Hey there sports fans, bet you didn't know that my second favorite sport is hockey, and my second
favorite hockey team is, you guessed it, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they're in town.
Actually they've been in town for an unbelievable week now. They
arrived in NY on November 2nd for a game the following night against the
Devils, then on the 4th they bused out to Long Island for a date with the Islanders, last night they
waddled down the turnpike to play the Flyers, and tonight they're the
guests of the Rangers at MSG. That my friends is a  four game, seven night
stay in the Big Apple for the Pens. This prolonged visit from the
skating hockey playing penguins of western Pa.  brings back some very fond memories for me.
Back in the mid to
late 1980's,  in the days
before hockey became all about big bucks, luxury boxes and free agency, a prolonged
visit like
this from the Penguins meant that many a player, their
families, coaches and even a front office exec or two would make their way down to
my Next Stop South Pole shop at the South St.
Seaport to shop.  You
see back then there wasn't that  much player movement between teams, many of
the players on the Penguins were there for many years, if not most of their
careers, and so
being a Penguin for these guys meant allot for them and their families. Players and their relatives  often
collected penguin stuff, which was considerably more fun than if you were on the Devils.  
I opened my shop in 1985 and shortly thereafter once word got out that there was an all-penguin shop at the Seaport, my
store became a must see
destination for many players, family and friends if they would be in
town  for a few
days.  On  road trips to NY, it wasn't  uncommon to have visits
from  players, members of the coaching staff, front office
people, even a
GM or a certain minorty share owner would stop to shop. I even had a few regulars like  seven year Penguin  veteran Randy Hillier.   Not to
mention the free hockey tickets I'd get thrown my way during these visits.  But, alas the good penguin hockey
times did not last.  Those innocent  days right before free agency and big money,
before sports merchandising and marketing became as huge as the game itself.
 In the
eighties the team gift shop might have consisted of some jerseys, number
one fingers, a couple of t-shirts, hats, a bumpersticker or two, and
maybe a
puck. To call them Gift Shops would be too generous, they were more like
little souvenir stands, and there were no team store mail order catalogs.  Which meant that the void for any kind of fun, cute penguin item
that wasn't from the Penguins limited shop inventory was filled by me.  I even once got a call from co-owner Harold Baldwin a couple
of days before Christmas for 20 penguin ties to be next day aired to the
teams front office.
Sadly, those
fun, innocent and profitable  penguin hockey days of yesteryear are gone forever. The
players
in the league are basically interchangeble, and only a handful will stay

with a franchise for more than a year or two. The Penguins no longer deal
with sourvenirs, but with massive print and on-line gift catalogs that
include
everything under the sun with a Pittsburgh Penguins logo on it. Sports
merchandising in the 21st century is a multi billion, zillion dollar deal (I don't have the
actual numbers, but it's really big).  Plus, to top it all off I haven't had my
shop at
the Seaport for seven years, so the players couldn't come to the Seaport for penguins even if they wanted to,  and I don't anticipate finding Sydney
Crosby
wandering around the stairwell here on Water Street looking to buy some
penguin slippers before he has to go back for practice.  As sad as I am
that those innocent penguin days are gone (along with my free hockey
tickets), I am happy for one thing that harkens back to those good old
days. It appears that the teams' hockey playing penguin logo is going to

be a keeper and this season he's back and bigger than ever. After
abandoning the little guy for nearly a decade the team regained its grip on reality and went
 back to it's old penguin jersey logo seven years ago.  The cool waddling logo began back in
1967 with the teams inception, it features a really cool looking, semi
serious hockey playing cartoon penguin with hockey gloves, ice skates,
holding a
stick and skating over a large triangle (which represents the three
rivers of
Pittsburgh). He did wear a scarf for the first season, but it was removed after a
year.  I guess someone must have thought that
playing hockey while wearing a scarf could be hazardous (especially if
you're a penguin). For me,
 scarf or no scarf, this is one of the great logo's in professional
sports.  Quite possibly in sports history.  He's just that cool.  Forty years ago the Penguins jersey colors were
light
blue, navy and white, and back then the penguin skated inside a circle that ringed
around
him with the words Pittsburgh Penguins. In a few years the
the circle disappeared, but the penguin and triangle remained.
Then, in an unprecedented move, in middle of the 1980-81 the Pens changed their colors and debuted their new
color scheme: black and gold. You see two months earlier the Pittsburgh Pirates
won the World Series and the Pittsburgh Steelers had just
won their fourth Super Bowl. In keeping with the "City of
Champions" theme or simply trying to jump on the bandwagon (depending on
who you ask) the not so successful Penguins adopted  black and gold as their colors. The
team has stayed black and gold ever since, but there have been rumblings
of
the Pens going back to their original colors, which may happen when the
Pens waddle into their new arena in a couple of years. But, don't hold me to it.
For the next dozen seasons everything waddled along smoothly. There was a uniform tweak or subtle change here and there, but nothing drastic. Then, in 1992 the unthinkable happened, the cool hockey playing
penguin,
my favorite mascot / logo in all of sports (sorry Mr. Met) was given the pink slip!  Replaced
by some sleek, computer generated, euro trash, angular, penguin head
that looked like it
had escaped from Jaromir Jagr's worst  nightmare (other than getting
traded to the Rangers).  Inexplicably, the euro trash, severed penguin
head remained one the teams jerseys for eight sad, long years.   But, with the dawn of a new millenium, like a frozen phoenix rising
from the snow, and just in time for their back to back Stanley Cups of 2000 and 2001, the

hockey playing penguin returned triumphantly to the front of the Pittsburgh Penguins
jerseys, this time tweaked a bit to look a
little meaner (maybe it was steroids) and a little leaner (personal trainer).   But, who cared if he was a
little
crabbier and roided up?  Not me. He was back and from where I stand, back for good.
 This season  the
NHL
 has mandated changes in the design of the jersey itself, in order to make them
a bit
more streamlined (and to sell more jerseys)  and although the new look sleek jersey has met with mixed reviews, it has actually benefited the
penguin.  He  simply looks
enormous (steroids again?), and of course all the more glorious. Long live
the
penguin!  Unfortunately, for the Penguins they're cool logo couldn't help them this evening as they lost  to the
Rangers 4-2,
thus concluding their dismal four game, week long metropolitan area
junket with only one
win, and no visits to Penguin Place.  But, beyond actual wins or loses or retail sales, from where I'm sitting they sure looked great during this
abysmal road trip around my home town, and with  penguin merchandise one
of the NHL's top sellers, and new stadium on the way there's little
doubt that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be wearing my favorite penguin mascot proudly on their jerseys
for a long time to come,
 There's even talk of reviving their old team light and dark blue colors

for the opening of the new arena in 2009. I'm keeping my flippers crossed.  By the way, if you've never
watched a game at The Igloo (yes, that's where the Penguins play) in
Pittsburgh,
It's worth the trip.  It's a unique looking building, inside and out, and
where else can you go and hear 16,000 people yelling "Let's Go Penguins"!

  And by the way, if you're keeping score at home, my favorite sport is baseball.