Wirt$ as in Hurt$

Nothing amazes me more than those people who don't want to speak ill will of the dead. For decades, the man at the helm of the Chicago Blackhawks organization has terrorized and abused his own fans so much that, if they were not one of the Original Six, they would likely be out of the league and gone.

Now, upon his death, semi-positive articles appear praising him for what he's done. Look, I realize that _I_ personally could never run a professional franchise, so my views are, and always will be, from the perspective of a fan. Without totally trashing Wirt$, the papers are being kind by saying that he did things "his way". Well, all apologies to Frank Sinatra, but honestly, Wirt$ did things the "typical Chicago owner way" and that is just for himself and rarely for the fans.

We've not had a Stanley Cup Champion here since 1961. 46 years of drought with only 5 Cup appearances, the last being in 1992 and 1973 prior to that. Only 4 playoff appearances in the past 12 years and only 2 of those since 1997. We're pathetic while new franchises in warm weather win the Stanley Cup.

Look, you can Google online to see all of Wirt$ crimes against this storied franchise and you can read about it in Career Misconduct by Mark Weinberg who was the impetus behind The Blue Line independent fan newsletter sold outside the Stadium prior to every home game, so I'll just say that he was a classic "old money" guy who made a fortune in Liquor, Real Estate and Sport and spent NONE of it back reinvesting in the one thing he owned which impacted people the most, the Blackhawks.

I only would say that if his funeral is to be televised, that it's not made available to anybody in Chicago. I mean, surely he'd want it that way so that it would encourage mourners to show up versus sitting at home and watching it. So if your favorite pub has Judge & Dolph as their liquor distributor (where he used to be like Al Capone) or you're at a stadium where Bismarck is the food provider (owned by him) or you even think about going to a Blackhawks game keep in mind that he did it all for himself and his family and not for the fans.

R.I.P. Mr. Wirt$, I'm sure you were a good family man and an fun guy to be close to, but you've done nothing over the last 40 years but ruin the franchise I loved the most. For that, I can only imagine you'll need to come to some resolution with. He was born in Detroit, so I bet down deep, he was always a Redwings fan ;-p