Blackhawks big winners on special road trip

Yet another reason why hockey players are better than most people:


Blackhawks big winners on special road trip
Without fanfare, Hawks are there for their GM

Rick Morrissey

In the wake of the news

11:40 PM CST, December 14, 2008

It began with the rarest of elements in professional sports: silence. No press release. No major announcement. No photo opportunity. Just the quiet of people doing a nice thing, the right thing.

Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon was murmuring prayers over his father's casket a half-hour before the wake was to begin. The family was saying its goodbyes to Stan Tallon, a tough, big-hearted guy who liked helping troubled kids. Dale's mother, Julie, was there. So were his wife, Meg, and their two children, Lauren and Kristen.

Dale Tallon looked up and noticed a few members of the Hawks' front office wandering into the funeral home. That's odd, he thought. This is Gravenhurst, Ontario. They're supposed to be in Chicago. In the whirl and clatter of his emotions, Tallon was having trouble connecting thoughts.

Then he saw some Hawks players walking through the door — Adam Burish, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Cristobal Huet. On and on it went, fresh-faced kids and battle-scarred veterans. Coach Joel Quenneville and his staff. The trainers. John McDonough, the team president, too.

"I told my mother, 'Mom, the team's here. The whole team's here,' " Tallon said. "She said, 'You've got to be kidding.' She became 6 feet tall all of a sudden. She went from one emotion to another, a complete 180. She went from distraught to all of a sudden having a little fire in her eye. She was a little excited about it."

Sports sections are filled with stories about angry, greedy, self-absorbed athletes. There's a simple reason for that. There are a lot of angry, greedy, self-absorbed athletes. So you tend to notice when a group of players goes the opposite direction, especially when it's done in a near whisper.

On Nov. 22, the Blackhawks beat the Maple Leafs 5-4 on Dave Bolland's goal in overtime. Rather than take a chartered flight back to Chicago, the team decided to stay in Toronto, practice the next day and then make the 110-mile trip north to Gravenhurst for the wake. That's how it came to be that two busloads of Hawks personnel walked through the doors of a funeral home in the middle of Ontario on a cold night.

No acclaim. No hubbub. Just a nice thing, the right thing.

No one is exactly sure how the story got out. Some of us media members received an e-mail detailing the feel-good story of a professional hockey team going the extra miles for their general manager. It mentioned how one of the buses stopped at a McDonald's after the wake — millionaire athletes stopping for Big Macs! — and how the townsfolk were shocked to see the players walk through the doors. The McDonald's happened to be giving out trading cards, including Toews' and Kane's, with Happy Meals.

Most of the e-mail was accurate. Some of it — like the description of the buses being "rickety" and unheated — wasn't. And the players didn't vote unanimously to go to the wake. They were told they were going by management. Not that it matters.

"You might have expected a lot of complaints from people, but I didn't hear one," wing Patrick Sharp said. "It was the eighth day of a seven-day road trip, so I think a lot of people had that Sunday booked with their family, their kids.

"The obvious reaction would have been complaining and guys upset about it. But it wasn't. Everybody was onboard."

The e-mail spread like wildfire, the way forwarded e-mails are wont to do. Tallon heard from friends in the U.S., Canada and Europe who had seen it. The International Herald Tribune picked up the story about the hockey team with a heart.

Why did it resonate with people? Because it answers a deep desire for our faith to be restored in athletes. Some of us don't like where the sports world has taken us. We don't recognize ourselves in most of the people we root for. We don't see humanity in them. When CC Sabathia signs a $161 million contract with the Yankees, he might as well be from Mars.

The behavior the Hawks exhibited by going to the Tallon wake is behavior that good, normal people exhibit in everyday life. We're surprised when athletes do it.

We're not quite as surprised when hockey players do it. One of the truths in professional sports is that hockey players are different.

"A lot of us are Canadian, from small towns, and even the American boys are from small towns," Tallon said. "We kind of just do our jobs and do our business and stick our nose to the grindstone. That's a Canadian trait. Canadians just do their work.

