The NHL Hall of Fame is not playing with fire

The 2016 inductees into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame in Toronto were announced on Monday. Eric Lindros was elected long with Soviet star Sergei Makarov and goaltender Rogie Vachon. The player and coach Pat Quinn, who died in 2014, made it as well. Quinn was chairman of the hall of fame at the time of his death. Missing from the selection class was Theo Fleury who was irrefutably one of the most electrifying players of his generation.

Sergei Makarov was part of the Russian KLM line with Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov. While Makarov did score the first goal in the 1980 tournament game against the United States at Lake Placid, he will always be a part of the biggest choke in team sports history.

THEO FLEURY - He overcame his 5-foot-6 150 lb. size to put up 1,088 points and win almost everything: The Stanley Cup, Canada Cup, Turner Cup, Olympic gold medal and a World Junior Gold Medal. Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux or any player who has ever laced up skates can lay claim to such remarkable hockey team accomplishments.

Induction into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame will have to wait for the youngster from Oxbow, Saskatchewan. Theo Fleury has battled demons since childhood. The product of a broken home, alcoholic father and drug addict mother, he has faced greater disappointment than the selection committee could ever know.

Following a serious arm injury at age 13, having missed a full season of action, the local community raised money to send him to the Andy Murray Hockey School in Brandon, Manitoba. This was the first time away from home for Theo. It was there that Fleury met Graham James, who was working as a scout for the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL).

Graham Michael James is a former Canadian ice hockey coach for the Western Hockey League and convicted sex offender, named Man of the Year by The Hockey News in 1989 after coaching the Swift Current Broncos league championship win. This honor was later revoked by The Hockey News. James pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for molesting hockey player, Sheldon Kennedy. James admitted to molesting a second NHL player, Theo Fleury. Two additional years were added to his sentence.

Theo Fleury played 15 NHL seasons. He amassed better than a point per game in his career. He twice represented Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. His first team played in the 1987 tournament in Piešťany, Czechoslovakia. The tournament is best remembered for the "Punch-up in Piestany." An infamous bench-clearing brawl between the Canadians and the Soviet Union resulted in players from both teams being banned for international competition for 18 months. A judge reduced the suspension to six months, and Fleury led the Canadians to the 1988 world title.

The following year, Theo Fleury was a rookie on the Calgary Flames as the team won its only Stanley Cup title. He scored 33 goals in his first season and tallied 51 the next year. His career Flames scoring record was surpassed by Jarome Iginla in 2009.

In 1995, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. He also battled drug and alcohol addictions. According to Theo, he failed 13 consecutive drug tests while a member of the New York Rangers, but was not suspended because he was leading the team in scoring.

Playing with Fire became the top seller on Amazon within a week of its release, and Fleury stated that he had been contacted by several sexual abuse victims who were motivated by his book to seek help. The author, Kirstie McLellan Day adapted the autobiography into a one-man play, entitled Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story. The play made its world premiere May 1, 2012 and was also the subject of a 2012 documentary by HBO Canada.

Player - Playing ability, sportsmanship, character and contributions to his or her team or teams and to the game of hockey in general for induction.

"Off the ice should count as much as on." Fleury has raised millions in research for Crohn's disease.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

And Justice for All

On June 24, 1984, Victor Manuel Gerena celebrated his 26th birthday by parking his car inside The Wells Fargo company garage, rather than the employees lot. Nobody seemed to mind this little request for the birthday boy. He was a new security guard who seemed interested in law enforcement.

Victor had attended Annhurst College, a female only college that had admitted men recently to pay the bills. This private Catholic institution was run by the nuns and they had no use for the males, and treated them accordingly. Victor saw the handwriting on the wall and left before graduation. He got a job in West Hartford, Ct, not far from the South Woodstock campus.

Following the morning meeting, Victor would take two security employees as hostage, injecting them with a non-lethal substance and tying them with nylons. He would drive out the main gate with $ 7 million. His whereabouts are still unknown.

During a game of Hearts with UPI Editor-In-Chief William Hutchinson in 1949, FBI Chief and cross dresser J.Edgar Hoover, were discussing ways to promote the capture of the “ bad guys.“ Victor is at the head of the class, ranked #1 in the Top 10 most wanted. Alexis Flores is now at #2 and Luis Macedo ranks third.

The only correspondence in the past 24 years was a phone call to his girlfriend 3 days after the robbery. He told her that “ he hated the nuns more than they hated him” . He also said that Wells Fargo was “cheap. “ I will be making more than 5 bucks an hour not working.

