CINCINNATI -- This has always been the way to beat Goliath: Take a stone and aim right for the forehead. Go for the brain. Hit him where he thinks. Two years ago, Kirk Gibson hobbled to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and sent a Dennis Eckersley pitch into the seats. It was the first game, but it won the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not because it, by itself, was such a devastating blow. But because it stirred the brain cells. It made the Athletics, heavy favorites, feel vulnerable. They lost three of the next four; they went home scratching their heads.
Whenever I get a spare moment, I try to think deep and meaningful thoughts, such as what is life, who invented the split pea, and, of course, whatever happened to Buckwheat?I thought I had the answer to the last one recently, when the ABC-TV show "20/20," aired a segment claiming to have found Buckwheat, a former star of the Little Rascals comedies. According to the show, Buckwheat was working as a grocery bagger in Tempe, Ariz.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- All Terry Cooney has to do is go out to the mound, lean into Roger Clemens' ear and whisper, "Young man, you say that one more time, and I'm throwing you out of the game."He does that, he gets no arguments this morning. He does that, he looks smart and mature and patient, which is how umpires are supposed to look, right? As opposed to looking like a baby without his bottle.
MINNEAPOLIS -- All he has done is win the last five games he has started, and he may have just temporarily saved the Lions' season, so you can see why Bob Gagliano is the throwaway quarterback on this team, right? A rookie does what Gagliano did Sunday, tosses three touchdowns in a come-from-behind victory, the coach goes nuts, the kid's the next Joe Montana. Gagliano does it, and it's just the aging veteran pulling one out of his hat.
I find my colleague in the basement of the newspaper building. He is hiding in the broom closet. He is trying to burn his typewriter."What are you doing?" I ask."Getting out of the business," he says. "Too dangerous."Dangerous? Sports writing? I have heard it called many things. I have heard it called juvenile, infantile, puerile and silly. I have an uncle who asks, "Do you actually get paid for that, or do they just give you tickets?" But dangerous?"Better get out now," says my colleague. "Before they -- shhh! Did you hear something?"
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.