"Just like this story. No one really came out and talked about it. It just started picking up a life of its own. The players went to the wake. They didn't brag about it. They were happy to do it. They're normal people. They don't think that highly of themselves.

"That's a nice trait to have. This group especially. Don't forget that some of these guys are first overall ( NHL picks), third overall, seventh overall. Some of these kids could have been a little full of themselves, given their draft position and what they've done. We don't have that on our team. It's really nice to see."

Tallon tried talking to the players in a side chapel at the funeral home but got choked up and couldn't finish. He said he still gets teary-eyed thinking about their gesture.

The Hawks bused back to Toronto and flew home that night. Quietly. Kind of hard to picture Terrell Owens going with that flow. Then again, it's kind of hard to picture NHL players putting up with Owens.

Stan Tallon died at 80 of Parkinson's disease. He had been a fine hockey player in his own right, playing briefly in the American Hockey League, and he had continued competing until he was 68. His son said the old man would have been tickled by the Hawks' show of force at his wake.

"He would have had a smile on his face," Dale Tallon said. "He would have been elated. He loved hockey players."

We do too.

rmorrissey@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

$1.509 and a few other rambling thoughts...

OK, I have been a bit of a slacker this week. I last posted on my blog last weekend, just before the Army-Navy game. The Mids handed the Cadets their heads, beating them like an old drum to the tune of 34-0. While I was enjoying the football game, Princess was trying to sleep off a nasty bug. Dee was not feeling well Friday night and she went downhill from there. She fought this bug for four days, and missed two days of work. I did my best to nurse her back to health, but there was little I could do other than feed her crackers and Gatorade. I was also waiting to catch whatever she had, but so far, it would appear that I am a carrier.

On Monday when I drove to work, I saw an electronic sign at a local gas station and the price jumped out at me. A gallon of regular unleaded fuel was $1.509. H thought I would never see a gallon of gas for less than two bucks, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it for a buck and a half. By the end of the week, that same gallon of gas was back up to $1.759, so there is still volatility to the proce of this commodity. $1.759 a gallon is a lot better than the $4 we were paying this summer, and some of the oil analysts are saying that a gallon of light sweet crude might go for less $40 a barrel. Earlier this year that same barrel of oil was being sold for $147.27 in July. I suppose that this would be a good week to top off both of our vehicles.

This week will be busy at the General. There are a few "deliverables" which I must complete to forward on to our customers, plus most aviation companies shut down the week of Christmas to New Year's Day. Certainly, I am not complaining about being busy as there are a lot of people out there whose jobs are tenuous or non-existent.

Super Mom is due to arrive in a little less than a fortnight. The blogosphere in the Enchanted Mitten is abuzz with anticipation for her and the Tot to arrive. We are hoping that Super Mom can drag herself away from Lake St. Clair and spend a few days in Kent County. Details are sketchy, but as they develop I will let you know.

Need I say more?

For Lisa and the Tot

The Tot will be happy to know that there is snow falling and accumulating on the ground here on the western edges of the Enchanted Mitten.

Now the kitchen is complete

For frequent readers of this blog, you know that are aware that we recently remodeled our kitchen. The change has been nothing short of fantastic, but we were unable to order the window treatments until the hardware of the kitchen was completed. Thus, in late September we ordered window treatments and on Tuesday, they were finally installed. We also ordered a custom made sign with the words "Cead Mile Failte." That phrase means "100,000 Welcomes" in Gaelic. We thought it was a fitting phrase to have in our kitchen, which is the heart of our home.

