Ducks take an early lead in the Battle of California
If any Duck fans are interested, I will be at the Fan Celebration tomorrow outside Honda Center. As usual, look for a lucky green shirt in the sea of black and orange, or come find me at Danny K’s before the event.
Fellow blogger Jes Gőlbez seems critical that Anaheim will not be having a (traditional?) parade instead, but I have two questions:
a) As a person who’s been to parades before, why exactly would a pass-me-by parade be preferable than a single-location celebration?Maybe Jes can convince me with some glorious tales of the 1925 Victoria Cougars parade.
b) Seeing as this is the first cup win for the west coast in 80+ years, what "tradition" are we really talking about anyway?
17 comments:
will be curious to know when they will allow people to start showing up though. Event is only planned for a couple of hours...
And I'll be in my jersey looking like Scott's long lost brother with the beard and scattered grey.
Think I gave you my number a few weeks ago... gimme a ring if you want. Still trying to figure out what in the hell we're doing beforehand though... wife keeps mentioning going out for dim sum for lunch...
What, you don't feel like part of a larger hockey community? Just because no team out here has won it, you don't feel like a parade is tradition? Hey, why shake hands at the end of a series then? Why should they announce three stars? I know that's not exactly the same, but you're apparent detachment from the rest of the NHL as a community seems very odd to me.
Don't read this as me vigorously supporting parades as an established tradition that should not die, but your logic behind not feeling you want one I'm not sure is appropriate.
I can tell you why not a parade for solid reason though.
Simply: No one cares.
A parade is great for a large population that wants to see the Cup and the Cup winners from closer than 100 yards away. Fans in NY or MTL can line the streets during the lunch hour downtown and see their heroes march past. This is a situation where you not only would have the hard core fan base out there, but where the city gets behind the winners and wants to come out and cheer and enjoy the celebration.
Here in SoCal, and especially in OC, you wouldn't be able to draw the kind of crowd to support a parade. Simply, there's not much point in a parade no one is going to come out and see.
The Lakers in downtown can draw that kind of crowd. The Ducks going down Katella would just be blocking traffic for a bunch of people who would be hearing for the first time there even was a team in Anaheim, much less that they won anything of significance.
Hell, Fred Rogan who was covering the games on location in OTT and is presumably somewhat knowledgeable about SoCal sports, couldn't tell the Neids apart after the win.
Not trying to dog the Quacks at all here, but just pointing out the reality. The SoCal market is a strange one. There are just so many options entertainment and sport wise. I think LA is a great hockey market. There as many fans in LA for the Kings as there are for many other NHL teams in their home cities. Problem is many many many of those other cities are simply much smaller population and sprawl wise. Per capa, yeah CAL or EDM is going to have many more fans, but there are just many more people in SoCal than in hell frozen over.
Anyway, I kind of would have liked to see a parade. Preferably it would have been held today around lunch time, so I could have just walked half a block down the street and seen the Cup march past. I kind of like the idea much like I like the idea of actually skating laps with the Cup after the win as opposed to just grouping up in a corner of the rink and passing it around. In past years it seemed like there were too many obstacles and cables and stuff on the ice, but this year I saw a couple shots during the celebration where it looked like they had plenty of ice to skate. I suppose a guy doesn’t want to be the one who breaks away from all his teammates and make them chase him with the Cup, but that’s what I’d like to see. Mainly so the fans in the building actually see the victory laps as a solute to them. But that’s off topic…
I agree that there may not be enough interested people for a parade.
But to have the party centralized in one location like the Honda Center is a great idea in my opinion. Sleek, get some good pics of it!!
I've done my share of OC/Anaheim Ducks bashing before (and I feel somewhat entitled 'cuz I was born behind the Orange Curtain, down Mission Viejo way), but age and perspective have toned that part of me down a lot. That, and I've detected a whining template that goes "X team doesn't deserve to win because [their fans are lame|their locale is inferior to my locale in many perverse ways|their uniforms are funny looking]."
Red Wings fans used this template during the Sharks/Wings series, and repeated it the next round vs. the Ducks. Canadian fans have basically been saying this since Montreal won the cup in '93, with Ottawa fans getting their licks in recently.
