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The Rog's Rant

Birthdays aren’t a big deal – unless you’re 0 or 50

I have never been a guy who makes a big deal about his birthday. The idea of getting another year older isn’t particularly attractive to me, especially as you start “getting up there” as they say.

I’m getting up there all right. I am turning 50 this year. A lot of people when they turn 50 have a mid-life crisis of some sort, but that won’t happen to me. I got that out of the way when I was 40.

Of course when I was a kid I loved my own birthday, but that was a long time ago. And while I still like to make a big deal about my own kids birthdays and the birthdays of other family members or friends, I like to keep my own pretty low key.

The way I see it you only have one birthday anyway – mine is April 11, 1958 – and the rest of them are just anniversaries. But even a birthday basher like me would have to concede that turning 50 is certainly a significant milestone.

A lot of people when they turn 50 take the time to look back and review their lives and make some new plans of some sort for the rest of their lives, but not me. I review my life every day in my journal and my plans for the future have long been made – now I just have to execute them.

But as a review, let me say how incredibly blessed I’ve been. My late parents provided me with a comfortable life and loved me, I’ve had a terrific family life and many friends, and I’ve never spent a day in the hospital unless I was visiting someone.

You have the basics of life provided to you, have people you can say “I love you” to every day, and be lucky enough to enjoy good health, everything else is just gravy. And I’ve had boatloads of gravy in my 50 years, most of which has come from being able to have a perfect career for me.

My life’s motto is “My work is my play” and it is. What I do for a living is “work” but only because it requires some degree of talent and I get paid for it. “Work” is digging ditches or selling cars, what I do is not “work” in that sense.

Imagine being a sports fan like I am and getting to five Super Bowls, five Stanley Cup finals, five NBA finals, seven World Series and 13 Memorial Cups. I’ve covered more than 100 major sporting events across North America. I’m writing this munching on nachos in the media work room in San Antonio at The Final Four for heaven’s sake.

I’ve been a sports writer at a daily newspaper and a weekly paper. I’ve been a magazine editor and a wire service correspondent. I’ve been a radio and TV host and personality. I’ve done play-by-play, colour and hosting of hockey games. I’ve been a PR guy for hockey teams and a baseball and hockey PA announcer.

I’ve worked for Reuters, The Fan 590, Rogers Sportsnet and many other publications and organizations. I managed to eke out a living until I was 40 and then finally starting making some real good money after I found out how things REALLY worked in the media. I’m enjoying great success but anybody who knows me knows this – I worked for it, I paid the price, and I did it without kissing anybody’s ass.

I’ve gotten to the point where I only do what I really enjoy and I drop the rest. I recently started teaching at the College of Sports Media and in September my first book, “The Road to Hockeytown, Jimmy Devellano’s 40 years in the NHL” will be published by Wiley Publishing (soon available at all leading bookstores!) as I evolve into the later stages of my career in this wonderful business.

I’m a very happy guy. I love to get up each day and go to “work” such as it is for me. I’m healthy, in pretty good shape, and in the next five years look forward to the latest stage of my career, which will be writing more books, doing more teaching and trying to help some younger people get their starts in this business so they can “play” for a living too.

So birthdays don’t make me maudlin, they just make me realize time is moving along pretty quickly, which is why I usually pass on any kind of a celebration. Except for No. 50.

On that day I’ll be “working” – I’ll be in Detroit for a photo shoot for the book in the morning, then back in Oshawa at night for Game 5 of the OHL series between Oshawa and Niagara doing the play-by-play. That’s appropriate for me, because it’s what I want to do. I guess that means most days are a “birthday” for me.

But shortly after that, a rarity for me – a complete week away. My beautiful wife and I are going to Maui to celebrate both of our 50th birthdays, and our 20 years together. No blogging, no writing, no lesson plans, no email work – just a time for us to soak up the sun and sand and celebrate a bit.
I mean turning 50 – my god! That deserves a week in Hawaii for sure.

But then my friends, it’s back to “work” for me and then I stop counting birthdays for good. There are only two birthdays worth noting in my mind – your true “birthday” and No. 50.

And now I’ve had both of them. No regrets either – except that No. 50 got here a little too quickly for my liking.

Comments on The Rant of March 10 on the Leafs :

“We’ll see if the Leafs really rebuild The Rog, I doubt it. They were just good enough to tease everybody yet again, so who knows?” – Tom in Scarborough

“The Leafs haven’t made the playoffs in three years. They are already rebuilding. They just don’t know it yet.” – Stan in Barrie.

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