I once heard Paul McCartney asked what, for him, was the best time in the Beatles? He said just before they made it big, when everything was on the horizon, when they knew it was coming, but it hadn't happened yet.The Detroit Tigers are in that sweet spot right now. And they - and the fans - should savor every minute of it.
The day began with the feel of something big. People sipped their morning coffee thinking baseball, and they dressed in layers thinking baseball, and they came to the stadium on this October afternoon thinking baseball, baseball, baseball. It was football chilly, it was Hockeytown, but the ball and the bat ruled the day, in a way the ball and bat have not ruled this city in more than 20 years. It felt like destiny, like something special was going to happen.
When the chips are down, it's good to take heart. But it's better to take Hart. Or give it to Hart. You gotta have Hart. It's all about H-You get the point.On an afternoon when hiking the ball was a challenge and both starting quarterbacks still remember their high school locker combinations, the most valuable everything was Michigan senior running back Mike Hart, who last week guaranteed a victory to lift his school out of the funkiest of funks.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - They hit the road, and for the first time in six years, the road did not hit back. In fact, what Michigan did Saturday in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus was enough to make Lloyd Carr consider an entire season of away games. They came, they saw, they trashed the place. Shredded gold everywhere you looked. Notre Dame's ranking as the second-best team in the nation seemed like a typographical error once the Wolverines had finished.
That Jeep escaped hell and high water. That Jeep survived when other cars died on the highway. That Jeep transported 14 desperate men, women and children out of the watery grip of Hurricane Katrina and for two days, they squeezed and shifted and lay atop each other inside it, for hundreds of miles, until they finally reached the safe ground of a strange city called Detroit, a place most of them had never seen. That Jeep got them here.And then it got stolen."It's gone," Earl Walker told me Tuesday afternoon. "Somebody took it."
Charles Woodson had an injured toe Sunday, and some questioned whether he would play. But Woodson said there was no way - no way! - he was missing a game here. Can you blame him? I mean, who would miss a chance at the Lions?
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - They fumbled on their opening series, they fumbled on the next kickoff, they got snagged for pass interference on a long bomb and then, on the very next play, gave up the actual long bomb for a touchdown. They were tagged for 21 points in the opening 10 minutes and 9 seconds, and at one point, in between scores, Notre Dame brought a cluster of fans onto the field. I thought they had called "Next!"
He had never had surgery before. Never spent a night in a hospital. Never went under anesthesia. Heck, he'd never even broken a bone. Pretty much anything having to do with being sick or injured, Kevin Jones wanted no part of - and for the first 24 years of his life, he blissfully got his way.But in one day, one play, the bliss was over.And now he was experiencing it all.
Not to be a wet blanket, but Red Wings fans, party at your own risk. Hockey may be back, but when your best offensive player isn't even on the continent, only a fool pops champagne.Here are two sobering words: "Pavel" and "Datsyuk." Any hockey expert will tell you he's the future of the Wings. And he's not here! He's in Russia, possibly under contract to not one but two teams. Ken Holland, charged with tightening Detroit's belt, has muffed the first lesson of Salary Cap 101: Sign your biggest star.
Both sides need to take Sarah Palin out of the box.The Democrats and certain media members began packaging this woman the moment she hit the national stage. They labeled her a hunting mama. Bill Maher called her "a stewardess." Maureen Dowd likened her to Eliza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady."All of that is unfair and, for her critics, self-defeating. Nobody fits so easily into a box. Yes, Palin knows how to shoot a gun. But suggesting she'll skin a moose on the White House lawn only makes you look stupid.
You are a man in a storm. The storm is rising, blowing your way. Your neighbor, Earl, is saying, "Come on, man, we can go to Detroit. We'll be safe there."Detroit, you think? You live in New Orleans. You're not going to Detroit. Besides, you've seen hurricanes before. Water comes up. Water goes down.But your wife, this time, she's worried. Earl is going crazy on Detroit. He says, "I'm gonna empty the washers and dryers" and next thing you know he has a big bag of quarters and guess what? That's your gas money.
Since this is a new season, let's try a new approach."All we did," said quarterback Jon Kitna after the Lions' 9-6 defeat in Sunday's season opener, "is take the pressure off ourselves today of having to try to go undefeated."Ba-dum-bump.Uh ... he was joking.But there's something you haven't heard in a while. And here are some things you hadn't seen in a while: passes that were strong and on target. A defensive line that swarmed the quarterback. Two blocked field goals. A first-round draft pick who actually dressed for the game.
