Umpire "Conned" Doug Harvey

When Dick Irvin Sr, the great coach of the Montreal Canadiens, was asked who was the better player out of Rocket Richard and Gordie Howe, he liked to answer Doug Harvey. He may have been right. Doug Harvey was that good.

Doug Harvey is universally hailed as the second best defenseman of all time, behind Bobby Orr of course. Some of the real oldtimers will still insist Harvey was the better of the two.

As great of a hockey player as Harvey was, he was also a great baseball player. It was said he could have played pro ball, he was that good. He was very much a natural athlete, but just as importantly he was driven by his competitive nature.

Just how competitive was he? Sometimes he took sports too seriously. Such as in 1952, in a charity softball tournament.

Here's the story, as told by Dick Irvin, Jr. in his book "Now Back to You Dick: Two Lifetimes in Hockey"

"In the summer of 1952, the Canadiens played a softball game against the inmates (can you believe that!) at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary. I went along as the bat boy. Harvey, a fine ball player, was the catcher. During the game, he got into a fierce nose-to-nose argument with the home-plate umpire. A couple of Harvey's teammates mumbled behind his back that maybe he should try being as aggressive on the ice. But they were duly put in their place when they found out the umpire was serving a life sentence for murder!"

If you're looking for more Doug Harvey stories at your bookstore, there's a couple of titles I recommend.

The first is by Chris Robinson, and is pictured above. It is called Stole This from a Hockey Card : A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity and Booze. It is definitely not your usual sports biography. Robinson looks at Harvey's athletic excellence and off-ice tragedies by searching for parallels in his own life. It's different. It's interesting. It's scrappy and humorous. The author took a gamble, and judging by all the reviews, it paid off handsomely.

The other is more simply title as Doug: The Doug Harvey Story, and is pictured to the right. Author William Brown is a Montreal based researcher and author who leaves no stone unturned. It is a more traditional sports biography book, but in no way less valuable.

If you only want to buy one book, go with Robinson's work, as it truly is a literary success. But Brown's book is a worthy addition to any hockey bookshelf as well.