There are memoirs and then there are MEMOIRS. Jeff Rimer, the longtime NHL Play-By-Play broadcaster, has just released his new memoir, “It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This: Unforgettable Calls in the Booth and Unexpected Turns in Life,” via First Flight Books. 

This tome is not your average retired broadcaster book. No, it most certainly is not. Rimer does not hide or shy away from telling the stories that most shaped his life and career. From his desire to someday be in The NHL, even though he quickly realized he didn’t have the talent to make it as a player, through the turbulent moments of his adolescent years and many years in the booth calling games, Rimer holds the reader’s attention in the way that few others do. 

But first, we need to know why he chose now to replace his hung-up microphone with a pen.

“I recently retired,” Rimer began. “Having worked in Columbus for the Blue Jackets for 20 years, 48 years in the NHL and over five decades, almost six, in broadcasting. 

“It wasn’t easy to retire, but I did for family reasons. My wife had some health issues which she’s since overcome and I didn’t want to be on the road somewhere while she was either in Florida or Columbus and I’d be thousands of miles away. So I just thought that was certainly one consideration. Another consideration was the fact I’ve got a 10-year-old grandson and I’ve got very, very close to him and he’s quite an athlete in his own right and I wanted to spend time with him. So those two factors were part of the reasons why I retired. 

“I loved every second of every day that I worked. It was a tough adjustment retiring. I had other broadcasters saying to me on many occasions, ‘Why are you retiring? You still have your fastball.’ I just said, ‘Why,’ and it was a tough adjustment. With so many people encouraging me, I just said, ‘Why not?’ (to write the book). I talked to a couple of people, journalists and Mike Russo was one of them. Talked to friends and John Davidson is another; those two actually wrote the forewords for the book. Those two also encouraged me. 

“I found First Flight Books out of Chicago. They were very, very receptive and even more so after the book’s been published. So it all kinda came together. And for much of the last year, I’ve been working with my ghostwriter, Craig Merz.”

The forewords by Davidson and Russo are revealing in that they show two distinct portions of who Rimer is. With Davidson, the two have been friends going back to their high school days in Calgary. The two were fast friends, bonded by hockey. With Russo, he was a young writer when he first met Rimer, who was working as the voice of the Florida Panthers. Rimer quickly took the rookie scribe under his wing, introducing him to everyone and inviting him to tag along on many occasions, thus showing his desire to always help the next generation achieve its goals. 

In many ways, Rimer’s desire to help those around him was shaped by his own fierce determination to persevere and accomplish everything he set out to do, with the lone “blemish” on his record being his “historic” failure to qualify for his Triple-A hockey team.

“My first love and my first dream was to be an NHL hockey player,” Rimer explained. “Obviously, not good enough. I got convinced by JD to try out for Triple-A Midget. I’m the first player in the history of Triple-A hockey to be cut before practice started.”

“Then I got tapped on the shoulder and told House League starts Monday,” Rimer continued. “JD loved every minute of it. And of course, it was pretty humorous. I was on the snowbank and that’s when I decided, at that point, that I was gonna turn my attention, growing up in Toronto, listening to Foster Hewitt and being such a big Leafs fan, that I’m gonna become a hockey broadcaster. 

“I put my focus there and I was gonna live my dream. As I say in the book and encouraging young writers and broadcasters, ‘If you’ve got a dream, follow it. Do not be deterred in any way, shape, or form.'”

That perseverance didn’t just stem from wanting to keep a childhood dream alive. Its roots go much deeper, back to a very dark period in his young life. 

That steel will was important for Rimer, who, at the tender age of 14, lost his father, Jack, who was a Holocaust survivor. 

“Jack the Barber,” as Rimer referred to him in the book, took his own life. As Rimer wrote, “I believe my father never got over what he went through in Dachau…There’s no doubt it affected him to the extent that it took his life away.”

As horrifying as it was and still is for Rimer, he admits it changed him; he wrote, “It becomes a guide. A reminder. A standard. I’ve carried that with me into everything – how I work, how I show up, how I try to be a good man in both my professional and personal life. Not out of pressure, but out of purpose.”

His purpose in life, his dream, was to be in The NHL, and as his adolescent years gave way to adulthood, Rimer began climbing through the professional broadcasting ranks. “I’m very fortunate, but I think that I kind of directed my way there,” Rimer said during our phone call. “Things happen for a reason.”

“I got my first NHL broadcasting job in Washington,” he recalled. That was preceded by his hosting the pre- and post-shows for the Baltimore Orioles and working at a 50,000-watt station known as WBAL Radio. Rimer owes his Capitals tenure to former NHL GM David Poile, who actually hired him twice throughout his career. 

While at WBAL, Rimer wanted to do Capitals games and was given the chance. As he recalls, “I actually was handed the microphone by Larry King, who was the intermission host. Larry said, ‘Jeff Rimer knows more about hockey than I’ll ever know. He’s your new host. I’m starting at CNN Monday.'”

“I was talking to David and Home Team Sports, the Capitals’ broadcaster,” Rimer explained. “They said, ‘We’re gonna talk to you next year and we’re gonna do a deal. You’ll be our host.’ Next thing I know, Larry announces that he’s handing me the mic right now, which was kind of a humorous situation. But, hey, I’m not gonna turn down that opportunity. And that’s how it started. A couple years later, David asked me if I wanted to do play-by-play.”

Right time, right guy, at the right moment. 

While working Capitals games, Rimer, whose portfolio was ever expanding, was eventually approached by another former NHL GM, Bill Torrey, to also do Florida Panthers games. And then, during the lockout that cost The NHL the entire 2004-05 season, Doug MacLean reached out to his old buddy Rimer to join him in Columbus to be the voice of the Blue Jackets. 

Rimer went from saying, “I’m not leaving Florida,” to “Doug just made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I went to Columbus and as it turned out, it was the best move I ever made. I just loved the city, loved the team, loved everything about Columbus. I was able to stay there for 20 years and certainly could’ve stayed a lot longer if I wanted to.”

On top of all of that, his book contains stories about famous interactions with Muhammad Ali, not-so-great interactions with Pete Rose and so many other stories that give you a deep dive into what makes Jeff Rimer tick. 

This 236-page memoir is well worth the read and is available in bookstores across Canada and the United States as well as on Amazon.com. If you want to check it out, you can go to: https://a.co/d/00yMAitW

And if you need any further reasons to pick up a copy, here’s your answer, straight from Rimer himself: “It’s not just the story of my life. Not only a memoir. But it’s a story of dedication and perseverance and knowing that, if there’s something out there that you want, go get it.”