It's such a crap argument. No team deserves to win. They have to earn it, on the ice. Once they've won the Cup they, and their fans (numerous or not), can celebrate however they damn well please.
dbushik, you are right on why a parade is impractical in SoCal, but I dunno about me not taking part in tradition. I support handshakes and 3 stars and cup circling and all that, and if a parade was a viable option, it's not like I would be out there protesting it.
I'm just saying we shouldn't have a parade just because that's what they would have done in Ottawa. I am looking forward to tomorrow's staged event more than I might be if it were Ducks sitting on a fire truck passing me by and waving.
Is that fair enough?
But by all means, go ahead and tell us how you will run that not-to-distant Kings parade. I'm sure Canada will love you for it.
ian-
Well, one thing about the "they don't deserve it" thing is that it's usually directed at fans, not the team, even if phrased incorrectly. Saying Anaheim fans (considered as a whole over say the past ten years) don't deserve the honor I think is in many ways accurate.
Like you say though, you can't say that about the team/players. I just think the way we use language shouldn't confuse the issue. Of course the Ducks players earned this honor. I spent the past couple months sick tomy stomach over how well that team played and how well everything fortuitously came together.
And the arguement is clealry sour grapes if anyone thinks it means anything at all. I mean, I knock the ANA fan base regularly, but it sure doesn't change reality. If anything it's a side comment. I can talk about how the fan base has contributed to me not liking the team, but I certainly can't say it means jack diddly on the ice.
Same thing with people saying a player deserves to win the Cup. Did Bourque deserve the Cup? Well, certainly not until he earned it, and I'm a huge fan of the guy. I kind of think certain players deserve a kick at the can in some respect, a chance, but you do have to earn it with the wins.
earl-
My writting style I think makes me sound more serious than I am. I wouldn't argue a parade because OTT would have, but because any team would have. I'm honestly not sure the last time a team didn't. Not like I can vouch for them all actually doing it though. I seem to recall parades in TB and CAR. Remember ones from way back in DET and NYR. Did NJ ever do one?
I just kind of seem to think it's what you do in pretty much all sports. I don't know, anyone got examples of Cup winners not doing it? You know, come to think of it, maybe CAR did something similar at the arena...
I just didn't know if tradition was the right arguement against or for. Like I said, there are clear logistical reasons...
I think I should be there for a free dog or two. My younger bro wants to see it, so I'll likely be there with him. I'll keep an eye out for the green shirt.
Not going to rain on the parade debate, but just wanted to say that I'm digging the hand-drawn cartoons.
dbushik, don't worry about it too much. I suspect the decision to have or not have parades is almost always logistical more than traditional.
I'm probably too touchy lately because of Canadian Press and their tendency to write the absolute worst pieces of journalism to discover that "Anaheim is not Ottawa", i.e. interview some idiot on the beach and ask him who J.S. Giguere is, and when he gives a silly answer conclude that there are zero hockey fans in California (or similarly, talk about how Anaheim has no parade, when Ottawa's route was planned before G1).
I mean, this "ignore the actual fans" mentality is certainly not new, but I kind of wonder at its persistence. It's strange to me when a journalist will see 17,000 crazed fans and not talk to any of them, but then go to Newport and talk to some random dude.
So anyway, maybe I'm crazy, because I don't really get why it's a big deal there's no parade--given logistics, I'd rather see a stage show with speeches and whatnot anyway. But why ask me? Go ask some mother in Irvine what she thinks. :)
Not going to rain on the parade debate, but just wanted to say that I'm digging the hand-drawn cartoons.
That's cool, because I kind of feel that I haven't done a good one yet. Still getting the kinks out, and maybe suffering from some equivalent of writer's block.
But they will continue, and I'm hoping they'll improve! When I'm less lazy, also, I'll start coloring them, too!
I think I'll see you on Saturday, at least, that's the plan. You better be good and intoxicated.
sleek- yeah, there are few things more vile in hockey journalism than the 'let's go talk to random americans and laugh at how none of them know anything about hockey' articles, but they must go over big with someone, because there seems to be at least one a month popping up on kukla. if it's any comfort, tho, canadians can be victims of the same type of non-story- remember the one where they had tom preissing going around a mall in ottawa asking people if they knew who he was? nobody did, even when he told them his first name, last initial, position, number, etc.
