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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Jan 21, 2005 14:59:01 GMT -6
I figured that we might as well christen this topic with something totally disfunctional, then get on to the more respectable matters.  |
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Post by Chicago Jake on Jan 21, 2005 15:18:32 GMT -6
Yeah, the Hawks are undefeated this season!.....Jake
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Post by Hazelita on Jan 21, 2005 16:54:54 GMT -6
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Post by Tex on Jan 21, 2005 17:09:39 GMT -6
We're talking Red Wing shoes, right?  |
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Post by Captain Gary on Jan 21, 2005 18:34:25 GMT -6
I haven't given up hope yet. They met yesterday at ORD to decide what to do next.
Wonder what bar they were in while waiting for their flight. LOL
Gary
Edited to ch-ch-change Ohara to O'Hare. (not even sure if that's right) Fuck it, ORD.
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pkatcher
Member
A friend in need is a pest
Posts: 51
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Post by pkatcher on Jan 21, 2005 23:15:50 GMT -6
The NHL season is done. Officially, there still might be a partial one. Unofficially, it's been done for months.
If they come back now for a fractured season, the NHL will be even more of a laughingstock than it is now, a former major pro sport that has fallen behind NASCAR and maybe golf.
I feel bad for the fans -- I always felt that NHL fans were the most passionate -- because they didn't have anything to do with execs overestimating how many of said fans existed. The owners oversold the market. Straight up.
They offered the contracts. They expanded to areas that didn't give a crap about hockey. They screwed up.
And I don't even follow hockey. But that's my take.
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Post by Chicago Jake on Jan 22, 2005 0:53:55 GMT -6
Despite Gordon's best of intentions, this is turning into a serious thread!
I'm not a sports guy by any means, and maybe that gives me a uniquely logical perspective. But I NEVER think of the "prevailing" league in any given sport as the true "owner" of that sport. So what if the NHL is on strike? Hockey, as a concept, is bigger than the NHL. So what if the National League and American League of baseball are on strike? Baseball is bigger than they are, and baseball still goes on. And etc., etc., etc., for all other sports.
I'd LOVE To see other leagues rise up to take the place of striking leagues in the hearts and minds of the sports consumers when these whiney-ass money-grubbing pinheads put their own interests ahead of those of their fans (and that goes for both players and owners). In Chicago, we have the hockey team The Wolves (IHL? I'm not sure) who are much more entertainiing, cheaper, and better than the Blackhawks, at least within their league. What's to say they are any less "hockey" than the Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL?
What do you all say?......Jake
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Post by Merlot Joe on Jan 22, 2005 1:04:03 GMT -6
Jake, I agree with you but other leagues won't work.
The American Public has gotten to use to the NFL, MLB, NBA and the NHL, to have some want to Bee's take there place. No one wants to pay money to see that type of play, the want to see the best.
The problem is that in professional sports, is that they (owners & Players) have forgotten that without the fans they won't even be here.
The last time MLB went on strike because the players said they couldn't live on 5million a year, I stopped watching, listening on the radio, and going to MLB games.
If the NFL or the NBA does it, I will do the same there to.
Sorry not a NHL fan.
Joe
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pkatcher
Member
A friend in need is a pest
Posts: 51
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Post by pkatcher on Jan 22, 2005 1:15:50 GMT -6
Those are terrific points, Jake. The 30-or-so owners of the NHL, or any other major league, don't own the sport. But they own our hearts.
They own the product introduced by fathers to sons. George Steinbrenner owns the Yankee Stadium, one of the few places that hasn't changed since I was a kid. It's the same as when I went with my father. When I went with my friends in high school. When I was in love, out of love, when Sept. 11 was nothing more than a day during a pennant race. It's the same place where I rooted for blacks and whites and Cubans and Japanese and Dominicans, etc. Where I drank and cheered with people of those same races. On any summer Monday or Sunday, or any day in between, I can go to the Stadium and feel the same way at 32 as I did when I was 12 or 22.
Why that means so much I couldn't tell you with less than a month to write about it. But that's the deal. If the NHL folded and something called the AHL replaced it, if the Chicago Blackhawks got replaced by the Chicago Wingers, it wouldn't be the same. It simply couldn't be the same.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Jan 22, 2005 7:12:47 GMT -6
Despite Gordon's best of intentions, this is turning into a serious thread! ......Jake Damnation!! Oh well if you are going to hold a real discussion... I agree with the sentiments that the sports are bigger than the Leagues. And it shows with the rising noteriety of the AHL and IHL (and in times past, minor league baseball). True they are not the same caliber as the NHL, but it is an environment that is friendly on the family pocket book, and if you are out just for the fun, probably better than the Major League cousins. Hockey is king here in town (kids, high school, college and semi-pro), and I dont think I have heard one person truly bemoaning the lack of the pro version on TV. Until the players and owners figure that last part out, no one will be going back to work, and careers and franchises will start to disappear (worst of all are the poor schmucks that sell beer, food, and logo laden junk, they are the biggest losers in every these situations) Gordon |
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 16, 2005 14:12:14 GMT -6
It's official. RIP.....Jake  |
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 16, 2005 17:16:57 GMT -6
Good place for it.
Joe.
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