The Twilight Zone

Let me see if I have this right.

Brandon Inge, he who couldn't hit a lick for the Tigers, and was unceremoniously dumped by those same Tigers is busy hitting grand slams and racking up RBIs galore for the Oakland Athletics, while the Tigers still pay the vast majority of his $5.5 million salary.

Bernard Hopkins, in the always shady and smack-talking world of pro boxing, humbly accepted defeat at the hands of Chad Dawson, and not only personally put his light heavyweight championship belts on Dawson after the fight at a press conference, but hung out to pose for pictures with Dawson's kids, before quieting exiting the stage.

During the course of a race, a local prep long distance runner, far and away the class of the field, not only "paced" his second best competition, shouted encouragement to other runners as they were being lapped, and even slowed up at the finish line to let his closest competitor win, having driven the winner to a personal best time.

After over half a century of seeming futility, the Detroit Lions are not only competitive, but appear to have drafted well for the future. Do I dare mention Super Bowl capability in the next few years?

For the time being, there doesn't appear to be any "feuds" going on in NASCAR, where guys are intentionally wrecking each other.

Phoenix and LA are in the western conference finals in the NHL? You would have thought it? With all due respect to the "old guard", "new blood" is a healthy thing.

All the up and coming "young guns" on the pro golf circuit appear to be very polite, humble, fan friendly, gentlemen on the course respecting the game, and have no issues with caddies, swing coaches, or other personal dramas like "you know who". They just play and have a good time doing it. I hope they keep coming.

Pat Summitt, the legendary ladies' hoops coach at Tennessee, has quietly passed the reins on to her long time protege, while being honored as Coach Emeritus. No muss, no fuss, and a lot of class all the way around.

While I surely omitted a few other equally "feel good" stories about people or teams -- what, pray tell, is going on in the world of sports these days? It's as if Rod Serling has come back to life and is serving up episodes of the rosy side of athletics. The negative image of the Twilight Zone. As we all know, two negatives make a positive. Very strange.

But I'm liking it.