NEW ORLEANS -- "OK. OK. Quiet in the studio. Bears, are you ready? This is the moment we've been waiting for. The follow-up to the 'Super Bowl Shuffle.' Do it right and it could be a gold record -- not to mention huge video sales. Big bucks, fellas. It'll be great. OK. Mr. Perry, try not to drool quite so much this time. And Mr. Fuller, don't dance. Just, uh, sort of stand there, OK? Remember, guys, let's sing on the beat, not in between it. All right. Is everybody ready?""YEAH! . . . Of course! . . . DO IT! . . . I'm hungry . . . WOOO! . . . Where's the broads?"
The game, the playoffs -- the season, really -- had all come down to this:bottom of the eighth, Tigers losing, the October wind blowing mean and hard.And who was at the plate? Clark Kent.All right. Pat Sheridan. What's the difference? Unlikely heroes? The Tigers' No. 9 hitter? Tall, skinny, glasses? That Pat Sheridan? Wait. Give him a phone booth. Turn your back. "What's he gonna do?" you ask. "Hit a home run?"Whack.
It was somewhere in the middle of the eighth inning Friday night, with the wind whipping cold and blowing dangerously out to right, when every Tiger fan inside this sold-out Tiger Stadium closed his eyes and prayed."The bullpen?" the fans whispered. "Please. Not the bullpen. Anything but the bullpen."
EDMONTON, Alberta -- Let's check out Shawn Burr's head. It now has three flavors. Coffee on top, vanilla in the middle, strawberry around the ears. It's the latest. It's the greatest. The Stanley Cup semifinals.Red Wings hairdos.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- They lost? They lost. Those are all the words needed. There was only one team in the world Tuesday night for Detroit, and all night long -- in this breathtaking Game 7 of the NBA final -- that team, the Detroit Pistons, fought off defeat like some Atlas in basketball sneakers, the weight of the world on their shoulders. Until finally, with just moments left in the longest season in the history of the game, their shoulders buckled and the world caved in.
LOS ANGELES -- This is your nightmare speaking, Los Angeles. This is your darkest fear. This is the voice of a city where men get their fingernails dirty, not polished, where cars are constructed, not leased, and where most adults -- are you sitting down? Are you comfy in the hot tub? Got lots of bubbles? -- work for a living.Oh, god. Not that, huh?Move over, LA. Detroit is coming. Book us a room, and put that crown in it -- the one the Lakers have worn for the last year as NBA champions. We'll take that home, thank you. And maybe a few of those towels.
SEOUL, South Korea -- As a general rule, boxers do not have much to say. In fact, unless it is Ali talking to Cosell, the sum total of a boxer's vocabulary often can be listed as: "I hit him good. . . . I hurt him bad. . . . Where's my check?"Riddick Bowe is an exception. Riddick Bowe has something to say. Unfortunately, it is not always something his coaches are eager to hear. After his first fight at these Olympics, reporters asked Bowe, 21, a super-heavyweight, why he went for a knockout instead of boxing for points.
I've been hearing a lot of talk lately about the apathy of Tigers fans.The Tigers, as we know, are in first place in the AL East. Yet, critics claim, you couldn't tell it by the crowds at Tiger Stadium. According to recent league attendance statistics, you'd think they were showing old movies down at Michigan and Trumbull. Detroit ranks 15th out of 26 teams.Sunday at Tiger Stadium was Autograph Day. It was also Sun Visor Day. It was also a day Jack Morris pitched, and a wonderful, warm summer afternoon.The attendance was 35,977.
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.
