*Note:  Since Graig's retirement, obviously there isn't a whole lot to update, but I figure I'll leave the site as is for anyone who still wants to check it out.  Almost like a little tribute.  Haha. 

Hey, so I'm sure by now you're kinda wondering who put all of this together.  Well, I'll give you a little bit of info on me.    My name is Melissa, I'm a full-time college student bouncing between business and IT programs.  I enjoy web design, so that explains why SO much of my time and effort goes into GraigMischler.com here.  I really enjoy working on it and hope that everyone enjoys the end result.  I also love sports photography.  I specify sports because in all reality, I shoot hockey and football.  Most all of my pictures can be found on my *other* website, HossenfefferPhoto.com.  Most of the pictures on this site were taken by yours truly, though there have been lots of others who have been kind enough to add to the site as well...big shout out to all of them!  As a hockey fan, I've also become a bit of a collector of hockey memorabilia.  I have my fair share of hockey jerseys...probably around 20 or so worn by players who have passed through Cleveland.  The number decreases every now and then, but then Graig wears a new jersey and I have to add that one in.  My current Misch jersey total is up to 11.  You can see all of those jerseys on their own page, along with a list of those I have yet to track down by clicking HERE.  I'm always interested in finding out where those other jerseys are, whether they're for sale or not is irrelevant.

  As for Misch, I've known Graig for almost 6 years now...which is kinda scary when I think about it...it doesn't feel like its been that long.  I met Graig while he was playing here in Cleveland for the Barons, the AHL affiliate for the San Jose Sharks.  Graig was a rookie that first season, 01-02, right out of college.  I must have liked Graig from our first preseason game 9/26/01, he's one of the very few people I have a picture of.  Not a great one, but hey, a picture is a picture. 

Misch didn't *really* become my favorite player until around December of 2001.  The Barons have these periodic community practices with a skate afterwards, and this one happened to be in Cleveland Heights.  I think.  Anyway, so following September 11th, there were a million new policies at the nazi-run Gund Arena (where we play)...and I was unable to get a camera into the arena for a while.  One of my first pictures of Graig turned out quite well.
Here it is.

So, at this post-practice skate, my main goal was to get some of my pictures signed...as is typical.  This was only the 2nd or so time that I had seen the guys in person, so it was a little difficult to determine who was who, even if they DID have numbers on their jerseys.  It happened that Graig was one of the last players I caught up to, but I did find him and have him sign that picture.  When he saw it, his first question was "where did you get this?"...and I told him "I took it".  Well, as soon as he had opened his mouth, I knew it was going to be fun...his accent(s), whether it was the Boston one, or New York one, was making it quite hard for me to understand him...I actually questioned for a second whether he was foreign and couldn't speak any English.  Once I told him I took the pic, meaning, I'm a photographer and take pictures...I think he thought I meant I LITERALLY "took" it from someplace.  In any case, what felt like 10 yrs later, I determined that Graig wanted a copy of the picture to send home to his mom.  That was pretty cool.

Following that incident with the accent, I obviously realized that Graig does indeed speak English, and is also very American.  I've also come to love the accent.  Once I got that picture copied for Graig and ended up talking to him on occasion, he kinda became my default favorite player.  I sat with him and Jesse Fibiger at the booster club's awards banquet at the end of the season, and that was the beginning of the madness.  LOL  Just kidding.  Graig was back for a second season, 02-03, so I got to spend more time getting to know him, etc.  I now have endless stories of Misch moments and other silly little encounters.  Since Graig's birthday falls in the middle of September, he was always in San Jose for training camp...making it kinda hard to celebrate his birthday.  Instead, I've resorted to celebrating his half birthday on March 15th, since there's never a lot going on, except for the occasional game.  For his 24 1/2th birthday, I put together this website.  It's been going strong for over four years now.

Now that Graig is no longer in Cleveland, I get to look forward to lots of roadtrips every season.  Luckily for me, Reading is a short 6 hr drive away, and they play numerous teams even closer to me...so it makes for some nice trips.  I've even logged all of my trips over the past few seasons.  You can check that out on my roadtrip page.