They got the point.

Long ago, I asked Fishman what had made him most proud. He said, almost shyly, "I got to be a pallbearer for one of the Scottsboro boys."

When I heard he had died, I thought of what Teddy Kennedy said at his brother Bobby's funeral, that he was simply "a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; saw suffering and tried to heal it; saw war and tried to stop it."

There will be a public service at Central United Methodist Church (downtown, near Comerica Park) at 1 p.m. Friday. If you want to say farewell to someone who cared about something bigger than himself, you might want to go.

Attacking the least fortunate:� Some weeks ago I wrote about the Miracle League of Michigan. They are a nonprofit group that makes it possible for even the most severely physically and mentally handicapped children to play baseball.

Last weekend one of the league's founders called me, almost in tears. Their stadium and special, half-million dollar rubberized field in the Southfield Civic Complex had been vandalized and seriously damaged. They could use some help getting back on their feet. Anyone who would like to be an angel might go to michiganmiracle.org and volunteer to help.

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