Review of "Bleeding Green"

While I cannot consider myself a fan of the Hartford Whalers, I do consider their logo to be the best one ever created in North American team sports.  Because many others have this same opinion, I wanted to pick up this book to see if I could learn more about why this team is still so popular.  It didn't quite help there, but it was a great source of information on the team.  Here is my review of "Bleeding Green".

Title/Author: “Bleeding Green” A History of the Hartford Whalers” by Christopher Price

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: Even though the team has not been in existence for 25 years, the Hartford Whalers still bring back great memories for hockey fans. This may sound puzzling since the team only won one playoff series during their 18-year history in the National Hockey League (NHL). Their unique logo – a whale tail placed strategically above a “W” in green, blue and white – makes Whalers vintage hockey merchandise the best selling items for any seller in that market.  The history of the team, including their time as the New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association (WHA) is the topic of this book by Christopher Price.  

Readers who are looking for a detailed expose on why the Whalers are so fondly remembered and why their merchandise sells so well won’t find it in this book.  While Price does touch on that topic in the final chapter, the bulk of the book is a detailed history of the team both on and off the ice.  This is the case for not only their NHL years, in which the Whalers became and still remain the only professional sports team base in Connecticut, but also their mostly successful years in the WHA.

No matter which era is covered, Price does a very good job of informing the reader of their on-ice success (or lack thereof), the moves made by the front office and the business side of the team’s operations as well.  All three of these areas are covered in excellent detail.  This is especially true of the latter because those stories were the most colorful.  Part of this was due to the financial instability of the WHA – the Whalers were considered to be the most stable of the franchises in this league, but even they had issues, mainly due to needing to share the Boston Garden with the NHL’s Bruins.

There are many interesting aspects in the team’s history that seems to tug at the heart of Whalers fans.  These include the trades of popular players like Ron Francis and Mike Luit, the team’s goal song “Brass Bonanza” and even how the community pulled together when the roof of the Hartford Civic Center collapsed and the team temporarily played its home games in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Those are just a few of the many aspects of the very interesting history of a hockey team that may not have enjoyed much success in the NHL (it should be noted that the Whalers won the first WHA championship in 1973 and faced the Winnipeg Jets in the finals in 1978) but certainly has won a place in the hearts of many hockey fans, especially those in Connecticut. This book is a very good source of information for the Whalers and is recommended for anyone who still has attachments, for whatever reason, to the team.    

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Link: Bleeding Green: A History of the Hartford Whalers: Price, Christopher: 9781496222008: Amazon.com: Books

 

Review of "Grim Reaper"

As a huge hockey fan, I am one who doesn't enjoy fighting in the game. I believe it has its place but I don't get as pumped up for a fight at a game as other fans.  That said, some of the better hockey memoirs/biographies I have read are about those players who make a living in the game with their fists.  This is another good book written by a player who was an enforcer, Stu Grimson.  Here is my review of "Grim Reaper"

Title/Author:

“The Grim Reaper: The Life and Career of a Reluctant Warrior” by Stu Grimson

Tags:

Ice Hockey, memoir, professional, Blackhawks, Red Wings, Ducks, Kings, Flames, Whalers, Predators

Publish date:

October 15, 2019

Length:

324 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

The life of a hockey player who is called an “enforcer”, a “fighter” or a “goon” is quite different than the life of other hockey players. They play fewer minutes, are asked to perform a duty in which they face great risk of injury, their careers can be much shorter than those of other players, they can play in relative anonymity and they also switch teams frequently.  Aside from a short career, this is pretty accurate for Stu Grimson who has written a very good memoir about his time as an enforcer.

Having read good books on other enforcers such as Bob Probert and Derek Boogardt, I picked this one up with high expectations and it did not disappoint.  It did not follow the usual format from youth to college or junior hockey to the pros to life after hockey. While all of these life cycle events are covered by Grimson with many great stories, the book does skip around at times, especially when he is discussing his life after hockey. 

Despite that, reading about important events in his life other than hockey was very enjoyable, something that usually isn’t the case with sports memoirs. His time working as an attorney for the NHL Players Association was very intriguing, especially when he was fired from the position by the person whom he helped attain the director position of the union. He also talks about meeting his birth parents (he and his sister were adopted) and the fact that his birth father was also a professional athlete (played football in the Canadian Football League) and became a lawyer after his playing days were over is just an amazing coincidence.

