TORONTO -- Before we talk about the game, which the Tigers lost, or the ill-fated starting pitcher, John Cerutti, who used to hang out with the Prince of Monaco -- I am not making this up -- I must tell you about the GRAND OPENING.Of the roof.I have seen many things as a sports writer, having done this job since the Captain and Tennille were actually allowed out in public. But there is one thing I have never seen in all my years: I have never seen a retractable roof open.
Oh, say, can you seeMy eyes? If you can -- Then my hair's too short.-- from the musical 'Hair'I used to sing that song. I used to sing it in junior high, when I came out of the gym class shower. I used to sing it as I defiantly held my hair flat against my forehead, for 20 minutes, so that, when it dried, it would indeed hang over my eyes. And then I could perform the coolest, grooviest move on the planet: flicking my head to get my bangs out of my eyes.
NEW YORK -- Most of the time, I have no affection for this city. It is, as locations go, a good place to get shot. Or run over. Or splashed by muddy water. Shoved through a subway door. Made dizzy by a cab ride. Poked in the ribs by a homeless person. Conned by some fast-talking dude moving a $20 bill under an eggshell.
He used to practice on the metal flap doors that dotted the sidewalks of Harlem. Tappety-tap-tap-tappety-tip. When it got too cold, he danced in the hallways of nearby apartment buildings. Tappety-tip-tip-tappety-tap. One day, when he was 14, a fellow "hoofer" knocked on his door, said they needed somebody up at the Apollo, quick, let's go. A few breathless minutes later, he was auditioning in the basement of the most famous theater in his universe, just him and his dream and the silver plates on his shoes. Tappety- tappety-tappety-tip!
Late in the game, with the score tied, the crowd on its feet, Chuck Daly leaned toward his captain and snapped an ammonia capsule under his nose. Isiah Thomas jerked his head as if someone had slapped him right across the cheek. The message was clear: Wake up.Message received.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Sports writers get the best seats. That's what people say. But apparently, they are not good enough. Based on what I've heard at recent press conferences for Michigan's Fab Five freshmen -- including the ones for today's Final Four showdown against Cincinnati -- we media would prefer a chair smack in the middle of the court.So we could hear the trash.Trash talk, that is. Never in my years of covering college basketball have I heard more questions about this subject."Chris, what do you plan to say out there?"
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.
