Mr. Clutch (C-Mo, yo!)

From today's Detroit News:

So when he stepped to the plate last month in the ninth inning in the most famous baseball stadium in the world with two outs and his team down, 3-2, to the Yankees, he had a feeling he was about to do something special.

His mother, who'd made the trip from Texarkana, had never been to New York. The night before, during a rainout, he'd taken her to "The Lion King" on Broadway and walked around Times Square. He'd also had plans, and the money, to finally buy her a house.

He nodded at her as he approached the plate. She nodded back. They had talked earlier in the day, after the Tigers lost the first game of a doubleheader, after Monroe had struggled at the plate. She had told him to let that go.

Now she was smiling. The hostile crowd around her was roaring. And then her son took a majestic cut, sending the first pitch into the damp, Bronx night. As he rounded the bases he spotted her, standing up, amidst thousands sitting down.

"Yeah," he said later, "I was the one playing. But it was her stage, too."