If It Was Staggering It Had To Be Eddie

Ultimately, League President Richard Canning fined Shore $2,000. Shortly thereafter Eddie suffered a heart attack. "When he had the attack," an American League official said, "we decided not to press him for the money." Fining without collecting was a formula often followed by Shore himself. This is the other side of Shore, the side as hidden from the public as the far side of the moon.

One night Shore caught a couple of players drinking after hours and fined each $200. At the end of the season each received a $200 bonus. Another time Eddie criticized Ken Schinkel for a mistake during a workout. Normally mild-mannered, Schinkel was upset because his wife had just lost a baby. "Eddie," Schinkel shouted, "you can go to hell."

"That'll cost you $100," snapped Shore.

After the playoffs Schinkel dropped into the hockey office to say goodby to his boss. "Wait a minute," said Shore, reaching into his pocket and pulling out $100. "I don't know why I'm so good to you."

"Funny thing about him," says Schinkel, "he fined me every year I was there. But every year he gave me the money back."

Eddie fancies himself as both a psychologist and a medicine man. He insists he twice cured himself of cancer, but he won't explain how. "All I can say," he says, "is three specialists gave me only six months to live and that was in 1940."

One afternoon Shore noticed Schinkel sniffling. Ken had a cold and, having tried the usual remedies without success, was simply waiting out the ailment. Shore had other ideas. "You know what he prescribes?" says Schinkel. "Twelve drops of iodine. And you know what? It worked."

Eddie's prescriptions are not always so effective. He once decided that Schinkel was suffering from yellow jaundice. "The Old Man gave me something he invented and called the 'Marlet Treatment,' " says Schinkel. "It's a laxative made up of oils. I was scared of it, so I took only half of what I was supposed to. I lost 12 pounds in no time, so I cut it out. I think if I'd have taken the whole business it would've been suicide."

Shore's trades are a favorite topic of conversation in the AHL. Hershey sportswriters still are talking about the time he made a man-for-man swap but was tormented at the last minute over what he considered a slight discrepancy in the players' worth. He finally agreed to the trade on the condition that Hershey throw in a brand-new goal net to complete the transaction.

Shore's trading tactics may have been sharp, but no man has given more of his life, his flesh, his blood for hockey. None has invested more of his time instructing young hockey players. His drive built what was a feeble Springfield franchise into a hockey power the equal of the best in the world, and no other can match Shore's claim of putting every cent he made out of hockey back into the sport.