Bobby Baun

His game? Look up the term "hard rock" in the dictionary and there would be a picture of #21. Also check out "irrepressible".Toronto had great d-man back in the 1960's with Tim Horton and Alan Stanley as the 1a pairing well Baun and Brewer as the 1b pairing. Defense wins championships and not many defenders have more cups then those 4 mern.A prototypical defensive defenceman, Baun's overtime goal in game six of the 1964 finals gave the Leafs a new life, and they beat the Wings in the final game, at home, 4-0 to win their third straight Stanley Cup. His overtime goal was scored on a fractured ankle. Earlier that game, Baun was taken off on a stretcher after being felled by a slapshot. He returned, ankle frozen and taped, to score what Sports Illustrated ranked as the 17th greatest sports moment in the 20th century. However to me what was even more amazing than coming back in that game as he was likely running on adrenalin at that point, was that two nights later he would play Game 7 and help the Leafs win the Cup without missing a shiftHe played 964 games during which he scored 37 goals and had 187 assists during the regular season for a total of 224 points. He also played in 96 play-off games, scoring 3 goals and having 12 assists for a total of 15 points.Baun came to the Leafs in the 1956-57 season from the Toronto Marlies.He was a force to be reckoned with on the Leaf defence. His philosophy was "You don't have to kill every forward coming down the ice, just slow them up a little." Few opposing players coming into the Leafs end of the rink ever came in with their heads down against Baun.Baun played a lot of minutes for a very long time, he could hit like Scott Stevens !! As for his fighting, he always showed up for the fight, he was fearless.The only thing I could add was that Baun was one of the most courageous players the Leafs had in the 60's. For a time, Baun was the only player to stand up to John Ferguson. And, when Baun left the Leafs the first time, the Leafs' downhill slide started.It was at the point where teams like Boston were bulking up and playing the intimidation game. The Leafs lost a lot of aggressiveness when Baun left and it showed in their overall play.
1956-57 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 20 0 5 5 37 1957-58 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 67 1 9 10 91 1958-59 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 51 1 8 9 87 12 0 0 0 24 1959-60 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 61 8 9 17 59 10 1 0 1 17 1960-61 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 70 1 14 15 70 3 0 0 0 8 1961-62 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 65 4 11 15 94 12 0 3 3 19 1962-63 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 48 4 8 12 65 10 0 3 3 6 1963-64 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 52 4 14 18 113 14 2 3 5 42 1964-65 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 70 0 18 18 160 6 0 1 1 14 1965-66 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 44 0 6 6 68 4 0 1 1 8 1966-67 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 54 2 8 10 83 10 0 0 0 4 1970-71 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 58 1 17 18 123 +17 6 0 1 1 19 1971-72 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 74 2 12 14 101 +8 5 0 0 0 4 1972-73 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 5 1 1 2 4 -5


NHL Totals 964 37 187 224 1493
Playoff Totals 96 3 12 15 171




Played in NHL All-Star Game
(1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968)



who saw him play?what did you think of his game? what was his most important skills?was he a #1 defenceman?

