Detroit Free Press

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- He buttons his shirt and pulls a tie over his head. It is seven hours before the first pitch. ...

"I believe in the church of baseball."From the movie "Bull Durham" ANAHEIM, Calif. -- We have a problem. We've had a fight. We have fallen out of love with the sport that used to delight us, and now baseball has come back, holding flowers, asking for forgiveness.This will not come quickly. For some, it might not come at all. I begin to make my peace the way I knew I would once I arrived here, at the hotel, for tonight's Tigers opener against the California Angels.I call John Doherty's room. At 9 a.m.Sleeping.I call at 10. Still sleeping.

Gene GuidiGo ahead, call me a homer, but I'm picking the Tigers to escape the cellar and finish fourth ahead of ...

His rookie season is finally over, so it's safe to expose this dirty little secret: Grant Hill knows only one song ...

He died quietly, which was not like him, early Sunday in New York City, before sunrise, in the wee hours, when the ratings don't matter. His heart -- which many claimed he never had -- failed him at last.Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, ESPN was preparing for its second full day of NFL draft coverage, over-hyped and over- announced insanity, with the insufferable Mel Kiper Jr. set to prattle on about split times.No wonder Howard Cosell left us. He probably couldn't stand it anymore.

A scout's journal . . . I don't follow the big names. The big names, they got plenty of guys following them. You think Ki-Jana Carter is gonna go unnoticed? Come on. We already know his shirt size and his favorite sports car. How much more can a lousy scout dig up?Me, I go for the small names. I beat the bushes. I check under rocks. I scour the country for every backwater college that still believes in the tackle and the forward pass.And I watch. And I make notes.Sometimes I have a drink and fall asleep.

He was there for the Pistons' two NBA championships, and he knew as much about those teams as anyone.He was there for the Pistons' slide into mediocrity, and it broke his heart, because he knew why it happened.He was there for the start of the Pistons' rebirth -- Grant Hill, Allan Houston -- and he taught them, tutored them, cajoled them.Now the Pistons are booting him out.