Detroit Free Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Mike Babcock sat alone in a windowless space in the bowels of the Sharks' arena. Because reporters were rushing to file stories, there were mostly empty chairs before him. He spoke about victory, the sense of pride and relief.But it felt too small, like a presidential candidate talking at a bus stop. So we should take a moment here to appreciate how damn hard it is to do what the Red Wings have just done: reach the conference finals as a favored team.

When Chris Osgood was a kid in Edmonton, Alberta, his dad was principal of his grade school. One day, the class was asked to write about their fathers. Young Chris turned in his paper, which surprised the teacher."My father," Osgood wrote, "is a fireman."A fireman?"I didn't want the other kids to know," he says now. "I thought it was embarrassing that he worked in the school."

SAN JOSE, Calif. - As we always say, you can never have enough Swedes on your hockey team. Mikael Samuelsson may not be the first name you think of when rattling off Swedish Wings, but Monday night he was the Nordic Nuke, the Scandinavian Slayer, the Go-To Goteburger. His two goals in less than five minutes continued a streak of Swedish successes that have finally, finally, given the Red Wings two things they desperately wanted:1) A return to the Western Conference finals for the first time in five years, and …2) A day off.Swedeness and light.

When Chris Osgood was a kid in Edmonton, Alberta, his dad was principal of his grade school. One day, the class was asked to write about their fathers. Young Chris turned in his paper, which surprised the teacher."My father," Osgood wrote, "is a fireman."A fireman?"I didn't want the other kids to know," he says now. "I thought it was embarrassing that he worked in the school."

A knuckleballer can make you look like hell, and the Tigers need no help in that department. So Tuesday night at Comerica Park had potential ugly written all over it - even before it started. In that way, it did not disappoint. Against Boston's Tim Wakefield, who turns 94 as you read this, the Tigers looked impatient, imprudent and totally imperfect.This is a floundering baseball team.There's no other way to say it. You could say "slump," but that wouldn't explain the bad defense or tepid at-bats. You could say "growing pains," but these are not all young guys.

With news stories - as with life - there is the news and then there's the story.A year ago, I wrote a column about a series of e-mails from a couple in Grand Rapids. Their names are Brian and Kathy. I described them as "beautiful people, energetic and upbeat." They still are.Their e-mails were about their newborn daughter, Faith, who'd suffered a stroke in the womb - something I didn't know was possible. Each new update was heartbreaking. She was such an angel. Yet her wings were so clipped. Her face was so small. Yet her head needed surgery.

Josh Hancock is dead. That fact does not change. He was dead the day the accident happened. He was dead the day the Cardinals attended his funeral. He was dead the day they glumly returned to baseball, wearing his number on their sleeves. And he is dead today, with the toxicology report showing he was drunk by nearly twice the legal limit when his Ford Explorer plowed into a tow truck.He is dead today with the news that he was talking on his cell phone at the time of the crash - talking to a woman about meeting her at a bar.

OK, OK, what do you want him to do? Give it back? Chauncey Billups was handed a three-point basket by a clock screwup. Fine. He got three free ones. Detroit won by seven. No whining."It sucks to be on the other end of that," Billups admitted of the play that ended the third quarter, a play that started under one basket and involved dribbling, passes, a dump-off and a Chauncey three-point bomb, yet on the clock only took less than a second.I know basketball is a fast game. It's not that fast.