0211260357
DETROIT FREE PRESS
021126
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
METRO FINAL
1C
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 2002, Detroit Free Press
BIRTH OF TWINS GIVES SHANAHAN NEW LIFE
It was a ride to work like any other ride to work, except Brendan Shanahan had
50 cigars in the backseat. He would give them out to his teammates. He would
shake their hands. He would tell them the details of the story, the date
(Saturday); the time (3 in the afternoon); the names (Maggie and Jack); the
birth order (Maggie first, Jack second, one minute apart); his wife's
condition (good); his condition (good); the grandparents' condition (over the
moon).
It was a ride to work like any other ride to work -- except everything had
changed.
Shanahan had been the oldest member of the Red Wings without children.
Now he'd joined the club -- in spades.
"With this team, it feels natural," said Shanahan, 33, after his wife,
Catherine, gave birth to twins over the weekend. "You come to practice on the
weekends and you see the players with their kids out on the ice, all these
Stanley Cup champions teaching 6- and 7-year-olds how to skate."
He laughed. "Now I'm one of the guys."
Hockey players and kids. They go together like -- well -- like hockey players
and dogs, hockey players and SUVs, hockey players and golf clubs. It is part
of the hockey culture.
Still, for everyone who becomes a parent -- star athletes included -- there is
the one day when you and your spouse are the only things in the world, and
another day when, suddenly, just like the cigars, you take a backseat.
Waiting to exhale
For Shanahan, the day was a long time coming. He had missed a week of training
camp to tend to his wife and her pregnancy. He had spent many games, in
between periods, calling home, checking up. Last Monday night in Calgary, he
was out to dinner with a group of teammates when he got a phone call. His wife
was going into labor. The father-to-be in him was thinking wildly about
leaving. The hockey player in him was thinking about when to come back.
"You know the way Catholics feel guilt?" Shanahan said. "That's how hockey
players feel guilt. When you're not with your team during the season, you feel
like you're playing hooky.
"So after the call, I told the guys at the table, 'I'll fly home and have to
miss the game in Calgary, but if everything goes well, I can probably be back
for the game in Edmonton (Saturday).'
"They all knew better. They all have kids. Kris Draper looked at me and said,
'If I see you in Edmonton, I'm gonna be really disappointed.' "
As it turned out, things took longer than Shanahan thought. When he arrived in
Detroit, Catherine's labor had slowed. Tuesday passed. So did Wednesday.
Thursday. Friday.
On Saturday, they went to the hospital, expecting to be sent home. The doctor
did an examination and said, "Folks, these babies are coming today."
Shanahan said, "OK, like, what, another six or seven hours?"
"No . . . " the doctor said.
Two hours later, Brendan and Catherine had become The Shanahan Family.
New feelings abound
There was a moment, Shanahan said, when they walked him down the hall and he
looked through the glass at his two infants. There was a moment when he called
his mother and said, "You have two new grandchildren."
Shanahan, always a keen observer of the small stuff of life, is in for all
kinds of new moments now. There are few careers more self-indulgent than
professional athlete. Trainers take care of you, public relations people take
care of you -- agents, managers, fans, media -- it's all about you.
But being a parent is about somebody else. So Shanahan, on Monday, made his
first trip to work as a father. And it felt . . . different.
"I know tonight, after the game, I'll be able to go home and hold my babies,"
said the man who used to only worry about what late-night take-out places were
open. "I'm . . . I'm at a loss for words to describe that. I just changed my
first diaper yesterday. I was one of those guys who always loved kids, but
when they were infants, felt like I shouldn't hold them for too long.
"But now . . . "
He didn't finish. He didn't have to. Now is different. All the nows are
different.
This has been some year for Shanahan. He won Olympic gold in February, he won
the Stanley Cup in June, he became a family patriarch in November. And there's
still five weeks left until New Year's. Or, by Shanahan's new measuring stick,
238 dirty diapers.
Shanahan returned to the ice Monday night at Joe Louis Arena. He scored a
goal. After the game, he went to the parking lot.
It was a ride home from work, just like any other ride home from work --
except this one had an empty cigar box in the backseat, and a player in the
front who now knew this: Life is often not about what awaits you at the
office, but what awaits when you return.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch
Albom Show" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
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