VIDEO: Mike “Doc” Emrick Talks Hershey Bears Hall of Fame, NHL Mumps Outbreak
HERSHEY, PA – NHL play-by-play man Mike “Doc” Emrick waves to the crowd at Giant Center before the Hershey Bears Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday, December 20th. (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)
Saturday night the voice of the NHL Mike “Doc” Emrick came to Hershey to induct five members of the Hershey Bears hall of fame. For the third season in a row Emrick was the MC for Bears hall of fame ceremony and talked about how this year’s class was a special one.
“This is the group people in Hershey would appreciate if they like history because these are the guys that helped build the franchise,” said Emrick. “There isn’t anybody here that’s representing one of these recipients that doesn’t have a smile on their face because they know that even though they aren’t the person honored, that whoever is being honored, was important and is recognized as being important. I think that means a lot to family members when that person has passed that they were remember and that they were treated with importance.”
“Doc” also made the point that Hershey is one of the few teams in hockey that can pull off such an amazing hall of fame year after year. “(Other teams) don’t have the depth, the background. We were just in Minnesota this past week and the Boston Bruins have been around since 1924; Minnesota Wild since the year 2000. They can’t do what they don’t have. But the Bruins have it, and they use it a lot. And the Bears have that history, and they use it a lot and they use it in a classy way.”
Speaking of Minnesota, the Wild are one of the six NHL/AHL teams that has had an outbreak of mumps. So far over 18 players in either the NHL or AHL, including former Bear Joey Crabb, have had visible symptoms or tested positive for the virus and the list seems to grow by the hour.
“It’s odd when you think that we’ve got all of these things solved, and we’ve had them solved since we were little kids, right? And here came another case. So we had to go back to basics and talk to a doctor. As soon as you have another one diagnosed, and one was diagnosed in Pittsburgh, you reset the clock for the whole team for three and a half weeks. They are not considered clean for another three and a half weeks. If another case comes up you reset the clock again.
“The thing is if you take good care of your own team, and there’s nothing flawless about this really, and then you play a team and there’s a guy that’s carrying it and doesn’t know it, and may not know it for another week-and-a-half before he starts to show symptoms, then maybe you get it.
“The one doctor I talked to in La Crosse, Wisconsin said; Let’s pretend you’re at the bench and you shield a cough or sneeze with your glove. You’re doing it to prevent it from spreading to your teammates. Then you go out and give the other guy a facewash, you may not even think about it, but if you’re carrying, you just sent it somewhere else.
“It’s going to be hard to stop it, but fortunately with all of these booster shots everybody is getting, at least the spread might get stopped.”
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