FireDavidHaugh: Summer Solstice Edition (Part I)

(Pic Courtesy of Chicago Tribune)

June 13- Every is still in the post Blackhawks glow.   The sun is always shining.  Flowers, once thought dead, now bloom with color and beauty.  Silver body paint sales were through the roof as people try to make themselves a little more like the Stanley Cup-- if only for a little while.  David Haugh wrote this article, claiming that the Cubs and Sox should model themselves after the glorious Blackhawks (aka: The greatest team ever).

Who was to argue with him?  I mean, who can remember the last time there was a parade in Chicago let alone one involving sports.  If only the Cubs would invest in their team-- spend money on players and managers and get a team that was good enough to win a title.  If only the White Sox could get their organization together and win a championship.  No one remembers the last time they won.

Then late night June 22 comes around, and David Haugh has written this.  I was stunned: Had I been lied to?  Misled?  I find out that the Blackhawks are in salary cap trouble!  Is this the end of the title run?  How was anyone to have know this?  Besides by paying attention or by reading this article on the Trib's website that's dated June 12.

So after staring out the window for 2 hours hoping an answer would find me, I finally put down the bottle of scotch and figured it all out.  Maybe David Haugh was more right than he knew.  I mean the Cubs have most their starters locked up in high pay, long term, no-trade clause contracts.   It's salary cap trouble, or at least the baseball equivalent.  After a couple years of legit runs at a championship, the Cubs found their window closed and in money trouble.  They're actually a year or two ahead of the Blackhawks (minus a championship- important I know).

Then I thought about the White Sox.  They had won their championship, and they've always been walking the fine line of being in salary trouble.  David Haugh really had the foresight on this one.

Below the song are the parsed articles (sorry if its a lot).  Since they're doing a Lolla after party show, here's some Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes.  Enjoy

Cubs, Sox need to emulate Hawks

By David Haugh 

June 12, 2010

Nothing about the way Patrick Kane scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime for the Blackhawks will help Gordon Beckham raise his batting average for the White Sox.

First line of his column- so I'll try to start off with something just as meaningless: Nothing about the way  Kaner drank at the parade will help David Haugh be a better In The Wake Of The News columnist.

But it can affect both teams' futures if they're paying attention.

The biggest lessons come from the way the Hawks behaved in the front office more than anything they did on the ice. Organizational harmony must precede any popping of corks.

More than anything, the Hawks provided the Cubs and Sox a management model based on two basic premises.

Harmony:  apparently the most important lesson.  Your front office must all be as one.  Ying and Yang.  PB & J.  Oh, having a #1 pick to take Patrick Kane, #3 overall pick to pick Jonathan Toews, and many many more high drafts picks acquired from years of being absolutely terrible (and forgotten) might help too. 

The first: Don't be afraid to make the tough decision even if it's unpopular. The second: It takes inspired, innovative thinking to identify personnel who will change the status quo.

There's your two secrets to a good organization.  Please share them with your friends.  The rest of the article goes on to complement the Hawks on firing Denis Savard and replacing him with Quenneville (a real coach).  Then it talks about bringing in Scotty Bowman (who's Dad's giant brain that oozes hockey knowledge was already hired by the team).  Real tough decisions.

Now:  his accidental counter argument:

Salary cap likely villain for Hawks

By David Haugh 

June 22, 2010

Beyond that, all bets are off. The Hawks have just 14 established players under contract and are already around $3 million above the cap with restricted free agent goalie Antti Niemi due for a new deal and a raise.

Uh oh, that might not be enough money and players for next year.  Too bad anyone had to notice that-  Pesky facts and finances.

The next few lines describe the large contracts committed by the Blackhawks.  The team others were to model themselves after.

This is what the youngest team in the NHL gets for drafting wisely, trading shrewdly and signing the right marquee free agents well enough to drive the league's TV ratings through the roof during the Cup finals?

Yes, yes it is.  They paid too much for the marquee free agents, so that's the problem.  They had to sign Hossa to some odd multi-decade deal to spread out his money.  They're being punished for bad contracts, just like other sports.  Also, the TV ratings were only through the roof locally.  The interest wasn't too great elsewhere.

But the league couldn't have intended to punish responsible organizations this way when it reinstituted the cap in 2005 after the lockout to promote parity.

So go ahead and redo your list of hockey villains in Chicago. Put the salary cap at the top, in front of No. 2 Chris Pronger and No. 3 Roberto Luongo. After all, the cap threatens to do a better job of doing what the other two couldn't.

Get in the way of the Hawks winning the Cup. (sic)

2 and 3 never really stopped the hawks, so I don't know why they're on the list.  But the salary cap had been in place for awhile, it's not a secret.  They knew about it-- how does that make them a responsible organization.  It just makes them a championship organization.