Farewell to the Captain

Bobby Lemaire

 Originally Posted on 05 March 2014.

On February 12, longtime New York Yankee shortstop and Captain Derek Jeter announced that 2014 would be his final season. This is not a surprise to many fans and analysts, considering that Jeter is about to turn 40 and missed the majority of the 2013 season due to ankle and calf injuries. In the 17 games that he did participate in, Jeter batted a lowly .190 with one home run and seven RBIs. While he did struggle last season, Jeter’s career will be mostly remembered for clutch moments and World Series victories.

Jeter was picked sixth overall by the Yankees in the 1995 MLB draft. One year later, the 22-year-old won the Rookie of the Year award with a .314 batting average with 10 homers and 78 RBI’s. Then in 1996, he led the Yankees to a World Series title, the team’s first since 1978. Throughout his first 19 years in the big leagues, Jeter and the Yankees won five World Series titles with an unforgettable three-peat stretch from 1998-2000. His last championship came in 2009, in their first year at the new Yankee Stadium.

During his career, Jeter has produced Hall of Fame numbers. Along with his Rookie of the Year award, he has also won five Gold Gloves, four Silver Slugger awards, has a career .312 batting averag and is a thirteen-time All-Star.
While these numbers are great, what really puts Jeter into the legendary category is his flair for the dramatics. Whenever there was a big moment for the Yankees, it is very likely that Jeter was a part of it. Whether it was Jeter’s home run in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Orioles (with a little help from 12-year-old fan Jeffrey Maier), his famous “flip play” against the Oakland Athletics in Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS or the catch he made on July 1, 2004 against the Red Sox, where he dove head first into the stands, Jeter just seemed to have that “clutch factor.”

Then on September 11, 2009, Jeter got his 2,722th hit, passing Lou Gehrig for first all-time in career hits for the Yankees. Two years later on July 9, 2011, Jeter hit a home run off Tampa Bay Rays’ ace David Price for his 3,000 hit. He ended up going 5-5 that day because that is just his style.

There is a contest going on Twitter in which someone tweets a player’s name with the hashtag #FaceofMLB and the player gets a vote. The player with the most votes at the end of the contest gets named “The Face of the MLB.” New York Mets third baseman David Wright was declared the winner, defeating Oakland Athletics infielder Eric Sogard in the finals. This vote doesn’t matter— Derek Jeter is the face of baseball. He has been since the end of the 1990s and continued to be one of the most respected players in the game during the 2000s, when superstars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were accused of performance enhancing drugs. In one of the darkest eras of baseball, Jeter was one of the stars shining brightest.

Jeter was definitely one of the most noticeable people on the field, but he tried to be invisible off of it. Even while dating Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson, Minka Kelly or another movie star/model (seriously, Google Derek Jeter Dating Diamond), you never heard him get into any sort of trouble. Being one of the most popular men in one of the world’s biggest cities didn’t faze him. But if you look at how he played the game, maybe he couldn’t be fazed.

This will be Jeter’s swan song and every stadium he goes to for the last time will give him a standing ovation. ESPN will constantly cover his road trips, giving updates about what presents the opposing organization gave him. Some fans from opposing teams will get sick of it quickly, but Derek Jeter has worked hard enough for this goodbye.

Then in five years, Jeter will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where his legacy will live on with likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Aaron and Robinson. 

For the rest of time Yankees fans will remember his work.

Is Fighting In Hockey Worth It?

Bobby Lemaire, 

 Originally Posted on 11 December 2013.

For as long there has been professional hockey, there has been fighting.  There are two opponents who are willing to risk injury, punching each other in the face, for many different reasons. Some say there is fighting to actually protect players. If you do not want to fight, then you will not commit a dirty play, due to fear of having to fight as a result. Another reason people like fighting is the exhilaration you get from watching it. As the audience, the only times where an arena is louder than after a fight is after a goal or a beautiful save.  Fans just like to see people square up and throw punches. I used to be one of these people.

 Used to be.

On March 21, 2007, I went to Madison Square Garden and saw the New York Rangers play the Philadelphia Flyers. About twenty seconds into the games Rangers forward Colton Orr and Flyers forward Todd Fedoruk dropped the gloves. A few punches were thrown, but the fight ended when Orr threw a right hand that hit Fedoruk right in the face. Fedoruk fell to the ground unconscious. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher and I remember feeling horrible for actually rooting for someone that knocked a person out.

