Safety: in professional sports, campus life, reading, etc.

There has been a lot of talk around professional sports lately. Google it. However, my little heart just melts for the MLB. Detroit Tigers, to be specific.

Today I saw a tweet that talked about extending the safety netting at Comerica Park in the infield. No doubt, my season ticket partner and I regularly spoke about the extended netting. It is necessary. We saw some rough stuff. After five seasons, I have seen many unfortunate deflections, wild liners, and the terrible, collective groan of a crowd that just watched someone take a hardball to the face. You know it's bad when the entire section motions for the medics, twirling their pointer fingers to indicate, "Hurry up, help!" It's troubling.

The reputation of what it is like on a college campus is interesting, as well. For years, I have gone through fire drills, inclement weather drills, but lately my safety concerns are those of an armed assailant. I mean, really, if someone knows what they are doing, I don't have a chance. However, if I am ready to act quickly and decisively, I feel confident that I could survive some crazy sh*t.

Finally, I have heard about this book for some time and from many eclectic people. I've added it to my reading list, and am prioritizing it much higher: Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker. I've lived in Detroit. I've worked with the public. I have the gift of fear and I would definitely like to understand it better.

Be ready. That way, you don't have to waste time getting ready.

Year of Gratitude - Day 155 - Swimming and my dad

Swimming has been a part of my life since my infancy. In Poland, our village had a great big pool that was the place to be. My dad was a phenomenal swimmer and was well known as such. He'd bring me to the pool all the time. One day, my dad asked a friend to hold me while he dove. The friend decide to toss me in the pool. For funsies, I guess? Polish people are drinkers, so I'm going to assume the friend was not thinking clearly.

It was no big deal, apparently I popped my little baby head out of the water and swam to safety. Of course, I don't think that it's earth shattering because I think babies have a natural inclination to swim. I mean, what do you think they are doing for 9 months before birth?

Anyway, we bought a house with a pool in Detroit and as soon as I was old enough, dad started teaching me all the strokes. When I was in fifth grade, I was part of the Westland YMCA stingrays. My coach, Eddie, was awesome. And he made me awesome. I remember him pulling me to the side and saying I was a natural. Sadly, I would have such awful sports asthma, that I would quit competitive swimming until high school.

To this day, I am 100% comfortable in the water. I love swimming still and one day hope to get into the habit of getting in some laps in the morning (I'm already dreading getting lapped by senior citizens). Though I wasn't able to be a great competitor in the water, I love being surrounded by it. I'm not afraid of opening my eyes. I'm not afraid of large bodies of water. I'm completely and utterly in love with the water. I thank my dad for that.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 26 - Detroit Red Wings

My first two years in undergrad were spent writing for the student paper. When I left the paper, I stumbled upon a writing internship that landed me at Joe Louis Arena, working for the Red Wings. An unpaid internship turned into a paying gig and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life. - training camps, banner-raising, the playoffs. I got to interview some of the greatest hockey players that ever played, including Steve Yzerman, Nick Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. My first interview with a professional athlete was Gordie Howe and I interviewed Ted Lindsay atop the Joe in the Legends Club. My favorite article was one I wrote about Kris Draper the year he won the Selke Trophy. I am above and beyond grateful to have had experiences like these. I have enough stories to last me a lifetime!

Detroit, Mitch Albom and the real deal

Last night my BlackBerry chimed and I took a peek before bed. My dear friend, Marisa, sent me an article from Sports Illustrated. The article was called "The Courage of Detroit" and was written by Mitch Albom, a renowned Detroit Free Press columnist of more than two decades. It intrigued me and I promised myself I'd read it the next day, today. It struck close to home, as it should for absolutely any Detroiter. I got a bit emotional.

Albom chronicles the sports ups and downs in Detroit. This is the greatest sports town in the United States. Yet, he doesn't keep it under that umbrella. He dives into the contradictions of the country that's forgotten its manufacturing base, its middle class and its Michigan citizens who struggle along. He wonders how California can complain that we make cars that ruin the environment when THEY ALL DRIVE THEM CONSTANTLY. Get your head out of the smog cloud, California. Or how Southern politicians, all a bunch of jokers if you ask me, can outsource jobs, bust unions, lower wages and give tax breaks to foreign automakers and then scold the U.S. auto executives for bad practices. I'm not saying the auto executives and their managerial goonies are free of blame, but come on. (I considered adding a few choice words about the South here, but I'll save it. I try to keep the blog family-friendly.)

Albom writes about the homeless, the foreclosed homes, the quiet downtown, the looming casinos and the rampant unemployment. He calls the people of this city and state the most downtrodden optimists. We don't talk about if Detroit will return to its former glory. We talk about when it does. It's so true. We know it's bad, we get it, but it's not going to stay that way.

