NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Rick Vaive sets the record straight as he tells his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles.
In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82--and he did it three years in a row. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as more recent stars like Gilmour, Sundin and Clark?
You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media... but Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Hockey players tend to pull their punches in their autobiographies, and sometimes try to make themselves look better than they were. Not Vaive. This book is raw and real. The stories of his family, his battle with alcoholism, even the feelings that his career might be over before it even really started, show a genuine interest in telling the reader what things were really like to be Rick Vaive. Morrison is a great storyteller, having covered Vaive and the Maple Leafs through the 1980s when he was with the Toronto Sun. As a result, there are some fun media memories, too.” —Kevin McGran, Toronto Star
“[Catch 22] is an engrossing and informative read. . . . [I]ntriguing.” —Toronto Sun
“[E]xcellent.” —Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star