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow, we will celebrate a thoroughly American holiday: Thanksgiving. Unlike some other American holidays, this celebration of all that we are thankful for has thoroughly resisted being commercialized. To give you an example, I saw the first Christmas decorations for sale at Lowe's and Home Depot a few days before Halloween. Thanksgiving is not tied to any religion in particular, nor are we expected to exchange presents, or send cards. It is a holiday to remind us about everything that is good in this great country, as well as the be thankful for the blessings we have living in America. This past year was one of tremendous transition for me. I retired from the Navy, took a few months off and then after just a few weeks of non-dedicated job hunting, was hired by one of the best managed, best run and most profitable companies the world has ever known. Deirdre and I were also able to take a "throw away" dog who faced certain death in a kennel and make a place in our home for him. Yes, Dee and I have much for which we are thankful this year. From here, just East of the Equator where is it always a quarter past five, I want to wish everyone who reads this text a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Anniversary

22 November, 1985. That is a date that I will not ever forget. On that day in Newport, Rhode Island, I raised my hand and took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It was the day that I was sworn in as and Ensign in the United States Navy. My plan when I started Officer Candidate School in August, 1985, was to serve for four years, get some experience and then go out and get a "real job." Well, it did not quite work out that way. Last November, after 22 years of service the the Navy and the nation it defends, I retired from active duty.

My career began on a cold, rainy Friday. My brother Michael, his then-girlfriend attended the ceremony. Michael was living in Boston at that time, so it was an easy drive for him. The biggest surprise for me was my two oldest friends, Paul & John, drove through the night from Michigan to be in the audience when I was sworn in. To say that I was surprised is an understatement of gigantic proportions. Following the ceremony, we left Newport and headed to Boston to spend the night at my brother's apartment, as well as to have a sumptuous meal. We went to dinner at Locke-Ober, a fantastic icon of Boston, and then the following day Paul and John and I drove back to Michigan, where I would spend a few days before heading west to San Diego to attend Surface Warfare Officers School. Following 6 months of training, I left for "the fleet," reporting in May, 1986, to the USS NIAGARA FALLS (AFS 3) in Guam.

Along the way in my career, I sailed all over the world, set foot on every continent except Antarctica, and pretty much had a blast. I saw more sunrises and sunsets at sea than most people see in a lifetime. I was able to drive a frigate, a destroyer, a crusier and a nuclear powered aircraft carrier as if I had stolen them. The Navy paid me to go to graduate school and looked after Deirdre when I was deployed. Mike (a former shipmate who is a retired Chief Petty Officer) stopped by the house last week to deliver some firewood to me. Mike asked me, "Do you miss it? Do you miss being in the Navy?" I told him, "Honestly, no. What I do miss is working with professionals like you." Sure, I missed a lot of holiday and family events, but I would not trade my experiences in the Navy for anythings. I had the honor and the pleasure to serve with the finest people this nation has to offer. I had a great military career, but I am now enjoying my second career working for the General.

An interesting morning in East Grand Rapids...

Deirdre and I have settled into our routine with Samson, aka Handsome Boy. With my full time job working for the General, and Deirdre working at the Kingdom, our mornings go by something like this:

0540: Alarm goes off
0545: We are both dressed and out the door with Samson for a walk
0610-0615: We are home
0610-0615: Dee makes herself some coffee
0610-0615: Paul feeds Samson

Repeat daily.

Today was no different. We were out the door at 0546 and we had a brisk walk with Samson around the block. East Grand Rapids is known for its quiet homes and streets, and it is also not very well lit. Consequently, whenever we take Samson out for a walk, we put a flashing light on his collar, one of us wears a reflective belt, and the other carries a Maglite. I also carry a small pouch to carry the poop bags as we pick up after Samson (it is the law in EGR). We had a good walk with Samson and we returned home at about 0615. We went inside the house using the customary side entrance. Samson needed to be fed and Deirdre needed her coffee.

I put some kibble and wet food into Samson's dish and he immediately went to work, devouring each morsel as if we fed him but once a week. And then it happened. "Knock, knock, knock" was heard coming from the side door. Normally, the only person who ever knocks at our side door is our neighbor Mark when he needs to borrow some spice or sugar or eggs. It was way too early for that kind of visit, plus he always calls before he comes over. I was perplexed. I went to the side door, with Samson behind me and I turned on the outside light and opened the door. Much to my surprise, there was an East Grand Rapids police officer at the door.

Thankfully, I not only answered the door, but I was home. I know that both events are mutually inclusive, but if Deirdre were alone and some police officer showed up at her door at 6:20AM, she most likely would have assumed that the cop was there to tell her that I was dead. Given my previous line of work, that was a distinct possibility. I had to make such notifications during my career and they were never pleasant.

