...except that Tom Cruise couldn't act when he was younger. Well, not everybody had a fast start - Phil Esposito, for instance, needed to turn 26 before he became a major superstar.
It's like looking at your child and imagining how they will look when they've grown up. The basic features are there, but still quite different. I would suppose that's the draw/interest in rookie cards that depict someone at the beginning of their career, before the battles, before the cynicism, before the weight of life. Roy Worters, though, looks the same as later in his career. That's what a receding hairline will do to you (voice of experience). Chuck Tiner looks like Phantom Joe Malone (yeah, I know it's not the best pic). Terry Sawchuk looks like a cousin of Gordie Howe in that baseball pic.
Sorry guys you are right Lemieux would have been just 17 at the time of the 83 tournament that took place in Dec 82 and Jan 83. The other high scoring 16 year old was the great one who led all the other Canadians with 17 points in 6 games in the 78 tournament that took place in Dec 77 and Jan 78 and Gretzky birth date is Jan 26 1961!!! That is why he is called the great one as he outscored the top three picks in June 78's draft Bobby Smith, Ryan Walter and Wayne Babych. Obviously had he not wasted his rookie year in the WHA he would have been number 1 in the 78 draft. Imagine what Gretzky's stats would have been had he had not had that one year in the WHA in 78-79. Then again he could have been a Minnesota North Star!?!?!?!
