The Great One

    Wayne Gretzky was the greatest hockey player of all time.  There is no question about that.  No person would even think of arguing it.  He made hockey.  Yes, in this case that is a complete sentence.  The name Wayne Gretzky has meant hockey for the last 20 years.  Ask any sports fan that doesn't watch hockey to name a hockey player and guess what he'll say?  As a matter of fact, you could probably ask your mother, who has never watched a hockey game or ever wanted to, to name a hockey player and even she could name Wayne Gretzky.
    To be quite honest with you, I have never been much of a hockey fan.  In fact, I would rather watch reruns of Sanford & Son than actually sit through an entire hockey game.  However, I loved Wayne Gretzky.  I rooted for him.  Not because he was a great hockey player, but because he was a great man.  By looking at him, you would never guess he could even play hockey, much less excel at it.  He was skinny as a rail and not particularly strong.  He wasn't the fastest skater in the world either, but his desire to win drove him to be better than anybody.  While he wasn't fast, he was very quick and elusive and rarely did he ever get hit, and it wasn't from lack of his opponents trying.
    He changed the face of hockey completely.  It was no longer a beat the crap out of each other boring game based on defense and fighting.  When Gretzky played, as soon as a shot went into his zone, he sprinted the other way on the counterattack.  The Oilers were the perfect team for Gretzky to play on.  They didn't care about defense, they just figured they could outscore you.
    He brought hockey into the spotlight.  Well, at least somewhat into the spotlight.  He was a genius with the puck, doing things with it that could take up all the time on a year's worth of Sportcenters.  If he wasn't scoring a goal by putting the puck in the exact spot in the top corner of the net that the goaltender couldn't reach it, he was making amazing passes that people still can't believe.  He made his living behind the net, terrifying goaltenders and waiting for teammates to streak towards the goal.  He only needed the tiniest opening to get the puck to them, and even bounced passes off the net at times.  Probably his most famous goal just proved how masterful he was at handling the puck.  In a game while Gretzky was set up in his office (behind the net), he flipped the puck over the net, off the goaltender's back, and into the net.  It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in hockey.
    We recently found out that the NHL is going to wave the usual 3 year waiting period on inducting Gretzky into the hall of fame.  I think a better act would be to rename the hall of fame the Wayne Gretzky center.  It certainly would be more appropriate.  He was nicknamed the Great One since he was age nine and for most people that would be too much to live up to.  But not Gretzky.  He thrived on the nickname and knew that people were coming just to watch him play and he never disappointed.
    In this year of the historic retirements of two sports' greatest players, Wayne Gretzky in my opinion even outshined Michael Jordan.  Jordan picked up where Bird, Magic, and Dr. J left off.  Gretzky started hockey as being prominent, and then he himself continued it through the years.  He has more assists than anybody else has points!!!  He holds 61 NHL records.  I didn't even know there were 61 NHL records.  Nobody in the history of sports has ever dwarfed the records of his closest competitors like Gretzky has, except maybe Babe Ruth.  When he was at his best, he was the greatest show on earth to watch, and it wasn't often that he wasn't at his best.  The NHL has lost its greatest fan draw, and its greatest ambassador, but the sports world has lost a great man.  It is the end of an era in hockey, in fact, it's the end of the era in hockey.  There will never be another Wayne Gretzky.  The NHL retired the #99 for the entire league, they might also want to consider never using the word great to describe anyone again, because he is the Great One, the only Great One.