1958 was in Bauns first full year year. In those days everyone bled blue and Davey Keon was my favourite Leaf. I was a Leafs fan until the Ballard follies starring McDonald and Sittler) In 1971-72 his last full season in the NHL he 74 games and was +18 on a not very good Leafs team. The next year he fractured a vertebrae in his neck in game 5 and that would be his career.His game? Look up the term "hard rock" in the dictionary and there would be a picture of #22.He was the epitome of the defensive defenceman and his best goal total in a season was 8 goals which makes it sort of ironic that his "broken ankle" goal courtesy of Howe snap shot in the Cup finals is one of the most famous goals of all time. However to me what was even more amazing than coming back in that game as he was likely running on adrenalin at that point, was that two nights later he would play Game 7 and help the Leafs win the Cup without missing a shift. He would spend the next 10 weeks in a cast as the high ankle break healed.He would have been a Number 1/2 Dman in today's game IMHO. In those days on the Leafs the pairings of Horton/Stanley and Brewer/Baun were sort of 1 and 1A with Horton and Brewer supplying the offense from the back end and Stanley and Baun the solid defence. I had the chance several summers back to spend a couple of days (and a couple of rounds of golf) with Bobby at a resort north of Toronto and he regaled us with many stories of the Golden Age of the NHL. He is one of the truly nice people and puts on no airs - probably because his wife would not tolerate it. His two most lasting accomplishments IMHO were getting Gordie Howe a raise and beginning the process of getting the players a proper accounting of their pension funds.In 1968 Baun was traded by Oakland (who had claimed him in the expansion draft from the Leafs) to the Wings and told Howe he was responsible for suppressing salaries league-wide for years because he was taking so little from the Wings. Howe responded that he was the highest paid player on the Wings at which point Bobby told him what he (Howe) was making ($45,000 per) and then told Howe that he had just signed for $67,000. Howe was incensed and demanded and got a raise to $100,000. Unbeknownst to either of them Baun's old D partner, Carl Brewer had just been signed to a $126,000 a year contract by the Wings. After his retirement Baun became very suspicious of what was going on with the NHL players' pension fund. After 17 years and 964 games his pension was a paltry $7,622 per year.He spent over $100,000 of his own money investigating with the help of a Toronto actuary who told him, "It's a scandal, a criminal scandal". And it was as the courts would later rule.Baun would go on to set up the NHL Alumni Association to continue the pension fund investigations but he experienced stonewalling from the owners and pension administrators and a lot of resistance from players who would rather play than learn about the ins and outs of the financial part of the game and just wanted Bobby Baun to stop rocking the boat (sound familiar?). Baun would finally give up in frustration and his buddy Carl Brewer (with Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull amongst others) would take over the lead eventually resulting in the NHL owners being held to account for the breach of trust and expose the collusion of Alan Eagleson in the pension fund shenanigans. The owners were using the players' surplus funds for various unauthorized purposes including paying the owners' share of the contributions (a so-called "contribution holiday") and using the All-Star games money to pay themselves "administration fees".http://www.andrewsstarspage.com/CBA/11-16cba.htmIf you want some more of the details check out the book "Net Worth: Exploding the Myths of Pro Hockey" by David Cruise and Alison GriffithsFor their work in exposing the fraud of the NHL owners both Baun and Brewer should be in the HHOF - as builders if not players.BTW Bobby has lost virtually all his hearing in both ears. He is a corporate spokesman for a hearing aid company (Widex Canada) and travels around the country talking to people about hearing loss. He delights in pulling out his digital hearing aids and showing them off. They are custom designed - one has a blue maple leaf and the other as red maple leaf.http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_heal...lation_id=8144There is an autobiography (with Anne Logan) titled "Lowering the Boom - the Bobby Baun Story".http://www.amazon.com/Lowering-Boom-...745741?ie=UTF8
Bobby Baun was one of the most courageous players to play the game. He took on every tough guy no matter the size or reputation.In the 1960's when the Leafs were in New York, Baun was cut in the throat by a Ranger player's skate. He was stitched up but started to choke in the team bus after the game and had to be rushed to the hospital. Baun missed only one game and this was a serious injury. It was huge news at the time. That's the type of player he was. He wasn't flashy so he didn't get the attention that his blueline partner Carl Brewer got. Its no coincidence that the Leafs started winning in 1959 when Baun was maturing and the team started to falter after he left the team in 1967. The Leafs missed his toughness greatly.

Bobby Baun is a Leaf legend. That's why his number should be up there. The banner's honour players of THAT team, period.
Don Cherry played against Baun in the Leafs training camps and Cherry talks about the fight he lost against Baun so he knows how tough he was

The only thing I could add was that Baun was one of the most courageous players the Leafs had in the 60's. For a time, Baun was the only player to stand up to John Ferguson. And, when Baun left the Leafs the first time, the Leafs' downhill slide started.It was at the point where teams like Boston were bulking up and playing the intimidation game. The Leafs lost a lot of aggressiveness when Baun left and it showed in their overall play.
"His two most lasting accomplishments IMHO were getting Gordie Howe a raise and beginning the process of getting the players a proper accounting of their pension funds."

I saw Baun play a lot, he could hit like Scott Stevens !! As for his fighting, he always showed up for the fight, he was fearless but in reality I do not think he even tied a fight in his career. But that never ever stopped him for wading in for his team-mates. Leafs should honour his number !!!

The leafs official site even mentioned bobby baun as the other #21 so i imagune he will be honoured him and keon would be nice to have them both in the fold! We need more legends at the aCC

Baun is a member of the Leafs alumni and is very active in the charitable causes of the association. And for many years, Baun held his own golf tournament to raise money for charities. It will be interesting to see where Baun is rated in the 'Top 100 Leafs' book that will be out next year.I would say that Bob Baun won most of his fights when he was younger. And since he mostly fought all the heavyweights, he was bound to lose a few.The Leafs would have had Keon back in the fold if they had retired all those sweater #'s instead of 'honouring' them