Phil Esposito Book
I am reading the Phil Esposito book, "Thunder and Lightning: A No BS Hockey Memoir." The book, written in 2003, has a similar organizational structure to Derek Sanderson's book "Crossing The Line", but is not quite as well written as Sanderson's book. Esposito talks about his upbringing and growth as a young hockey player in Sault Ste. Marie (called "the Soo"). He grew up in an Italian part of town, worked in the steel mill where his father worked until he was 30. Esposito said growing up, he hated the Toronto Maple Leafs because the owner would not permit any Italians on the team. He rooted for the Red Wings because he idolized Gordie Howe and there was a well known Italian player on the Red Wings at that time (I forgot his name).
Esposito readily admits he was not a great skater and was perceived to be slow. He states that in youth hockey several teams he tried out for made the players skate around the rink and after seeing Phil go twice around the rink, they would tell him to go home. Just cut him, right on the spot. Esposito said he did not start making any teams until coaches actually watched him play in games, instead of just watching him skate. In games, they would see that Espo could not skate well, but he could overcome this by just putting the puck in the net, because of his very good stickhandling ability, moves, and reflexes, enabling him to become a superior goal scorer on rebounds. Esposito compares himself to football's Emmitt Smith, who was told he was too slow, and too small, yet scored more TDs and gained more yards than anyone.
Esposito talks about how he initially became a center. It was due to filling in for an injured player and having a monster game, and after that he was always a center.
Esposito comments that he was often lauded for beating a defender twice on the same play. This is because the defenders often had the superior speed to recover, but then he would beat them once again as soon as they did so.
Espo in this book is much franker about his sex life as a young hockey player than Sanderson was in his. He talks about going to a dance and meeting a really hot girl and asking her to dance. During the dance the girl said to Espo, "do I dance like a flat tire?" And Espo said to her, "no, you dance great". The girl then said to Espo, "then will you kindly lower your jack!" Espo did not realize it, but his throbbing hard on had been rubbing up against the girl. He was so embarrassed, he said he was sorry and walked away. BTW "lowering your jack" must be a Canadian expression because I never heard it before. But I LOL when I read that one.
Espo talks about his relationship with his goalie brother Tony and the differences in personality between the two, which are considerable. Tony got a scholarship to college (Michigan Tech) while Phil was thrown out of high school.
Espo seems like quite a character. Between him and Sanderson the Boston sportswriters of the early 1970s must have had their hands full with that team. By the ways, Espo mention some sexual escapades of Sanderson that Sanderson did not mention in his own book.
I have not yet gotten to his NHL career, although Espo has already said the two biggest lows of his hockey career were being traded from the Bruins to the Rangers and getting fired by Tampa Bay and later bought out by the "fat cats" who "know shit about hockey."
Seriously, it is tho, one good week or one bad week and that "poll" changes drastically :eyebrows:
