Sam Mellinger

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The 43-year-old man says he feels 25. This is no small thing. David Segui was a major-league baseball player at 25, and a good one, making more than $40 million in what would become a 15-year career. So 25 was pretty good.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kimble Anders dreams big. Someday, those dreams may take him other places. But for now, those dreams have him here, at East High, a close-up view of what will become another loss for an Interscholastic League football team.

Already tonight, a cheerleader showed up late, a defensive lineman jumped offsides twice in a row, and one of the security guards made fun of the home team.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The bullet tore through Steve Palermo's waist, from his right side to his left. It bounced off a kidney, then through the abdomen, breaking bone before pushing into the spinal cord.
If the bullet had been one millimeter thicker, he would have been dead. That's what the doctor told him. One millimeter. The head of a pin is about two millimeters wide.
Palermo is here, at Kauffman Stadium, working in the sport he loves, because it was a .32-caliber bullet. He would have died outside a Dallas bakery in the middle of the night, 18 years ago this week, if it had been a .33-caliber.