27
7th February, 1976
Came to Canada in July 1976 from Jamaica
Hockey was god here. As a an athlete (soccer player) I have always yearned to play on the international stage with the greats like Charlton, Best, Moore, Pele, Socrates, Zidane, Puscas, Cryuff, Beckenbauer and any other great I haven’t mentioned
Hockey
Toronto Maple Leafs
My home team
I got here and found out that my captain, Darryl Sittler scored 10 points in one single game. I saw other greats like Lafleur, Bossy, Gretzky, Lemieux then and now did not match my captain
I was a die hard Leaf fan. As a new immigrant and sports nut, I gleefully followed the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, Wimbledon, Wide World of Sports, downhill skiing (Franz Klammer), Boxing and the list goes on. I even spent hours on curling back then (don’t judge me...lol)
Wednesday night and Saturday nights it was known in my crew to not ask me to do anything that didn’t include watching the Leaf game. It got so bad that my friends used to come over on a Saturday night to get me out after the game because if the Leafs lost, I would end up staying home in a foul mood
Borje Salming, Tiger Williams, Lanny McDonald, Mike Palmateer were my champions
Darryl Sittler was my first captain
I wasn’t present when he accomplished the feat yet I reveled and basked in the fact that my captain did that. Sit was as big to me as Pele
Present day, I go to the coffee shop and talk to Nuno who serves me up the elixir of Americano with the right amount of water, leaving room for my heavy cream and sugar intake
Nuno gets to listen to my shit every day as I heap everything from personal stuff, to politics, racism and his favorite subject, The Toronto Maple Leafs. He tries to convince me to come back to the fold and watch this team play today as I stopped watching years ago, turned off by the losing culture. If I am a Leaf fan, Nuno is that on every PED ever known to man. He knows dates and stats from games YEARS ago. He at least got me to start checking out Matthews and the standings from time to time and even to watch on sports television to see highlights
Yeah, they looking pretty organized this season yet this monkey on my back has killed enthusiasm for a franchise that can’t win
Nuno has this long time Leaf fan watching highlights of the Leaf games now
Darryl Sittler played to win as did Dougie Gilmour and Wendel Clark, my three favorite Leaf captains
Yet, Sit was my first
During one of our conversations Nuno pointed out that the 10 point feat happened on the 2nd month on the 7th day
27
What are the insurmountable odds that Sittler would do a thing to match the number on the back of his jersey?
Destiny or not, it is an incredible feat that still astounds me today and yes I have watched it a thousand times
He wondered, as I do now, how come Leaf management / marketing department hasn’t made that into a thing?
A 27 thing
A Sittler thing
Maybe I’m just stuck back in time thinking that Sit is the greatest captain of all yet this date and his number does seem to truly define Sit’s greatness
Nice convo Nuno
I told you that I would write something
7th February, 1976
Came to Canada in July 1976 from Jamaica
Hockey was god here. As a an athlete (soccer player) I have always yearned to play on the international stage with the greats like Charlton, Best, Moore, Pele, Socrates, Zidane, Puscas, Cryuff, Beckenbauer and any other great I haven’t mentioned
Hockey
Toronto Maple Leafs
My home team
I got here and found out that my captain, Darryl Sittler scored 10 points in one single game. I saw other greats like Lafleur, Bossy, Gretzky, Lemieux then and now did not match my captain
I was a die hard Leaf fan. As a new immigrant and sports nut, I gleefully followed the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, Wimbledon, Wide World of Sports, downhill skiing (Franz Klammer), Boxing and the list goes on. I even spent hours on curling back then (don’t judge me...lol)
Wednesday night and Saturday nights it was known in my crew to not ask me to do anything that didn’t include watching the Leaf game. It got so bad that my friends used to come over on a Saturday night to get me out after the game because if the Leafs lost, I would end up staying home in a foul mood
Borje Salming, Tiger Williams, Lanny McDonald, Mike Palmateer were my champions
Darryl Sittler was my first captain
I wasn’t present when he accomplished the feat yet I reveled and basked in the fact that my captain did that. Sit was as big to me as Pele
Present day, I go to the coffee shop and talk to Nuno who serves me up the elixir of Americano with the right amount of water, leaving room for my heavy cream and sugar intake
Nuno gets to listen to my shit every day as I heap everything from personal stuff, to politics, racism and his favorite subject, The Toronto Maple Leafs. He tries to convince me to come back to the fold and watch this team play today as I stopped watching years ago, turned off by the losing culture. If I am a Leaf fan, Nuno is that on every PED ever known to man. He knows dates and stats from games YEARS ago. He at least got me to start checking out Matthews and the standings from time to time and even to watch on sports television to see highlights
Yeah, they looking pretty organized this season yet this monkey on my back has killed enthusiasm for a franchise that can’t win
Nuno has this long time Leaf fan watching highlights of the Leaf games now
Darryl Sittler played to win as did Dougie Gilmour and Wendel Clark, my three favorite Leaf captains
Yet, Sit was my first
During one of our conversations Nuno pointed out that the 10 point feat happened on the 2nd month on the 7th day
27
What are the insurmountable odds that Sittler would do a thing to match the number on the back of his jersey?
Destiny or not, it is an incredible feat that still astounds me today and yes I have watched it a thousand times
He wondered, as I do now, how come Leaf management / marketing department hasn’t made that into a thing?
A 27 thing
A Sittler thing
Maybe I’m just stuck back in time thinking that Sit is the greatest captain of all yet this date and his number does seem to truly define Sit’s greatness
Nice convo Nuno
I told you that I would write something
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