Detroit Free Press

As a kid in Philadelphia, I played a lot of ice hockey. It came with the territory. The Flyers were the only winning team in town. So if you wanted to feel good, you put on skates, grabbed a stick and picked a Flyer to call your own.

CALGARY, Alberta -- There were hands on his shoulders and hands cupped behind his neck and two, three, four hands slapping him lovingly on the head. Bells were ringing. Women were singing. "ALBERTO! ALBERTO!""BELLA, ALBERTO!"He waved. He laughed. He pointed playfully to the No. 1 on his racing bib. There were Italian flags behind him and Italian flags in front of him, and four, five, six hands slapping him loivingly on the head."ALBERTO!"" FANTASTICO, ALBERTO!"

"We were playing for our lives."Coach Jacques Demers, after the Wings' 6-4 victory TuesdayWhat do you call it when the puck is suddenly your enemy, when every bounce seems evil, when the clock says 13 minutes left in your season, kiss it good-bye, see ya later?Wake-up time. Here were the Red Wings staring at their very souls in the Joe Louis Arena ice. Down, three games to one, in this first-round playoff against Chicago, losing, 4-3, playing poorly, playing unluckily. Hey, if life gets any worse, don't tell us. Just put on the blindfold and shoot.

WIMBLEDON, England -- The last American tennis man was getting the hell beat out of him. His racket was bleeding. He looked weary, overmatched -- he looked old, and that was the worst thing, because Jimmy Connors is old, he's 34, and by tennis standards that's ancient, at least to be Centre Court at Wimbledon, taking on a guy more than a decade younger. Clunk! He put a shot into the net. Clunk! He hit long and out. The tennis fans who had been watching him here since 1971 shook their heads grimly, like loved ones on the edge of a hospital bed.

BOSTON -- Forget what they say about old friends. Bobby Ojeda was looking to leave the Red Sox in the dirt and the Sox were hoping to paste his pitches and his face to the left field wall. Oh, he got along OK with everybody here during his eight years in the Boston organization. But this is the World Series, Ojeda is now a Met, and that means to hell with you these days in bean town. "To hell with whom?" he seemed to say from the Fenway mound Tuesday night, where his Mets finally won a World Series Game, 7-1, to close Boston's lead to 2-1. "What did you say?"

BOSTON -- Most high school coaches preach the same old thing: Fundamentals, teamwork, defense over offense. And most kids, in keeping with tradition, ignore every word.Michael Cooper was one of the weird ones. Michael Cooper listened. When they told him "defense not offense" at Pasadena High School, he said "OK. Gotcha." He worked on steals, blocks. Scoring was beside the point.

LAKELAND, Fla. -- If you cut him, he says, he will bleed burnt orange. Texas colors. Go Longhorns. Once upon a time, it was Saturday afternoon on the college football field, and 90,000 fans were roaring for him to knock the nasty out of those boys from Oklahoma, or Baylor, or Texas A&M. Push em back, shove em back -- aw hell, just break their legs. "There is nothing," admits Keith Moreland, "like Texas football."

Pretty soon, I expect to find the American League East title selling at a garage sale for $1.39.Does anybody want this thing? Detroit loses. Toronto loses. Detroit wins. Toronto loses. Detroit loses. Toronto loses. Are we sure this is the homestretch? Geez. When the going gets tough, the tough wait for the weekend.