Things I forgot in Detroit

   It is sunny today in Detroit. But I kind of miss Thursday’s snow.

   I’m a proponent of fresh air, and after spending the day in a car, in a plane and on a covered football field, I needed to breathe. So I walked a couple of blocks to Tom’s Oyster Bar Thursday night.

   Snow makes you feel like a kid. You slip and slide and sashay through the stuff, trying to keep your balance while trying not to laugh. You can’t be pretentious when you walk through snow. You’ll fall.

   I finally attained Tom’s, where I had spent time during the Super Bowl. It’s a neighborhood place, good food and friendly customers, with a television set in the corner turned to the Louisville-Tennessee game.

   Although packed during the Super Bowl., there were only two of us at the bar Wednesday. But as long as Louisville won, I was fine. I thought Tennessee was the most bloated team in the tournament. I’d love to tell you I picked Louisville to beat the Volunteers, but I didn’t. I picked Butler to beat them.

   I made my picks in the Observer the day after the brackets were divulged. Some of you tell me that you used them in your NCAA tournament pools. I think you’re doing all right, but since I didn’t enter any pools, I don’t know.

   I didn’t enter because (A) I believe that gambling is pure evil and (B) I forgot.

   I picked 10 of the Sweet 16 teams correctly, and my Final Four teams are still intact. I picked three of Thursday night’s winners, missing Xavier.

   I’ve spent so much time following basketball the last few weeks that I forgot about  Mitt Romney. The Mitt for President buttons are marked down 75% in the hotel gift shop.

    I also forgot about baseball. I didn’t watch a pitch from the games in Japan. But the Detroit Tigers open at home here Monday at 1:05 p.m. against Kansas City. I’d like to be here for that one.

   Here’s how you know baseball is almost upon us.

   Comerica Park, where the Tigers play, looked especially pretty Thursday. The closer we get to opening day, the prettier a ballpark looks. The snowflakes that fell onto the field were as big as a Boston terrier’s head.

   The other way you know that baseball almost is upon us is Charlotte real estate attorney Jerry Reese files yet another lawsuit to hold up construction of a minor league ballpark downtown.

   Jerry, major league baseball isn’t coming to Charlotte. We can’t support a team. We’d tear it up on weekends with help from Greensboro and Greenville. But how do you think we’d do on a weeknight for a game against Kansas City or Houston?

   You lost, man. Let it go. Single issue people become so consumed with their cause they cease to be interesting. I’ll tell you what. Drop the suits, and I’ll bring you back a MITT FOR PRESIDENT button.

Comments

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tom: you're right about MLB this year. But what about five years from now? It is moronic to build the knights a stadium downtown that cannot be expanded.