Kansas City Tornadoes
Here’s a timely, midsummer post about the not-so-recent NHL Draft!
The New York City area had some crazy weather this past weekend, with powerful but scattered thunderstorms culminating in the ever few and farther between Tornado Watch for some or all of Queens and Nassau County.
I’ve heard of tornadoes threatening to touch down, sometimes succeeding, on the mainland just west of the Hudson, in New Jersey and sections of New York. But on Long Island, where I grew up, we don’t usually get tornadoes. Hurricanes, sometimes (Hurricane Gloria swooshing around the vegetable patch outside my parents’ window is one of my earliest memories, from September of 1985 when I was not yet 4), but not tornadoes.
The radio warning brought to mind a prediction about the future. It’s somewhat bold, and somewhat sad, but will have going for it no exchange of money: Weathermen and Major League batters, paid to fail.
It concerns the hockey team I should have rooted for growing up: the New York Islanders.
I should have, because they remain the team closest to the house in which I grew up. Failing that, it’s because I also root for the Mets and would align myself with the Mets-Jets-Islanders axis rather than the Yankees-Giants-Rangers confederation (even though I don’t root for the Jets, either. Some axis.)
I’ve certainly been to Islanders games. Two in particular come to mind: the first because it was on a February 29th, the one in 1992, and the first of my lifetime when I was old enough to realize how odd are Leap Year shenanigans, really. The second, because Montreal goalie Jose Theodore himself scored a goal AND had a shutout, which is so much more than I did that day:
Anyway, by having the first selection in this year’s draft, the Islanders recently made news, which is news enough in itself since they are not only terrible but forgettable. The Mets lose on huge stages (Castillo, the bat on Beltran’s shoulder), the Islanders in a Soviet-era bunker from which few if any signs of life ever escape.
That bunker, really, is at the heart of this long and winding column apparently about Kansas City Tornadoes, what? The Islanders, taking John Tavares with their high pick, now remind me very much of the deposed Seattle SuperSonics. Kevin Durant, fantastic ballplayer that he is, was able to lift the spirits and melt the hearts of a city for a very short amount of time, before the threats to move came to be realized and ownership shuffled the team from the coast to the American Midwest.
I’m no insider and can’t more than speculate just how dire the Islanders home-arena situation really is. But from what I’ve read, the franchise is leaking money, not unlike a dilapidated vessel their old Captain might have commanded. They are in desperate need of a modern arena, to remain competitive and eventually become profitable. But plans are tied up, and the possibility, however remote, still remains that the team may move, just possibly to Kansas City.
Enter the Tornadoes.
The Kansas City Tornadoes were a hockey team nickname I made up (probably not the first nor last) like many kids do, mine selected from the very best NHLers of the 1992-93 season. I have no access to the roster right now but I’m sure Luc Robitaiile was on it.
I was very excited two years later to be able to play on a roller hockey team called the Tornadoes whose jerseys bore my obsessive logo and color scheme. Phenomenal.
And so, perhaps, it shall be again, professionally. I certainly don’t wish for the Islanders to leave the arena 35 minutes from my house near where I used to intern in the summer of 2002 by those smokestacks. I hope they get their act together. I want Tavares to do his part. I wish DiPietro would get healthy or just give back the rest of his contract. I’d be thrilled for the Islanders to win again.
But. If the foreseeable happens, I just want to call the nickname now: Kansas City Tornadoes.
EDIT 6/11/11: Read my post-2011 Joplin tornado response here.
4 Comments »
July 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
[...] http://www.danmooney.net/kansas-city-tornadoes/The Islanders, taking John Tavares with their high pick, now remind me very much of the deposed Seattle SuperSonics. Kevin Durant, fantastic ballplayer that he is, was able to lift the spirits and melt the hearts of a city for a very … [...]
July 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
As a kid I always wondered why NY sports fans, for the most part, seemed to fall into what you call the Mets-Jets-Islanders axis or Yankees-Giants-Rangers confederation. At first I assumed it was because, except for the Jets, the teams on each side shared the same basic colors, and maybe fans wanted to make sure their jersey-and-cap wardrobes matched. But that theory got shot down when I realized that a lot of blue & red fans also rooted for the blue & orange Knicks.
This post also brings back fond memories of you and I sharing the fantasy sports franchises we made up as kids. My personal favorite of mine was a basketball team called the Seattle Purple Haze, named because Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle. My personal favorite of yours was a hockey team called the Harbingers (I forget the city), because harbinger is an excellent word, and I love the idea of a team name that foreshadows their opponents’ doom.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Yes! I very much had the Seattle Purple Haze in mind while writing this one. Nor will I forget the California Bearflaggers, which is just perfect. The Harbingers, which I at first thought was also a kind of bird (like how an albatross is a bird and a bad thing, too), were based in good ol’ Hudson Bay.
As I think more about the axes, Yankees-Giants-Rangers are all old school teams. The Giants played for years at the Polo Grounds (alongside the baseball Giants) and then at Yankee Stadium, so it makes sense the fan base would be the same. Ditto for Mets and Jets in Shea. And the Rangers were around much earlier than the Islanders – so really it’s old school vs. new school, deja (?) riche vs. nouveau riche. Generally speaking.
I love that the Knicks are the tether – Mets/Islanders colors sharing a home arena with the Rangers. Let’s reassess this if the Nets ever move to Brooklyn.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
My gosh, all these years I’ve I completely overlooked the whole old teams vs. new teams thing. It all makes much more sense now.
Also, I think you and I should quit our jobs and start new careers as guys who name minor league sports franchises. The more I think about it, the more I’m certain it’s what we were put on this Earth to do.