Women's Tennis vs. Michigan State Today, 3:00 p.m. East Lansing SPORTS Men's Lacrosse vs. Michigan State Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Tartan Turf . ............ ......... - - - - - --------- - The Michigan Daily Wednesday, April 13, 1988 Page 9 *Platinwiq By MIKE GILL Nice guy huh? Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press sports columnist, best in the nation? Nah. Can't be. Nice guy? Oh come on. Does Lawrence Welk disco? Here's a guy, 29 years old, sees his picture in the pa- per everyday, just writes his own book, gets ice-water brought right to him by Willie Hernandez, and goes to more countries than Voice of America. NICE GUY? Impossible. Nose? Probably higher than the Eiffel Tower. I'm going to let everyone know. I'll dispel this nice guy myth. I glare at him from the passengers side of his car. "Ever just punch some guy out?" I ask in my best Ger- aldo Rivera/Mike Wallace style, hoping the car would swerve off the road. "Oh no, no," he says. "I once wrote that punches 0 don't solve anything. I boxed in college; amateur, golden gloves training. It's not that I don't know how to hit. "Listen Mike," he continues, "since I can't give you a ride home, let me give you some money for a cab." That does it. I won't fall for this. He's trying to get off the subject. I've seen Nixon and North do this before. "Do you have a mean streak?" I ask. "Yea, I do." Albom admits. "I don't know why people think I don't. I'm always surprised when somebody Ntch Albom w says I'm a nice guy." new tok, The Lu SOMEHOW, I feel this guy's a pitatickn of 90 coha little humble. Maybe not so bad after all. After three years at the Free Cot nmrsy Press, people might be right when from Non until I: they say they love Mitch Albom. Read more abon Maybe he really is a fun loving Fia' eknA practical joker, bar stool buddy that he appears to be. "You know in Animal House how they got taken to student court?" Albom asks. He tells of the wars his ten * buddies living in one suite fought with the pre-med nerds across the hall while in college. "We had food fights in there and pillow fights," Al- bom said. "We used to put baby powder along the door that separated our suite from their's and then we'd get hairblowers. We'd knock and say, 'Hey, hey, hey.' They'd come to the door and we'd hit the blowdriers. The powder would come up. It was the stupidest thing. "All of a sudden we get this notice that we have to appear in court with these pre-med students who wanted us thrown out. One guy actually gets up and says; 'This guy Mitch, I don't know who he is, but we hear his name yelled a lot. And he's responsible for me having a problem not getting into med. school. One night before a big exam he was screaming and I couldn't sleep and I woke up and I was tired the next morning and I got a 'B' on my test and it's his fault and I want them expelled.' "We couldn't believe someone would actually say something like that. They almost threw us off campus. They gave us a 'stern warning.' We were always getting in trouble." SINCE GRADUATING from Brandeis University in Boston in the late 1970's, Albom has seen his life turn faster than bees make honey. He spent time in Europe as a musician, but returned seven months later to New York. There, he began to work on two master's degrees at Columbia University, business and journalism, in addition to beginning work on a small weekly paper, The Queens' Tribune. After free-lancing in Albom Europe, he began work as a sports columnist in Florida, before coming to the Detroit Free Press in late 1985. Albom's youthful focus on the sports world is cen- tered around the human element, instead of statistics, making his appeal much broader than to just the sports junkie. "My interest is in people first," Albom said. "I look at the losers a lot when the games are over. Many people are looking at the winning team or the stat sheet. I like to see how the losing team walks off. Is there anybody crying? Is a player just sitting there with his head in his hands? That interests me more." Albom touches many emotions in his writings. They often bring about more of a story than just what hap- pened on the playing field. "In Detroit, the average newspaper reader turns to the sports page and reads the column first. If you want to make a point about right and wrong, money or no money, all of which I've written about, where would be better to write it?" Tigers Continued from Page 1 Texas starting pitcher Bobby Witt. Witt gave a hands o n demonstration of the new balk rule, implemented at the start of the season, being called for four balks - tying an American League record. The Bengals staked themselves to a 4-0 lead and were able to coast from there. Tananna left af- ter pitching seven and one-third innings before yielding to Mike Henneman, who forced an inning- ending double play, just as Tananna did to former Tiger Steve Kemp the inning before. In fact, Tananna faced the min- imum number of batter's through four, thanks to one double play and crafty pitching. It looked like the Tananna of old when a lively fastball forced