When Men Were Men

Pierre Pilote behind the net, with goalie Glen Hall

Gordie Howe cheating and knocking down my hero! but I always admired Gordie

Bobby Hull and Stan Makita, nice teeth

In 1962 at the age of seven I moved to Chicago and fell in love with hockey. Every game was televised (forget about ever getting tickets) and I watched every game. The NHL had just six teams, and the Blackhawks (my team) were great (they finished second to Toronto).

My favorite Blackhawks were Bobby Hull, Stan Makita and Pierre Pilote. Bobby Hull was the Mickey Mantle of hockey, the golden boy and he had the world's fastest slapshot. Stan Makita was center extraordinaire, and one mean dude. But my favorite was the captain, defenseman Pierre Pilote.

And the title above is so true. These men played hockey with NO helmets and the goalies wore NO masks. Unbelievable. Check out the photos, check out the teeth.

After school everyday in the winter we played hockey at the local rink. The local rink was a frozen pond about three hundred miles from my house, at least that what it seemed like when my brother dragged me home every night for dinner crying because I was so cold and swearing I would never go back again. I actually went back to South Holland a few years back and noticed that it was about a quarter mile away from 1011 E 161st Street.

We lived in Chicago for three years. My hockey claims to fame, other than crying every night on the way home, were loosing my front teeth to an opponents hockey stick and beating the ever loving stuffing out of a local punk tough guy. This cretin was a real neighborhood bad ass (who I spent the rest of my time hiding from until we moved) but a horrible skater and dirty player. One day I had enough and knowing he was a terrible skater I went after him after he made a swipe at me and cleaned the ice with him. It was reminiscent of the scene in "Christmas Story" when Ralphie finally gets the local bully, including the rest of the kids egging me on.

A side note, this local tough guy went on to pitch for the Seattle Mariners. During his tenure as a Mariner I happened to call a friend from the old neighborhood (Mickey Schassburger) and as we spoke of Steve Trout and his big league pitching career Mickey chimed in - "yeah, but I bet he is still a punk".

Winter musings: The weather has me thinking of this AND I have just booked a trip to Chicago to see the Blackhawks in March (and I get to skate with the team!!!!!!!!)

Hockey's greatest player of all time (sorry Wayne) Bobby Orr, going airborne to score a goal to win the Stanley Cup!

Snow, and All it Implies

It is snowing lightly, off and on in West Seattle. My history of Seattle includes experiencing

And hearing about many snow/traffic horror stories. That said our practice at RIPS today is VERY optional and I will go as far to say that I do not recommend that you go to it.

I will go down there and work with who ever shows up, but please consider staying home where you are, warm and have play-off football to watch, homework to do and all the creature comforts surrounding you.

Keenan, I did not intend to make you feel sad. I know you have a horrible home life, just remember what I told you about better days ahead.