INDIANAPOLIS -- It was a perfect American moment in need of a perfect American hero. Bottom of the ninth. Two out. Score tied. Crowd on its feet, waving flags, screaming madly: "U-S-A! U-S-A!"Drama? Ho. You'd have to look a long while for a purer drama than this: a humid August afternoon on a minor league field where perhaps the two best amateur baseball teams in the world, one Cuban, one American, had scratched and pounded and finessed each other to a 4-4 deadlock with one out to go before extra innings. Drama? Come on."NOW BATTING . . . " boomed the PA voice.
SAN DIEGO -- I am looking for horses. I see no horses. This is what I see: a Denver Broncos PR man skipping across the football field, yelling: "This way, Amigos! This way!"Strange, I think. Even for the Super Bowl."The Amigos will be at midfield! Right now! Clear the midfield area for the Three Amigos!"No horses. No sombreros. No sagebrush. Just three short football players in
OK. About the last two weeks. Let me explain. The Super Bowl champion 49ers came in to play the Lions -- and I picked the 49ers. The Super Bowl runner-up Dolphins came in the following week -- and I picked the Dolphins.In both cases, the Lions won."How could you be so disloyal?" people asked. "How could you possibly give up on our home team?" people asked. (Actually, I'm not sure whether people asked this. I know the guy at the dry cleaner asked it. At least, I thought I heard him ask it; although, now that I think of it, he might have been talking to someone else.)
The kickoff came tumbling out of the wet, gray sky, and nobody could believe this. Raghib (Rocket) Ismail couldn't believe the ball was coming his way, and his coach, Lou Holtz, couldn't believe Michigan would kick it to Ismail again, and Bo Schembechler, already having a bad day, what with an injured quarterback and a sluggish offensive line, couldn't believe what had happened once would ever happen twice. A second kickoff return? For a touchdown? In Michigan Stadium? No way. There hadn't been one here against U-M since 1957.
WIMBLEDON, England -- Wait a minute. I like Chris Evert Lloyd, too, but the fact is she blew it. The way the American press was acting Thursday you'd think the Czechs had sent her a bomb disguised as a birthday cake."Tough break," one reporter mumbled."She really wanted it," said another.Hey. Lloyd was up 5-2 and lost 14 straight points in the second set. Fourteen straight? And that was after missing an easy shot that sunk her in the first.
And Bobby O'Day is still dead. You can't get past that. You think about it now, almost four years later, how it happened, in a high school hallway, where O'Day, one of the most popular kids, tried to break up a fight and got stabbed in the chest and died, slowly, in front of children. And now you hear that his killer is out of jail, free on probation. And Bobby O'Day is still dead.
CHICAGO -- He ran in. He took the snap. He got sacked. He ran out.Jim Harbaugh had just made his first play in the National Football League."What'd I lose, nine yards?" he asked in the locker room after his Chicago Bears mauled the Lions, 30-10."Uh, actually," someone said, "it was 15.""Fifteen?" He shook his head. "Oh . . . bleep."Welcome to the NFL. This was not the moment Jim Harbaugh dreamed of when he was quarterbacking the Michigan Wolverines last year. But then, a lot has happened since then. And anything can happen with the Chicago Bears.
"And now, it's time for our mystery guest. Would you enter and sign in please! . . . Dar-ry-l Ro-ger-s (applause) . . . welcome, Mr. Rogers.""Hi.""OK, panel. You know the rules. You ask questions and try to guess what Mr. Rogers does for a living. Let's start with you, Kitty.""Thank you very much. Mr. Rogers, is your job primarily animal or vegetable?""Well . . . we have some of each.""Are your animals fierce?""On their good days, yes.""And the vegetables?""That would be our punting team.""I beg your pardon?"
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.
