chicagotribune.com
'Tradition, Honor, Passion' with the Chicago Fire? Not so much anymore
Chicago TribuneChicago hates losers, especially lovable, hapless losers.
Yet the new Cubs, with all that young talent, are no longer the lovable losers of Chicago. And, according to "Back to the Future Part II," the North Siders have already won the World Series this year.
The White Sox are still the White Sox, playing the Cubs this weekend. The Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions.
The Bulls? A sad, desperate Jimmy-Derrick soap opera to come. The Bears? Jay Cutler. Whatever.
But there's another team out there that plays in Chicago summers, losers, yes, but not lovable. Sports media doesn't much care, but their fans care, fans like me who love the club but hate to see what's happened to it.
The Chicago Fire.
Yeah, the soccer team, with the famed credo many of you have never heard: Tradition, Honor, Passion.
And now? No tradition, no passion. Major League Soccer is a supremely physical league. But we're forced to watch so-called stars play defense as if they were a bunch of gentle Hobbits with hairy feet.
With the other teams (Hawks excepted) collapsing or failing, the Fire had a chance to make a mark. They made their mark all right. On their shoes.
They're in last place in the worst division in the league. And the other day they lost their only chance at a trophy by falling, haplessly, 1-0 to the Philadelphia Union in the U.S. Open Cup playoff.
"I'm gutted for the club and our fans right now," said head coach Frank Yallop.
Gutted? Like a fish, Frank, you and all the rest of us.
Some think the evil eye has been put on them. One fan who sits behind me at Toyota Park — I'll call him Jimmy V — wants to put charms around the field to ward off the mati, or the moogli (evil eye).
Others of us think owner Andrew Hauptman, a wealthy movie producer who lives in California, is a cheapskate who either can't, or won't, get decent players.
Fans are so angry that in Philadelphia on Wednesday, they unfurled a huge banner declaring war with Hauptman. On it were these simple words:
Hauptman Out.
They want to embarrass the MLS into forcing a change in ownership. And it might just work.
The war started two years ago, when Hauptman foolishly released an open letter on the team's website, signed by a hapless underling, attacking fans for daring to boo Hauptman during a game.
The owner-fan relationship, if there ever was one, died that day. Now it's open war.
Fire sources say the bosses are upset with the banner. But I'd suggest if they don't like it, then sell and let someone else run the club.
One angry fan (OK, it was me) tweeted out that the Fire had just hired a new mascot: Death.
"This is rock bottom for the franchise," said Guillermo Rivera, the knowledgeable critic who writes the Chicago Fire Confidential blog carried by ChicagoNow. I'm a reader.
"The Fire have been around since '98. And they've lived up to their 'Tradition, Honor, Passion' credo for years, making playoffs and being respected," Rivera told me over the phone Thursday.
"But over the past six years, it has been the absolute opposite. You see the results and the way the organization has been run. I'm seeing fans who've been around since the beginning, fans who love the Fire, now turning their backs. They're slipping further and further into irrelevancy."
I've met Hauptman several times. He was pleasant. I don't wish him ill. This isn't personal. But he's had his chance.
All he had to do was pay for good players and leave his club alone and sit in California and make movies. But he didn't.
He's made several movies, including "State of Play" with Russell Crowe.
But Hauptman also made the 2002 sci-fi film "Thunderpants." The Internet Movie Database website describes it this way: "An 11-year-old boy's amazing ability to break wind leads him first to fame and then to death row."
Thunderpants?
I can't get that one out of my head. I fear it will never leave.
Hauptman's problem isn't "Thunderpants," it's that he's always on the phone, meddling, meddling, meddling, and being forced to overpay for mediocre players.
Now, Yallop is being made a scapegoat like the last coach, Frank Klopas.
But the problem isn't the coach. It's the owner. And he has to change his ways.
Rocky Wirtz, the best owner in town, runs a decent franchise, doesn't he? He hires people to run his Blackhawks, and he stays out of the way and Chicago loves him.
Sean Spence, who writes the soccer blog Hot Time In Old Town, says, "I compare covering the Fire to what it must have been like being a Moscow correspondent decades ago. All the suits are terrified, looking over their shoulders."
Evan Whitfield, now a Chicago lawyer, was once a tough Fire defender. I've always thought him to be fair.
"Having been a player, I can tell you that players are always trying," Whitfield said. "It's not an effort issue, it's a quality issue. This team is just not fun to watch."
As I was finishing this, the Fire released a statement by Atul Khosla, the chief operating officer.
"We certainly understand the frustration of our fans. No one associated with the Chicago Fire Soccer Club is satisfied with this season to date. The organization however remains steadfast in its commitment to winning games and being a model franchise for business practice."
Chicago Fire fans are told "Tradition, Honor, Passion," yet management speaks in the language of bureaucrats, droning on about "model business practice."
Pathetic. Hapless. Sad.
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