Ken Baker, former college goalie, sees life on screen in 'The Late Bloomer'

LOS ANGELES – Ken Baker’s life experiences were so rich and so different that that they couldn’t just fit into one book.

So Baker, a former Division-I college goaltender with Colgate wrote two books. And one of those books was so interesting that Hollywood decided to make a movie out of it.

The film, “The Late Bloomer” isn’t quite a detailed word-for-word biopic on Baker. In fact it’s supposed to be an exaggeration to some degree on Baker’s brain tumor and what happened to his body after it was removed. And he’s OK with this.

The movie another chapter in the life of E!’s senior news correspondent, who was once pro hockey’s oldest rookie. It’s one that he’s relishing – even if it brings up some uncomfortable memories. The film comes out in theaters today and will be on demand on digital HD as well. It goes to Netflix in November.

“I mean, yeah, laughter is the best form of medicine, and I have found this whole process of the last year, and I had to read the audiobook and I was like ‘oh my gosh’ I was reliving all these things, and it’s been incredibly healing,” the 46-year-old Baker said from his South Bay home. “Honestly, stuff that was … because you don’t go through trauma, no one goes to war without coming back with scars, battle scars. And so I had a body at war with itself.”

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In his younger days, Baker was one of the better goaltenders in the United States. He was on a U16 team with Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte. But as players around him kept getting bigger and brawnier, Baker didn’t grow much. This was because he wasn’t producing enough testosterone. An undiagnosed brain tumor was making his body secrete too much prolactin (a hormone that helps women produce breast milk) and not enough testosterone, which prevented him from physically developing like his teammates.

By the time Baker reached Colgate his lack of growth became obvious. He simply couldn’t put on muscle and other players on the team took notice.

“In that whole environment, dealing with what I was dealing with this one player, an upperclassman who nicknamed me ‘Pear’ because my body was shaped like a pear, narrow at the shoulders, wide at the waist,” Baker said. “I hated it, of course. I hated the nickname.”

At the age of 27, Baker was diagnosed with the tumor, which put his mind at ease. He knew what was wrong with him and there was a way to fix him.

“There was some scary stuff there, but it was mostly just a relief,” Baker said.

What happened after 95 percent of the tumor was removed was the basis for the movie. The main character (a sex therapist) played by Johnny Simmons goes through puberty in three weeks. According to Baker it didn’t exactly happen that way, but it was still an intense situation for him.

“It was literally overnight, like what I told you about that inverse relationship. It was like within a week, my prolactin level went (down) and my testosterone just went (up). They have a term for it, they call it “testosterone storm.” It was this incredible experience and it was like six to 12 months of adjusting to this surge of hormones,” Baker said. “I literally had acne. Needless to say, I was obsessed with sex and women. That’s the rich source of comedy for the movie.”

At the time, he was working for People Magazine in Los Angeles and wasn’t playing hockey. Baker, who grew up in hockey-mad Buffalo, just wanted to remove himself from that environment.

“I would rollerblade. I would sometimes play a little pickup with garbage cans and play roller hockey in the parking lot in Santa Monica,” Baker said. “I used to do that with Pat Brisson. We used to be down there and playing. And that was my extent. I wasn’t really involved.”

People then offered Baker an opportunity to move to San Francisco to be their correspondent there.

In the Bay Area he had a dream that he was playing hockey, which had a profound impact on him. So he then had his mother ship out his goaltending equipment so he could get back involved in the game.

The more he played, the fact that he couldn’t finish is career of playing high level hockey on his own terms gnawed at him. This led to the decision to join the Bakersfield Condors and chronicle his experience as a 31-year-old rookie pro hockey player.

The book about his brain tumor, which was called “Man Made: A Memoir” had come out already so Baker saw this as an opportunity to further tell his story. That season in 2001-02, he won a game in a shootout and was mobbed by his teammates. His book about his minor league experiences called “They Don’t Play Hockey in Heaven” was released in 2004.

