Happy 50th, The Great One

Always tough to compare eras when putting Ruth up against today's sluggers or Jim Brown against the backs of the 90's like Sanders and Smith (if Brown had a longer career it might have been a different story). But from a purely statistical standpoint, Gretzky's numbers stand alone. Ruth is no longer the homerun king and Brown is not the leading rusher. Gretzky's stats will likely never be touched in any era.

What's most impressive about Gretzky is that he is all of maybe 5-foot-7 and I remember reading once that the most he ever bench-pressed was around 160 pounds. The guy did what he did with the physique of a high school freshman.

 

5'7"? Where did you pull that from?

He's 6'00 and his playing weight was around 185.

 

You're correct. He is listed at 6-0. For some reason I always thought he was much smaller.

 

Huggy Jr. and I were watching the many Gretzky segments TSN has been airing this week and after watching Gretzky dangle various Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, or whatever, he remarked, "Daddy, you know what? Goalies then were crap!" And he's right, they all seemed to be big, stiff guys who were lost once they left their feet. Complete 180 from today.

 

Bobby Orr scoffs at all this talk about greatest player ever.

Gretzky has the mind-boggling numbers, yes, but Orr could do it all in every zone. The most complete and greatest player who ever lived.

It's just too bad we never got to see Orr break up a Gretzky-Kurri, bring the puck right back through the entire Oilers team, undress Paul Coffey and Charlie Huddy and then beat Grant Fuhr like a rented mule. Oh, and then he'd have beaten the shit out of Dave Semenko just to put the exclamation point on the issue.

 

Break up a Gretzky-Kurri rush, rather. Sorry, I can't edit my post via the phone.

 

I guess I'm the only one around here who saw Howie Morenz play.

 

Weren't you junior teammates with Cyclone Taylor?

Or am I mixing you up with spnited and Hobey Baker at Princeton?

 

Stood beside him last March. 5'7" is low, 6'0" is high. And while I know it's been over 11 years since he retired, I doubt he's anywhere close to 185 (if he ever was to start with).

 

As a tyke!

 

I've seen him a bunch of times. He's probably around 5'9".

 

was he going to do that book with fischler?