Excerpt From Probie's New Book

[Eddie_Shack]

I don't normally check out the Freep, but a buddy told me to dig around and find this. So far it looks like an incredible read.


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Yeah, I fought. I think that helped me make it into the league, because they saw that I could play and also fight -- do both. It's kind of a rarity in today's game. Guys who can do both now sign big contracts. I wish I was playing today. Not just as far as money -- I was happy.



A lot of people are down on fighting in the NHL. They say it doesn't belong in the game. But like Don Cherry says, "When Probert was fighting, did you ever see anyone get out of their seat and go for coffee?"

*****

My dad was an old-school cop in Windsor. He applied street justice with his nightstick. He had a reputation. I remember him coming home from work after having been in fights. One time, he had to go break up this big bar brawl and one of his elbows was all cut up from rolling around in the street. I thought that was so cool.


You know, if I hadn't gone into hockey, I think I might've been a cop. As it is, I have managed to interact with police officers many times anyway.

*****

I have been drinking for a long time. The first time I drank, I was 14. The family went to a party at my aunt's in Michigan, and my dad brought a cooler of beer home with us -- American beer in cans, all different kinds. Schlitz, Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon. I was putting them away in the fridge, thinking, "I wonder what that tastes like?" So I opened one and knocked it down. Nothing was happening. I had another, and another.

After drinking about five of them I started getting a buzz, then it really kicked in. I was like, "Wow, this is pretty neat," but I knew I had better get to my bedroom before someone saw me staggering and falling down. ...

Having a couple of beers became a regular thing. I had a high tolerance. My dad would be downstairs watching TV and my mother would be sleeping, and I'd sneak up to the living room or into the back yard and drink by myself. I liked to have between four and half a dozen. I'd hide the cans and get rid of them the next day. I liked the buzz. I really liked it.

*****

For me, the best thing about hockey was the team, the guys. I wasn't as serious as I could have been. I never worked on my skating or bothered with off-ice training. But then we went to a tournament in Vancouver when I was 16. It was an eventful trip. I broke the law, lost my virginity to an older girl and managed to make some scouts look my way.

I had made fake IDs for all the boys, so we were able to buy as much booze as we wanted. It was pretty clever, considering there were no computers back then. I found this rub-on lettering in a craft store. I scratched each buddy's name onto the cards, drew in a line for a signature, attached a school picture, rubbed on the word ALBERTA across the top and colored it in red, then added the guy's weight and height. Finally, I'd laminate it. It looked like a real student ID card.

We were never questioned, not once. It was awesome.

*****

I've read a million times that all the problems I had were due to my dad, Al, dying when I was 17. People were always looking for some kind of reason. It would be easy if there was some type of abuse there, but there wasn't.

I never really came to a conclusion. I was told I had a Marilyn Monroe--type syndrome -- a fear of success. Or maybe I couldn't handle the popularity. But that's just a BS diagnosis, because I had been drinking long before I was successful and long before my dad died.

It just happened that when things were good, I would celebrate, and I just got a little addicted to the fun. I always seemed to take it to the next level, you know what I mean? Why do things half-baked? Do it big. Right?

*****

I had my first really successful fight that first year in juniors with Brantford. I got into it with this tough guy from Kingston, and I happened to get a lucky one in and knocked him down. Word spread around the Ontario Hockey League that I was pretty tough.

Now, I'm not an angry guy. It takes a lot to tick me off. But when you tick me off, look out, because now I'm ticked off, and if I reach my boiling point, then you have a problem. I noticed guys starting to give me a wide berth, so I took it upon myself to learn how to fight to protect my teammates, and that role just kind of happened for me.

*****

By 1983, the Red Wings had a new owner, Mike Ilitch, and they had an amazing draft that spring. With the fourth-overall pick, they took Stevie Yzerman; in the second round, right winger Lane Lambert; in the third round, me; in the fifth, left wing Petr Klima and right wing Joey Kocur; and in the 10th, Stu (The Grim Reaper) Grimson.

Jimmy Devellano brought most of the guys who were drafted to Detroit to meet the press. The Wings really needed publicity. When Stevie and Joey and Klima and I first started, most the guys on the team couldn't use their free tickets because half the time they couldn't find a taker.

I stood behind Stevie Y. He was almost half a foot shorter and 50 pounds lighter. He was fairly serious. You know right away that certain guys are never going to be sitting next to you in a jail cell, laughing off a hangover. But there was something about Stevie Y that I liked. I can't put my finger on it, but he had that quality only a few guys have -- one that would make you step up for him. Maybe it's called leadership.

*****

I ended up splitting the 1985-86 season between Adirondack and Detroit. My first call-up was in the first week of November. The Wings hadn't turned it around yet -- after 12 games, they only had one win. I guess they figured I couldn't hurt them any worse.

A lot of times, Mark LaForest (Trees) was called up with me. In his first week, some guys on the team grabbed him in the shower at Joe Louis Arena. They blindfolded him, stripped him down and tied him spread-eagle to a hotel luggage trolley. Oh, yeah, naked, the whole nine yards. The other rookies couldn't do anything about this -- they had to just sit there and watch. The guys shaved him head to toe and painted his toes with black paint. Then they kept going all he way up his leg so it looked like a barbershop pole.

Trees just started singing "Jumpin' Jack Flash" at the top of his lungs, like nothing's bothering him at all.

Then they rolled him out to center ice. All the cleaning ladies who were cleaning up the aisles and the rows between seats were making funny comments like, "You poor honey. It looks like you might be cold." Trees was still singing away and the vets were yelling, "We knew you'd like it, you freak!" The idea was to scare and intimidate the rookies, and here he was, singing the Stones the whole time, enjoying himself. I was so proud of him.