opposing batters to wonder what flew by. In the sec- ond inning, the Redford Catholic Central graduate struck out the side, the last two batters with fastballs. In the first Whitaker, who walked, was awarded home due to Witt's first balk. Tiger MVP Alan Trammel took second on Witt's miscue and then scored when Matt Nokes continued his clutch hitting with a single up the middle. Michigan bites Bulldogs twice will be signig his. we Albom, a om .sns since jinng ross, Sun~day April tty Nescenfler on and4 South forest 3 P., uC Ditch Alboin in 1 axzne. THIS YEAR, for the second year in a row, Albom won the Associated Press' award for being the nations top columnist. One of the columns featured, was an article centering around the death of a football player who was in Detroit to attend the wedding of his college roommate. The player died in the crash of Northwest flight 255. Real problems. The human element. "I don't look to sugarcoat anything," Albom says. Sugarcoat? No. Hitting at the heart? Yes. After my conversation, my opinion had been swayed. He is humble: "I didn't do anything great, I just wrote a sports column." He was kind: he bought cookies for the entire line waiting to have his new book, The Live Al- bom, autographed at the Briarwood Mall. He looks to help others in need: he once was a social worker in New York City and currently is involved in various charity projects. "I try to never say no if I'm asked to donate time." He loves crazy movies: "For some reason we always seem to have Stripes and Caddyshack constantly running in the house." However,Ihheld out for one last hope to prove my hypothesis. There stood four ladies from the Towne Centre Place, a senior citizen high rise in Ypsilanti. They were waiting to have Albom sign their book. What do they think of this guy? "He's my favorite" said Marie Wise. "He's honest with everything he writes," said Gladys Swope. "He's down to earth and not on a pedestal," said Bevulah Hamilton. "We came all the way from Ypsilanti and we're Tigerc fans," excitedly piped Dorthea McCall.c Does Lawrence Welk polka? There is only one thing Mitch Albom is - a nice guy.c || , By RICHARD EISEN The Michigan baseball team needed to rest their regular pitchers and did just that as they swept a dou- ble header from the Ferris S tate Bulldogs, behind strong performances by rarely used pitchers, 5-4 and 4-3. The Wolverines, 25-7, 7-1 in the Big Ten, have played six games in four days, and used John Locker and rookie Kirt Ojala to give their start- ing pitchers a break. "I'm trying to rest (the regulars)," said Michigan coach Bud Middaugh. "Their arms are tired and as long as they are tired I've got to give them proper rest." In the first game, Locker took the mound and turned in an impressive performance. Locker, who has only been in two games this season, pitched seven innings giving up three earned runs, walking one batter, and striking out six. His performance, however, was not good enough to get him the win. The Bulldogs struck first as first baseman John Faccio doubled in the left field gap. Locker balked him over to third and Faccio scored on a sacri- fice fly. The Wolverines roared back, but had a lot of help from Bulldog pitcher Mike Lechner, who walked eight batters while throwing six, count 'em, six wild pitches. Michi- gan should call the Humane Society over how many worms Lechner killed today. Due to a pinch hit RBI single by Bill St. Peter, a Matt Morse RBI double, and a lot of 59-foot curve- balls, the Wolverines took a 4-2 lead into the seventh inning, only to see it fade away. Locker began to tire as he hit a batter, gave up two hits, and committed an error covering first base. Before you knew it the game was tied. Michigan won it in extra innings on a perfect ending to the game - an error. With Jim Durham on second and one out, catcher Darrin Campbell creamed one to left centerfield which Bulldog Bob Kochie caught on the Dally Photo by ELLEN LEVY Jim Durham slides into third in the last inning of yesterday's Michigan's. 5-4 victory. The cutoff throw was errant and Durham proceeded to score the winning run. warning track. People are still won- dering to whom Kochie was throw- ing as he missed the cutoff man by a mile. Durham trotted home with the winning run. The story of the second game was the rookie Ojala, who pitched masterfully giving up two runs on three hits in six and two thirds in- nings. Ojala, however, began to tire and because of the Wolverine pitch- ing shortage, catcher Mike Gillette pitched. Gillette gave up one run and ended up getting the win. The Wolverines won it on a dou- ble by Greg McMurtry, driving in the winning pitcher Gillette from second base. ws 1122 S. University 665-9009 Summer Jobs Available . All Office Skills Needed - Your Choice of Location in Detroit Metro Area - Work as Much as You Want Where You Want " No Fees Scott Group, Inc. 736 S. Washington Royal Oak - 542-9232 Hours: Mon-Fri 8'30-5:00 I A AL... All Subscribers Out-of-towners U of M departments A2 Residents Follow The Daily through Spring & Summer. 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