Could others do what Mario Lemieux is doing?
Of course, but it depends on how extensively we define "what Mario
Lemieux is doing."
|  | | Can Barry Sanders do "what Mario Lemieux is doing?" |
Come back at 35 (or thereabouts)? Come back after a layoff of over three years? Come back, to a tumultuous welcome and dizzying initial success? Other elite athletes already have done what Lemieux is doing, if the definitions are liberal.
It's not inconceivable that it could happen again.
Yet the names involved in the roughly parallel situations of the past and, potentially, the future are so exceptional, it only underscores the brilliance of Lemieux's return so far.
First, it is July 16, 2003. (And if that date isn't enough of a hint, before anyone in Detroit calls a talk show about what follows, this is fantasy, OK?)
On his 35th birthday, Barry Sanders steps before microphones in the Detroit Lions' offices and discloses that he has been working out for several months in Peace River, Alberta. He says he first must thank former Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood for recommending the isolated site – Osgood's birthplace – for his preparatory work and for keeping his secret.
Then Sanders confirms the news first reported on ESPN.com 21 minutes earlier: He is coming back.
After four full seasons in mysterious retirement, the diminutive, electric, change-directions-in-midstride running back is returning to the National Football League.
He isn't doing it only to catch Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton and set the NFL rushing record. He also has a sense of unfinished business and a desire to see whether Dennis Miller will compare his comeback to an Henrik Ibsen play or a Donovan P. Leitch song.
He acknowledges that when he saw Mario Lemieux come back so effectively in hockey, back in the year 2000, at age 35, he started thinking about it again. Over the next two seasons, he pondered and thought about working for the new Lions regime of Matt Millen, and he finally decided to try it – also at age 35.
Sanders, who seemed invulnerable to the effects of aging as he hit 30, and who would have caught Payton at 28 or so if the Lions had taken full advantage of him, remains a great running back when he returns to the game in 2003.
Sanders is used more in the passing game, and there are slight slippages in his elusiveness, but he averages 1,200 yards a season through 2005 – when he retires again, with Smith's and Payton's yardages in his rear view mirror. It is apparent there has been a tradeoff; he gave up four prime seasons, but because running backs have both odometers and calendars, the time away from the pounding meant his deterioration was mitigated during his absence.
It's a little reminiscent of when Lemieux escaped three years of pounding, when he healed, and when he rejuvenated the batteries of desire.
Second, it is March of 1954, at baseball's spring training in Florida. The exact scene is guesswork, but based on reality. (In other words, like a TV movie.)
Ted Williams, who is 35, is asked if he is trying to regain both his swing and his hitter's eye. It is a well-meaning question from a obsequious writer, and it doesn't seem completely out of line. After all, Williams missed nearly all of the 1952 and '53 seasons while serving as a Marine pilot in the Korean War, which could have left him a little rusty. And when you consider that he also missed three full seasons while serving in World War II, we're talking about a virtual five-season chunk carved out of his career.
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Lemieux is not making a mockery of the game, nor embarrassing the other elite players. He is only showing that singular talent, if not ageless, is not necessarily susceptible to the paralyzing effects of time. |
But Williams snarls, not at the questioner, but the question. And when he goes on to hit .345, .356, .345, .388 and .328 in the next five seasons, it is obvious that neither his amazing eyesight nor his strike-zone judgment, his competitiveness nor his reflexes have been ruined by the long layoffs for military service. If anything, they have been sharpened. When not seeing the enemy off your left wing can mean death, you tend to hone your vigilance.
Third, it is January 1996, and Magic Johnson is 36. It is over four years since his stunning announcement and sudden NBA retirement. Sure, he played in the 1992 Summer Olympics and in various exhibitions and barnstorming tours, but he has been away from the league he helped save since the end of the 1990-91 season. (Magic and Larry; Mario and Wayne. Without them, their leagues wouldn't be same … or even alive.)
Johnson plays the final 32 games of the regular season, averaging 15 points. His game, though, is selfless. As if that is a foreign concept to teammates, the complementary meshing that made Johnson great in the Showtime years does not take place. Magic is merely occasional with his sleight of hand, and it's not only because Johnson is older and maybe even affected by HIV and treatment. He is disillusioned with the game, and also not oblivious to the whispering he hears about the fears of playing against him.
He still can play.
But he quits. Again.
Now it is hockey; and it is now.
Lemieux is not making a mockery of the game, nor embarrassing the other elite players. He is only showing that singular talent, if not ageless, is not necessarily susceptible to the paralyzing effects of time. And if anything, we seem to be forgetting that it's wrong to say that he has taken up right where he left off.
That may be understating it.
He is not Guy Lafleur, coming back at 37 out of desperation to play three more seasons and leave us shaking our heads.
He is more Ted Williams. And Barry Sanders could be Mario Lemieux.
Lemieux is healthier, he has trained with modern techniques he disdained during the early days of his career, and at least to this point, he has been resilient when taking the few hits he has received from apparently awestruck – or at least exceedingly respectful – opponents.
At 35, in many ways, he is better than ever. And the fact that we're not surprised about that might be the greatest testimony of all.
Terry Frei of The Denver Post is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His feedback e-mail address is ChipHilton23@hotmail.com.
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