4.8.19 Bee-otch of the Day: Christopher Ilitch

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.
-------

Name: Christopher Ilitch
Age: 53
Occupation: daddy's boy
Last Seen: Detroit, MI
Bee-otched For: repeating the same mistakes
 

-

Once upon a time, the words "April in the D" meant something.

It was that time of year the Red Wings were prepping to make the playoffs and maybe, just maybe, the Pistons. Also, it's the beginning of the baseball season and in the past several years, the Tigers have had their good, bad and very ugly.

Now, the Pistons need to win their next two games to make it into the playoffs. But at least the Tigers are off to a strong 7-3 start. The Red Wings, on the other hand, will be hitting the links somewhere in Northern Michigan.

And the sad thing is that the man who led the Red Wings to its worst seasons in years will be staying in Motown for two more seasons. Jeff Blashill signed a deal with the team last week to remain as their head coach. Meanwhile, the team's shitty goalie, Jimmy Howard recently signed a one-year contract extension.

The team's season came to an end Saturday with a 7-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. Their year-end record was 32-40-10 and 74 points, just one more point from last year. The Wings' last winning season was 2016; it was also the last year the team made the NHL playoffs.

To many Wings fans like myself, it's a shame of what the team has purely became, which is a shadow of itself. When Mike Ilitch bought the team in 1982, he worked feverishly to return the team to its glory days. In 1997, he was rewarded dearly with the team's first Stanley Cup since 1955.

Sadly, those days of Yzerman, Fedorov, Osgood, Shanahan and a whole bunch of Russians whose names are hard to spell are like Ernie Harwell calling a homerun: long gone. Joe Louis Arena is prepping for demolition while like The Joe when it first opened 40 years ago, Little Caesars Arena is having issues filling seats.

I always wonder why Detroit teams are loving to make mistakes these days. After all, Chris Ilitch also owns the Tigers and lord only knows how long their .700 record will last. After all, they're playing the Indians this week. It is still very early in the baseball season. Don't even get me started on the Ford family and the Lions, who think that turning them into Patriots west will work out with a shitty QB like Matt Stafford. At least as far as we know, Martha Ford has never visited an Asian massage parlor.

At least the Pistons still have a chance to make it to the playoffs if they win the last two games of the season. It seems that Tom Gores is the only owner in Detroit adamant about rebuilding a sports franchise. His coach was an ex NBA Coach of the Year and Blake Griffin has done wonders for the team.

Now, if the Tigers actually make the playoffs at the end of the season, then prove me wrong. Maybe Chris Ilitch has what it takes to take his teams to the next level. I do wonder if he's trying to unload either team or both to another Detroit billionaire, namely Dan Gilbert. I wouldn't doubt it, but when Detroit has four teams that were under .500 last year, the fans are the ones who want change.

And if the Red Wings want change for now, maybe Chris needs to sell more Hot 'N Ready pizzas.

---

  --

Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!

Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com

Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!