LAKELAND, Fla. -- The good news is, Willie Hernandez has rediscovered the strike zone.The bad news is he was only standing six inches away and it wasn't a baseball.It was a bucket of ice water. A large bucket of ice water. He threw it on my head.I should explain.I had just arrived at the Tigers' spring training camp Wednesday from the Winter Olympics in Calgary. I was talking in the clubhouse with pitcher Frank Tanana. And the next thing I know, I am drenched. All over. And Willie is walking away, saying, "Take that, bleeper-bleeper!"
Alan Trammell swallows a mouthful of water from the fountain, wipes his chin, then plops down on the dugout bench."Listen, I don't want to talk about me, OK? I'll talk about the team, howwe're doing. Anything. But nothing about me."He pauses."I just don't want any features on me. I don't. I'll talk about other things, but not about me."Another pause."OK?" he says, looking over. "All right? Nothing about me, OK?"Slumps are death.
ROME -- There are two things you can count on whenever you hold a big international track and field competition: (1) A lot of medals will be won by communist-bloc athletes; (2) sooner or later, somebody will yell "DRUGS!"All week long at these World Track and Field Championships we've had the former: East Germany and Russia are cleaning up in the medal department. And now we have the latter. "DRUGS!" This from the mouth of Carl Lewis. Where you usually find a foot.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Forget about the Grace Jones hairdo and the lip gloss and the sunglasses and his agent's "bigger than Michael Jackson" predictions. When Carl Lewis blows his trumpet at the top of the long jump runway, people still drop what they're doing and watch. So it was that most of the media at these Pan American Games were sitting in the midday heat Sunday, in a nearly sold-out track stadium, as Lewis stripped off his sweats and shook loose those glorious muscles, in another attempt to kill the ghost that lives inside the pit.
Because I work for a Detroit newspaper, I tend to focus this column on Detroit sports. And in the fall, that means football.Only lately Detroit football has been depressing. Especially the Lions' games on Sunday afternoons. Those can be hazardous to your health.
Alan Trammell swallows a mouthful of water from the fountain, wipes his chin, then plops down on the dugout bench."Listen, I don't want to talk about me, OK? I'll talk about the team, howwe're doing. Anything. But nothing about me."He pauses."I just don't want any features on me. I don't. I'll talk about other things, but not about me."Another pause."OK?" he says, looking over. "All right? Nothing about me, OK?"Slumps are death.
ROME -- There are two things you can count on whenever you hold a big international track and field competition: (1) A lot of medals will be won by communist-bloc athletes; (2) sooner or later, somebody will yell "DRUGS!"All week long at these World Track and Field Championships we've had the former: East Germany and Russia are cleaning up in the medal department. And now we have the latter. "DRUGS!" This from the mouth of Carl Lewis. Where you usually find a foot.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Forget about the Grace Jones hairdo and the lip gloss and the sunglasses and his agent's "bigger than Michael Jackson" predictions. When Carl Lewis blows his trumpet at the top of the long jump runway, people still drop what they're doing and watch. So it was that most of the media at these Pan American Games were sitting in the midday heat Sunday, in a nearly sold-out track stadium, as Lewis stripped off his sweats and shook loose those glorious muscles, in another attempt to kill the ghost that lives inside the pit.
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.
