From women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden Mon Jul 12 05:38:24 2004
Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6CCZFOY002280
	for ; Mon, 12 Jul 2004 05:35:15 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net
	[209.226.175.4])
	by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i6CCYHMR002257
	for ;
	Mon, 12 Jul 2004 05:34:18 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from homelxmsxh282f ([65.94.56.36]) by tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net
	(InterMail vM.5.01.06.10 201-253-122-130-110-20040306) with SMTP
	id <20040712123414.GUMA9492.tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net@homelxmsxh282f>; 
	Mon, 12 Jul 2004 08:34:14 -0400
Message-ID: <003e01c4680c$8c06ab00$ebbefea9@homelxmsxh282f>
From: "hockeytoronto.com" 
To: "BruceTennant" 
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 08:34:16 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2720.3000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2727.1300
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1
Cc: 
Subject: U.S. fans ask: Is NHL nuts?
X-BeenThere: email@hidden
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1
Precedence: list
List-Id: A mailing list for women who play hockey and people involved in
	women's hockey 
List-Unsubscribe: , 
	
List-Post: 
List-Help: 
List-Subscribe: , 
	
Sender: women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden
Errors-To: women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id i6CCZFOY002280

U.S. fans ask: Is NHL nuts?
BY RAY RATTO, GUEST COLUMNIST
July 12, 2004

You know we in the U.S. don't care that the NHL is about to eat itself. I mean, you know it, in your head and in your hearts. We got stuff to do, and we just don't have the time.

But, being the nation of blowhards that we are, we do have an opinion about the impending lockout/cannibal-fest awaiting the NHL. It's a strong opinion, and it is utterly and comprehensively supported by the facts. And the opinion is this:

'What, are they morons?'

That's the real reaction to the upcoming labor/management tire fire. That the people who think this work stoppage is a good idea are frankly too stupid not to be beaten with thick planks.

And who better than Americans, the clubhouse leaders in telling other people what to do, to mock others and their handling of their own internal affairs? But the fact is, because we watched baseball try to blow its own foot off in 1994 (and ultimately stop shooting at about mid-calf in 1995), we are mostly amazed that hockey, which at its best is a perfectly sensible albeit under-appreciated entertainment dodge, would be willing to de-foot itself by aiming at the pancreas.

Put another way, 'What, are they idiots?'

Look, we know that we laughed uproariously at the pitiful American TV ratings for a Flames-Bolts final, and we had a good scream-and-scratch over Todd Bertuzzi, and Mike Danton, and all the other things that convince us the NHL is actually run out of the trunk of a late-model Olds 88. We had ourselves a high old time at the sport's expense, and it felt good.

But we are, at our core, also a compassionate lot, and we see a small, but perfectly good plane of wood being handed over to drunks with hammers and we can't figure out the up-side.

Yes, Gary Bettman looks like the secretary-treasurer of the chess club at Gerbil Middle School and Bob Goodenow seems like the kind of guy you would sic a rabid wolverine on if he turned up on your porch collecting for the United Way. In other words, we have a genuine rooting interest in learning that (a) they either came to a quick and fair agreement, or that (b) they killed and ate each other on Peter Mansbridge's front lawn.

Mostly, though, we're trying to figure out what's in it for them. I mean, this is a sport whose champion drew a crowd for its victory parade that would not fill its arena, so 'out of sight/out of mind' is hardly the way to go here. I mean, it nearly killed baseball and there is no evidence that Bettman has any better control of his sport's hard-line anti-union owners that Bud Selig had of his.

And that's how we get to, 'What are they, criminally stupid?'

We have enough experience with the salary cap to know its real value is in empowering the accounting department, and who among us hasn't gone to a hockey game to watch people alphabetize the twenties?

And we've learned about enough of the business of sports to know the hard-liners on each side are mostly posturers, phonies and end-of-the-bar loudmouths who could use a good public groining.

In other words, we've seen this show before, and it couldn't be made worse if you put Don Cherry and Jessica Simpson on the same team playing 'The 65-Cent Pyramid' as a fundraiser.

But it's the waste that gets us most - the silly, pointless, ours-is-bigger-than-yours waste of it all. It wrecked baseball's best years, punched a hole in basketball's growth, and caused a brief but clear hiccup in the NFL's Promethean profitability. It has been a failure every time, an enormous, willful, stupid failure every time, and hockey being the weakest of sport's big four quadruplets, it is especially willful and stupid here. So that's what America - smug, snotty, too-good-for-hockey America thinks.

That we've seen this before, and we know how it ends up. That this shouldn't be done because nobody deserves to win. That this is just destructiveness for destructiveness' sake. That this isn't about some misguided sense of principle, but about getting a bigger slice of a shrinking pie.

This, in short, proves every nasty, hateful, ignorant thing we've ever said about the sport is really true, because they'd rather eat each other than prove we're wrong.

America, at least the America that laughs at hockey, doesn't think the people who run the game can be shamed. And this is the act that will prove it. The answer to 'What, are they dunce caps?' is right there before us, and the betting is the answer is a clear, 'Hell, yes.'
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Women-in-hockey mailing list      (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/women-in-hockey/email@hidden

This email sent to email@hidden