For many, being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan has become a curse from cradle to grave. False hope, hollow promises, and a mind-numbing lack of success - these words describe the Toronto Maple Leafs and the hockey club’s inexplicable mediocrity over much of the past decade. Author Peter Robinson has attended some 100 games over the past six seasons and has little to show for it except an unquenched thirst that keeps him coming back. Why does a team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967, long before many of its followers were even born, have such a hold on its fans? Robinson tries to answer that question and more while detailing what it’s like to love one of the most unlovable teams in all of professional sports. Being a Leafs fan requires a leap of faith every year, girding against inevitable disappointment. This book tells what that’s like, how it got to be that way, and what the future holds for all who worship the Blue and White.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley cup since 1967—a burden that long-suffering fans have regrettably had to bear. Ron Bailey, the new director of player personnel for the Leafs, is more than frustrated with his beloved team, who last won the prestigious title when he was just three. Unfortunately, Ron worries that the cynical Canadian fans and media who fear it may be another forty years before the Leafs win another one might be right. Just as he is about to give up hope, Bailey accidentally uncovers a possible reason for the Leafs’ long drought—a curse that has been supposedly placed on the team by the father of Dale McCaine, a former player who, due to tragic circumstances, never had the opportunity to play for a cup. As Bailey’s curiosity peaks, he asks for a meeting with the feisty and feeble Doug McCaine—who asks for a second chance for his deceased son to play for the Stanley Cup in Maple Leaf Gardens. Only then will he lift his curse. In this sports adventure, a young hockey director must orchestrate the game of the century as the spirits of former Leafs’ greats to band together to help a player’s dreams come true.

It was as though fate singled out Bill Barilko for immortality.A poor boy from Northern Ontario who laboured at skating, Barilko, miraculously found himself playing defence on the hockey team of his dreams—the Toronto Maple Leafs. Through five National Hockey League seasons, Barilko emerged as the toast of Toronto, winning four Stanley Cup championships. On April 21, 1951, playing their rivals, the loathed Montreal Canadiens, Bill Barilko scored the overtime goal, winning the Toronto Maple Leafs their seventh Stanley Cup. It was the last game he ever played.Four months later, preparing to return to Toronto for training camp, Barilko made a fateful decision and planned one final fishing trip to a favoured spot on the east side of James Bay. Neither Barilko nor his friend, pilot Dr. Henry Hudson, were heard from again, prompting a massive aerial search. Eleven years later, the remains of both men were discovered in the remnants of their small aircraft, a few miles outside of Cochrane, Ontario.It wasn’t until Barilko’s body was found, that the Leafs again hoisted the Stanley Cup. They won the Cup that same year—1962.Bill Barilko’s life has been celebrated for more than fifty years. The impeccable shot taken by Nat Turofsky is the most requested photograph in the archives of the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Toronto Star selected Barilko’s Stanley Cup-winning goal as one of the top three sporting moments in Toronto history in December 2003, the National Post called Barilko’s 1950-51 Leaf team the best Toronto hockey team of all time. The Tragically Hip has even celebrated Bill Barilko’s legend in their song, “Fifty Mission Cap.”Barilko: Without a Trace chronicles the extraordinary story of this immensely popular athlete and includes a new chapter on the rediscovered crash site. Teammates Ted Kennedy, Allan Stanley, Gus Mortson and Howie Meeker are among those who share stories of their sporting life with Bill. Childhood friends and his grieving girlfriend explain the Bill we didn’t read about. Those involved in both the search and discovery tell their amazing tales. And the entire story is lovingly woven together through the immaculate memories of Bill’s sister, Anne.

The Unofficial Biography Of Hockey's #1 Bad BoyAnd âOne Of The Sexiest Men Aliveâ: Sean AverySean Avery, the Wings, Kings, Rangers, Stars, Hollywood, Vogue, People, Trash Talk, Hockey Villains, Bad Boys, Brawlers, Agitators, And Something New For The List Of Things You Canât Say On TV

Love them or hate them, they’re the most successful team in professional hockey … just not on the scoresheet. The Toronto Maple Leafs are an exception to every law of the sporting jungle. They miss the playoffs and the sellouts keep coming. They haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967, but the earning power of that blue-and-white maple leaf, no matter the chronic woes of the blue-and-white’s power play, never ceases to increase. In this description of failure and prescription for hope, Toronto Star sports columnist Dave Feschuk and Globe and Mail sports reporter Michael Grange draw the illogical roadmap that pinpoints how the once-proud Leafs got lost in the sporting hinterlands, who’s to blame for stranding them there, and how they might extract themselves from this historic mire.

It has been said that the Red Sox are part of the patrimony of the New England; generation after generation has inherited a fidelity to the cause of the men of Fenway, known throughout New England as The Sox. The Red Sox are as much a part of that historic corner of the American nation as the mountains, lakes, and shoreline that so graphically characterize it. The focal point of this devotion is Fenway Park, the small, old, oddly shaped home field of the Red Sox since April 20, 1912. Built for a game that feeds off its own history, that follows a seamless course through the years, Fenway is an ideal place to watch baseball, where one can sit comfortably with the shadows of George Herman Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and all other titans who have passed this way. Every Red Sox fan is a shareholder in that history, possesses an anchorage in that past, and holds a ticket in the future. Through their long and unpredictable history the Red Sox have been many things: triumphant, exciting, and gallant, as well as frustrating and disappointing. Through all personnel changes that baseball teams must necessarily undergo, they have never failed to exude a certain charm that is rare in any athletic endeavor. These are the qualities of the Boston Red Sox, one of the ongoing enchantments of New England.