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Friday, December 08, 2000

By Bob Smizik Post-Gazette Columnist

Who could have dreamed this? Who could have expected for one second that this would happen? No one, absolutely no one. And anyone who says they did is fibbing.

Had a list of recently retired great athletes been compiled in the order of their likelihood of staging a comeback, the name of Mario Lemieux would have been at the bottom. No one else would have been close.

This is the man who couldn't wait to get out of uniform. This is the man who no longer loved the game he dominated. This is the man who was considerably happier on the golf course than at the ice rink.

But in the biggest and most astonishing good-news sports story to ever hit this city, Lemieux, 35, is set to announce his return to the National Hockey League and the Penguins.

The repercussions of such a move are staggering. His return to the ice figures to be nothing less than a bonanza for the Penguins organization, his teammates, his fans, the NHL and the city of Pittsburgh.

When he puts on a uniform the Penguins immediately will be elevated from merely a team expected to make the playoffs to one that can reach the Stanley Cup finals. Tickets sales will boom, sellouts at Mellon Arena will become commonplace - if not automatic.

Nor will the Penguins be the only team to benefit. Lemieux will sell tickets in other cities, increase television ratings around the league and lend credibility to the NHL, which is suffering from a lack of players who have immediate name recognition with the public.

Lemieux can do all this because of what he has done and who he is.

This is not just a great player returning to the sport he once dominated after an absence of more than three seasons. This is the man who saved a floundering franchise from almost certain relocation when he joined it as a rookie in 1984. This is the man who quickly became the greatest player in Penguins history and went on to become one of the greatest to ever play the game and most likely the greatest athlete to play for a team representing this city.

This is the man who stepped up for a franchise in bankruptcy -- once again a candidate for relocation -- and put together a group that bought the team and then became its active owner.

This is a French-Canadian from Quebec who could barely speak English when he joined the Penguins who has chosen to make Pittsburgh his home.

Lemieux embodies everything that everyone wants in an athlete. In this era of loud-mouthed, trash-talking superstars, he reminds us that humility remains a virtue. In an era when high-salaried athletes shrink from their responsibilities, Lemieux is the ultimate team man, the peerless leader.

There was a high level of excitement in the Penguins locker room at Southpointe yesterday when the players learned they'd soon be getting a new teammate. They learned the news like most of the rest of us. As they were preparing for a noon practice, the radio station that was on in the locker room announced it would air big Penguins news in a matter of minutes. Some of the players snickered. What could it be that they didn't know?

When the news came, the players, at first, didn't believe it. "I asked someone if it was April 1," defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said.

The players realize what Lemieux can do for their championship aspirations.

"It's like we traded for the best player in the world and didn't have to give up anybody to get him," said forward Matthew Barnaby.

"Besides what he gives us on the ice, there always will be the emotional lift," said injured defenseman Bob Boughner. "Everyone knows he'a great team guy. We're fortunate and lucky that he's our owner and now he's going to be our teammate."

Of course, there was the joking that is more a part of a hockey locker room than any other sport. It says a lot about Lemieux, the living legend, that the players whose paychecks he signs can kid about him in such a manner.

Alluding to the new contract he is said to be seeking, Jaromir Jagr, once Lemieux's linemate, said, "If he doesn't pay me, I'm not going to pass him the puck."

"We're going to take him out on the first road trip, get him drunk and talk contract," Boughner said.

There are dozens of questions to be answered: When is his first game? How much will he play? Who will be on his line? Will he continue to play next season? How close will he be to the Lemieux of old?

It may take time for those questions to be answered. One answer that Lemieux can supply when he speaks publicly about his return is why he made such a decision.

Certainly, there is a business aspect to it. As owner, Lemieux will benefit from the increased revenues his return will bring. But it wasn't dollar signs that prompted this move. The Penguins are getting by. The franchise is slowly regaining its financial health.

More than likely, the competitive fire that most, presumably including the man himself, thought had disappeared is still burning.

Jagr, who had spoken with Lemieux about the comeback, said, "He has a feeling that this is a pretty good team. He feels like he can help this team."

It's a great day for hockey in Pittsburgh.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.