Monday, March 29, 2010

My Proudest Moment

It all started back when I was a kid, around 6 or 7. In my living room there was a United Way poster with Rick Vaive on it, holding a small child in a Maple Leafs jersey. Around the same time, Rick Vaive moved in across the street from me, which I thought was pretty cool but also accepted as normal and natural. At the time, Rick Vaive lived across the street from practically everyone I knew.

I don't recall becoming a Leafs fan. It's always just sort of been there.

You could say I suffered through the Ballard Era, but I was too young to know the difference. I don't remember Armstrong or Keon, but I do remember Sittler and Salming, Turnbull and Palmateer, Lanny McDonald, and of course, Rick Vaive. And I loved them all.

In the mid-to-late '80s I really did suffer through some horrible teams. And there were very few players, with the exception of Wendel Clark, that inspired adoration. I wasn't old enough yet to really realize it, but the franchise was in a terrible mess. I began to indulge in fantasies that Jari Kurri was my biological father, and thus, developed a deep resentment towards Gretzky, whom I felt was stealing all of my estranged Dad's rightful glory and fame.

Then Gretzky got traded to L.A.. Then Gilmour got traded to Toronto. Then Gretzky high-sticked Gilmour in the face.

Years later, I discovered DownGoesBrown, and a few months after that DownGoesBrown discoverd VHS tapes in his attic, or garage, or basement, or wherever. Then Bloge Salming set the Barilkosphere on fire. Pretty soon the NY Times was involved.

Sensing that my moment had come, I sent Bloge an e-mail.

And it's all come down to this - the result of everything that's happened in my life, from the moment that United Way poster went up on my living room wall, to Wendel's hat-trick in Game 6, to Gretzky's hat-trick in Game 7, to the invention of the internet, until now. I'm not sure it'll ever eclipse this...
This is the greatest thing that general borschevsky's name has ever been associated with. It's even better then that time Damien responded to one of my comments, or the time I punched James Mirtle in the gut for calling Kaberle a whore.

Thanks again to Bloge Salming for makin' it happen. If you don't follow his blog then Wendel Clark doesn't love you and you're going to burn in hell.

11 comments:

Jeff Murphy and Jeff O'Brian said...

Glad we could work together GB.

It was truly a pleasure.

Down Goes Brown said...

This was a home run.

Hm... anyone know how much it costs to buy 30 seconds of ad space on an NHL broadcast?

. said...

Surely we could raise enough with the help of the PPP crew. Couldn't be more than a year of owning the Senator's hockey database page, right?

Unknown said...

what is the name of the song please?

blurr1974 said...

what if...

/sigh

Beautiful sentiment general. Can't wait until we wonder no longer.

Junior said...

Brilliant. Oh, and thanks a lot; every time I see these ads throughout the playoffs now, I'll be thinking of the ad that never was and the Cup that never was. DAMMIT.

@DGB:
If I'm reading the data correctly, in certain markets the NHL would be willing to pay you several thousand dollars to air it.

general borschevsky said...

Thanks, Gang! Especially to Bloge for his great work and a glove-tap to DGB for putting the videos on YouTube in the first place.

@martin: I've been searching the internet all day today trying to find the original music and I might've finally tracked down the name of the song - I think's it's called Intermission, by Tool.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the name of the song, but i did not mean the first one, i mean the second one, the longer one. If anyone know, please let me know ... i would like to make some videos with that song.

general borschevsky said...

Sorry martin, didn't meant to lead you astray. I did in fact spend all day looking for the title of the music being used, but I couldn't find any reference to it other then other people also wanting to know what it is.

You could try this guy:

Gary Meagher
NHL Senior Vice President, Public Relations & Media (Toronto)
50 Bay St., 11th Floor
M5J 2X8
416-359-7900.Fax:416-981-2771

Maybe he knows.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Fantastic work, guys. Simply fantastic.

general borschevsky said...

Cheers, eyebleaf! You rock.