Sports Then and Now

Baseball legend Stan Musial passed away in 2013 at age 92.

Unfortunately, one of the inevitable aspects of every year is that we must say goodbye to some memorable greats from the sports world who passed away during that year.

2013 was no different as the sports world lost a number of all-time greats along with many others who may not have ended their careers in a sports Hall of Fame, but who left their own marks on the history of sports.

During the year we reflected on the passing of several athletes at the time of their death including Stan Musial, Pat Summerall, Earl Weaver, Deacon Jones, Art Donovan, Bum Phillips and Ed Herrmann. You can remember the legacies of these sports stars by clicking on their name to read the original articles.

In addition to these seven, there were many other well-known figures from the sports world that we lost in 2013. Below are brief remembrances of some of those greats.

Miller Barber – Professional Golfer – 82 years old
After winning 11 PGA Tour tournaments, but never finishing better than fourth in any Major, Barber was one of the early stars of the Senior Tour. He won 24 Senior Tour tournaments, including the Senior PGA Championship in 1981 and three Senior U.S. Open Championships in a four-year period.

Walt Bellamy – NBA Hall of Famer – 74 years old
The first pick of the 1961 NBA Draft, Bellamy averaged 31.6 points per game as a rookie, but still finished nearly 19 points per game behind NBA scoring champion Wilt Chamberlain (who averaged 50.4 ppg). He went on to average 20.1 points and 13.7 rebounds per game during a 14 year career in which he played for five different franchises.

Paul Blair – Major League Baseball Outfielder – 69 years old
An eight time Gold Glove winner, Blair was a key member of two World Series Champion teams with the Baltimore Orioles. He also won two World Series as a member of the New York Yankees during his 17 year career. Read the rest of this entry →

At age 37 and just two years removed from major neck surgery, Peyton Manning is having arguably the finest season of his career.

After watching Peyton Manning toss four more touchdown passes against the Houston Texans to bring his season total to a new NFL record 51 with a game left in the season, it seems hard to believe that it was just 18 months ago that legitimate questions existed as to whether Manning would ever throw another pass in the NFL.

It is easy now to downplay the severity of his neck injury and the four surgeries that forced him to miss the entire 2011 season and put into play the events that have led him to Denver after spending his first 13 seasons in Indianapolis.

However, in the spring of 2012, it was not over-reacting to question if Manning would ever play in the NFL again, much less wonder if he could ever return to MVP form.

You might wonder now if the Indianapolis Colts might have made a different choice had they been able to look in their crystal ball and see that Manning was going to pass for 10,000 yards and 88 touchdown passes over the next two seasons. Would they have passed on quarterback of the future Andrew Luck to stay with the quarterback of the present in Peyton Manning?

I think if you ask Jim Irsay and the Colts, he would probably say “no”, and that his team made the difficult, but correct decision for the long-term success of his franchise.

Given that Luck has quickly developed into a top-12 NFL quarterback and has led the Colts to consecutive double digit-win seasons and playoff appearances, you have to believe him.

Plus, Irsay saw first-hand what can happen when the team no longer has the services of Manning during their 2-14 disaster campaign of 2011. So even though Manning has been the better player over these two seasons, I’m not sure he would have helped the Colts win many more games and at age 37, he has only so many more seasons left before he rides off into the sunset. Read the rest of this entry →

Ed Herrmann played 11 seasons in the majors and was an All-Star in 1974.

Very sad to learn this morning that former Major League Baseball catcher Ed Herrmann has passed away at the age of 67 following a battle with cancer.

Though I never personally met Ed, I remember getting his baseball cards and reading about him and the Chicago White Sox pitching staff in Sports Illustrated in the mid-1970s.

Then, through the wonderful modern world of social media, we became “Facebook Friends” a few years ago soon after I started Sports Then and Now.

There isn’t a lot that is cooler than getting a glimpse into the world of our sports stars and through Facebook I learned that 30+ years after the end of his baseball career, Ed “Hoggy” Herrmann loved riding motorcycles and enjoying life.

Since he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, what I have learned through Facebook posts first from Ed and then over the last few months primarily from his family is the story of a fighter who channeled the same determination that helped make him a baseball All-Star into his battle with cancer.

The dignity and love shown in the posts from Ed’s family reporting his condition and especially the many visits from family and friends (including Chopper the Biker Dog) have been inspirational and heartening.

While I, and many others who follow sports, knew Ed primarily as a tough catcher who handled knuckleball pitchers and collisions at home plate with grit and guile, it is clear that behind his persona as a baseball player and later as a biker was a loving man who was deeply loved by his friends and family. Read the rest of this entry →

The sport of Hockey has its roots on the frozen ponds and lakes of North America, and many of today’s top players grew up learning the sport on local canals and other outdoor rinks. Invented by Canadians in the late 1700’s, and first referenced in print in 1799, the game had always been an outdoor sport. It wasn’t for almost another hundred years that Ice Hockey would first move inside, where it has largely remained ever since.

The first indoor game was held on March 3^rd, 1875 in Montreal, Quebec at Victoria Skating Center, and was viewed as a novelty event. However, the indoor version of the game took off, and by 1920, Olympic Hockey was inside, although the 1924 Games were once again outdoors. International Championships would range between indoor and outdoor until the mid 1950’s, including an outdoor Gold Medal game in 1957 between Sweden and the Soviet Union, which boasted 55,000 people in attendance, a record that stood for 40 years.

The NHL has always been a strictly indoor league, but there have been a few notable exceptions. The first such game is probably the most curious, as the 1954 Detroit Red Wings accepted an invitation to play the inmates of the Marquette State Prison in a friendly scrimmage on a rink built by Warden’s mate Oakie Brumm. The Wings defeated the Marquette Prison Pirates soundly. So soundly no one remembers the final score, although it was 18-0 after the 1^st period. The Wings even swapped a few players with the inmates to even it up a bit.