I think I remember that NJ did not have a parade for any of their three Cup wins. It was partly because NJ plays in a suburb, not an actual city and therefore doesn't really have a good parade route and but also because they figured they could fit everyone in the parking lot for a ceremony. NJ has had attendance issues (Averaging below 15,000 for the last however many years, which is ridiculous given how good the team has been) so a parade was more trouble than it was worth. It sounds like Anaheim has similar issues (SoCal traffic and attendance only a little over 16,000 I think) so it might not make sense for them to have a parade either.
On the other hand the tradition you should be looking at is that of the local area. Did the Lakers have parades for their most recent championships? Or even better, what about the Angels in '02? If not, it would lend weight to the "only a drunken monkey would think a parade in LA traffic is a good idea" argument. If they did, it deflates it a bit.
Also, I second the notions of hockey journalism being total crap and of the goodness of the hand drawn cartoons.
The Lakers have had parades each year I've worked in L.A., but they do it pretty manageably--10 am or something when most people are at work. The go down the wrong way on Figueroa through downtown, past where thousands of people work anyway, and do something at the Staples parking lot.
The Angels in '02 did have a parade, I believe, but that was entirely construed by the Disney ownership. They went from the stadium to Disneyland, I recall. But with changed ownership (with both teams), that's not happening again.
Anyone complaining about no parade is just bitter. Sad, really, that they're reduced to this one last cheap stab, and no surprise some of the biggest whiners are from fans of teams who haven't won the Cup, yet.
Apply any sort of logic to it; what is the advantage of a parade?
Would you rather see your favorite band pass you by on a float and hear maybe 30 secs of them playing, or actually sit yourself in front of them and hear whole concert? Would you rather wave at Scott Niedermayer as he passes by holding the Cup, or actually hear him speak about what it meant to win the Cup?
And I don't want to hear this BS about "the Lakers did this", or "the Kings would do that". Because if you're going to start comparing local sports teams, look no further than the real rulers of the SoCal sports scene, the USC Trojans football team, who routinely pack 90k+ into the Coliseum every gameday. They held a static, on-campus ceremony for their 2004 NC, and no one bitched or whined about that. ('Course the fact that no one attended their 2003 NC "parade" might have had something to do with it.)
And, no, the NJ Devils don't do parades either, but I guess that's OK, cuz it's not cool to laugh at them. People talk about bandwagon Ducks fans, I think more people have jumped on the anti-Duck bandwagon. Hey, will both Duck fans show up at the rally? Hahahahahahahaha! Hey, I bet no one at the rally knows what icing is! Hahahahahahahaha! Look at me, I made fun of their non-existent, undeserving fan base!
I thought this article
http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=210149&hubname=nhl
is worth pointing out. Please note, my posting of this article should NOT be taken as an attack on the Ducks' fan base. Yes, it's a classic example of all the crap that goes on in hockey reporting (see: Ms. Robertson's very original comments) but at least they acknowledge a "hard-core following" for the Ducks and even interview a few people who were excited about the team, so it's not all bad since the title implies they were trying to show that no one cares. Not a lot of improvement over the usual stuff, but baby steps in the right direction.
The Angels did go right from the stadium to Disneyland, and most of the party took place there. Not really much of a parade, honestly. I just waited at the end to see all the podium stuff (and tried to fathom if it was possible for Rex Hudler to make more of an ass of himself).
I'm just looking forward to seeing all the podium stuff here, get a picture with George Parros and hopefully get a chance to finally lift the Cup myself and give it a big old smooch.
Who was that stupid band that played from 630-730? I can't believe I waited so long, but I'm glad I got to see the Cup.
I wish I would have got there at 725, cause I couldn't really see anyway.
Who cares about how they do this? Sour grapes that we didn't have a parade and they're saying things.
It was a fun celebration to be at from the wife and my friend were telling me....Earl...they said they could see your green shirt...but couldn't get to you...too many people. Congrats and Jes is still looking for those 1925 photos.
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