Readers who prefer to read about his hockey career will also be happy as he shares many stories of his fights on the ice, his trouble with rules during junior hockey and through it all, he always wondered if this was the best path to make a career in the sport. He repeatedly states at every stop in his professional career (there were many, as he played for seven different NHL teams, including two stints with the Anaheim Ducks) he states he would do whatever he needed to do in order to contribute to the success of his team.  From the descriptions of some of his actions, there was no reason to believe otherwise.

His description of fights, especially one in which Dave Brown broke the orbital bone of Grimson early in his career when he played on the Blackhawks. It was almost gruesome to read the details of not only the injury but how Brown threw the punches.  However, there was no hard feelings between the two players and Brown did show concern.  That is part of the code present among enforcers in the NHL and Grimson talks often about that and displays much respect for his fellow fighters who obey these unwritten rules.

Whether or not one enjoys fighting as part of the game, hockey fans should pick up this book and get a very good perspective into the life and mind of those players whose main job is not to score goals or keep the puck out of the net, but instead have to use their fists to provide value to their teams.

I wish to thank Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

                                                                       

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)                                                                                                                                

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735237247/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0735237247&linkCode=as2&tag=netg01-20

Review of "The Devil and Bobby Hull"

This book and I had a strange relationship.  I had checked the e-book version out from the library three times and never got around to reading it beyond the first chapter.  Then, when I got a free credit from my audio book account and saw that this was available in that format, I decided to try it and this time I actually finished it.  I am glad that I did.  While some other reviewers felt this book was very hard on Bobby Hull, I thought it was a fair and balanced account of his hockey career and his life.  Here is my review of "The Devil and Bobby Hull."

Title/Author:

“The Devil and Bobby Hull: How Hockey’s Original Million Dollar Man Became the Game’s Lost Legend ” by Gare Joyce, narrated by Bernard Clark

Tags:

Ice Hockey, professional, biography, Blackhawks, Jets, Whalers, audiobook

Publish date:

January 1, 2011

Length:

274 pages

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Bobby Hull was arguably the best NHL hockey player during the 1960’s and early 1970’s.  He scored more than 50 goals several times during that decade and was nicknamed “The Golden Jet” for his flowing locks (until they started receding) while he skated up the ice.

In 1971, he and his Chicago Blackhawks came oh-so-close to winning the Stanley Cup. He played one more season in Chicago before he signed a contract worth one million dollars with the Winnipeg Jets of the brand new World Hockey Association (WHA).  While the signing gave the new league instant credibility and Hull newfound riches, it also marked a significant change in how his career would be viewed by the NHL.  This biography by Gare Joyce is an interesting look at Hull’s career and personal life as well, using information mostly gathered during a long interview with Hull at a restaurant owned by Wayne Gretzky.

I believe the book paints a balanced picture of Hull for both his hockey career and his personal life and reputation. The latter took a beating during his 1980 divorce trial from his wife, with whom he had five children including a son who was also proficient at scoring goals in the NHL, Brett Hull.  By the time of the divorce, Hull had been released by the Hartford Whalers, another team from the original WHA along with Hull’s old team in Winnipeg, who had released him earlier that season.  The story told in the book paints a broken but determined man who is going to give the sport one last chance, despite the fact the sport had basically frozen him out after jumping from the NHL to the WHA.

This is the other dark cloud of the book – Hull’s personal rift with Bob Wirtz and Harold Ballard.  These two men were owners of the Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs respectively and he felt they were the big reason he signed with Winnipeg.  The reader will hear mostly from Hull’s side of this war, but the author does a decent job of not taking sides and writing about this fairly. 

If a reader wants to learn more about Hull the player, this book does a very good job or providing that information as well. The best hockey scene in the book comes at the beginning when the final game of the 1971 Stanley Cup finals is relived in painful detail (to Hull and Blackhawk fans) when the Montreal Canadiens won the game and Cup.  There is also some good writing about his days in Winnipeg, especially when the Jets signed Swedish players Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg to play on the same line as Hull.  They produced some of the best hockey played in the short life of the WHA before four of the league’s teams, including Hull’s Jets, were merged with the NHL.

