8802230945
DETROIT FREE PRESS
881209
Friday, December 09, 1988
METRO EDITION
1D
Photo Color MARY SCHROEDER AND WILLIAM DEKAY
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1988, Detroit Free Press
STEVIE WONDERFUL
HUMBLE YZERMAN FITS NICELY AS A HERO
My biggest fear about Steve Yzerman is that success will one day grab him
by the neck and say, "Look, kid, wake up! You're a star! Stop treating people
so nicely!"
It could happen. Plenty of athletes begin as humble men and wind up
burping champagne. And you know what? They get away with it. There is no
stardom quite like sports stardom in America; men and women fawn over you.
It is tough to fawn over Yzerman. He likes to hide in the woods of
normality. Last week I called him up. I said, "What are you doing?" He said,
"Nothing. My fiancee is at a Tupperware party."
A Tupperware party?
He made a commercial for Ford recently. Didn't use an agent. Just went in,
heard the offer, and accepted it. "Well, it's not like I'd won any Oscars,"
Yzerman says. "I couldn't really demand anything."
On Monday he eclipsed a Detroit hockey record held by the great Gordie
Howe -- most consecutive games with at least one goal. (Yzerman has nine, a
mark he hopes to embellish tonight against Toronto.)
So I ask whether he has ever met the big man.
"A couple of times," he says. "He always seems to come over and say hi."
"Couldn't you just say hello first?"
His eyes bulge.
"No way. I would never just go up to Gordie Howe out of the blue."
"Why not?"
"Because he's Gordie Howe. What am I gonna say, 'Hey, Gordie. How's it
goin'?' "
"Well, don't you think you've reached that point?"
He shakes his head.
"I'll never reach that point."
Now. Remember. This is not Butch Deadmarsh talking. This is a guy who many
believe is the third-best player in the NHL, behind only Wayne Gretzky and
Mario Lemieux This is the captain of the Red Wings, an All-Star, a skating
wizard who is hockey's answer to the deer: graceful, elusive and smart. He
has 28 goals in the first 27 games this season, mountains of assists, his
passing is deft, his aim is true, he is arguably the most popular athlete in
Detroit -- Yzerman, Isiah, or Trammell, toss it up -- and is certainly the
most unanimously well-liked. The other night he went to a Stevie Wonder
concert. They could have called it: "Stevie Wonder meets Stevie Wonderful."
And he's embarrassed to say hello to Gordie Howe?
Oh, Yzerman.
You'll never last.
And yet . . . well, who knows? Maybe we tapped into the real thing here.
Talent and humility in one handsome package? You can fish around all you
like, this guy will almost never praise himself. Toss his name in with
Gretzky's, and he shivers.
"There's no comparison between Gretzky and me," Yzerman says, sitting in
his West Bloomfield apartment Wednesday afternoon. "He's done it all. Won
Stanley Cups, won scoring championships. . . . These people who compare us, or
say he and Mario and I are 1-2-3, it's so unfair to guys like Mark Messier,
Dale Hawerchuk, Ray Bourque. You can't compare. . . .
"And Gordie Howe? No way. I was looking at some of his records the other
day. He's got marks that will last forever. He played with a dynasty. If we
ever become a dynasty, a lot of other guys will be breaking records, too."
He crosses his legs and folds his hands -- and he looks as if he's 15
years old, waiting for Mom to drive him to practice. Most people see Yzerman
only on the ice, when he's sweaty and his hair is wet and his sparse whiskers
suggest at least a little ruggedness.
See him at home sometime. I bet he gets carded at PG movies.
All of which makes his maturity a surprise. And know this: He is as mature
as they come. Not just hockey-wise. Business- wise. Life-wise. And he's only
23. You look at him and you say, "Geez, the guy belongs in high school." You
listen to him, and you say, "Geez, the guy belongs in office."
Did you know that Steve Yzerman is studying to be a financial analyst?
Yep. He's taking a course with Shearson Lehman Brothers. "I don't want to be
the typical dumb athlete," he says. "I mean, I'd like to have something to
talk about other than hockey."
He also plans to be married, next year, to his longtime girlfriend, Lisa
Brennan. They have a date all set. Now. I don't want to say he's passing up
opportunities here. But if you put Steve Yzerman in a nightclub and told
Detroit women he was there, we might never see him again.
"I know what I want from life," he says, shrugging, when asked about his
adoring female fans. "Lisa was with me long before things got going good. And
she'll be with me long after.
"Usually when we go out, I try to let it be known that I'm with her.
Sometimes people will come over anyhow."
He laughs. "If I forget to introduce her, she kicks me in the shins."
Like most captains, Yzerman has learned to straddle the team's needs with
the needs of the public. That is not surprising. What is surprising is that
he learned it so fast. What can rattle Steve Yzerman now? When a horrible knee
injury ended his regular season last season, there were whispers; some said
he would never be the same.
"I'll be back," he promised, and left it at that.
During the recent escapades of Bob Probert and Petr Klima, he was not shy
with his criticism, nor did he play St. Steven with the press. "I think we've
all talked enough about it," he said, when it seemed, indeed, we had.
Most athletes treat responsibility the way a vampire treats a cross. Yet
in the four years I have known him, I have seen Yzerman agree to do one of
those silly playoff "diaries" for a newspaper -- then insist that he write it
himself. I have seen him wandering around the Windsor airport parking lot in
the wee hours of the morning, making sure his teammates all had rides home.
The other night on WLLZ-FM, hockey analyst Don Cherry rated Yzerman just
behind Gretzky and Lemieux in talent. "But you know," he added, "if you ask
players around the league, Yzerman is the one they'd most like to sit and have
beer with. He's the most regular guy of the three."
And then there is this story. I heard it from Mary Schroeder, a wonderful
photographer for our newspaper, who sits near the penalty box at Joe Louis
Arena. Whenever Yzerman gets called for a penalty, he enters the box, cursing
like a sailor.
Then he sees her.
"Sorry, Mary," he always says.
And he sits down.
Manners.
Now, OK. Before we put a halo around his head, let us point out that, yes,
Yzerman is sometimes so low-key, he sounds like part of SCTV's "Great White
North" show. ("Have a sandwich, eh? OK, eh? Good, eh?") And he is not without
his moods, his temper, his pet peeves.
But we are talking about a guy here who could become legendary. He may
become this era's Gordie Howe. He is already the star on a team that is on the
lip of excellence. He is only 23. Detroit is a hockey town, and when the team
goes good, the good are canonized.
His contract has become an issue lately, because he earns only $385,000
annually, while Lemieux and Gretzky now earn around $2 million. His response?
It will be taken care of. Why debate it in the press? "It seems like so many
contracts become controversial. I don't see why they can't be harmonious, all
parties getting along."
Geez. What planet did this guy come from?
Who knows? Maybe the Bobby Knights and Joaquin Andujars and Jim McMahons
have ruined us. Maybe you get a humble guy who just wants to play and do well
and marry his high school sweetheart and you immediately grow suspicious.
It's getting dangerous to write anything too complimentary about athletes
these days. As soon as the story hits the newsstands, the guy gets arrested.
I don't think that will happen with Steve Yzerman. Call it a hunch. Call
it blind faith. There is now at least one part of the Red Wings' history book
that reads: 1. Yzerman 2. Howe. . . . And I suspect it won't be the last.
Still, I could be wrong. . . .
"Are you comfortable with your image now?" I ask.
"Um. . . . I don't know what it is," he says.
I'm not wrong.
MAJOR STORY;STEVE YZERMAN;DREDWINGS; HOCKEY;IMAGE;BIOGRAPHY;
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