Mortality doesn't often present itself so obviously. Last Friday, Wayne Gretzky sat on a dais at Madison Square Garden, watching clips from his childhood and professional career, about to announce his retirement. "Sometimes you go to funerals, and sometimes you get to go to weddings," he said. "And to me, this is a party." Then he stopped himself from crying. "I should take my own advice, huh?"
At best it was a wake. "I played hockey for 35 years, since I was three years old," he said. "It's like suddenly they say, 'Give me your skates. You're done.'" After playing 20 seasons and amassing virtually every scoring record in pro hockey and then some (under "most points in a season," Gretzky holds nine of the top 11 spots), his own aging body asked him to hand in those skates.
Gretzky's career is a bit curious in that he did it backward. You're supposed to rise from obscurity, slowly dominate the sport, overcome adversity and go out on top, like that basketball guy. By the time Gretzky was 10, though, he was featured in a half-hour television special. At 18, his fame was part of the reason the National Hockey League absorbed the upstart World Hockey Association, where Gretzky was playing for the Edmonton Oilers. He had won four Stanley Cup championships with the Oilers by the time he was 27. He married actress Janet Jones in Canada's royal wedding, and a month later was sold to L.A. to teach the Americans about hockey and break his own country's heart. (A clearly troubled Canadian House leader complained that "the Edmonton Oilers without Wayne Gretzky is like Wheel of Fortune without Vanna White.") Gretzky moved again to St. Louis, Mo., and then to New York, but his quest for another Cup would not be fulfilled. The New York Rangers, a mess of a club, have been unable to commit to winning, so Gretzky decided to cut the tragedy short before people started to walk out of the theater.
This is not the first time Gretzky has considered retiring; he talked about it in 1991 and 1993. But each time he has proved too talented; even last year, he led the league in assists. But this year Gretzky has dealt with persistent neck pain from an injury, and though he's the best player on his team, he has seen his skills deteriorate. After beating the Rangers earlier this year, Buffalo Sabre Vaclav Varada said that stopping Gretzky wasn't challenging. The next time the two teams played, Ranger Todd Harvey chased Varada and punched him in the back of the head. This is a hockey player's way of saying the truth is sometimes difficult to take.
The Great One--a nickname so Arthurian it would have sounded histrionic on any other athlete--tried to avoid a farewell tour, but it came anyway, after the New York Post broke the news of his impending decision last week. His last game in Canada, at Ottawa, became a ceremony, with opposing players each skating over to shake his hand; and the p.a. guy, instead of announcing the three stars of the game as is the custom at every NHL game, called only one--the only real superstar hockey has ever had.