fbg: chicago

since the season is finally over, we're starting to get more ridiculousness. Especially since free agency is a week away, and the draft is tonight. Now is the time for player movement, and what next season's roster is going to look like will take shape within the next two weeks or so (depending on the July 1 flurry). But since the nonsense has been limited to Larry Felser writing stupid things, and Bucky's "GM for a Day" (which will likely be the subject of multiple posts) (it's really that garbage) (I mean, seriously), we've had to look elsewhere for people writing stupid things about hockey.

How about false moral indignation because hockey is enjoyed by white people and struggles to attract the attention of non-white people? Thank you, Richard Roeper. michael.w guest stars again because he was angrier about it than I was, but my comments are in italics because I'm taller.

Even as the Sun-Times and the Tribune put out those special sections on the Blackhawks, even as the local newscasts are offering expanded coverage complete with cheerleader/sportscasters that speak in terms of "we" when covering the Stanley Cup finals, the question is legit: Is this just a white thing?

Oh boy.

You look at the crowd at the United Center and you see a sea of red jerseys -- and white faces. At a recent playoff game, I looked all around and couldn't spot one fan who appeared to be a minority. (Uh- oh, fan profiling -- is it wrong?)

[Ed's Note: Probably].

Fan profiling wrong? I don't know. But the assertion is factually inaccurate, as Michael Jordan was at Blackhawks games with Bobby Hull. In case you don't believe me in that Michael Jordan was either a) at a game, or b) a minority, I submit photographic evidence of both.

When I hear talk that Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews could become the face of Chicago sports if the Blackhawks win the Cup -- I don't know. Of course Kane and Toews can become Chicago sports icons, just as Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita and Denny Savard and Jeremy Roenick have before them -- but to what extent? Can a hockey player ever achieve the sports-transcendent, crossover fame of an Ernie Banks, a Mike Ditka, a Michael Jordan, a Walter Payton, even a Frank Thomas or an Ozzie Guillen? Or are there large sections of Chicago where even this week, Ozzie or Derrick Rose or Devin Hester would be more recognizable than Kane or Dustin Byfuglien?

So with the exception of "a" Mike Ditka, all other sports-transcendent, crossover famous Chicago athletes are black? And really, why the "a" Michael Jordan, etc. When discussing Banks, Ditka, Jordan, Payton, aren't they so transcendent that they should be refer to as "The" Michael Jordan, "The" Ernie Banks, etc?

[Ed's Note: The verbal sleight of hand tag is one whose time has come. Perhaps it's intentional, perhaps it isn't, but it's tricky here. Roeper asks if Kane and Toews can become Chicago sports icons. Short answer? Yes. They already are, actually, because, you know they were integral parts of a championship team that drew millions of Chicagoans outside for a victory parade. The next question, which I think Roeper is trying to again limit to only Chicago, is if a hockey player can ever have cross-over transcendent appeal. The answer to that is an easy yes (Gretzky, Howe, Lemieux, Crosby, Ovechkin). Can it happen in Chicago? You just listed four white hockey players who managed to do it, one in the last fifteen years.

I also imagine that Chicago, as large as it is, has large sections where nobody would identify Derrick Rose or Ozzie Guillen.]

Byfuglien, whose mother is Norwegian and whose father is black, is one of only about two dozen NHL players who are black or biracial.

What does this have to do with (not) all Blackhawk fans being white?

Even that relatively small number represents a huge increase from the historical norm. By the NHL's own count, there were a grand total of 18 black players in the league from 1917 to 1990. The percentage of minority players has grown quickly over the last generation, and the NHL has done an admirable job of reaching out to minorities --

[Ed's Note: So hockey has identified that it needs more exposure in non-traditional demographics, as has reached out to those specific demos. Snoop Dogg performs at its awards ceremony. Dunder Mifflin, a black forward, played a central role (when he wasn't being shut down by a white elbow machine) in the NHL's showcase event. It's certainly not any sort of equity or balance, but they've acknowledged the problem and are working to fix it. Sounds good to me.]

but the sport of hockey is still dominated by white players, and all you have to do is scan the arena when you're at a game to realize the fan base is overwhelmingly Caucasian.

Actually, the fan base in any arena of any sport is overwhelmingly Caucasian. Not coincidentally, the population of the United States overwhelmingly Caucasian.

[Ed's Note: that the population is overwhelmingly Caucasian is debatable. That American culture remains overwhelmingly Caucasian centric is far less debatable, and is the basis for entire majors of study. Glib indignation about the percentage of minorities at hockey games doesn't even scrape the surface.]

Even though the NBA is dominated by black players, the fan base seems more diverse than the NHL's.

And I have the facts to back it up

Fans of all races grew up around the games of basketball, football and baseball. Partially because it's much more expensive to outfit a kid for hockey than it is to throw a soccer ball or a basketball on a playing surface and have an instant game, there are a lot of adult fans who never so much as played a game of hockey in their lives.

Or not.

Of course there are Latinos and Asians and blacks in the Chicago area who follow and cheer for the Blackhawks -- and of course there are more than a few Caucasians who couldn't care less about Game 6 on Wednesday night.

[Ed's Note: Translation- some minorities like hockey, and some white people don't care for it. But it doesn't really help the main premise here, which is that only white people go to Blackhawks games, so I'm just going to gloss over it instead of, you know, engaging my underlying thesis with any real depth.]

More random crap.

I'm just saying.

Nothing coherent.

Even as we see the huge local TV numbers for the Stanley Cup finals, even as the sportscasters tell us "the entire city" is cheering for the Hawks to bring home the Cup for the first time in nearly a half-century, that's not entirely accurate.

I am glad, you know, actual minorities were interviewed and quoted in this piece.

If you're a minority and you are a big Blackhawks fan, I'd like to hear from you, whether it's to reinforce what I'm saying or to tell me I'm way off on this one.

[Ed's Note: Translation- I haven't done any research at all above or beyond the fact that I happened to notice there were a lot of white people at hockey games. Now I've spewed out five hundred words to that effect, and realized too late that it may make me look stupid because I've left myself so open for ridicule and criticism so instead I'm going to pretend to want to kickstart a discussion.]

You're way off on this one.