? Yes. This takes the cake. Even for pro football, this was too, too. . . . Well. Let me give you a sample of what it was like:ANNOUNCER: . . . and Jones picks up two yards.COLOR GUY: Jimbo, he ran off tackle there, and they've been going at that spot all day long!
I see auto workers against cab drivers. I see Coleman against Koch. I see a Coney dog with onions against a corned beef sandwich with lots of fat.I see Detroit versus New York.Ugly."We beat them three times so far this season," Patrick Ewing said after the Knicks' 100-93 win over the Pistons Wednesday night at the Palace. "We got one more. And we plan to win that one."
ST. LOUIS -- Hoist the guillotines. Polish the blades. We're down to one game again, and it's time to see if the Kansas City Royals finally get their heads chopped off.Of course, anyone who has followed this team since late September knows the Royals seem to gravitate to a disadvantage like Prince does to purple underwear.They had to charge to catch California in their division. They were down 3-1 to Toronto in the American League playoffs before coming back to win in seven. And now, down they are again, this time 3-1 in the World Series.
SAN DIEGO -- A guy with a tape recorder around his neck was crouched low. Above him were at least a dozen long-stemmed microphones. Behind them, TV cameras, humming in unison. And tucked in between, maybe 100 sports writers, craning their necks. The focus of their attention was a chair. Dexter Manley's chair. It was empty."They're interviewing a chair?" someone asked.
HOUSTON -- Because it was Monday and it was cloudy and humid and I was already feeling like a grouch, I figured this would be a perfect time to check in with Bill Laimbeer.Laimbeer, the Pistons' center, is, after all, the kind of guy you can count on for a hard time. Drop dead. See if he cares. He plays his big, stiff game of basketball and goes on, right? Argues with referees, infuriates other players, sticks out that jaw and that pokey nose and goes loping along like a giraffe singing, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah."
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.
