Friday 9th August 2013…where were you?

This is going to be a long long post and mainly focused on hockey so you have been forewarned.

Before we get into that and my day..you all know about the gigantic stone heads on Easter Island

but did you know they have been doing excavations and uncovered not just the heads!!!

Amazing and thanks Larry for passing this along!!!

OK today was going to be another day I chose to be by myself I think I shall dedicate every Friday in future to this!!!

I had heard of a State park about 45 minutes away where the hiking was spectacular so I packed up lots of food and drink and with good directions set off on Little Blackie…boy this scooter has been good to me!

The ride was nice and enjoyable and after 40 km I came to the turn off

The road was paved first then cobbled

so who has the right of way??

Then the road rose for about 6 km and I came to a gate and paid my pesos entrance fee.

As you can see lots of trails to chose from and I decided on the one that would lead me to the top of the ridge.

In the valley is the campground and the double XX is where I am heading for lunch!!!

The trails were sort of marked and the accent was a bit hard as I believe the elevation here is around 7500 feet 1300 more than SMA….but it was a great hike and views from the summit quite stunning!!

The double white XX is where little Blackie is resting!!!

I then took a different path down and then along to a small mud pond

The wild flowers are quite lovely!!!

 

 

 

 

This is really a pristine and wonderful place to hike the air so fresh and clean and surrounding by hills, trees, scrub and also if you are really very lucky you will find what I found on the trail…

Nice find MR.P!!!

I then took a turn and followed a small trail covered in scrub as this photo shows

and passed through this cave

after going through here the trail ended at a small creek and a canyon on the opposite side rather than double back I decided to cross the stream and head up the canyon this was hard going through lots of bushes and no trail at all…I had climbed quite high when I realized this was a fruitless task all I was doing was getting further away from where I needed to be going so I turned around and eventually find my way back to the cave and the creek and then I decided that rather than double back I would follow the stream up hill and surely come out at the top of the canyon ..this path was a little tricky

The risks I take to get an adventure photo for you my readers!!!!!

After following this creek uphill for almost 30 minutes I stopped had something to eat and thought about my options and came to the conclusion that I was getting no where going this way  and to be the smart guy that I have been known to be a couple of times in my life and double back to the creek base and the cave and as much as I did not want to double back the way I came…..whilst I was thinking all of this I had company on the next rock!!

So I did return to the cave and the hard hike back up to the parking lot..it was a really wonderful time that I so enjoyed and I reckon I put in an extra 3 hours with the back tracks..certainly a place for future visits and Chris and Juan maybe a boon docking space for you for a weekend when you move here!!!

The ride back home was uneventful and I arrived home at 7pm and had travelled exactly 100km…what a special day.

It was a nice supper a really long soak in the tub and I won’t be much trouble to anyone tonight!!!

 

OK so that is my day now where we all know where we were on those fateful days when JFK and Martin Luther were so sadly taken from us but do you remember where you were on this day 25 years ago?????

The biggest trade in hockey history..

Gretzky’s statistical dominance over others has never been matched

On the 25th anniversary of Wayne Gretzky’s sale from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, there’s an effort again to place him in the context of other athletes and other sports: Just how great was the Great One?

In this article, first published after Gretzky’s retirement in April 1999, I looked at statistical and cultural comparators for Gretzky. Here’s the article:

Wayne Gretzky retires not only as the greatest hockey player of all-time, but also as the greatest North American team athlete ever.

So say the statistics.

And while no North American athlete was more important to his nation’s culture than boxer Muhammad Ali was to America, the same can be said for Wayne Gretzky in Canada. He is the Canadian sportsman of all-time.

So say the experts.

“He’s the unassailable No. 1,” says writer Ken Brown, whose play Life After Hockey featured Gretzky playing God. “There’s just no comparison. It’s our beloved sport and he’s the best who ever did and ever will play the game.”

No Canadian sportsman was of greater cultural importance than Gretzky, says ex-Olympic middle- distance runner Bruce Kidd, now a University of Toronto historian and the author of a critique of professional hockey, The Death of Hockey.

Other sporting figures have been exceptional in their own right — people like rowers Silken Laumann and Ned Hanlan, runner Tom Longboat, track athlete Bobbie Rosenfeld, sprinters Percy Williams and Donovan Bailey, swimmer Marilyn Bell, hockey stars Bobby Orr and Maurice Richard — but few had the influence of Gretzky.

Gretzky’s importance to Canadian culture is that he set an example of healthy masculinity, Kidd says, an example which represented a dramatic change from the past.

While hockey’s always had coaches and players who advocated a beautiful, finesse style, the game was still dominated by what Kidd calls the Conn Smythe/Don Cherry school, one that focused on physical intimidation.

In that school, a man is someone who at every provocation drops his stick and gloves and starts to fight.

