It was every suspense film you ever watched, every thriller you ever read, every nervous waiting room you ever sat in all rolled into one nail-biting, double-overtime evening at Joe Louis Arena, 19,000 exhausted fans, tapping their chests at every break to make sure the old ticker was still working.And finally, a few minutes before midnight, the doctor emerged, smiling with the good news:It's a goal!
Some fool needs to take charge here, and I am just the fool. I cannot shoot a hockey puck. I cannot stop a hockey puck. I cannot even walk across the ice without falling down.But I am taking charge, because, gosh darn it -- ooh, did I really say "gosh darn it"? -- this city is not ready for baseball season. Have you looked at the Tigers' pitching staff? Are you nuts?
The last nine minutes were like something out of a war movie, explosions, bodies flying, nobody sure who was still out there, or, for that matter, who was even left standing. Vladimir Konstantinov hit the ice to block a shot, and his hand went numb from the impact. Paul Coffey took a stick to the head and lay face-down, bleeding. Sergei Fedorov saw a rebound and tried to flick it past the goalie, the crowd screamed, the puck hit the goalie's leg pads, the crowd screamed again, Fedorov tried again, off the body -- denied!
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.