In Sports News Today

[la_samtyr]

I wake up this morning and what do I hear? Mario. Le Magnifique. It sounds pretty definite that Mario will be retiring, this time for good. I can't help but feel bad because... oh, I dunno... I can't say that I'm a super-fan of his but I was really hoping that he could reach 700. But the health issues he has now (and in the past), in addition to the fact that the Pens are not doing well (gee, do ya think that might qualify as the understatement of the year?) and all of the other issues the Pens organization is having w/the city of Pittsburgh--I guess it was just too much. I wish he could have gone after reaching, say, 700 and end on a more positive note. This time he won't be coming back to play. A lot of the sports pundits are saying if he had been able to play in *this* version of the N, and at his healthiest, that he would be greater than Gretz. Of course, I've heard people debate Gretz's and Mario's stats before and they seem to agree that had Mario stayed healthy, Gretz would have had a real challenger. True, Mario had the advantage of height and arguably strength and meanness but I dunno. (To the pundits, it's all about size, speed and strength. They seem to forget a little thing called "heart".) To me, Gretz is the "perfect" size for a player--6'0, 185-ish... gee, sounds like another player, doesn't it? No, I don't necessarily mean Sid-the-Kid, though he does fit the mold but rather Stevie Y, who often gets overlooked. His numbers were excellent but he was playing at the same time as Gretz and Mario were at their peak and thus was overshadowed. Not that it's bothered Stevie any; in fact, he's got avoiding the press down to an art. So, an era is slowly ending and a new one ready to start. Hull, Mess, Mario... I'm sure there will be more retiring as the year wears on. *SIGH* I will never forgive Moron and Idiot for bringing this about. Never! No season indeed! They will pay--eventually but they *will* pay.