Ted Starkey, a hockey writer and overall good dude and good dad who has worked for Newsday, The Washington Times, The Tampa Tribune, and others in addition to publishing two books, has just released his latest work, Chasing the Dream: Life in the American Hockey League (available on Amazon for $11.99).
Chasing the Dream follows players, coaches, broadcasters, and staff from all across the AHL, sharing the untold and often wonderful stories of “the best hockey players not in the NHL.” Embedding with seven different teams, and including chapters on everything from bus bathroom etiquette during road trips in January to what it’s really like to get the call that you’re going up to The Show, Chasing the Dream is an all-angles look at the men and women operating just on the periphery of your hockey awareness.
But the reason you will want this book is for the stories from and about Caps legends Barry Trotz, Bruce Boudreau, Joe Beninati, and John Walton.
Like this one from the early 1990s, when Barry Trotz, then an assistant for the Baltimore Skipjacks, played a prank on rookie broadcaster Kenny Albert (now with Fox Sports) during one trip:
Or this one, where we’re invited to picture Barry Trotz, mustachioed Adonis, squeezing melons to see if they’re ripe. Dave Starman, a broadcast analyst for the Skipjacks, remembers it:
Or when Joe Beninati, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, uses his powers of description to explain how best to move around a crowded team bus hurtling down the interstate:
But the best might be this one, when John Walton, radio voice of the Capitals (then the Hershey Bears), recalls having to rescue coach Bruce Boudreau from a potentially disastrous wardrobe malfunction before a game in Bridgeport:
Seriously, the whole book is full of gems like these. If you have one more hockey fan left on your holiday shopping list (and if you’re reading this website, it may well be yourself), go pick up Chasing the Dream on Amazon today.