Back to the police officer at our door. The conversation went like this:

Me: Good morning officer
Police Officer: Good morning. We had a report that a couple of people walked into this house with tools and they did not come here in a car. Did anybody walk into the house, recently?
Me: Yes, officer. My wife and I just walked into the house after walking our dog.
Police Officer: Are you sure that nobody other than you and your wife are the only people in your house? Are you the owner of this house?
Me: Yes, officer. Nobody has come into the house other than me and the wife and we are the owners. I think that whomever reported people coming into the house mistook the flashlight I carry when we walk our dog at night, as well as the bag where we keep bags and puppy treats.
Police Officer: OK.
Dee (as she pops her head into our Mud Room): What is going on ?
Police Officer: Ma'am, we had a report that a couple of people coming into the house with tools. Other than your husband, are you alone in the house?
Dee: Yes. We just got back from a walk with our dog. We had a pouch and a flashlight with us.
Police Officer: OK, Whomever reported this must have mistaken you. Can I get your name, please.
Me: I'm Paul Kratochwill, etc.

I proceeded to give the officer my name and address of the house and he wanted to know my birth date. I thanked him for his work protecting us (and his partner who was just a few feet away) and he left for his squad car. I am certain that he went to his car and "called it in" to conform that I am indeed Paul Kratochwill and that this is our house. While it was a little weird to have a police officer at our door before 0630 in the morning, it was comforting to know that East Grand Rapids finest are are out there protecting us and keeping us safe.

Who knew?

For those of you who have followed the East of the Equator blog the past year, you know that we have made some improvements in our home. Specifically, we have remodeled the following spaces:

1) Main Bathroom
2) Secondary Bathroom
3) Kitchen

As part of the Main Bathroom project, we replaced the two windows in the space. Almost immediately, the bathroom was warmer and we thought that it would be a good idea to replace a few more windows. Our friends at HWC Homeworks took care of everything and in a few weeks six new windows were installed. We realized after these six windows were replaced that we needed to replace all the windows, as well as the two sliding glass doors in our Back Room. A little history about our home. The original owner of the house was the proprietor of the Pella Window franchise. Thus, all of the windows and the sliding glass doors were all Pella. In their time, the windows were state of the art. However, after 30 years of time and use, the windows (and the sliders!) were not longer keeping warm air inside or cold air outside.

We noticed that the house was more comfortable this summer as it seemed cooler when the air conditioner was running. We were not certain how the windows would do in the winter. Well, we found out this weekend. The first snow of the season fell on the Enchanted Mitten and the outside air temperature was barely 35F most of the weekend. I am happy to report that our house was a toasty 68-70F all weekend.

Last winter, we could not keep our Back Room warm. The temperature was rarely above 60F. We operated an oil filled space heater almost constantly to keep the Back Room livable. With our new windows and sliders, our home is constantly comfortable. Clearly, the replacement of all of our windows has improved the energy efficiency of our home. What I am really looking forward to seeing is our next Consumer's Energy bill. Our home is heated with natural gas, and I am fairly confident that we will see a smaller bill than last year.

Who knew that replacing a few windows could so drastically improve the comfort in our home? If you are even thinking about replacing an old or damaged window here is my advice: DO IT. Our home is so much more comfortable. We should have replaced our Pella windows YEARS ago.

What a difference a year makes

A year ago today we brought Samson home from the West Michigan Regional Laboratory. His name was Danson, but we felt that was not the right name for him. Thus, he became Samson, aka Handsome Boy. We have made great strides with him since that first afternoon in our lives.

When we brought Samson home, he was fearful, aggressive and just plain scared. It took a bit of patience, a lot of training and quite a few puppy treats, but he is now nothing but 100lbs of fur and love. He seeks our affection and attention, and as I type this entry, Samson is lying quietly on the sofa next to me. Both of his paws are gently touching my thigh and he is occasionally pawing at me for a little attention. Yep, he has come a long way!