“Gretzky said, ‘This is dumb, I want to protect my head and my hands, which are my most valuable possessions. I don’t want to risk them in a stupid fight. I want to use them to score goals.’ “

Kidd says Gretzky’s style of hockey greatly impressed the educated American, who grew up watching hockey in high school and college. That kind of fan was appalled by the NHL’s selling of the game as thugs on ice.

“For this kind of fan, Gretzky was the cultural hero who connected their love of hockey to the National Hockey League.”

From a teacher’s point of view, Kidd says Gretzky set a great example in the way he rejoiced in playing.

“It’s not combat to him. It’s not war. It’s not a scramble to make bucks. He’s a guy who loves it. That is something that is too rarely displayed in the world of professional sports. There’s so much tension that the fun rarely comes through in the kind of highly visible mass media moments. But you always saw that in Gretzky. Even in his most tension-filled moments, you could see the twinkle in his eyes.”

All athletes can learn from this, Kidd says, from aspiring Olympians to aging joggers to little children.

“A lot of the messages we hear about physical activity are kind of twisted: work out so you’ll lose weight, work out so you’ll feel less stress, work out so you’ll get rich.

“I don’t want to judge people, but the message should be out there to work out because it’s just a tremendous pleasure of the flesh, and Gretzky exudes that.”

As for Gretzky’s ranking as the top Canadian and North American team athlete of all-time, it’s best to start with his dominance in hockey.

Last year, The Hockey News rated Gretzky as the all-time best in the publication’s authoritative poll of experts. The decision was hardly controversial.

A truly great player, whether he is the best man in 1925 or 1995, won’t just win the scoring title by a few points, he will annihilate his competitors, scoring 15 to 40 per cent more points than the second-place man. Gordie Howe absolutely dominated for four full seasons, 1950-54, outscoring the next best man by 30, 25, 34 and 21 percentage points, respectively. It was an unprecedented run, not approached again until Gretzky came along. But Gretzky overshadowed Howe. He dominated for seven straight years, 1980-87, and he reached a much higher peak than Howe. During his run, Gretzky outscored the next best man by 22, 44, 58, 63, 54, 53 and 69 percentage points, respectively.

The starkest proof of Gretzky’s superiority is the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s most valuable player.

Gretzky won the trophy nine times, as much as Bobby Orr, Maurice Richard, Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Brett Hull combined.

Gretzky also compares well against other stars in other sports.

In basketball, Michael Jordan won five MVP awards and six team titles. Jordan won 10 scoring titles, the same number as Gretzky, but Jordan’s margin of victory was not comparable — less than 10 per cent better than his main competitors. Gretzky beat his competitors by an average of 40 per cent.

In football, Jim Brown is tops. Brown played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. He won the rushing title eight times.

In his best year, 1958, he outrushed the next man by 93 per cent. His average dominance margin was 36 per cent. In 1965, he outrushed the next best man 1,544 yards to 1,121, then retired before losing one speck of his greatness. Brown also led his team to one league championship.

In baseball, Babe Ruth played in 10 World Series. His teams won seven. There was no real MVP award in Ruth’s time, but Ruth, who started out as an excellent pitcher, led the league in homers nine years. In his 12 seasons as the slugging percentage leader, his dominance margin was as much as 34 per cent. It averaged 14 per cent. Ruth, Brown and Gretzky are alone at the top. Ruth gets points for his playoff record, his pitching and his home-run hitting, the most remarkable show of dominance at any one athletic skill in this century.

Ruth and Gretzky also dominated for longer than Brown. But Gretzky was more dominant overall than Brown and Ruth were, and Gretzkyalso came through in the playoffs, winning two playoff MVP awards and leading his team to four championships.

The Great One is the greatest one — in Canada and on the entire continent.

 

List of career achievements by Wayne Gretzky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Good name for a trophy don’t you think named after ME!!!!

Replica of the Lester B. Pearson Award presented to Gretzky in 1982–83

This is a list of career achievements by Wayne Gretzky in the National Hockey League. Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, Gretzky held or shared 61 National Hockey League records. These records include 40 regular season, 15 playoff, and 6 All-star records.

Gretzky set impressive records in both regular season and post-season play, holding the record for most career regular season goals (894), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and hat tricks (50). The next closest player in total points for the regular season is sometime teammate Mark Messier at 1,887 - thus Gretzky had more career assists than any other player has total points. Gretzky's point total including regular season and playoffs stands at an imposing 3,239.

His 47 playoff points in 1985 and 31 assists in 1988 are still records for a single post-season round, and he holds the record for career playoff goals (122), assists (260), points (382), hat tricks (10), and game-winning goals (24).

Here is a complete list of official records Gretzky held or shared at the time of his retired….

