Two years ago, it was, "Hoc... key...??" Now it's all, "The Cubs? That was so 2007."
This rejuvenated interest in the 'Hawks seems to have exceeded any reasonable expectation, almost to the point of seeming... phony. I have my own ideas, but I'd like to hear others' explanations for this phenomenon.In the tradition of stupid sports bets made by Mayors where they offer to trade ridiculous items. (Mayor Daley recently made a "bet" with the Mayor of Vancouver on the winner of the Blackhawks-Canucks series. One of the things Daley had to give up if he "lost" was Chicago 2016 Olympic gear. Sweet idea Mayor Daley. I'm sure the Mayor of VANCOUVER doesn't have enough Olympic shit lying around.)
In that spirit, with the Hawks; the mighty Bla-a-ackhawks through to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the Chicago-based YCS staffers were 10 or 11 years old, I'd like to offer a similar bet with whatever YCS's Detroit-based equivalent is. This bet will follow in that tradition of publicly-announced bets that will likely never be paid. (Really, have you ever seen any of these mayors actually collecting?)
Detroit: If the Red Wings win this Conference Finals series (assuming first they can finish off Anaheim when they're up 3-2 and hosting Game 7), then Chicago has to take GM. The bumbling, fumbling clusterfuck of a automaker will uproot operations from Michigan to Illinois and it will be our responsibility to fix it up. Once we're ready to flip it, Detroit will have first opton to take GM back...
BUT...
If the Hawks win the series and reach their first Stanley Cup Final since 1992, Detroit has to take Jim Belushi.
As is. No givebacks.
Mr. Belushi will take up residence in the Motor City, where he will continue to ride his funnier late brother's coattails from Pontiac to Windsor to 8 Mile and back. He will superfluously pop up on the morning news circuit despite not plugging anything, and conspicuously and regularly wear Pistons, Red Wings, and Lions jerseys on According to Jim. Belushi will also declare himself "#1 Detroit Fan" and will generally appoint himself the spokesman for fans of all Detroit area-based sports teams. He will be your problem then.
So what do you say, Detroit parallel universe version of YCS? You on?
And just for good measure,
Okay, so we heard about this story a few years ago when the signings of Adrian Aucoin and Nikolai Khabibulan excited Hawks fans. However, as a renewed Blackhawks fan, I have a feeling this time may be different. One of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL, Brian Campbell, should be the power play quarterback the team lacked last season. Cristobal Huet will hopefully be the strong netminder that can consistently makes the needed saves (unlike Khabi's great save then bad goal problem that plagued the Hawks). Basically, for those people still leery about hopping back on board the Hawks, I urge you to Commit to the Indian.
Lost in the shuffle of Super Bowl week...and that it happened in the NHL was Blackhawks coach Denis Savard's tirade on his team's woeful performance (currently in last place); telling the players they need to "Commit to the Indian."
In one of the stranger writer questions ever, Hawks President John McDonough responded saying that the Blackhawks will NOT be changing the official team slogan to "Commit to the Indian." Not because of any half-assed attempts at labeling what Savard said as "racist" because to do that ignores that the Hawks have worn the Indian Head Sweater since the 1920s.
My reason is while I like the passion Savard showed and saying what was on his mind rather than standard coachspeak, I gotta say a team's official mantra should never be when they're getting called out by an irate coach. It would be like if the Cubs adopted a marketing scheme of "Wrigley Field: It's a playground for the cocksuckers!"
However, in the internet age, it's already too late.
Read more...
Now that the Big Man is out of commission, the Blackhawks will hold a news conference on Monday to announce that the rest of the Hawks' home games this season will be on TV.
Comcast Sportsnet in Chicago has picked up the Hawks home games, bringing an end to perhaps the most stupifyingly insane marketing scheme in the history of sports. From the advent of television untill TOMORROW, the Chicago Blackhawks made it a policy to not show home games on television, believing that games on TV deterred people from buying tickets to the game.
However, during that same time frame, and due to chronic mismanagement, the Hawks went from Chicago institution to near-irrelevancy. Attendance dropped, interest wained, and the Blackhawks earned the dubious distinction of being outdrawn at the gate by Major League Soccer and minor league hockey in Chicago.
So the Hawks have discovered the magic of television. Just wait 20 years for when they'll discover 8-tracks.
but this man single-handedly ruined the Blackhawks.
Pictured at right is a shot of the Blackhawks the last time they won the Stanley Cup in 1961. (Not pictured, John F. Kennedy being sworn in, and construction of the Berlin Wall starting.) For the better part of the last half century, Bill Wirtz ruled the Hawks like a mafia don.
When ESPN the Magazine rated the Blackhawks as the "Worst Franchise in Sports" a few years back, they might as well have written what should be in Wirtz's obituary, if not on his headstone.
"Over the past decade, no club has bled its fans of their dollars and their hope as gruesomely as the Blackhawks. (Tellingly, [Former Hawks legends Bobby] Hull and [Stan] Mikita are so embittered by the organization's cheapness, they will have nothing to do with the franchise.) Wirtz' sorry record includes no Stanley Cups since 1961, tickets that average $50 a pop, and an insane business model that attempts to reward fan avidity (i.e., fannies in the seats) over broad popularity by blacking out home games from local TV. "
Fuck it. I'm busting my Hawks jersey out to celebrate. Ding Dong the Wirtz is dead.
Posts
All Comments
© Blogger template Webnolia by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
