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By Justin Felisko A in the rough Kirk Gibson Brought His Big League Experience To Help Teach Youth Hockey Lessons youth hockey season is full of unexpected surprises. Some are just more unexpected than others. You don't need to tell that to the parents and players of the Grosse Pointe Spartans, who were stunned one night when a 6-foot-3 man dressed in a gorilla suit burst into an East Lansing, Mich., hotel lobby during the Sparty Invitational tournament. It was a startling sight as the big ape jumped around the lobby, joking and jostling with the players while driving everyone else bananas. What was even more shocking was the man behind the mask was none other than a 30 April/May. 2013 17-year Major League Baseball veteran who hit one of the most famous pinch-hit home runs in World Series history. You could almost hear Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully's famous call – "The Impossible Has Happened" – echoing through the hotel lobby. Kirk Gibson, a man who earned a reputation as one of the fiercest competitors in Michigan sports history, also has a playful side, as the Spartans' faithful found out. "Nobody in a million years would have thought it was Kirk, and it took a couple of days for everyone to find out who it was," Spartans coach Robb McIntyre recalls. "But man it was funny. He can still have a lot of fun even though he's probably the USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM Photos By most intense guy I've ever met." It's a rare glimpse at the 2011 National League Manager of the Year and current Arizona Diamondbacks dugout boss who is known more for his competitive nature than his comedy act. So many years later, a smile creases his 5 o'clock shadowed face as he thinks back to the scene in the hotel lobby. "I ran around and scared the daylights out of people," Gibson laughs while sitting in the dugout at Coors Field in Denver late last season. "Nobody really knew who it was as I was screaming at people." In between his stint as one of baseball's most feared hitters and one of its best managers, Gibson spent several years helping Getty Images; Laura Poplawski; Michigan Hockey Magaizne; Arizona Diamondbacks