It was no less than Tom Seaver—”Tom Terrific”—who went to extraordinary lengths to protect his right arm, which he astutely realized was nothing more than his livelihood.
Seaver, while traveling as a player, wouldn’t carry any of his luggage with his right appendage. In fact, he tried mightily to do nothing with his right arm other [...]
Pit Bull****
By · CommentsIf you want a dog for protection, get a German Shepherd. Or a doberman. Or a rottweiler.
Owning a pit bull is like walking around with a cocked gun that has a hair trigger.
The aforementioned dogs in the opening sentence provide security without attacking out of the blue (for the most part). [...]
Chelios’s New Role Par for the Red Wings’ Course
By · CommentsThe Detroit Red Wings do a lot of things well—win hockey games, take care of their players, represent the Original Six with aplomb. They show up to the playoffs every year and it’s never as an afterthought, like someone slipping into an elevator just before the doors close.
Four Stanley Cups since 1997, plus some close [...]
Could’ve Ben Better
By · CommentsBen Affleck has been disappointing.
I look at Affleck, who has a new film coming out soon—a movie that he directed, wrote, and stars in—and I can’t help but think that he could have been so much more.
It’s been 13 years, believe it or not, since the 38-year-old Affleck burst onto the scene in Good Will [...]
In Pittsburgh, the Bucs Stop in April
By · CommentsThe Pittsburgh Pirates will not have a winning record this season.
And water is still wet. The sun still rises from the east. Telemarketers still call at the dinner hour. Wile E. Coyote still hasn’t caught the Road Runner.
You know how whenever you watch a boxing match, no matter how little-known the fighters are, they always [...]
The Detroit sports fans are an easily scorned bunch.
When they’re happy and when it’s moved them, the Detroit sports fans have long cheered the miscreants, the black sheep types. They’ve leaped from their seats to yell themselves hoarse for pugilistic, alcoholic, drug-taking hockey players. Players coming off suspension have been greeted like returning war heroes.
They’ve [...]
Havin’ WHOSE Baby?
By · CommentsThirty-six years ago, the worst song of all time reached #1 on the Billboard charts.
That sounds like opinion, but it’s almost morphed into fact.
The poll was conducted by CNN in 2006. The winner (loser?) was Paul Anka’s ode to his expectant wife, “(You’re) Having My Baby,” which found itself on the [...]
Monday Morning Manager
By · CommentsLast Week: 4-3
This Week: KC (8/23-25); at Tor (8/26-29)
So What Happened?
The Tigers had a “sandwich week.”
Their bread was a win over the Yankees on top and a sweep of the Indians on the bottom. In between there were three losses to the Yanks.
Kind of like good rye bread with head [...]
Sudden Immortality Forever Link Thomson, Branca
By · CommentsBobby Thomson didn’t hit his famous home run off a tee, in case you were wondering.
Nor did he flip the ball into the air, fungo-style, and swat it over the left field wall at the Polo Grounds on October 3, 1951.
Most of the great history makers had sidekicks.
Charles Lindbergh had the Atlantic—and his plane. Dr. [...]
Sonny Outside
By · CommentsSomeone took leave of their senses at Channel 4 back in the day, and I’d love to know who it was.
Sonny Eliot owned Detroit weather TV in the 1960s and ’70s. He was the first of the goofy weathermen—the kind who just as soon tell a corn pone joke as they would give you the [...]