The Cheap Seats Book Club: Gretzky's Tears

It's often called, The Trade. You know what I'm talking about. August 9, 1988. Wayne Gretzky. Los Angeles. Shock. And. Awe. A new book by the Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt takes an in-depth look at the people and various players (of the hockey and business variety) behind the biggest hockey transaction ever made.

Gretzky's Tears, named for the infamous moment the Great One pushed back from the cluster of mics to dab his eyes during the press conference announcing the big move, strikes a good balance between history, mythology and the cold, hard realities of sport. For many hockey fans, Gretzky's trade to LA was like the day they were told there was no Santa Claus. The veil had been lifted. Hockey was a business.

Brunt touches on the well-traveled legend of Gretzky's youth, the forces that brought both the player and the Edmonton Oilers to the NHL and the chubby coin collector from California who bought a national treasure. One thing Brunt's reporting and 20 years of perspective does here is really peel back the various motivations behind the move, and piece together the events as they transpired. By holding up how the story's principles remember what happened against the media reports of the day, we're able to get a better sense of the fact and fiction, illusion and reality of the deal. Did you know Alan Thicke was involved? Yeah, the Growing Pains guy. Who knew? 

The Cheap Seats Book Club: Leafs AbomiNation

As the 2009/2010 NHL season approaches, Toronto Maple Leafs fans (once again) prepare themselves for the unknown. While, as the late, great Joe Strummer said, the future is unwritten, a new book by two Hogtown scribes examines the sins of Leafs past to get a hint at where the club should head in the years ahead.

Leafs Abomination: The Dismayed Fan’s Handbook to Why the Leafs Stink and How They Can Rise Again by Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange is like a painful intervention. Far from having a grudge against the Leafs or their fans, the book does a great job of simply lining up all the facts – like a four decade long buffet of hockey incompetence and underachievement.

As a Leafs fan, it’s a lot like waking up hungover and having your friends recount every single transgression from the previous evening’s events in horrifying detail. I slept with who? In the ladies’ room? I drank pure gasoline? We killed a goat in ritual sacrifice in the backyard? Now imagine that night was 40 years long.

When fish and literary giants collide

Sure, the Canadian Olympic hockey camp is on, the Phoenix Coyotes clusterf*%k continues and Lance Armstrong's riding for Radio Shack, but it's not ALL about current sports affairs here at The Cheap Seats. Sometimes, we like to sit back, open our not-so freshly laundered bathrobe to the world, pour a stiff drink and reflect a bit. Slow down, as it were. Today, our sudden penchant for pondering comes in the form of celebrated writer and outdoorsman Jim Harrison.

A friend of ours recently returned from a fly-fishing adventure in Montana, a place Harrison also resides, and passed on this trailer to the recently-released film Tarpon, which was shot 35 years ago. Sure, Key West fly-fishing movies aren't normally our go-to form of sports entertainment, but we might just make an exception this time. Why? Well, Harrison's in it. And apart from writing novels like Legends of the Fall, Warlock and True North, Harrison also happens to be a premier chronicler of the sporting life. His writing on hunting and fishing alone is enough to make a PETA member drool. This, in turn, reminded us to recommend his collection of non-fiction Just Before Dark. If you like booze, food, sporting adventure and general awesomeness, do yourself a favor and crack it.