Bobby Orr

Well, this book was a massively huge disappointment! For years, I had heard about how great Bobby Orr was, one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Some even said the greatest. He was a little before my time, so I never got to see him play and I know virtually nothing about him, other than he played for Boston and is in the Hall of Fame. So, I put this book on my Amazon Wish List and my wife got it for me for Christmas. Imagine my surprise when I opened it to find him writing that he show more wasn’t going to write about his career (basically) in terms of stats, honors, awards, anything. He says that’s all in the record books, that’s all in the history books, it’s all there. Well … yeah, that’s why I wanted to read this damn book, asshole! To learn about why you were apparently the best player of all time, the best defenseman of all time, the best scoring defenseman of all time, the youngest player ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. I wanted to learn about the Hart Trophies, the Norris Trophies, the Stanley Cups. I wanted to know something about you and your career. Is that so bad? Is that so unusual? Shouldn’t you be the damn source for this?

But noooooooo! Not Orr. He doesn’t like to talk about individual honors. He could care less about them. Says they’re really team honors and even more than that, a reflection on everyone who’s ever influenced that person, such as their pee wee coaches, etc. Yep. Okay.

In this book, he devotes an entire chapter to his parents and his upbringing about the time he was eight years old in a small town in Ontario, Canada. There’s really nothing special about them. They didn’t really do anything special for him. They didn’t even attend many of his games. Frankly, I don’t know how they influenced him at all. I have no idea why he even wrote this useless chapter.

Other chapters are about his pee wee playing years with his buddies in elementary school, about what a poor student he was (seems most good hockey players were for some reason), about how he essentially dropped out of school at age 14 to play hockey, about how he signed his first hockey contract at age 14 with the help of his parents, about how he played in the juniors for four years and then made the Bruins at age 18. He writes next to nothing about his rookie year, except to describe his first goal, the team had the worst record in hockey, and oh yeah, he won the rookie of the year award. No big deal, right? Nothing else. It’s like it never happened. He writes more about his roommates.

The next chapters are about continuing seasons and how the Bruins improve. He has injuries, but the Bruins finally win the Stanley Cup. At least he mentions that. During this time, he must have been doing something somewhere to merit inclusion in the Hall of Fame at age 31 since his career was so incredibly short, but nowhere does he mention how many points he scored or what awards he won or anything relevant at all. Nothing. Why the bloody hell read this shithole excuse for a hockey autobiography? Well, I’m not finishing it. I’m halfway through and I’ve had enough. If I wanted to read about his views on parenting, I’d have Googled that and looked for a book on that topic. Instead, I wanted a book on the HOCKEY PLAYER Bobby Orr, you know, someone who played hockey, apparently quite well. It doesn’t exist in this book. What a damn waste. I’m embarrassed and ashamed that my poor wife wasted her money on this pile of crap. I hope I can get a decent amount for it at the used bookstore when I sell it to them. This is without a doubt, the WORST sports biography I have EVER read! Most definitely not recommended, ever. show less

Sometimes I regret reading an autobiography by someone I hold in high esteem, because the reality often doesn't live up to my image of the person. Here I had no such problem. In fact, while I didn't think it was possible, I respect Bobby Orr even more after reading his book.

I do not come from a family of hockey fans. When I was 12, I happened across a game on TV. This was in 1974, Orr's last full season as a Bruin. Watching him play mesmerized me, and he is the reason I am, to this day, an show more avid fan of the sport in general and the Boston Bruins in particular.

Some fans might be disappointed because Orr does not offer a lot of behind-the-scenes kind of detail about his interactions with other players. But those stories do not belong to him alone and, therefore, he does not feel comfortable telling them. He also doesn't give much detail about his career in the way of stats, records he holds, awards, and trophies. He tells us that those things are public knowledge and he didn't want to write a book of bragging rights. I have tremendous respect for his choice not to give us a book full of gossip and inflated ego. Instead, we're treated to a glimpse of the broad spectrum of his life, from the early pond hockey games to his current career as an agent.

As an added bonus, this book contains a bunch of very cool photos! show less

This is the greatest book ever by the greatest hockey player ever to lace them up.
I got this book from a few people as a gift, which just goes to show there was a pretty good chance I'd like it. Once I got done returning the extra copies, I sat down with this book as if it were delivered in the form of a burning bush. Or stone tablets. Let's go with the stone tablets analogy, because otherwise I'm going to keep picturing myself in flames in a nice comfy chair, which isn't how I want to go show more out.
So I lugged out the stone tablets, settled in on the couch, since the comfy chair was burned to cinders because of the burning bush experience, and began to read. Bobby is more than just a hockey player, as if you didn't know. He was of my parents era, as a player, but he was an integral part of growing up a sports fan in New England. I got to shake his hand at the opening ceremonies of the Bay State Games in the late eighties, early nineties because one of his sponsors, Bay Bank, played a large part in putting on the competition. He was on television, despite having been out of the game for ten years, every time we watched those bruising Bruins of the 80s my parents would reminisce about Number Four, Bobby Orr as if hockey had been forever ruined by seeing that one fleeting glimpse of how the game might be played in its purest form.
Mr. Orr reflects on his storied career and even a little bit on his downfall, but you get the sense that he's uncomfortable with all the attention. He maintains the attitude that nothing that he did was remarkable -- sure, some of the physical feats may have been, but his approach to the game he loved and, to a lesser extent, life in general, is simply based on a healthy respect for others and hard work.
And that's the key lesson, here, that he wishes to deliver from the mountaintop: be humble, work hard, parents, let your kids be kids. They'll figure it out.
I got the sense, just about the time I lost all feeling in my legs, due to the heavy burden of the tablets, that this is the same book Bobby Orr would have written if he went on to become the greatest plumber of all time (maybe a few less stories about the Boston Bruins and Don Cherry, though). He gives himself a little less credit than he deserves, because he obviously had a passion for his sport that I've rarely seen in people, and that perhaps kids could do with a *bit* more pushing (our kids would sit on the couch all day, reading books or watching TV if they weren't encouraged to get out and play -- I don't see either of them leaping out to go play hockey on the bay, unasked), but I agree with his general principle. While most kids won't have the talent and ability, like he had, it's no fun learning systems at too early an age (says the guy who, at 14, was signed by the Boston Bruins). You learn a lot more from a sport than simply how to perform like a professional. And while he may not have been the greatest writer who ever lived, he's written a lovely book that took me down memory lane and given me a few things to think about, as a coach of youth sports in my spare time.
And if you get the stone tablet edition and leave it on your legs for too long you can feel the pain he likely felt for most of his years on the ice. show less

This is an enjoyable enough book about Orr’s hockey career, from childhood to the NHL, but pretty much ONLY about hockey. There is almost nothing about his wife or children, or activities and interests, since retiring. I appreciate that he might want to maintain his privacy, but it is the man, more than the hockey player, that I would find most interesting.