Eventually I got over it and went back to enjoying the fights, but in 2011 my opinion changed again. On May 13, 2011, Rangers forward Derek Boogaard was found dead in his apartment. The cause of death was determined to be an accidental alcohol and drug overdose. He was 28.  Then on August 15, 2011, Vancouver Canucks forward Rick Rypien was found dead in his apartment. The cause of death was suicide. Finally, on August 31, 2011, former NHL defenseman Wade Belak was also found dead in his house. The cause of death of the 35-year-old was determined to be suicide. What did all of these players have in common?  They were all best known for their fighting skills.

In a span of four months, three hockey players had died, each of them 35 or younger.  After Boogaard’s death, his brain was donated to doctors to be looked at. In a New York Times article, written by John Branch, the results came back, saying that “Boogaard had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as C.T.E., a close relative of Alzheimer’s disease. It is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. It can be diagnosed only posthumously, but scientists say it shows itself in symptoms like memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, even addiction.”

Repeated blows to the head? I am pretty sure that fighting in hockey for your entire career involves repeated blows to the head. In addition, Rypien and Belak were also being treated for depression, probably from all of the fights they have been in. It was a tough time for the entire hockey community and the question of fighting has been a constant in the sports world ever since.

I disagree with people who say that fighting prevents dirty hits. Even with fighting in hockey, there are still cheap shots being thrown around. On March 7, 2010, Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard was deliberately elbowed in the head by Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke. This elbow gave Savard a concussion that eventually ended his career. If fighting is supposed to protect players from dirty hits, then why is this still happening?

When it comes to shots at the head, the National Hockey League is being very hypocritical. They are suspending players for multiple games when someone is hit deliberately in the head on a check (which is the right move), but when people are punching each other in the face, just inches away from each other, the only punishment is a five minute penalty. This is because the owners and the rest of the league know that most fans do enjoy fighting, so they aren’t willing to risk losing revenue for player safety.

Instead of fighting being a five-minute penalty, the players involved should get thrown out of the game and suspended for the next one. At the end of the day, it will benefit all parties.

The End of an Era

Bobby Lemaire

 Originally Posted on 20 November 2013.

On August 30, very important news came out of the National Hockey League and no, it had nothing to do with work stoppages, rule changes or conference realignment. This news was a celebration. Anaheim Ducks forward Teemu Selanne, 43, announced that he was coming back for his 21st and final season. The Finnish star’s decision to keep playing was a joyous moment for all of hockey. While it will be sad to see him go, fans will get their chance to properly send off a legend. Selanne has played for the original Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks (two stints), San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche.

During the 1992-1993 season with the Jets, the “Finnish Flash” took the league by storm by setting the rookie goals record with 76, giving him the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year. Selanne is one of the best pure shooters the game has ever seen, scoring at least 40 goals in a season seven times, as well as being a 10- time All-Star. At the end of the 2006-2007 season, he finally reached the ultimate goal and became a Stanley Cup Champion. He and the Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators in an epic seven game series.

On November 8 against the Buffalo Sabres, Teemu played in his 1,400th NHL game, which is third all-time for all European hockey players, only trailing former Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and current New Jersey Devil, Jaromir Jagr. He is currently ranked fifteenth all-time in points (678 of which were goals.)

Selanne has been just as impressive in the Olympics. He has participated in five winter games, holding the record for most points in men’s Olympic hockey history (37) and may still be named to his sixth this winter in Sochi, Russia.

While on the Finnish National Team, Selanne has won two bronze medals (1996, 2010) and a silver medal (2006).

Another reason why Selanne is so beloved is because how much he loves and respects the game. At the end of the 2005-2006 season he was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. This award goes to the person who shows true sportsmanship and overcomes adversity. He was almost forced to retire after the 2003-2004 season due to a knee injury, but the lockout that cancelled the next season gave him ample time to rest and get back to full strength.

As time has passed, Selanne’s skills have slowly started to deteriorate. He may be a couple of steps slower and he may have lost a couple of miles per hour on his slap shot, but he makes up for what he lost with his knowledge of the game. No one is better at positioning themselves or seeing a play develop as he is, while still having the youthful exuberance he showed as a kid in his early twenties with the Jets.

This season has not been what Selanne hoped it to be. On October 29, he took a high stick to the mouth from Philadelphia Flyers forward Brayden Schenn. He lost several teeth and needed oral surgery. In total he missed three games, but returned ahead of schedule to face the Phoenix Coyotes on November 6.

Regardless of the outcome this season, he will be remembered as one of the greatest ever to lace up the skates and in three years, will without a doubt be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.

 Let the celebration begin.