A question Detroiters often hear is "Why don't you leave?" Shortsighted people have asked me this because they feel I would benefit elsewhere. I suppose my answer is that I'm not afraid, I believe in the city and, frankly, it's nurtured my family, education and career since 1985. Whether I like it or not, no other city gives me this many shots at success. No other city has as many of my relatives and dearest friends, either.

Albom gets the "Why don't you leave?" question, too. He obviously loves this city and though he doesn't say it explicitly in the article, you know that's what he means. This article reminded me why Albom was one of my fundamental inspirations to start writing when I was a kid: I loved hearing his voice on the page. I enjoyed his thoughts and appreciated his concise writing. Reading this article dusted off some nostalgia.

I've heard people bagging on Albom in the past. He got in a little bit of writing hot water a few years back. I never met him, but I think I wrongly let those negative sentiments influence me. This article has set me straight. It really brought me full circle and it helped understand my feelings about Albom, Detroit and Michigan.

In the article, Albom captures what I think is the essence of how Detroiters feel and he's published it in a popular national magazine. I hope people get the message. I hope that this helps them understand where we're coming from and how we're dealing with where we're going. I love Albom's last line:

"To hell with Depression. We're gonna have a good year."

A few tears popped out of my eyes while I read the article, but not because I was sad. I was moved. Sometimes I find a get choked up while listening to podcasts that share incredible stories (a usual suspect: This American Life.) You can imagine how silly I look when I get choked up while on a bike ride or running.

These weren't tears of sadness, but rather tears of relief. What Albom wrote was exactly what I was thinking. Honestly, I also feel it's exactly what a lot of Detroiters are thinking. That gave me a sense of unity. We're all in this together. It gave me hope, the same kind of hope that sprouted some tears when I watched Barack Obama's presidential victory. It's not about sadness, quite the opposite in circumstances like these.

Thanks, Mitch. Thanks for setting me and everyone else straight. You are the real deal.

Cheap, Free, Fun: Disc Golf

OK, here's the deal: I suck at disc golf. Badly. Yet, I cannot hate on disc golf for a multitude of reasons. Here's a few:

• It's outdoors. As a Michigander, if you can do something outdoors in the summer - YOU SHOULD. You've got plenty of time to sit inside and shelter yourself from the cold, sad winter months.
• It's cheap - no, wait - it's FREE! Well, most of the time it's free. A lot of parks have disc golf courses built in them.
• It's cheap - part deux. Have you ever bought a set of golf clubs? With a bag? And balls? And a glove? (Me neither, but I did score an AWESOME hand-me-down of such treasures!) However, had my cousin decided she wasn't going to have a bunch of children and give up golf, I'd never afford it. In fact, I still can't afford it. With disc golf, you'll need: discs ($12-25), gas money to get there (ok, maybe it's not THAT cheap) and buddies.
• Exercise. Need to stop being fat? Do you at least want to get a little more active? Well, as with golf, you can get lots of walking in with an 18-hole disc golf course. As stated, I suck badly at this disc golf business, but even just hanging out, watching others suck badly and walking with the gang is fun and a workout.

Some resources:

• Great article about the basics: "Disc Golf 101: The basics" from the Kalamazoo Gazette.
• Find courses near you with the Professional Disc Golf Association's Course Directory.

Today's Knowledge: Holy water used regularly in football

No, I'm not talking about American football. I'm talking about the game in which you actually use your FEET to play, a.k.a. soccer.

Anyway, I don't know if it's holy water, water from the fountain of life, or just your run of the mill nectar of the gods, but whatever football training staffs use on their injured players, it works. Watch any football game and pay close attention the player who drops to the ground, contorts his face into a pained expression and rolls around in agony while clutching his "injury." The trainer will hurry over, talk to him a little, and then hose the alleged injury down with this healing liquid, which looks a lot like bottled water. The player then calms down and continues with the game.

I still love football, but come on.

Sportsmanship is not dead.

A little while ago, I posted a book review on Made to Stick. In this review I mention a part of the book where words are overused. People get desensitized to their meaning and voila, they become meaningless. So this guy in the book says that "sportsmanship" becomes one of those overused and under appreciated words. He instead used the term, "Honoring the game" and got a much clearer message across.

Generally, I don't read people's comments on websites and blogs, but lately I've been doing my best to see how people react to various online material. I was reminded of sportsmanship and honoring the game when I browsed an excerpt from, of all papers, an L.A. Times article on Yahoo! called Pens-Wings will be remembered as the rebirth of hockey. Under this blurb was a WHOLE BUNCH of really positive, fun comments by people about the Stanley Cup Finals, a series with an exquisite helping of hockey. I imagine the positivity was due to some trimming of the jerks, but it made me happy that sportsmanship is not yet dead (except in Philadelphia).

You can read the entire L.A. Times column at Red Wings enjoy title down to the core. It's not bad hockey column for being out of L.A. - you know, where hockey goes to die at the hand of expansion.