Finally, the veterans told us, "OK, go get him." I came running onto the ice. "Trees! Way to go!" I untied his arms and legs and brought him back to the room, and we laughed about it. Because Trees was a goalie, the guy in charge of his hazing was veteran goalie Eddie Mio. So I got the idea we should shave Eddie. I said, "This is what we're going to do. I'll grab him and wrestle him down. There is no way he's going to get away from me."

Trees said, "I don't know, Bob. They are going to kill us."

I said, "Should we tie his legs up?"

Trees said, "I don't think so."

I said, "I'm serious."

"No, Bob, there is no way that this is going to happen."

Five minutes later, in the middle of the dressing room, I jumped on Eddie and put him down. I yelled, "Trees! I got him!" Trees was horrified. He said, "For God's sake, Bob, let him go!"

A couple of days later, Danny Gare and Dwight Foster went to Mio and said, "We're going to shave Bob Probert." And Eddie said, "Yeah, well, I'm not going to have anything to do with that." And they said, "C'mon you know him, he's from your hometown. Anyway, he tried to get you. Go in there and hold him down. We're not really going to shave him." So Eddie said, "I'll do that."

Eddie came up to me and said, "Bobby come over here, I need to talk to you." I walked over and we're talking when all of a sudden Eddie lunged at me and about five guys grabbed me from behind. I started to fight them off, but Eddie whispered, "Bobby, don't fight! And don't hit me, please! The guys are just trying to scare ya." So I settled down a bit, and they put me on the table and tied me up.

Then Dwight Foster took the razor and shaved me, and the boys gave me the same treatment with the paint that they gave Trees, except I didn't leave the locker room. When they were done, they all got the hell out of there. The trainer and the equipment manager ended up releasing me.

The next day we all had a laugh about it. It was water under the bridge. I was officially part of the team.

*****

 

[Eddie_Shack]

That season, I played 32 games in the AHL, scoring 12 goals and adding 15 assists; in Detroit, I got into 44 games, scoring eight goals and assisting on 13. I had 152 penalty minutes in Adirondack and 186 with Detroit. I knew that if I wanted to stay in The Show, I would have to fight all the tough guys, and that is what I did.

My third scrap in the NHL came in the first period of a game against the Flyers on Dec.14, 1985. I took on Dave Richter. He was a big southpaw -- 6-feet-5, 215. He was just there to fight. I did all right. Obviously, you try the best you can to ask the guy to acknowledge that you're going to fight him so that you don't jump him. For me, I just wanted an honest fight. You grab my arm, I grab yours, and we'll see who wins. That kind of thing.

Some guys got dirty. They would pull hair or gouge your eyes. But in general, most of the heavyweights in the NHL were pretty good. Some of them would get into just tying up your arms and trying not to get hit and throwing a few punches to seem like they were in a fight. But most of them would stand back and throw punches.

In the big scheme of things, I think the fans want to see two guys try and take each other out, not just dance around a little.

Then I had quite the battle with Rick Tocchet, who had 23 scraps that season. John Barrett, one of our big defensemen, hit Rich Sutter and put him right into the bench, and Rich's twin brother, Ron, took exception. It started a melee, and Tocchet and I went at it right in front of the penalty box.

I was fighting fair, but Tocchet gave me a couple of head butts. I returned the favor, so in the end it turned out to be a pretty fair fight.

My brother, Norm, was up in the stands with his buddies. When he saw Tocchet give me the dirty shot, he ran all the way down, toward the penalty box. When he got there, he thought, "Well, what the hell am I going to do now?"

*****

The first time I ever did cocaine was that night we were celebrating the Calder Cup championship in Glens Falls, N.Y., that season. I had always been scared of it. I'd heard what it could do to your brain, so I had stayed away. But while we were out, one of the players said, "Come in the bathroom, I want you to try something."

I was like, "Nah, I don't do that."

He kept it up. "Come on, you'll love it. It'll sober you up and make you feel good!"

"No, no. I'm good."

Later on, at the end of the night, we went to another guy's place and he said, "Bob, come with me." We went upstairs. By this time I've got a buzz, so I'm not as scared of it.

We went into his bedroom and a bunch of lines were all set up on his dresser. He handed me a rolled-up bill and I did some lines. It was an instant love. Oh, yeah. I had been kind of slurring a little bit from drinking, but all of a sudden, I wasn't as messed up. And it gave me this energy. I felt like Superman. It was just like, "Wow! This is awesome!"

I went back an hour later and asked him for more.


For the rest, go here

Bob Probert: 'I always seemed to take it to the next level, you know what I mean?' | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

There are two more links

 

[dash]

Thanks for the links, Eddie, excellent stuff. It makes me wonder what kind of career/life Probie could have had if he would have stayed away from the booze and coke. Very sad that he died so young.

/Did Probert select ALBERTA because it's a hell of a lot easier to spell than SASKATCHEWAN?

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Thanks for the links, Eddie, excellent stuff. It makes me wonder what kind of career/life Probie could have had if he would have stayed away from the booze and coke. Very sad that he died so young.

/Did Probert select ALBERTA because it's a hell of a lot easier to spell than SASKATCHEWAN?

He was a beloved figure in Detroit and Chicago. Huge heart on that guy, and he comes across as very down to earth despite the stories he tells. I agree, I wonder what he would have done with Chelios's training regimen.

 

[Automattic]

I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!!