With a week to go before a critical midterm election, the president, his supporters and most of the media acted as if the most important issue in America wasn't a costly war, failed international policies, failed domestic policies or the battle between religion and science. Instead, what apparently mattered most was a bad joke.If you don't do well in school ... "you get stuck in Iraq." That was the punch line of an ill-advised, badly delivered attempt at humor by Sen. John Kerry, who has never been strong in that department.
Say this about Joe Dumars' Pistons: They're more interesting when they're not playing than the Lions are when they are.Dumars, criticized by some for standing pat over the summer, just shot a cannon through the Detroit roster, and nothing is standing pat anymore. Out goes Chauncey Billups and crowd favorite Antonio McDyess. In comes Allen Iverson.Yes, THE Allen Iverson. But before anyone hyperventilates, let's take a breath and look at it two ways: the basketball way and the business way.
Rip wore the mask, Rasheed argued with the refs, Tayshaun made several gravity-defying moves, Chauncey had the sweat pouring down the back of his neck and Ben - well, Ben was Ben, except when he uncharacteristically took the microphone before the game and welcomed the fans back "on behalf of my teammates." And he seemed to want to continue talking, but then he stopped and abruptly punched the air instead. The crowd cheered. A fist is worth a thousand words.
EAST LANSING -The pass was a cannon shot, a third-down wing and a prayer, it traveled at least 40 yards in the air, went high into the lights and came low out of the glare, it spiraled to a backpedaling Mario Manningham in the end zone who leapt up to meet it, hands held high. He caught the ball and, as the defender fell in front of him, gravity took Manningham down until he landed smack on the chests of every Michigan State fan around the country who thought, finally, this was the one they would win.
I had been looking for just the right column to pen before Election Day. I think I may have found it.It's the story of Marilyn Mock.You wouldn't know her. She's not running for president. She is 50 years old and has a rock yard business in Texas, which she runs with her three kids. Last weekend, she went to a foreclosure auction with her son to see him bid on a house.While he was signing the papers, she wandered back to the auction area and sat down on the floor next to a woman named Tracy Orr. Being friendly, Mock asked if Orr was bidding on a house.
He wears long pants, his socks are dark, his shoes have heels and he's not even allowed on the court. He doesn't shoot. He doesn't dribble. He doesn't rebound, post-up or block a single shot. He doesn't even have a number. Yet Flip Saunders - of everyone in the Pistons' organization - is the one on the hot seat? Well, Sports Illustrated thinks so. ESPN thinks so. Stephen A. Smith, the NBA analyst, said Wednesday that if the Pistons didn't make the NBA Finals this season, Saunders was gone, no doubt about it.
The New Guy grabs a sub sandwich and takes a seat on the team bus. He talks while he eats, and a morsel of cheese lodges above his lip. He is wearing a plain black sweatshirt and plain black pants, an outfit that prompted him to ask a staff member: "Am I dressed OK?" But if it's not OK, it is still who he is, nothing fancy, no complicated patterns, as basic as a sandwich and a bus ride downtown.
He's gonna make plays. That's what Steve Mariucci said when he went with Jeff Garcia at quarterback. He's gonna make plays. And sometimes, he's gonna make 'em for the other side.So it was that Garcia, trying to conjure his magic, threw an ill-advised pass in overtime Sunday, across his body, on the run, in the middle of the field, near his goal line - about a thousand no-no's wrapped in one ball - and it was picked off by the Bears' Charles Tillman, who raced all the way back to Chicago with the touchdown, the victory and first place in the NFC North.
He wore a gray-striped suit with the stripes going both directions, a white dress shirt and a stylish print tie. Still, when they called his name, the crowd barely noticed, because the music was blasting and fire was shooting and the fans were busy watching the players do their jump-and-slam moves.But make no mistake. This Pistons opener was about one man more than the rest. Those long pants have been a long time coming.Michael Curry is on the board.
MITCH ALBOM The tune you'll hearExperience will carry them. But inexperience will factor in, too - with some of the young guys in the postseason.Who'll top the chartsRasheed WallaceIt's his contract year. And he's the MVP half the time already.The Pistons will finish in the:Division: Second. Conference: Third.Playoffs: East semis.The finals:East: Cleveland over Boston.West: L.A. Lakers over San Antonio.NBA: Cleveland over L.A. Lakers.VINCE ELLISThe tune you'll hear
This is a story about a job and a soldier and how one Michigan woman had to say good-bye to both.Suzette and Jerry Boler have been married 22 years. They have children and grandchildren. As a member of the National Guard, Jerry, a mechanic, recently was called up to serve in Iraq. Suzette wanted to be with him before he left. So she notified her employer, Benefit Management Administrators, in Caledonia. Boler, 40, worked part-time as a receptionist, answering phones and opening mail. She was paid, she says, $9 an hour, to work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
"Where you going?"It was manager Jim Leyland yelling from his small office in the visitors' clubhouse. This was late Friday night, after his team had lost the World Series in a sometimes embarrassing fashion, throwing balls over players' heads, getting caught in rundowns, losing wild pitches. It had been a great ride but a bumpy finish, and Leyland was sitting silently now in the office with several coaches staring at the floor or the walls, so I continued past, out of respect."Where you going?"I stepped back to the door frame.
