5 things on my mind: Kelly Chase carries on the Plager pride in St. Louis

The former Blue and current fighter of cancer was a guest on my favorite podcast this week.

Toughness is overused in modern speech and writing, existing as a shortcut to telling someone that this person can endure life’s wrath and remain standing. The movies do this a lot, calling the protagonist, “hey, tough guy.” But that’s not real toughness. Resilient is a better term, because that’s what living’s all about. You take on whatever comes your way, finding a path around it towards the clear.

For example, I get up a few minutes after five in the morning every weekday. Monday is the sore knee of moods, but Friday morning is where the runner starts at second base. Before I can move twelve feet, my six animals surround the lower part of my body, waiting to be fed. In a matter of 30 minutes, I’m out the door. An hour later, I am leaving the yard on the truck.

One of the most underrated things about trucking is the hidden labor, also known as the extra physical aspect of the job. Climbing up and down the back end of the truck is an action that gathers tax as the day carries on. Reaching, twisting, lifting, or a combination of the three can occur at any moment. By the middle of the afternoon, my knees are shot and the mind has been wedged into a learning vice.

The next day, I’ll do it again. The same thoughts most likely float through the minds of my co-workers. They see it on the horizon, prepare for (extra coffee helps), and just go. The body aches and the mind can only take so much, but the paycheck is nice and the satisfaction of a day spent EARNING it is an extra kick in the ass. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Here’s five things on my mind, including a former St. Louis Blues hockey player.

5. Kelly Chase is one of a kind

I’d like to think that if the late Bobby Plager was found pacing around heaven, someone could go up and ask him who is his replacement downstairs. No one can replace Plager, but they can carry on the tradition of personifying the true grit (another good way of saying tough) of the city and its sports tradition. He’s all heart, and one helluva storyteller.

Maybe a blend of Plager and the late Mike Shannon is the better way to describe Chase. Like the Moon Man, he followed up a playing career that included a large chunk of time spent in St. Louis with a radio commentary collaboration with Chris Kerber on KMOX. He never left town, even when his color analyst work stretched to a national level.

Chase was a guest on the Cam and Strick Podcast this week, hosted by Cam Janssen and Andy Strickland. When they aren’t roasting each other or talking about games and the local team, the pair interview ex-players, coaches, managers, executives, and pretty much any interesting soul attached to hockey. The former Blues enforcer, a name as synonymous with the career Blue fighter as Tony Twist, spoke candidly about his current fight with cancer.

Speaking of “Twister,” Chase told a great tale about his buddy busting him out of the hospital. Chase has endured more than a few rounds of chemotherapy and doesn’t have all of his strength back, but his voice and passion for life have been unaffected by the big nasty C-word.

What if we could just kick the shit out of cancer: Jack Reacher that nonsense into the next building? Chase could give the asshole a run for its money. Speaking of money, the rest of this spontaneous dose will be sit behind a paywall. Throw me a few shekels and hear what I have to say.

4. Listen to the Pod

Janssen and Strickland have a nice flow and conversational versatility during their weekly podcasts. The first half of the 2.5-3 hour segments revolve around their recent activities in life and thoughts on the state of the Blues and the NHL as a whole. Patrick Berglund talked very openly about what went down after he left St. Louis for Buffalo, a place that shut down his desire to play in the league.