The NHL Alumni tour came through Napanee, Ontario at the Strathcona Paper Centre, last week. It is a more low key tour than the Oldtimers Hockey Challenge Tour that comes to Kingston, Ontario every year. We got a deal on the tickets through my daughters' school, which was cool. If you want to check out the tour schedule, go to
www.benefithockey.com for more information and to see if the tour is coming near you. Walter Gretzky was the ambassador for the event and he signed autographs for the entire 3 hours. He really is a cool guy. He was joking around with people and posing for photographs and signing tons of autographs. I got him to sign a puck for me, and he also signed this notepad type of paper for me.
Marty McSorley was the last guy to come out. I was there with 2 friends and ran into another guy I knew, so there was only 4 of us getting autographs. He went over to a chair and sat down to sign. He said he had both hips replaced and the plane ride from LA, left him really sore. He always takes his time signing the autographs, but he was chatting with us about the lockout and also about the 1993 Stalney Cup Finals where he got targeted for having an illegal stick. It was interesting to get his take on that as I am a huge Habs fan and I watched every minute of those cup playoffs. It was just so cool of him to sit around and chat with us for about 30 minutes at the end of a long day.
Dave Reid also spent a bit of time with us. He used to own a card shop in Whitby, Ontario, so I asked him if he collected his own cards. He said they always got a bunch of the base cards by the company that produced them, but he didn't go after the memorabilia or autographed cards.
Gary Leeman.
Bill Derlago.
Brent Gretzky. I watched him play junior with the Belleville Bulls.
Mike Krushelnyski.
Brad Marsh.
