Do yourself a favor, and pick up The Face of Toughness by Ken Babbitt. My copy arrived on Thursday night. As I ate leftover pizza Milan Lucic nipped at my toes, and I poured over the most fascinating 40 pages in literary history. The book is filled with some great fight photos, but it is the “candids” where Kenny really gives the boys the Dickie Dunn treatment. Not since the Chiefs’ brightly colored uniforms were flashing against the milky white ice, has the spirit of the thing been more captured. The photos tell the whole story as you can see many subjects are very battle worn, with more than a few fresh black eyes, and recently healed cuts and scrapes on full display. They are worn as a badge of honor by these guys, the ultimate in team sports. Along with the bumps and bruises we see the Cheshire cat smiles of guys getting under the skin, and truly enjoying it, of other guys. Shawn Thornton, one of my all time favorites to come through the building, is seen with a perpetual smirk on. Stone Cold Steve McLaren looks as if he is thoroughly enjoying being called the worst player in the league. There are a couple of great shots of Mike Brown, who I am pretty sure threatened Mike Commodore’s life. In a robot voice no less. Tazzer can check me if I am wrong, but I am sure he said between penalty boxes:
Commodore. Commodore. I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!
I do not want to ruin the whole book for you. I must be trusted on this one, pick it up. You will not be disappointed.
As an aside, I talked with Tazzer last night. I was right it was Mike Brown.
THE FACE OF TO… A PHOTOGRAPHER’S UN… By Ken Babbitt Book Preview
Thanks Chris. After finally getting to see a copy for myself, I had to make a few minor changes in the book, so it has a new link, which is in the above post. If you want to switch it in the original post that’d be great.