Andy Bathgate: From peach fuzz to the Hall of FameArticle By: Brian McFarlane
Scouting in professional hockey has become a business of turning over stones, sifting gravel and speculating on tiny particles of talent. In Andy Bathgate's day, however, a boulder of skill and potential could crash through the rink window and catch as much attention as a custodian gives to a wrapper on the floor.
"I went to Guelph because my older brother Frank was taken there by the Rangers," Andy explained of his efforts to join the Ontario Hockey Association's Biltmore Madhatters. "I was not invited... Actually, they weren't even going to give me a chance. But Frank said, "If you're not going to give Andy a tryout with the team, then I'm going to Oshawa with him!' He really threw a fit and said 'If you don't give me my release, you fellows are not going to get out of this room!'
"So they gave me a tryout and I made the team. We played together on the same line. I scored twenty goals that first year and we won the OHA... It was the only time I ever played with my brother, Frank. We had lots of fun together and a lot of good memories.
"When you're kids, you've got to stand up for yourself. My father had passed away when I was thirteen. So we had to stick together a little bit and sometimes, we took the law into our own hands (laughs)."
Andy went on to flourish as an elite member of the New York Rangers starting in 1952. As an early proponent of the slap shot, he racked up a career-high forty goals and forty-eight assists in 1958-59. The following season he tagged Jacques Plante in the face with a shot that was instrumental in precipitating Plante's introduction of a mask into regular-league play.
In 1964, Andy was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of a high-stakes gamble by Punch Imlach to maintain buoyancy amongst his troops. Andy seized the moment, scoring five vital goals during the playoffs to claim his lone Stanley Cup victor.
The following season, he had a falling out with Imlach and was shipped to Detroit where he toiled until the league underwent its first expansion. "I went to Pittsburgh with the draft in 1968," he recalled. "I played there for the full year and I think I got the most points of anybody playing for an expansion team that year. The next season at training camp, they advised me that I had been traded to the Montreal Canadiens. They wanted me to retire and coach the Montreal Voyageurs in the American League. But I decided that I was prepared mentally and physically to play another
© October 1998 CARPNews
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Children, grandchildren, friends, spouses, singles, caretakers, couples --almost everyone can relate. 