1. Most goals, including playoffs: 1,016 in 1,487 regular season and 208 playoff games
2. Most goals, one season: 92 in 1981–82, 80-game schedule
3. Most goals, one season, including playoffs: 100 in 1983–84, 87 goals in 74 regular season games and 13 goals in 19 playoff games
4. Most goals, 50 games from start of season: 61 in 1981–82 (October 7, 1981 to January 22, 1982, 80-game schedule) and 1983–84 (October 5, 1983 to January 25, 1984), 80-game schedule
5. Most goals, one period: 4 (Tied with 10 other players) February 18, 1981
6. Most assists: 1,963
7. Most assists, including playoffs: 2,223
8. Most assists, one season: 163 in 1985–86, 80-game schedule
9. Most assists, one season, including playoffs: 174 in 1985–86, 163 assists in 80 regular season games and 11 assists in 10 playoff games
10. Most assists, one game: 7 (tied with Billy "The Kid" Taylor) on three occasions—February 15, 1980; December 11, 1985; February 14, 1986
11. Most assists, one road game: 7 (tied with Billy "The Kid" Taylor) December 11, 1985
12. Most points: 2,857 in 1,487 games (894 goals, 1,963 assists)
13. Most points, including playoffs: 3,239 in 1,487 regular season and 208 playoff games. (1016 goals, 2223 assists)
14. Most points, one season: 215 in 1985–86, 80-game schedule (52 goals, 163 assists)
15. Most points, one season, including playoffs: 255 in 1984–85; 208 points in 80 regular season games and 47 points in 18 playoff games
16. Most overtime assists, career: 15
17. Most goals by a center, career: 894
18. Most goals by a center, one season: 92 in 1981–82, 80-game schedule
19. Most assists by a center, career: 1,963
20. Most assists by a center, one season: 163 in 1985–86, 80-game schedule
21. Most points by a center, career: 2,857
22. Most points by a center, one season: 215 in 1985–86, 80-game schedule
23. Most assists in one game by a player in his first season: 7 on February 15, 1980
24. Highest goals-per-game average, one season: 1.18 in 1983–84, 87 goals in 74 games
25. Highest assists-per-game average, career (300 min.): 1.321 -- 1,963 assists in 1,487 games
26. Highest assists-per-game average, one season: 2.04 in 1985–86, 163 assists in 80 games
27. Highest points-per-game average, one season (among players with 50-or-more points): 2.77 in 1983–84, 205 points in 74 games
28. Most 40-or-more goal seasons: 12 in 20 seasons
29. Most consecutive 40-or-more goal seasons: 12 from 1979–80 to 1990–91
30. Most 50-or-more goal seasons: 9 (tied with Mike Bossy)
31. Most 60-or-more goal seasons: 5 (tied with Mike Bossy)
32. Most consecutive 60-or-more goals seasons: 4 from 1981–82 to 1984–85
33. Most 100-or-more point seasons: 15
34. Most consecutive 100-or-more point seasons: 13 from 1979–80 to 1991–92
35. Most three-or-more goal games, career: 50 -- 37 three-goal (hat trick) games; nine four-goal games; four five-goal games
36. Most three goal games, one season: 10 (done twice) in 1981–82 and 1983–84
37. Longest consecutive assist scoring streak: 23 games in 1990–91, 48 assists
38. Longest consecutive point-scoring streak: 51 Games in 1983–84 (October 5, 1983 to January 28, 1984, 61 goals, 92 assists for 153 points)
39. Longest consecutive point-scoring streak from start of season: 51 in 1983–84; 61 goals, 92 assists for 153 points (October 5, 1983 to January 28, 1984

Well some personal history it goes without saying that I am a sports nut playing, watching whatever and my games growing up were tennis and soccer but in May of 1980 I emigrated to Alberta Canada and in October of that year I went to my first ever hockey game…this was the start of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty and after the first period of my first game I was hooked..they had this skinny scrawny kid 99 was his number and I was enthralled by him….. his sheer magic on the ice and later his off ice behavior which was always beyond reproach….the team went on to win 4 cups I actually met Wayne twice at sponsored lunches and have his auto graph but I also had his number and a replica of a hockey stick tattooed on my ……well you guess where it is??
not very clear after all these years!!

Anyway 25 years ago today I was behind the counter in my small grocery store in the little Ukrainian town of Smoky lake Alberta…..I had the store always fitted out with hockey paraphernalia(I have no idea what key I just hit to change the type) and I was the biggest fan in town and then there was a flash of news and to turn on the TV to see my beloved Wayne sold to the LA Kings I have no shame in telling you I cried!!!!!

He had provided me and all the fans and the people of the province with years of mastery, sportsmanship and sheer genius and then he was gone……he went on to have some more great years and to this day he is an icon in Canada and an ambassador for hockey.

My prize possession which hangs in the entrance to my Casita…an original signed 99 shirt!!!

 

Hope you enjoyed this blog today I sure enjoyed doing it all…

Yashi Koshi!!!