Happy 50th, The Great One

amen to that. There was no one like Orr except maybe Frank McGee

 

One of the greatest PERFORMERS, never mind athletes, I ever saw. And as a Kings season seat holder for five years when he played -- and as a college kid who used to hit the Forum on Saturday nights and pay $5 to see the Kings in the 80s when nobody else wanted to -- I saw him plenty.

Plus, one of the most gracious and classy individuals I've ever covered or interviewed. So much so, I named one of my cats (RIP) after him. The cat used to play with a cloth "puck" (actually a disc), plus he had a sweet disposition.

Here's the fact that I still have a hard time putting in my mental Samsonite. When Gretzky retired from the NHL in 1999, he held 61 records. Since then -- more than 13,000 total games played later -- only ONE of them has been broken.

 

4>99.
Best offensive player of his generation. Best defensive player of his generation.
It got a little dusty watching Orr carry the Olympic flag in last year, and I'm not even Canadian (well, not really. Mom was born there but had to give up Canadian citizenship to get top secret clearance).
If arthroscopic surgery had been around 20 years earlier, there's no telling what Robert Gordon Orr would have put up his numbers. Damn it.
And burn in hell, Eagleson. Rat bastard.

 

We had Gretzky's Oiler team mate Craig Simpson talk at one of our company meetings. Despite being Canadian I am a basketball guy and not a hockey guy and could not have cared less.

Simpson did tell an awesome story about how as a newbie on the Oilers Gretzky would be picking him up at 7 A.M on Christmas morning to go to the Children's hospital in Edmonton because if a kid was sick enough to be in the hospital at Christmas, then a little bit of time out of their schedule
was not a big deal.

I became a retro active Gretzky fan that day.

 

The immigration people will be arriving tomorrow to deport you.

 

Orr can suck it. Being great at a lot of things isn't always better than being absolutely transcendent at a really important thing.

 

On one hand, it's hard to believe he's 50. Hes one of those guys who never seemed to age throughout his career.

On the other hand, I'm 37 and I don't remember a time when I DIDN'T know who Wayne Gretzky was. So he's only 50?!

And just because...Janet Jones and Mitch Gaylord in the music video for "Take It Easy," otherwise known as the only good thing about "American Anthem."

 

This sounds suspiciously like a synonym for "eyeball test."

 

All-fucking-world pull there, Beej! Man, did I love that record (might have been the last 45 I actually bought) and it was the ONLY good thing about that movie. I am the only one in the office right now and I have cranked it as loud as my shitty computer speakers will go THREE times!

 

No, what it sounds like is a hockey idiot. You think Gretzky's better, fine, but to think Orr wasn't transcendant shows how ignorant Frasier is on this subject.

 

Mostly it just shows that I'm a shameless Gretzky fanboi and would find a way to put him on top regardless.

 

Fair enough.