Gordie Howe passed away on Friday, June 10 and I had the great pleasure and honour to meet and talk with him in 2009. I went to Vancouver with my three kids to have a photo of Gordie and Ted Lindsay signed, and we were lucky enough to have a private meeting with just Gordie, his grandson, and us. We spent about 30 minutes together and we talked about … baseball!
Yes, I met the greatest hockey player of all time and we talked about baseball. Not the Stanley Cup, not his records, not the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, the legendary elbows, or playing with his sons. No, we talked about baseball and how close he came to playing professional baseball instead of hockey.
Imagine that – hockey without “Mr. Hockey.” That would be weird.
The first thing I noticed when I introduced myself was that my hand completely disappeared in his. His firm handshake felt like a vice and I swear he could have crushed every bone in my hand if he wanted to. With my sons he was firm and direct but with my daughter (who is the oldest) he became very gentle and grandfatherly.
When Gordie asked my kids if they played hockey, they all replied no and told him they played baseball. Now I’m not sure if he ever got bored with rehashing the same legendary hockey stories, but he did seem to get a little bit extra excited about baseball and how he loved to play the game as a kid during the summer in Saskatchewan. Like many of the greats – Orr, Gretzky, and others – Gordie was a believer in playing other sports during the hockey offseason and he became quite a good baseball player when he was young. So good, in fact, that he said when the Detroit Red Wings came calling with a contract offer he had to choose between that and an offer from a pro baseball team.
And, according to Gordie, it was none other than the New York Yankees.
Yes, the Bronx Bombers wanted the tough, athletic farm boy from Saskatoon to join their farm system. He told us he very nearly did just that, except the Detroit Red Wings upped the ante and offered him a signing bonus. I found that an odd statement because everything I had ever read about Gordie and the Red Wings had indicated that they grossly underpaid him. The idea that the team would offer a signing bonus didn’t fit.
We talked at some length about his baseball playing days – he was a first baseman – and how much he enjoyed playing as a youngster and even when he played semi-pro in Saskatchewan in the NHL offseason until the Red Wings told him to stop (probably out of fear of an injury). But I couldn’t get the statement of a signing bonus out of my head. I finally asked him how big that bonus was. Now that I look back on it, it was kind of a rude, nosy question, but I had to know.
Gordie paused, looked me in the eyes, a small smile on his face.
“A team jacket,” he said.
“What?” was my witty response.
“Detroit gave me a team jacket.”
So that was it – the greatest hockey player of all time, possibly Canada’s greatest athlete ever, began a pro hockey career that spanned five decades because of a team jacket!
If the NY Yankees had matched the offer, and maybe thrown in a hat to go with the jacket, would we be talking about the life and career of one of the best baseball players of all time? Maybe. I certainly wouldn’t bet against it. Not against Gordie Howe.
Imagine the powerhouse Yankees of the early 1950s with Gordie Howe playing alongside Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, Phil Rizzuto, and Joe DiMaggio at the end of his career. Wow. We will never know how great he could have become playing with the boys of summer, but I believe he would have been the same hard-nosed superstar that he was in hockey. His off the charts physical strength, mental toughness, and competitiveness along with his athletic skills would have made him as fearsome an opponent in baseball as he was in hockey. And heaven help the pitcher who threw a beanball at him!
I have read a number of the stories written since his passing and so many of those people were lucky enough to spend much more time with Mr. Hockey than I was, but I am thrilled that my children and I were able to share a short visit with him. It is a moment in time that this “baseball guy” will never forget.
(Eric Olsen is a Bantam A Coach with the Sunshine Coast Baseball Association.)
