Friday, January 25, 2008

Just When You Thought We Were Done With This... Messier is Right on Cue

You know, I thought we were passed this. I thought we were out of the woods when it came to watching Mark Messier cry in public. Of course, I forgot that the Rangers were retiring Brian Leetch's number, a former teammate of Messier's. So I didn't watch the game, but I still have to endure seeing things like this.

I'm sure there are YouTubes of it out there but it's not really worth trying to find. I don't want to put all of us through something severely traumatic again. I just hope that through awareness, we can find a cure for this terrible disease that seems to haunt Messier. I'm talking about Crying in Public to Garner Attention Syndrome, of course. That's CPGAS for short.

But going back to my original point -- we are nowhere near out of the woods on this one yet, folks. Tonight, Leetch announced that the Rangers would be retiring Adam Graves' number later on. So what does that mean? That means that tonight was not the last we will see of Messier's waterworks. Dammit. Someday we will. Someday. WE. WILL.



7 comments:

  1. I need another Mess crying incident like I need another Anna Nicole Smith retrospective.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Retiring Leech's number. And Graves?

    They were good players, but "retired number good"? I just don't see it. If those two make the standards for retiring numbers, and other teams begin to follow along, then we need to get ready for three digit player numbers (eventually leading to jerseys with telephone number length designations on the back?).

    ReplyDelete
  3. "we know how you love Mark Messier posts" (or something to that effect)

    We so need JR to cover one of these things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leetch was a Conn Smythe and 2-time Norris winner. And I think he was on the World Cup team in 1996 that beat Canada. Not to mention 247 goals. I think he deserves it.

    Graves on the other hand...I don't know about that one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. from what i understand (and i've only been sort of following the rangers against my will since i moved to NYC right after the lockout), graves wasn't a put-up-points kind of guy as much as a fan favorite, vital in the locker room, etc etc. i think it's really great that they are retiring his number.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was all set to watch Brian Leetch night since I really respected him, but then I thought about it, decided that Messier would be there, and did homework instead. I saved my bandwidth for more important things like the Wild game and watching the Oilers win for a change.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sean is right about Leetch - as the best American-born player of the 90s, and one of the top five defensemen for 15 years, he definitely deserved it. His performance in 94 was remarkable.

    Sonia is partially right about Graves: he was a fan fav, and huge in the locker room but he also broke the Rangers goal record with his 52 goal season and he is probably the most charitable hockey player to ever grace the Garden ice and maybe even the league. Considering how good hockey players are with charities, that is saying a lot.

    Between tears, Mess said "They are going to point to Brian Leetch and say that's what we want in a New York Ranger." The very same thing can/should/will be said about Graves.

    HOWEVER, this retiring number thing is silly. The Leafs have it right in the honoured numbers idea. How can anyone say that Leetch or Graves or Richter were any better than the great Rangers of the 30s and 40s? People said Frank Boucher was the Gretzky of his day, but his number doesn't grace the rafters. Sending these numbers up are only cleaver PR/sales/marketing gimmicks.

    ReplyDelete