The audio version of the book was capably narrated by Bernard Clark with the exception of some mispronounced names.  Fortunately these are few and far between and are not people that play a major role in the book.  His narration helped me envision what was taking place on the ice and also made the dark parts of Hull’s life, such as the divorce and revelations of his spousal abuse toward his wife, seem even worse than mere written words would do.

This book paints a good picture of Hull’s life, warts and all, that a reader who is not familiar with him will get a balanced look at his life and career.  Those readers who remember him and were big fans may not like the negatives written but to me these were needed to paint the complete picture.

Book Format Read:

Audio book

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Bobby-Hull-Original-Million-Dollar-ebook/dp/B00KPVJDFM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1516466083&sr=8-2&keywords=the+devil+and+bobby+hull

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/devil-and-bobby-hull-gare-joyce/1101905578;jsessionid=3F5B54117CB21650F1DEBA67F7C9A96A.prodny_store01-atgap12?ean=9781443429795&st=AFF&2sid=Goodreads,%20Inc_2227948_NA&sourceId=AFFGoodreads,%20IncM000004

Review of "Slim and None"

I have to admit, I love to read anything about hockey teams that no longer exist. One of these teams is the Hartford Whalers and when I found this memoir of the original owner of the Whalers, I knew that it had to have some great stories about the team. It certainly did and told the story of a very interesting person.  Here is my review of Howard Baldwin's autobiography "Slim and None.

Title/Author:

“Slim and None: My Wild Ride from the WHA to the NHL and All the Way to Hollywood” by Howard Baldwin with Steve Milton

Tags:

Ice hockey, professional, memoir, Whalers, Penguins, Flyers, owners

Publish date:

October 7, 2014

Length:

320 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

Even though he was a good athlete through high school and college, Howard Baldwin never thought to have a sports career as a player – instead he wanted to own a team.  He achieved that dream at the young age of 28 as one of the partners of the New England Whalers of the fledgling World Hockey Association. How he got there and what he did with the team, as well as his future endeavors are captured in this wonder memoir that is entertaining, informative and full of great memories for hockey fans.

Baldwin doesn’t spend too much time talking about his childhood or his college days.  After his time in the Marines, he dives immediately into his sports career, becoming a ticket manager for the expansion Philadelphia Flyers in 1967. When Gary Davidson had an idea to create a rival hockey league in 1972, Baldwin convinced two other men to become the owners of the brand new New England Whalers franchise. The team was one of four WHA teams to join the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers – a merger (although for business reasons it was called an “expansion”) between the two leagues in which Baldwin played a key role.

How Baldwin and the Whalers got there and their years in the NHL makes for great reading. How the team and the entire WHA league was able to make deals with players, negotiate rent for arena time and yet still provide excellent hockey is covered throughout the book. It is clear that Baldwin is very passionate about the Whalers and the city of Hartford even after he sold his shares in 1989 and the subsequent move of the franchise to Raleigh in 1996.

Life after the Whalers is discussed in depth as well in the same entertaining manner – Baldwin later moved to the West Coast after marrying his second wife Karen and was instrumental in making San Jose a viable NHL market. However, that lead to a very brief tenure as an owner of the Minnesota North Stars. He went from Minnesota to Pittsburgh and was able to celebrate the Penguins’ 1992 Stanley Cup championship with them.  He also went on to become a successful movie producer with his wife, the most notable of his films being the hockey movie “Mystery, Alaska.”

Hockey fans will love the stories of the WHA and some of the wisecracks Baldwin makes. One of my favorites came during the discussion of the final season of the WHA, when it finished with six teams, only four of which would join the NHL. Baldwin stated that “the NHL had its Original Six and the WHA would have its Final Six.”  His relationships with people like Jack Kelley, whom he hired from Boston University to become the first Whalers coach and GM, are told with reverence. It is clear that he feels that he should do right to people who help him or work for him and it is really no surprise he became such a successful team owner.

This was one of the few memoirs that I read in one sitting because I was riveted to the book’s hockey stories and Baldwin’s writing that was easy to read.  It was entertaining, insightful and a book that is highly recommended for hockey fans.  People who have fond memories of the Hartford Whalers will especially love this book.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying links:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LWFF3E0?keywords=slim%20and%20none&qid=1450748612&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/slim-and-none-howard-baldwin/1119185311?ean=9781770893634