Recently, a bag of money fell out of the back of a Wells Fargo Armored vehicle. A homeless person returned the money bag worth more than $ 1 million and was given a reward of $ 10, 000.00. I know The Greatest Generation tipped at a rate of 15 %, maximum. Today, a decent tip is 20% and a very good one is 25 %. Wells Fargo must be still using the Gold Rush rate. Score one for Victor.

The last time Victor was seen when he dropped his girlfriend at City Hall for a marriage license. She would later tell the FBI that “ Victor would return.” They were to have the song by Fleetwood Mac, The Chain played at their wedding.

On May 14, 1984, Gerena became the 386th fugitive to be placed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He remains at large, and on April 11, 2010, became the fugitive to have spent the most time on the list, surpassing Donald Eugene Webb, who was removed from the list on March 31, 2007, after 25 years, 10 months, and 27 days (no leads for many years, presumed dead). As of June, 2016, Gerena has been on the list for 32 years. He is believed to be living in Cuba.


I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Father's Day never gets old

SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS

A quick refresher for those who haven’t kept score in a while: R – run, H – hit, E – error, BB – base on balls, LOB – left on base, HBP – hit by pitch, GIDP –grounded into double play

For the visiting Los Angeles Angels, 10 runs, 18 hits, four errors, 11 walks, 17 runners left on base, two hit batsmen, and four grounded into double plays.

The home team Boston Red Sox scored 6 runs, 14 hits, six errors, 9 walks, 14 runners on base, two hit batsmen, and grounded into five double plays.

This is the box score for the Father’s Day Game I took my dad to. It was a regular day in the neighborhood with 7 AM Sunday Mass, followed by breakfast and baseball at Emerson Playground. On this day, it would be just Dad and me heading east on Storrow Drive going to Fenway Park.

During our drive, he let me listen to Arnie “ Woo Woo “ Ginsberg on WMEX, 1510 AM on your radio dial. As we passed Browne & Nichols, Sunshine Superman by Donovan came on. This song has Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame on lead guitar and Bobby Orr on the drums. No, it is not the same one who scored on Mother’s Day. I knew every word and I sang away. As we passed the Coca Cola sign, I must have reached the high note for I saw my Father smile.

The weather was in the 90’s and the sacks were full just about every inning. The tying run would come to the plate with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. The bases were loaded for 3rd baseman, Frank Malzone. He lived near my Dad’s sister in Needham so he was my favorite. All I needed was a grand slam and I could have extra innings. I jumped from my seat as his fly ball was caught behind shortstop.

The most famous trial of the 20th Century was held in Flemington, New Jersey in 1935(pop.-2,769). This was the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. Richard Bruno Hauptmann was charged with the crime. He would be given the electric chair on April 3rd by the State of New Jersey after having his favorite meal and a smoke. My father would be tortured worse with a 5 hour baseball game, listening to my singing, a soggy ballpark frank and a flat coke. He would also have memories of April 3rd for he was married on this date.

The last movie that my Father watched was Field of Dreams. I do hope to have a game of catch with him someday. I am quite confident it won’t be on any Father’s Day.

That is always my recollection of Father's Day. Thanks for the memories.

A you-you-you can just sit there a-thinking on your velvet throne,
‘bout all the rainbows a-you can a-have for your own

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Bobbie Gentry needs to give us some answers

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered at the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

The Tallahatchee Bridge connects Money, Mississippi with Greenwood. Money, population of 95, is the hometown of singer, Bobbie Gentry. The river has historical significance due to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African-American youth from Chicago, who was visiting his uncle, Moses Wright. Emmett was brutally murdered by white men in Money, MS for allegedly being impolite to a white woman. He was beaten, shot, and sunk in the river with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck by barbed wire. This event is mentioned in the song, "Freedom Highway" by The Staple Singers. An all white jury acquitted the eight men in 67 minutes.

Bobbie Gentry said that the question she was most often asked was why Billie jumped. Several theories also floated around about what he and the narrator threw off the bridge: Less tragic options included drugs, flowers, an engagement ring, or a draft card. Instead, she points to other themes in the song, such as the small-town community, referenced by the church, the picture show, and the sawmill. Soon after the song’s chart success, the Tallahatchie Bridge saw an increase in those willing to jump off of it. Since the bridge height is only 20 feet , death or injury was unlikely. To curb the trend, the Leflore County Board enacted a law fining jumpers $100.

Bobbie Lee throws flowers off the bridge for Billy Joe, just like in the song. Despite cinematic details in the song’s lyric, we still don’t know exactly what happened up there on Choctaw Ridge on June 3, 1953. That bridge collapsed in June 1972 after being burned by vandals and has since been replaced. Bobbie Gentry went into hiding 35 years ago.

"You want answers?" "I want the Truth."

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy