Wane Gretzky scored 894 goals in the NHL. Bobby Orr scored 270. Gretzky won the cup 4 times, Bobby Orr won just 2. When Wane retired he was almost immediately instated into the Hall of Fame. When Orr did the same he had to wait the normal 7 years before being delivered with that honor.
There is no doubt about it, to this day there has not and likely never will be another man to statistically rival the numbers put up by "The Great One". But for Wane Gretzky, when he retired from hockey after 1998-1999 season it soon became clear that he had also retired from not only the title of current hockey player but also the one reading former hockey player. Gretzky wasn't mean once he was done, he simply shrank back to his life as a father, grandfather and spokesperson for the abolishing of fighting in the NHL.
But for Bobby Orr, his post hockey career was almost the polar opposite to that of Gretzky. Wane Gretzky was GREAT during his career, and okay after it Orr was great during his career an even greater after it.
But for the former Bruins D-Man, the picture that has gone down as the perfect embodiment of one of the greatest careers in the history of hockey is, in his mind an unfair one. "The strange things about that photo - me, arms outstretched, flying through the air as if nothing else matters - is that I was never really big on celebrating goals." Orr said in his recently published memoir. "I know some guys like to celebrate goals, but I always found it disrespectful. It’s not the way I played the game and yet, there I am in that famous photo, hands in the air. I could try to blame Blues defender: Noel Pickard's wayward stick. But I have to admit, it was a jump for joy, trip or no trip."
It is quotes like these that make you think 'oh my god, this guy really is awesome.' Unlike so many others, he really does mean every word included in those two previous excerpts. He is not trying to win fans, he already has those, he is simply stating how he played the game of hockey with the rawest truth.
But going back to the autobiography Orr's modest nature appears once again just over a page further than the description of the goal and the picture. This time he is speaking of the Bronze statue recently erected outside TD Garden.
"It's a beautiful piece of art, don't get me wrong. But I was surprised at what it didn't say. By capturing a single moment, it had to leave out the moments before and after. By depicting one person, it left out all the people who won the cup that year - and all the fans who shared that victory. It would have meant a lot less to score that goal at an empty Boston Garden just as it would have been absurd to be the only person at that unavailing."
But for Bobby Orr, the show is part of the job. Kids pay more attention to the guy flying through the air rather than the guy skating nonchalantly back to the bench as his fans roar with delight. As a former hockey player who played at the sustained level of excellence that Orr so responsibly enjoyed, one becomes a role model and as a role model, one is both blessed and cursed with a crushing duty. To endlessly sustain that title of role model and satisfy the autograph hunting obsessing nature of the little boys and girls who 40 years after the goal that defined his career, still remember that moment that took place long before they were born.
Bobby Orr knows that role and refuses to forgo its demands.
While I often offer my sports opinions in the pages of this blog, I rarely share the sports related stories that I have experienced. After last night however, it seemed time to break that trend.
35 years after he retired, Bobby Orr has been the master of philanthropy coaching kids teams and working to help former teammate: Derek Sanderson with his drug and alcohol problems. But through this all, he has never before spoken with the complexity and comprehensive illustration that he did in his recently published memoir - Orr: My Story. Before long, he began his currently in progress book tour traversing the nation and signing thousands of books and in-turn touching the hearts of any and all who walked out with one of those treasured copies.
Bobby staged such a signing Friday October 18th and for my family and I, the timing could not have been better. My brother was turning 9 on that day and as his passion for everything Black and Gold closely parallels mine, we were there, soaking in the moment.
We waited for 2 hours in a jam packed Westford Bookstore forgetting the sweltering heat and remembering how the store exploded with atmosphere when Orr walked out of the back room he was sitting in prior to the sighing to take a bathroom break. But as was said before it would be multiple hours before we got to see that man up close an personal. But nevertheless, when our number was called and we jumped into line, there I was 3 feet away from the man, who, so many decades ago was captured flying through the air, arms extended above his head and above all, Stanley Cup winning goal sitting unchecked in the back of the net. This was Bobby Orr and as tired as he looked, the 65 year old man soon looked me in the eye and in the span of just a few seconds made everyone in my family smile.
I watched over my brother Keegan's shoulder. He reluctantly fist bumped old Bobby and as my mother whispered. "It's his birthday," Orr somehow drew him out. He high fived Keegan and as my brother looked at the star's wrists, he pointed out 6 or 7 small bracelets possibly made by his grandkids.
"I have those!" Keegan said.
"Oh? Which one?" Orr responded.
"That one" He said pointing to a thick black and gold one. Keegan was smiling.
To Orr's kids, he may be known as a whole host of names and to his grandkids even more. But to those of us in love with our mighty Bruins, he will always be number 4 Bobby Orr.
Frankly, my mother was not even 1 year old when Orr scored the winning goal in Game 4 of the 1972 Cup but after Friday night I am content to say that that doesn't matter. Bobby Orr's name is engraved on the greatest trophy in sports but what is better is the fact that that name is also the same name now scrawled on the title page of a 200 page book now in my possession.
They always say if all the people who say they were at Woodstock actually went to Woodstock the world would have tilted. After the bridging of the generations between Bobby Orr's and mine the same might be said for Game 4 of the 1972 Stanley Cup. So many of us who were not even born when that game was won actually believe they saw that game. And that and only that is the true reason for why Bobby Orr is not just one of the greatest players in hockey history but more importantly, the greatest PERSON in the sport's grand list of players and coaches.
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