When I moved to Chicago in 1991, my apartment seemed to have free cable. On it was a now-defunct sports channel that showed Blackhawks (Chicago professional ice-hockey franchise) away games. At the time this was a big deal, because no Hawks games were ever shown on TV, due to the braindead policies of their owner, Bill Wirtz, correctly considered to be the worst owner in not just ice hockey but in any major sports league. Anyway, I watched a lot of games, even went to one eventually, and it was much more exciting than I expected. In fact, the home crowd's gutsy roar ("cheering" doesn't do it justice) during the entire national anthem to open proceedings was so perfect I can't figure out why anyone still does a cheerless singalong instead. But the team was bad and difficult to follow (no home games on TV, for example) -- basically punishing the supporters.
But recently, Bill Wirtz died and the franchise has, by the looks of it, been completely revived. I don't follow ice hockey or the Blackhawks, but today they play a special outdoor game at Wrigley Field which should be a fantastic spectacle. Espn has some nice coverage of it, including a good article on the turnaround of the franchise (my favorite detail of which is the Ottawa newspaper's headline, "Millionaires Behaving Properly"), and a charming video of some player q&a about playing outdoors at Wrigley, including advice on how to throw an octopus onto the rink.
2 comments:
i believe that's the first i've seen a hockey game from a blimp shot.
very cool.
I saw a Blackhawk's match here in Phoenix back in November. They beat the Coyotes handily, in an over-time shoot-out. It was indeed an exciting match. I was tangentially aware of their moronic former owner Wirtz, but not informed about the details. thank you for the succinct summary.
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