With Sincere Sadness

I wanted to catch up on my blog today- so much to talk about- but I find myself unable to do so. I have been severely affected by the death of a childhood hero. If I still had my Zezel jersey, I'd be wearing it today. RIP Peter- truly one of the nicest and most down-to-earth sports celebrities I've ever met.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Peter Zezel symbolized '80s Flyers

By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Sports Columnist

The view from the old Spectrum press box was a study in the sociology of Flyers fans. They wore their hearts on their backs.
Some fathers (in Clarke and MacLeish and Parent jerseys) brought their sons (Howe and Kerr and Hextall) to the games. Others shared their favorite sport with their daughters (Zezel and Zezel and Zezel)...

For a while there in the 1980s, you looked at the Flyers' team photo and wondered if the organization was trying to assemble the best-looking team in the NHL. The club had somehow gone from the toothless, ragged Broad Street Bullies to a precursor of the Backstreet Boys. It seemed as interested in selling posters as selling tickets...

Except for one thing: The young and handsome stars of the team could really play.
The awful news of Zezel's premature death Tuesday was jarring on several levels. First, of course, was the shocking loss of a 44-year-old man, a genuinely warm and generous athlete and hockey ambassador cheated of decades of life by a rare blood disorder. Then there was the selfish realization that time is passing more quickly than any of us in that same age range might care to admit....

Peter Zezel, with a face that sold thousands of No. 25 jerseys and broke more than a few teenage hearts, certainly died too soon. He takes with him a little piece of sports-fan innocence that seems surprisingly quaint just 20 years later.

INDEED.