There is a sentence that uses people who read “Life Imitates Art” when real-life events resemble or are inspired by fictional writing or art. In the Hollywood film Dreams Field of DreamsBurt Lancaster played the older role of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham who, what a surprise can be, was a real baseball player. His story is told fairly accurately in the film, and it came to me that Hockey has his own version of “Moonlight Graham” in the former defender of Edmonton Oilers and current Randy Gregg! What may be surprising is that Gregg, although being a solid hockey player, was also a baseball player!
I was actually looking for other information online when I met Steven Sandor’s article about Dr. Randy Gregg on edifyedmonton.com. In that article, Sandor emphasizes the exceptional baseball talents that Gregg goes to university at the University of Alberta while he was his medical degree. He writes,
“It was 1978, and the Edmonton Tigers were in the National Championships. GREGG went on a home-run heating tear (seven in three games), and the Tigers won the Canadian title.
“I was quite lucky,” he recalls.
“He was named the most valuable player of the tournament, but was not picked for the national team. The reason for the reason? Because he did not go to a baseball fair – was at the University of Alberta, who pursued his dream to become a doctor, and was also the leader of the hockey team of Golden Bears.
It should not be a surprise that Gregg was probably a good all-round athlete, but it seems that he really had talent on the diamond. Hitting seven homeruns at a national baseball championship in three games would cause baseball couts to sit up and notice that player nowadays, but, as Sandor wrote, Gregg was very serious to get his education that fully used on September 13, 1986.
I will admit that the professional baseball career of Gregg was much shorter than the career of Archibald Graham, but I would claim that a Canadian national baseball championship is still quite a big problem. And when we put our cards on the table, 1978 to 1986 means that Gregg did other things between playing baseball and retiring sport to be a doctor. That included playing hockey for the Alberta Golden Bears, playing in Japan, winning Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, and playing for Canada on the Winter Olympics while taking lessons and works in hospitals to achieve his medical grade.
Take nothing away from his hockey career because it is all kinds of impressive, but it seems that Randy Gregg could also have been a pretty baseball player. However, it seems that he has never forgotten his baseball roots, because GREGG currently acts as director of the Edmonton Riverhawks, a member of the West Coast League Where many collegial student athletes play baseball in the summer. That sounds familiar, and it seems that it is something that Gregg, a former student athlete, is proud to promote.
“We are really proud of all the players we have in our team, whether they are American or Canadian,” said Gregg Sandor in the interview. “But we love the chance of the Canadian child to come out and play for his friends and family in this facility. And eventually, if we could let 35 Canadians play for us, we would try to do that.”
GREGG also still practices medicines such as a family doctor, and he and his wife, former Olympic Speedkater Kathy Vogt, live comfortably in Edmonton. They have Four children and twelve grandchildren Including their son, Ryan Gregg, who played baseball for the Uniersity of Calgary. Their other son, Jamie Gregg, became a former Olympic speed maternity and he married Danielle Wother Spoon, an Olympic speed maternity. Add sisters Jessica and Sarah, who were also Olympic speed skaters, and it seems that Randy Gregg was skating on the wrong ice with all the speed caters in his family!
Graps aside, Randy Gregg had an excellent hockey career. After rejecting try-outs with the Atlanta Flames and New York Rangers after his time at the University of Alberta, where a two-time Ciau champion and the CIAU player of the year from 1979, Gregg joined the Canadian National Team program while watching the Lake Placid Olympics. That Olympiad of 1980 was not good for Canada because they finished in sixth place, but Randy Gregg met his wife, Kathy, at those Olympic Games! I would say that Gregg himself had a successful Olympiad!
You may wonder how Gregg landed in Japan after playing on the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980 with Canada, but knowledge of the Japanese national team convinced him to join a business team as a player-coach. And if you wonder how he did an internship in Edmonton hospitals to fulfill his medical training requirements while he lives in Japan, it seems that the Royal Alexandra Hospital was willing to meet His hockey career.
According to Andy Olle’s article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Coupled above, Gregg was willing to give the NHL experience for two years before he focused exclusively on medicine. For two years, however, four years was with the Oilers before Gregg finally retired on September 13, 1986, as shown in the Brandon Sun image.
Except that he didn’t.
Gregg returned to the oilers after Sather begged him to come back for the 1986-87 season, and three Stanley Cups and four more seasons with the Oilers were his new reality. Six weeks after the season he joined the team and helped them win a third Stanley Cup in 1986-87. He was again retired in the summer of 1987 to continue a residence program in orthopedic surgery at the University of Alberta, but would return for a new Stanley Cup-Run with the Oilers after a fourth place in the Calgary Winter Olympics 1988 with Team Canada.
The Oilers would place Randy Gregg at a distance from the 1990 season, and the Vancouver Canucks claimed him on October 1, 1990. He retired again to pursue medication, but came back to play 21 games in 1991-92 with one goal and four assists in Vancouver colors. Randy Gregg officially withdrew from the NHL after the play -offs that season, after he had played 474 regular seasonal matches while he scored 41 goals and 152 points. He also played Playoff games in 137 where he had 13 goals and 40 assists. That’s not so bad for a man who played community League hockey in Edmonton while he started with the university!
For a man who looked like he might have had a long and prosperous career as a baseball star, Dr. Randy Gregg a star in two professions: on the hockey track and in the doctor’s office. It is clear that the comparison between Archibald Graham and Randy Gregg is nowhere close when people start looking at the details of both men, but two children who loved baseball became successful doctors after their dreams, including long medical career.
There are no good or wrong paths when someone strives for a dream. For Archibald Graham, his baseball dream only took a few innings. For Randy Gregg, he earned five Stanley Cup rings for ten seasons in the NHL. Ray Kinsella was almost angry with “Moonlight” Graham for giving up his baseball dream, and Graham might have spoken for both he and Gregg when he told Ray: “Son, if I would only be a doctor for five minutes … Now that would have been a tragedy.”
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
#Hockeys #Moonlight #Graham