| | What's so special about Ricky DiPietro? Ask Mike "Do You Believe in Miracles?" Eruzione.
"I remember him as a baseball player," says Eruzione, who grew up in Winthrop, Mass., and knew DiPietro's mom in high school. "I went to watch
the Little League Championship because my pal, Frank DeMarco, was coaching one of the teams. Frank was up by two or theee runs in the last innning, but the other team was threatening, and Ricky came up with the bases loaded. Frank walked him intentionally. The next kid grounded out, and Frank's team won. I asked him why he walked a kid with the bases loaded, and he said, 'If I didn't walk DiPietro, he'd have hit a game-winning grand slam, and then he'd have walked around the bases backward and laughed at me for pitching to him.'"
|  | | Rick DiPietro played only one season at BU. |
That was Ricky DiPietro six years ago, and not much has changed. He thinks you can't beat him. Ever. He's 18 and expected to be a top-5 pick at the June 24-25 draft in Calgary. If the Islanders trade the top pick, he could go No. 1, which no goalie has ever done. So, Ricky, how good are you?
"I've been pretty successful to this point," he says. "Now I have to see how successful I can be in the NHL." DiPietro may sound humble, but his Boston University coach, Jack Parker, says, "Ricky thinks there are two great goalies in the world. And he's both of them." DiPietro played one year for Parker's NHL pipeline (Tony Amonte, Keith Tkachuk, Chris Drury), going 18-5-5 with a 2.45 GAA and a .913 save percentage. He stopped a record 77 pucks in a 3-2, 4-OT loss to St. Lawrence in the NCAA tournament in March.
He was born Sept. 19, 1981, which is no small factoid. Had Cheryl DiPietro given birth four days earlier, Ricky could have applied for the draft this year without fear of losing college elibility. Instead, he'll go to the team that picks him and earn the rookie cap of $1. 075 million per year. The Blackhawks, Senators, and Ducks are in the hunt for DiPietro, a confident -- some say cocky -- stopper who handles the puck like a third defenseman. Bruin great Bobby Orr, a partner in Woolf Associates, the management firm representing DiPietro, says, Yeah, he's cocky -- all great players are. I liked to carry the puck end-to-end. Is that arrogant? Well, I got away with it. And he'll get away with it."
That's what's so special about Ricky DiPietro. | |
ALSO SEE
ESPN.com's NHL Draft 2000 coverage
Get 3 risk-free issues from ESPN The Magazine
|
