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Trying not to forget
I want to put together the pieces of the picture better. I want the date, the game, the circumstances to come through the fuzz. I have a snapshot of Garnet (Ace) Bailey in my head -- a young, good-looking guy, big smile, funny -- but all I remember about the story is the punch line. Thirty years is a long time. He was a rookie with the Boston Bruins ... Or maybe he wasn't. The year must have been 1969 ... Or maybe 1970. Or '71 or '72. He was playing with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and Gerry Cheevers and the rest of that team that won two Stanley Cups, the last two Stanley Cups in Boston. He had a rare big offensive night. Maybe he scored a hat trick. Or maybe he knocked in a winning goal. Something. Something big. He was in the Bruins' locker room and I was in the crowd of sportswriters around him. Maybe I was covering the game. Maybe I was a columnist. Maybe ... the one thing I remember is that the crowd had made him its darling for the night. Fourteen thousand people chanting his name, "Ace, Ace, Ace." "Could you hear the people?" I remember I asked. "Did that make you feel good, all those people yelling, 'Ace'?" "Yeah," I remember he replied. "It was nice, but next game I'll screw up. And I'll be Garnet again." What else? What? The name is on the television set now -- stuck in the middle of the list of victims at the World Trade Center, Garnet (Ace) Bailey, 53 years old, director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Kings, passenger on the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to L.A. -- and the specifics from long ago seem desperately important. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, touch all of us in dozens of ways. I want to remember this touch. Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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