Detroit Free Press

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Year after year, winter after winter, the voice stirs from under the snow. It heats up, it melts free, it crosses your lawn and taps the frost from your window. "Time to wake up," it seems to say. "It's spring. I'm back."

Bob Probert was in a hot dog joint the other day when a stranger spotted him and the stranger was drunk and all of a sudden, he's Probert's best friend. He throws his arm around him, he's slobbering, "Hey, Probie!" like they're old pals."He wanted me to go muskie fishing with him," Probert says. "He kept bothering me, saying let's go, let's go, we'll have a great time. And at the end he says, 'Hey, Probie, we'll get a cooler and I'll buy the beer.'

It was a New Year's Eve party. She was a high school senior. She left in her car. Three minutes later, she was dead.A drunk driver killed her, just a mile from her home. She never saw him coming. He was not even injured. When he crawled out through his window and saw the wreckage, according to a witness, he said, "Boy, am I in trouble now."The girl's parents were called. They came quickly. On the way over, they prayed it was a mistake. When they saw her blue Volkswagen, crushed like paper, they stopped praying.

THE LIVE ALBOM:* Every now and then I have to wonder about our business. On Monday morning, the front-page story of both Detroit newspapers was Brent Musburger getting fired. And of course, for USA Today, this was MAJOR NEWS. Meanwhile, TV reacted with typical perspective. One broadcaster said: "Who'd have thought in one year the Berlin Wall would come down and Brent Musburger would leave CBS?"* Yeah. I can just see those East Germans pouring over the border. "Next, comrades, we free Brent!"

LAKELAND, Fla. -- This is a baseball story. It happened last week. The Tigers were about to play the Red Sox in ...

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Lloyd Moseby pulled on the gray Tigers pants. Then came the Tigers shirt, which he buttoned ...

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Hey, we've been going about this all wrong. All these college kids who hike through Europe? All ...

LAKELAND, Fla. -- So there I am standing in my cornfield when this voice comes out of nowhere."If you go there," it whispers, "they will play.""I beg your pardon?" I say."If you go there . . . they will play."I poke my hoe in the ground. I look at my dog. I check to see if I left the transistor radio on. I look at my dog again."If you go there . . ." the voice of baseball repeats, "they will play."I cock my head. "You gotta be kidding me."