Read the rest of this entry →

New York Islanders fans have uttered many a profane word in the last few decades regarding the failures of their beloved team, but none so vile as “Spano.” It is rare, in sports history, to find such a bizarre story of deceit, grandstanding and unabashed bravado as you’ll find in the saga of businessman John A. Spano Jr.’s attempt to purchase the New York Islanders. Recently ESPN has chronicled the tale in one of their incredible “30 for 30” documentaries entitled “Big Shot.” Let’s take a look back at one of the NHL’s most embarrassing follies.

In the 1990’s, there was nothing left of the brilliant Islanders dynasty teams of the 80’s save for the Stanley Cup banners in the rafters and the memories of depressed fans. At the start of the 1995-96 season, Mike Milbury (whose name also is used as a swear word by Islander faithful) had been placed behind the bench as the team’s head coach. It was also the year of the much maligned “Fish Sticks” jersey, which closely resembled the Gorton’s Fisherman logo.

Read the rest of this entry →

Every season, some poor GM breaks down and gambles on a player that they think will completely change the direction of their club by trading away a huge amount of assets to acquire him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it is utter disaster. Let’s take a look at some of these trainwrecks and how they affected the league:

5) The Francis/Samuelsson Trade

In 1991, the Pittsburgh Penguins were a few good pieces away from being a playoff contender. Guys like Brian Trottier, Kevin Stevens, young Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux were the start of a great core, but success had yet to come to the team. In a shocking move, meant to revitalize the slumping Penguins, GM Craig Patrick swapped John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker for Grant Jennings, Ulf Samuelsson and Ron Francis. Samuelsson would bring a vicious net-front presence to the Pens D, and Francis would complement Lemieux up front to lead the Penguins to not one, but two Stanley Cup wins back to back in 1991 and 1992. The Whalers, on the other hand, would never recover from the trade, and their fanbase was (and still is) very bitter about it. The Whalers would eventually move to Carolina in 1997, and Ron Francis would be traded there in 1998.

4) The Luongo/Jokinen Trade

Former Islanders GM Mike Milbury could have his own Top 5 bad trades, but this is one of the worst. After criticizing Luongo for some off-ice attitude, and signing rookie Rick DiPietro to the biggest rookie contract ever made, Milbury dished Luongo and forward Olli Jokinen to the Florida Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Luongo would go on to be one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL, and Jokinen would spend much of his career as a top line scoring forward. DiPietro was an utter failure, and Parrish and Kvasha didn’t compensate for the loss of Jokinen. This deal was a total laugher, but not quite as bad as….

3) The Yashin Trade

Mike Milbury Strikes Again! It’s a wonder he didn’t end up in a drug rehab center after the disappointment of his awful trades. This time, grabbing forward Alexi Yashin, who was starting to decline, and dishing out young 6’9” Slovakian defenseman Zdeno Chara , Bill Muckalt, and a second overall pick in the draft (which would become current Sens captain Jason Spezza). Not only did Milbury trade away two future stars, but he then gave Yashin an enormous 10 year, $87.5 million dollar deal. Yashin muddled around Long Island until they finally bought out his contract, forcing New York to pay out the remainder of his $17.63 Million dollars owed. Yashin then high-tailed it to Europe, and played pretty well, making this dark saga in Islander fans’ history just a shade darker.

2) The Lindros Trade

Young Eric Lindros of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals was drafted 1^st round by the lowly Quebec Nordiques in 1991, but the cocky rookie refused to play in Quebec because he didn’t like the team, the city, or the fact that he’d have to learn French, and held out without signing his contract. The Nordiques played hardball too, saying they would not trade him, and in essence, would ruin his potential career. Finally, after almost a year and several back-room meetings, The Philadelphia Flyers acquired Eric Lindros for one of the steepest prices in NHL history; 6 roster players, 2 picks, and $15,000,000 cash. The real kicker is who those 6 players and draft pick turned out to be. They were Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman and Steve Duchense, but you may know most of them better as members of the Stanley Cup winning Colorado Avalanche. The Nordiques were doomed to leave Quebec, but before they did, they assembled one of the best teams in the NHL. The first draft pick turned out to be Jocelyn Thibault, who was traded to Montreal for disgruntled superstar Patrick Roy. This became the winning combination for the Nords once they moved to Colorado and promptly won 8 division titles and two Stanley Cups. Lindros was still a great player, but not anywhere near worth the value he was traded for.

1) The Gretzky Trade

25 years ago, the Hockey world was shaken to its core when GM Glen Sather allowed the unthinkable; Trading Gretzky. Slather wanted no part of it, but his hands were tied. The greatest player in the world was on the greatest dynasty in hockey, and there just wasn’t enough money to go around. It’s the price you pay for winning, but the fee was steep, and the Oilers are still trying to recover. In exchange for The Great One and his bodyguard (Marty McSorley), The Kings only had to part with Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, 3 first round picks, and $15 million ($18.5mil Canadian at the time). It was a steal. The Kings immediately sold out every game, and Gretzky got into the American spotlight. The Oilers would have to continue to trade away important pieces from their Cup teams like Kurri and Messier, eventually becoming a punching bag for the Western Conference. While the trade HAD to happen, and it’s hard to fault those involved, it set a precedent that NO player is above being traded, not even The Great One.

—

Scott Huntington is a writer, reporter, blogger, and long-time hockey fan. He’co-creator and admin of the hockey group Soft Dump. Follow Scott at @SMHuntington