Gather 'round my young friends, and hear a tale of obsolete hardware.
She was called the Commodore 64; born in 1982, she had 8 entire bits of computing power, a bulky and unattractive look and a glorious collection of low-fi games. You couldn't take it anywhere. It didn't fit in the palm of your hand, nor did it have a touch screen. (We're not even sure it had a delete key; we might have used whiteout on the monitor to correct mistakes.)
But darn it, she was the best personal computer of the mid-1980s. You know it. We know it. And Mike Commodore knows it.
Commodore, a Puck Daddy favorite, signed with the Detroit Red Wings for 1 year and $1 million this summer after a bitter split with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's his sixth NHL team; and despite being a fellow child of the 1980s, he's never worn a "Commodore 64" jersey in the league.
But that might change. From Commodore's Twitter feed on Wednesday:
A few reasons why this has to happen.
1. The chance to make a pop culture reference on the back of one's sweater doesn't come around very often. It's been roughly eight years since we saw "Heinze 57" skating around.
2. The Red Wings have never had a No. 64, nor have they had a player wear a number in the 60s.
3. Look at the list of all-time No. 64s. Unless Jamie McGinn or Nikita Nikitin have masterful careers, Commodore would be the best player to ever wear No. 64, with due respect to Jason Bonsignore and Sven Butenschon. And how many guys can say they're the all-time best at a certain sweater number besides Ales Hemsky?
4. Finally, just to push the puck over the goal line: Puck Daddy will donate $64 to Mike Commodore's favorite charity should he wear No. 64 next season with the Wings. If you've like to make a similar pledge, email us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com and we'll pass it along to Commodore.
Make it so, Red Wings, and we will play a Commodore 64 game of Zaxxon in your honor.
(UPDATE: Commodore speaks about the movement.)