“I guess the context is hockey is a through-line throughout this whole narrative that’s my life because it has pretty much defined me as a kid growing up. It got me into college, got me through college. It haunted me. Then I got healthy and I reignited my passion, I lived my dream, I shared my passion to my kids who are now chasing their own dreams and hockey has been there the whole time and it’s really incredible,” Baker said. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way until I started to explain it to you, but yeah. It’s cool. I’m writing my (new) book down there and I have my game on in the background. That’s who I am and it’s a big part of me.”

The film, “The Late Bloomer” involves an A-list cast of J.K. Simmons, Jane Lynch, Brittany Snow, Kumail Nanjiani and Johnny Simmons to go along with Kevin Pollak in his directorial debut.

Hockey is not a part of this movie – but Baker is fine with this. The idea of the film had been tossed around Hollywood for about 14 years and he’s thrilled that some variation of his story is finally being told and giving a message he’s comfortable with.

“This is a movie about manhood, and one man’s coming to grips with his awakening into manhood and we just ended up making it like ‘oh they’re playing basketball, like pickup basketball’ because it’s really hard to shoot hockey,” Baker said. “It’s really expensive to shoot hockey. And also, when the strategic decision was made like it happened to me in LA, like I was living in LA when it happened, so it happened in LA, it’s deemed to fit in more with the lifestyle that they created for the character.”

Baker sometimes has thoughts on whether a movie about his hockey experiences in the minors could be made. That story also has a lot of the ingredients that could lead to a film.

“We’ve tried at different times to tell that story. I mean, before I even wrote (“They Don’t Play Hockey in Heaven”) I had an experience. I was playing and had this big win and it was like my first professional game and we won in a shootout and I literally had people in the arena that night or even players on my team, it was like ‘Rudy,’” Baker said. “I hadn’t even written the book yet. I always wanted to make that movie and I still do, which is basically a ‘Rudy’ for hockey. I think now that this movie has been made, ‘The Late Bloomer’ I think this is going to help me make that happen.”

Even though Baker spends much of his time with the day-in-day-out work of his job, he still finds time to keep up with the latest happenings in hockey. His two children are both goaltenders. He’s also part of a Los Angeles Kings’ advisory board where he has helped the team with outreach into the area’s rich entertainment market.

“Someone from the Kings would call me and say, ‘do you think this pop star would want to come to a game?’ I would go ‘I’ll find out.’ And they’re like ‘yeah!’” Baker said.

When he has some spare time he also scouts with the USHL’s Waterloo Blackhawks.

“I do it for fun,” he shrugged.

Baker still stays in touch with some of his closest friends in hockey. One of those in his hockey circle is Washington Capitals goaltending coach Mitch Korn. A a youth, Baker attended one of Korn’s camps at Miami University – long before Korn turned into one of the top goaltending coaches in the NHL. He believes Korn, who has coached Domink Hasek, Tomas Vokoun, Pekka Rinne and Braden Holtby amongst others, has had a bigger influence on hockey than most realize and should be recognized for this.

“He should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Baker said. “Goaltending used to be kind of chaos. It was reactions and reflexes and stretch saves and just sort of playing athletically. He was really one of the first, if not the first – I’m going to say the first established goalie coach, elite trainer of goalies to start to put order to the position. To start to break down goaltending as nothing but a series of patterns, of situations and he looks at goaltending as just patterns. And there are things you do in those situations and you can recognize the patterns like ‘this guy is going to shoot this way or this way and has these options.’ What he does is he brings a system that he can build for a goalie around his strengths that hopefully mask his weaknesses.”

Because of Baker’s hockey knowledge along with his broadcast talent, it would seem he could fit in some media realm in the game. But he’s happy doing what he’s doing because he greatly enjoys it and feels entertainment reporting is sports at its core.

“I come in (the office) and it’s ‘OK, Kanye got into a fight with Taylor Swift last night. Who won the game? I’d say Kanye won because he got the tape … well let’s go to the tape, let’s watch it!’” he said. “I basically cover sports.”

Whether he comes back to hockey or not, his friends in the business are impressed with how far he has come in his life to this point where a movie can be made about him. In fact considering all he has been through it seems almost long overdue.

“I think it’s amazing that he trail blazed his own way from Buffalo, New York,” Korn said. “Not too many people from Buffalo, New York settle into Hollywood and fit in. And he has managed to do that.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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