Albom On the Wings

A lot of you may know Mitch Albom by his bestsellers "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet In Heaven."  I first came across his work as a sports columnist for the Dee-troit Free Press (aka Da Freep)... and more specifically his writing on and about the Beloved Wings.  It's interesting (to me, if no one else) that Albom and I hit the Motor City in the same year (1985)... I left Dee-troit in '96 but Albom's still there.  And I still read him... most especially during the playoffs.  Here's an excerpt from his column on Sunday's Wings debacle:

The Wings are one of the great franchises in sports, a perennial playoff team and an occupant of the past two Stanley Cup finals. But teams like that -- talented, savvy, experienced teams -- don't let young teams off the mat. They don't let upstarts embarrass them in their own building -- especially when a victory would have sent those kids home.

[...]

Let's be blunt. Dance time is over. If the Red Wings want to prove that they are still, when it counts, the Red Wings, if they want to prove that being a five seed was just a number, not an evaluation, they will have to pluck some new strings out in the desert Tuesday night.

Because they are suddenly out of tune.

And soon to be out of time.

The above is just part of Albom's introduction.  He goes on to dissect... accurately and succinctly... exactly what went wrong yesterday and who the passengers were on Sunday's broken down playoff bus.  The column is classic Albom and worth a read if you're a hockey fan.  Hell, it's worth the read even if you're not.  The man is simply one of the best writers in the bid'niz... whatever the subject matter might be.

Image credit: Kirthmon F. Dozier/Detroit Free Press