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Tonight: Richmond at Altoona, 6 p.m.
Pitchers: Richmond RHP Carson Seymour vs. Altoona RHP Beau Sulser
Radio: WRTA-AM 1240 & 98.5-FM
By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
Paul Coffey played with -- and won Stanley Cups with -- Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux during an illustrious National Hockey League playing career that spanned 22 years.
The Hockey Hall of Famer will be in Altoona as part of an appearance with the Altoona Curve this Thursday where he'll be throwing out the first pitch and signing autographs for fans during the game.
Coffey played parts of five seasons alongside Lemieux in a Pittsburgh Penguins sweater en route to his fourth and final Stanley Cup as a player in 1991.
"Mario was one of those guys that was going to will the team to win," Coffey said. "He was going to take the team on his shoulders and if they wanted to go along for the ride, walk with him and that's pretty much how it happened."
It should be no surprise that despite only spending a fraction of his career in Pittsburgh, that he's still got roots in western Pennsylvania.
"My four and a half years in Pittsburgh are four and a half years I've never forgotten," Coffey said. "I come back every year for Mario's fantasy camp. Mario's one of those guys when he asks, you do it. It's a great connection, I just love the Pittsburgh area."
While in Pittsburgh, Coffey became only the second defensemen in NHL history to record 1,000 points doing so in a record 770 games. When he retired, Coffey had scored 396 goals, 1,135 assists and 1,531 points which at the time was second only to Ray Bourque who joined Coffey in the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2004.
"I went in with (former Penguins teammate) Larry Murphy and Ray Bourque who I competed against and played with for multiple years so it was pretty cool,' Coffey said. "It's just a combination of everything, really. Great individual effort. Great game to play. Great player to play with and play for Stanley Cup championships. I loved it. It was a proud moment for me personally, as it will be this year for Tom Barasso who's going in as a Penguin."
Barasso will mark the 15th player to suit up for the Penguins and be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, something that isn't taken lightly by his former teammate in Coffey.
"It makes you proud. It's nothing to do with me, but it's nice when your teammates get rewarded," Coffey said. "Tom deserves it. I mean he was an integral part of the Stanley Cup champions in '91 and '92. He's a great goaltender and that's where he deserves to be. I'm proud that he's going in as a Pittsburgh Penguin and maybe in some small way I had something to do with that."
While their blue-collar mentality for the Penguins endeared them to their fans, it was the city and it's people that ultimately made an indelible impact on Coffey and company during their time in Pittsburgh.
"In Western Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh area … the people are incredible," he said. "It's a steel town, hard working, blue collar and its transformed into a white-collar town now, but just fantastic people. The beauty about being a Penguin and Steeler is if you were bad they let you know, but the next day was another day and I loved it. I don't think there's one hockey player that's ever played in Pittsburgh that didn't love it."