This is the greatest book ever by the greatest hockey player ever to lace them up.

I got this book from a few people as a gift, which just goes to show there was a pretty good chance I’d like it. Once I got done returning the extra copies, I sat down with this book as if it were delivered in the form of a burning bush. Or stone tablets. Let’s go with the stone tablets analogy, because otherwise I’m going to keep picturing myself in flames in a nice comfy chair, which isn’t how I want to go out.

So I lugged out the stone tablets, settled in on the couch, since the comfy chair was burned to cinders because of the burning bush experience, and began to read. Bobby is more than just a hockey player, as if you didn’t know. He was of my parents era, as a player, but he was an integral part of growing up a sports fan in New England. I got to shake his hand at the opening ceremonies of the Bay State Games in the late eighties, early nineties because one of his sponsors, Bay Bank, played a large part in putting on the competition. He was on television, despite having been out of the game for ten years, every time we watched those bruising Bruins of the 80s my parents would reminisce about Number Four, Bobby Orr as if hockey had been forever ruined by seeing that one fleeting glimpse of how the game might be played in its purest form.

Mr. Orr reflects on his storied career and even a little bit on his downfall, but you get the sense that he’s uncomfortable with all the attention. He maintains the attitude that nothing that he did was remarkable — sure, some of the physical feats may have been, but his approach to the game he loved and, to a lesser extent, life in general, is simply based on a healthy respect for others and hard work.

And that’s the key lesson, here, that he wishes to deliver from the mountaintop: be humble, work hard, parents, let your kids be kids. They’ll figure it out.

I got the sense, just about the time I lost all feeling in my legs, due to the heavy burden of the tablets, that this is the same book Bobby Orr would have written if he went on to become the greatest plumber of all time (maybe a few less stories about the Boston Bruins and Don Cherry, though). He gives himself a little less credit than he deserves, because he obviously had a passion for his sport that I’ve rarely seen in people, and that perhaps kids could do with a bit more pushing (our kids would sit on the couch all day, reading books or watching TV if they weren’t encouraged to get out and play — I don’t see either of them leaping out to go play hockey on the bay, unasked), but I agree with his general principle. While most kids won’t have the talent and ability, like he had, it’s no fun learning systems at too early an age (says the guy who, at 14, was signed by the Boston Bruins). You learn a lot more from a sport than simply how to perform like a professional. And while he may not have been the greatest writer who ever lived, he’s written a lovely book that took me down memory lane and given me a few things to think about, as a coach of youth sports in my spare time.

And if you get the stone tablet edition and leave it on your legs for too long you can feel the pain he likely felt for most of his years on the ice.