It's Opening Day here in Detroit, and fans are preparing in the traditional way, shoveling snow.Soon, players will be pulling on their ski masks, and hot dog vendors will stick their hands in boiling water, just to get some feeling back in their fingers. The tarp will be lifted from the field -- so the snow plows can come in -- and once the salt trucks finish in the parking lot, and the umpire is defrosted, finally, the big moment, when the first batter walks to the plate, turns to the catcher and says, "M-m-m-man, even my bleep is cold."And he spits.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The problem with college basketball, some say, is too many freshmen in ripped undershirts, too many sophomores with police records, too many juniors with agents, and not enough seniors. You remember seniors, don't you? The elder statesmen of the game? Not long ago, a coach would say, "We have a good team; we start five seniors." Today, five seniors is a golf tour.Which is what makes tonight's matchup between Kentucky and Syracuse both pleasant and -- I know this is a funny word when talking about college sports -- educational.
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Finally, something easy was coming Larry Brown's way: the football. It spun in a nice tight spiral, as if tossed in a practice drill. Brown opened his arms, made the catch, and ran. Past the 30. Past the 20. Past the 10. Never mind that the ball had been thrown by the opposing quarterback, Pittsburgh's Neil O'Donnell. Never mind that there was no Steeler in sight. Never mind that this seemed to be a deja-vu bonehead play by the Pittsburgh offense, Brown's second interception in this Super Bowl and the second one he'd made by just standing there like a spectator.
TEMPE, Ariz. -- As you know, Curtis, you silver-haired warbler, anyone who predicts Pittsburgh will win this Super Bowl is a fool. So when readers learn that someone in this fine newspaper is actually picking the Steelers, their reaction will no doubt be: "Hey, it's Curt Sylvester!"After all, you are the man who once said, "Trust me, Denver will win the Super Bowl," a sentence that ranks up there with "Columbus, you will sail off the edge of the Earth and die."
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.
