So, NHL players and owners appear to have a new collective bargaining agreement that will end the lock out that cost them last season. YAWN.
Instead of worrying about a league few really seemed to miss as it committed hari-kari, maybe it's worth taking a look at people who aren't playing hockey for the money. There's a slice of that life in Ken Baker's They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven, a look at his "comeback" season as a third-string backup goalie for a minor league hockey team in Bakersfield, Calif.
As a teenager, Baker was considered an Olympic-caliber goalie. In fact, he was the goalie on the US under-17 national team that won a world championship in 1987. Yet while at Colgate, an NCAA Division I hockey program, he seemed to lose his touch. By the time he played his last collegiate game, Baker had lost the interest and desire to play hockey. He stored away his gear and went on to pursue a career in journalism.
A few years after his last collegiate game, Baker learned he had a brain tumor a few inches behind his eyes. Most of it was successfully removed but Baker had to remain on medication. Now in his 30s and not knowing whether the tumor was responsible for the end of his hockey career, Baker and his wife decide he should pursue his childhood dream of being a professional hockey player. Setting aside his job – and the warnings on his medication that he should not perform "tasks requiring alertness" – Baker hooks up with the Bakersfield Condors. At the time, the Condors played in the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League, roughly the equivalent of AA level in baseball. The book, basically bookended with dreams that lead him to this quest and how to conclude it, is the story of his year with that club, his life in hockey and life in minor league hockey.
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