He was a breath of cool air in a stuffy closet. A splash of water in a sun-baked desert. Vinnie Johnson was doing something most of his Pistons teammates had suddenly found nearly impossible -- hitting his shots. Hitting? Try insisting. He would not take "no good" for an answer. He rose like destiny over any defender, in his face, in his skin, didn't matter how close, didn't matter if the guy ate onions and garlic for dinner. Vinnie wanted it. The Pistons needed it.Cook, baby.
10 predictions for Super Bowl XXIII:* Jack Sheppard, St. Petersburg Times: San Francisco, 28-17. "I don't think there's any way the Bengals can stop Roger Craig and the passing game at the same time."
BOSTON -- "BIRD STOLE THE BALL! BIRD STOLE THE BALL! BIRD STOLE THE . . . " The words echoed across the New England airwaves, across cable television stations, they splashed onto morning headlines and morning talk shows and they pierced the hearts of every Detroit Pistons fan alive.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- It is not for me, as a sports writer with ketchup stains on his shirt and a screaming editor on the other end of the phone, to take sides in this World Series. But I am. Taking sides. Actually, I'm taking a front. Rick Reuschel's front. Actually, just the part from his chest to his belt. I like it. Reminds me of my Uncle Mort, the pickle man from Baltimore.
It's a good thing the strike is over so we can get back to the really important things in football, like finding lost sisters.Yes. That is what I said. Lost sisters. In a week full of the strange and weird, this incident may have been the strangest and weirdest of all:Reggie Rogers, the Lions' No. 1 draft pick, gave his sister, Jackie, the keys to the Bronco last Saturday. And she did not come back: not on Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday.On Wednesday, Rogers skipped practice to search for her.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No bigger games. No bigger moments. This is all you live for if you wear a Wolverines or Buckeyes uniform, this game, this Saturday in mid-November, and the final gun was but 66 seconds away, and there were hearts beating crazily all over the field, as if they would burst."'Make it, make it," prayed the Ohio State players. "Miss it, miss it," countered the Michigan team.
THE LIVE ALBOM:* Now here's something nice. In the past week I've spoken to Kirk Gibson, Dan Petry and Walt Terrell. All are former Tigers. All play now in California. And all live in Michigan during the winter.
It was hot inside the church. The bride and groom stepped to the altar. This was last weekend, Joe Maiorana's wedding, and his college pals were serving as ushers. Bill Ryan. Dave Maine. And, of course, Kurt Dobronski, his ex-room mate, his best friend, who had flown in from Phoenix for the occasion. "It was the first time," Bill remembers, "that all four of us were together in tuxedos."
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.
