Published April 10, 2023 He was tall, handsome and the big man on campus at USC. And he could hit a baseball. Trouble was, baseball hit back. Tony Horton was a big first baseman who grew up in Sant…

Published March 27, 2023 They played in a cavernous building with an inflatable roof that leaked. Half the time, the crowd could be seen bundled up in their seats, because the cavernous building co…

Published March 20, 2023 Fifty years ago next month, Ron Blomberg stepped into the batter’s box at Fenway Park in Boston. He was listed in the Yankees’ starting lineup that day, but he …

Published March 13, 2023 Butch van Breda Kolff was a basketball coaching lifer. He just didn’t do it for very long at any given stop during his illustrious career, which spanned some 43 years…

Published March 6, 2023 The hockey captain struggled to find the words. His voice was low, barely above a whisper. He tried to explain away, yet again, why his team sputtered in the playoffs. Anoth…

Published Feb. 20, 2023 Mike Nolan confirmed my suspicions. Granted, it’s not exactly going out on a limb to say that coaches are a different breed of person. Nolan is just the latest example…

Published Feb. 13, 2023 Jimmy Devellano was just hours into his new job as Mike Ilitch’s first hire with the Red Wings—general manager. It was June 1982. Jimmy D was poached from the po…

Published Feb. 6, 2023 This used to be Bobby Beathard time. The two-week wait between the NFL conference championship games and the Super Bowl–we’re in the second week now—was whe…

Published Jan. 30, 2023 The legend of Willie Horton in Detroit began during a city championship game played in Briggs Stadium in 1959. Horton, then 16 years old, launched an opposite field home run…

Published Jan. 24, 2023 There’s a little misnomer in the legend of Chris Ford. But let’s not let that ruin a great story. What many modern day Pistons fans know as the franchise’s…

Published Jan. 23, 2023 If the Red Wings’ performances can be compared to anything, I’d go back to an old childhood favorite. The Cracker Jack box. You remember Cracker Jack, right? Hec…

Published Jan. 16, 2023 It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Michigan AD Warde Manuel got a phone call from the Denver Broncos, officially informing him that the embattled NFL franc…

Published Jan. 9, 2023 Hank Aaron knew a little bit about home run hitters. Takes one to know one, as they say. Hammerin’ Hank spent all but two years of his illustrious, 23-year career in th…

Published Jan. 3, 2023 Let’s play a little date association. I’ll give you a date and you tell me what springs to mind. Ready? June 3, 1988. Anything? For followers of the Pistons, the …

Published Dec. 26, 2022 The National Football League was in a midlife crisis in the early-1970s. For the entire decade of the Fabulous ’60s, the NFL found itself as the button-downed, staid c…

Published Dec. 19, 2022 As I watched Lions tight end Brock Wright catch a short pass and rumble 51 yards for the eventual game-winning TD in Sunday’s game at the New York Jets with less than …

Published Dec. 14, 2022 On the morning of Jan. 1, 1970, the day of the biggest game of his young coaching career at the University of Michigan, Bo Schembechler didn’t feel well. His Wolverine…