By Jeff Moss
June 2, 2011
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com
On Thursday afternoon the local media gathered at the Palace with the expressed intent of getting inside the head of new Pistons owner Tom Gores.
The reporters wanted to know what kind of owner Gores would be. Most importantly, would he put championships in front of the bottom line?
I am not sure what we are getting with this new guy other th…an blazers, blue jeans, dancing to Steve Perry songs and rumors of sister-in-law infidelity™ (Michael Stone.)
And based on Thursday’s press conference I don’t think we learned anything about Gores’ plans for the future. Only time will tell if the dude will turn into a hands-on, do-whatever-it-takes owner or a guy who is looking to flip the team once the economy in Detroit gets better and the league has a favorable CBA in place.
But I am not sure anyone should expect to ascertain anything from a introductory press conference when we have another owner in town who has been around professional Detroit sports teams for over 30 years and we really have no effing clue what to expect from him on a daily, monthly or yearly basis.
Well, I shouldn’t say that. We know what to expect from Mike Ilitch when it comes to the Red Wings. In the pre-salary cap era of the NHL the Wings were not going to be outspent by any other organization. In the cap era, the Wings were going to spend every dollar up to the maximum allowed by Gary Bettman’s accountants.
There would be no patience for underachieving or mismanagement at the JLA. In the 1992-3 season, the Wings had one of their best regular season since Gordie Howe was on the team as they racked up 103 points.
But the team lost in the first round of the playoffs and then General Manager Bryan Murray was dishmished from hish dual role of General Manager and head coach and replaced by Scotty Bowman.
In 2003-4, the Wings had even a better year than Murray’s last sheason. With Dave Lewis behind the bench, the team won 48 games and finished with 109 points.
But after a second round ouster at the hands of the Calgary Flames, Lewis (Bowman’s successor) never coached the team again. After the lockout ended, Mike Babcock was hired to replace Lewis as head coach of Ilitch’s hockey team.
One thing that can be said about Ilitch as owner of the WINGS, he doesn’t have a lot of patience for failure.
Which is why I would just love to know what Ilitch thinks about his baseball team right about now.
And before I go on, I am not one of those idiot fans who believe he cares more about the Wings than the Tigers. I think that there have been times that he has cut back on payroll for the Tigers because of serious financial concerns.
As much as I hated his management of the team during the Son of Tal Smith Era, it did occur when Little Caesars had lost significant market share and Ilitch owed big-time money to the Japanese banks that financed the construction of Comerica Park.
When Little Caesars turned things around and the slots money started rolling in from Motor City Casino, Ilitch began spending lavishly on the Tigers roster.
And if you are to believe various media reports, the Tigers have been losing $25 to $30 million a season for the last THREE years.
Which all leads me to the question of what the fuck Ilitch has been thinking over the last few years as he has received very little bang for his buck from Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski and manager Jim Leyland.
It now has been FIVE years since the Tigers came out of nowhere to get to the World Series only to lose to the worst champion in baseball history, the St. Louis Cardinals.
And it ain’t ™ (Sparky Anderson) like he is getting any younger. On July 20th he is going to celebrate his 82 birthday. (In an unrelated story, his hair is only going to turn 14 on September 24th.)
So why has Ilitch been so patient with this management team when his time is running out on fulfilling a lifelong dream of owning a Tigers team that wins the World Series?
During Bryan Murray’s tenure as GM the guy made a lot of solid moves. Some of which paid off when the team eventually won the Stanley Cup. But when the team didn’t get to the NEXT LEVEL he was unceremoniously shown the door.
It wasn’t like Murray was handing out huge extensions to busts like Dontrelle Willis. Or trading young pitching prospects like Jair Jurrjens. (You might remember Jar Jar. Pitched real well for the Tigers in 2007 and then was idiotically traded for EDGAR RENTERIA. He is currently 7-1 in Atlanta with an ERA of 1.51!!!)
I mean, what would Ilitch have done to Murray if he had FINALLY gotten out from under the contract of a guy like Brandon Inge and then moronically gave the guy ANOTHER two-year contract?!!??!?!
No fucking way this happens with the Red Wings under Mike Ilitch’s watch. If his hockey team ever had a season where they were favored by the entire free world to lead the league in goals and win the Stanley Cup and THEN FINISHED IN LAST PLACE IN THEIR DIVISION ……
Well, that is what happened with the Tigers in 2008 and Dombrowski kept his gig.
And I wonder what Dave Lewis is thinking when he watches Leyland’s results with a team with a $125 million payroll.
Lewis led the Wings to two consecutive 48-win seasons as coach of the Wings and his reward was a pink slip when he couldn’t close the deal in the playoffs.
Fuck, at least Poor Dave got the Wings to the postseason! And while the Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames eliminated his teams in those two seasons, they both got to the fucking Stanley Cup and lost in a Game 7.
Leyland has presided over a series of collapses since the 2006 season (which by the way, ended in a collapse) and yet he has continued to be gainfully employed.
Which leads me back to my original question: What is Mike Ilitch thinking?
When he sits down in his owners’ suite and sees a lineup card that includes a leadoff hitter with a .285 on-base percentage (Don Kelly), does he place the blame on Dombrowski or Leyland?
When he helplessly has to sit by and watch Inge gain 10 and 5 status making him untradeable (if his salary and two-year contract already hadn’t) does he wonder about potential new GMs?
When his manager INTENTIONALLY walks the tying run to bring up the go-ahead run in the ninth inning does Ilitch question what the fuck Cancer Stick is doing?
I have no idea what is going through Ilitch’s noggin, but considering neither Dombrowski or Leyland have contracts for next year, I can only hope that another failure to make the playoffs will lead to a total revamping of management in 2012.
If this were the Wings there would be no question that would be the case. But hell, if this were his hockey team they wouldn’t even be there NOW based on past history.
There is a better chance that you’d see Jimmy Devellano with a woman on his arm than the Wings staying complacent while Ilitch lost close to $90 million on the Wings without even a sniff of a Cup.