IONIA -- He didn't see the bodies. Not when he arrived. Just the car, a 1972 Chevy Malibu, parked right where the phone call said it was, on a tractor path just off Frank Road. State Trooper Jim Rogers got out of his squad car and sighed. "Probably some guy fell asleep," he figured. Happens all the time. It was, after all, Saturday morning, and most people don't leave their vehicles overnight in a deserted field with the motor running.
Pop quiz. Here's the question: 1. Roger Craig is:A) A baseball manager.B) A running back.C) The same person, in different shoes.The answer, of course, is C), which explains why, when Craig talked to his pitcher in Saturday night's National League playoff game, he said: "X-screen red on three, ready, break!!"
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The fun begins when he steps off the bag. His spikes in the sand make no sound, and yet you swear you can hear each new footstep, like horseshoes on concrete. One step. Two steps. He's three steps off and leaning now. . . . Surely the pitchers hear this. Surely the catchers hear it, too, like a pulse, like a telltale heart. Rickey Henderson makes everybody nervous.
So tonight the Tigers begin their final series of 1989, in New York City, a perfect cemetery for a garbage season. Say good-bye to this year's model. Hopefully, we'll never see it again.I paid my respects Wednesday night, the final home game. The atmosphere in the clubhouse was not morbid. It was more like a huge sigh of relief, the kind where you wipe your brow and tap your coat pocket to make sure you haven't lost your plane ticket home.
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.
