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Incredible story about Bobby Orr

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by HorseWhipped, Mar 7, 2009.

  1. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    It was a nice piece on Orr, but not a classic. I"ll spare all the details, but I felt it had a few minor holes in it beyond Orr's reticence to be interviewed.

    As much as the story extolled Orr's incredible talents as a player, I still think a bit more could have been done to really hammer that home. I grew up in hockey country in the far Northeast a Montreal Canadiens fan and got to see plenty of Orr playing, even in pre-cable days, and when I try to explain to people that Orr was a greater talent than even, yes, Gretzky or Lemieux, Yzerman, or Crosby, all I get are shaking heads.

    It's the same old deal that so many sports fans always believe that the current, or at least recently contemporary stars are always better than what came before. Shallow thinking. Let me say this one more time, Bobby Orr could skate better than Gretzky, control a game better than Gretzky, set up teammates with passes even better than Gretzky and certyainly handle himself better along the boards or in a scrap than Gretzy could---Gretzy always had an on-ice entourage ready to protect him---Orr took care of himself.

    I don't think the story captured that well enough, instead focusing at times on Orr's reticence and not granting the interview after all----once again, an SI writer finds some way to put himself or herself into the story. SI does that a lot these days, especially with John Garrity writing about golf or this week's Telander piece on Tony Mandarich.

    SI seems desparate to find every way it can to interject its writers into the story and that worked only with Plimpton and Reilly in his earlier days. Sorry I got a bit off track there, but this first-person stuff, even in a minimalist manner as the Orr story was, bugs the snot out of me.
     
  2. I think that with most really famous athletes and coaches it's perfectly possible to write an amazing, comprehensive piece without talking to the person. I think in a lot of cases, the subject is little more than window dressing. In most cases, I wouldn't make the person's reluctance to be interviewed a narrative thread in my piece, just because of how common it is. These guys will rarely do anything without getting paid for it or having control over the finished product.

    That said, Price is a master, so if that's the tack he took, I give him the benefit of the doubt.
     
  3. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member


    Idiocy.

    Beyond being gratuitous nonsense that didn't fit the story, I doubt that it's true.
     
  4. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Yeah, I'm not weighing in on whether it was gratuitous or not, but I just wonder if Price could possibly have any way to back that claim up -- or if the story's just been passed down for so long that it's taken as fact.

    Print the legend, et al.

    Personally, my BS meter is set to high on this one.
     
  5. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Here's proof :

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  6. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    I don't think the hockey stick was the part of the story that needed to be verified.
     
  7. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Anyone who spent a little time in what used to be called "The Combat Zone" in Boston could verify the other part. No pictures -- use your imagination.

    The unsettling thought though is if Boby Orr is now 60, Imagine those strippers from back in the day still sporting a "Bobby Orr".
     
  8. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    I kinda agree with Smasher here.

    As much as we know Bobby was a huge influence on hockey and resurrected it in Boston, I'm not sure this passage adds anything to the piece.
     
  9. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Did the strippers groom themselves in this way because of Bobby Orr, or did the patrons, knowing about Orr, give the style its name? If it's the latter, then this anecdote does not, in fact, show his impact on the non-hockey world. What man in a Boston strip joint wouldn't know about Orr? If the strippers were aware of the Orr strip and chose to, well, pay homage to him, then I suppose it does show his impact.
     
  10. broadway joe

    broadway joe Guest

    How exactly do you fact-check that little nugget?

    "Hello, is this the former Busty LaRue? .... Great. I'm calling from Sports Illustrated and I just have a couple of questions about your bush."
     
  11. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    And that's kind of the point. It's just a low-class throwaway that doesn't belong in the story.
     
  12. Sam Craig

    Sam Craig Member

    After reading this thread, I can't wait to read the SI piece. When I grew up in Boston in the 1970s, I ready everything I could on Orr. I still have packed away my Bruins jersey with Orr's No. 4 and a T-shirt that said the Unbelievable Bobby Orr with his portrait.

    Anyone doubting Orr's ability, there's some great YouTube clips. The best one is called (I think) the Bobby Orr Rush. It's seven minutes and it's played to the old Channel 38 Bruins music, I can't quite remember the name of that tune.

    And you now, I'm also getting a bit sentimental about The Combat Zone.
     
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