Dear Bob The Caretaker

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1

What a fine mess you have gotten us into!

I know you rescued the TiCats from the scrap heap financially, are an excellent businessman and truly amazing marketer but, unfortunately for us, you know zip all about running a sports franchise.

The Hamilton landscape is now becoming heavily littered with all your mistakes. This current 2007 version of the Tiger Cats are quite literally the worst collection of losing wannabes I have ever seen in my 50 years of following this once very proud organization, many of which have been as a long time, loyal season ticket holder in Section 26.

During your inept tenure of four years, we have had two presidents, three GM’s, three head coaches and posted a 18-39 record as a result. Yet, you tell us to be ‘more’ patient and we will win ‘some’ games this year despite being outscored 67-14 in our first two games already.

News flash, Bob, what we really need to know from your clairvoyant mind is how many TD’s we can hope to score this season, if any, because that seems to be the immediate pressing matter. If we get clobbered by the Als next week at home, we will for all effective purposes be mathematically eliminated for this year no matter how much hype your spin machine spits out for the gullible masses! 0-18 would be a remarkable achievement of your ownership for an all time CFL record.

When you look at what’s left of our entire roster today, especially after your new Wonderboy, Marcel the Parcel, got finished packaging off all the remaining quality veteran leadership we still had (it was NEVER about the players, Desjardin, it was ALWAYS about the coaching), I can only find 15 players maximum that could start right now for any other CFL team!

This is why it’s your bad, Bob. Too many kids who can’t play and never will be able to play so what’s to wait for in their development. They are mostly second and third stringers everywhere else including NFL Europa which recently folded.

BTW, Bob, that’s not all from us paying folks either because, if you didn’t notice while you were being constantly interviewed, Marcel The Parcel traded Wayne Smith and DJ Flick to the Riders for Rocky Butler who we then make fourth string and can’t keep. Now Charlie Taafe says our offensive line is ‘struggling’ and we have ‘no’ go to receivers let alone a capable third string backup QB with league experience would be quite useful in these dire circumstances.

And this bush league nonsense never seems to end under your watch because we further trade Jason Goss to Edmonton for Chang and Alston and then get rid of Alston, another so called competent WR.

Nevertheless, The Replacements sure looked great last night against the hated Argos, eh Bob?

So, does the right hand know what the left hand is doing??? Apparently not as Wonderboy et al, also, cut ‘character’ players, Hitchcock and Morreale, without even giving them an exhibition tryout. Oh yea and Taafe is desparately looking for somebody to ‘step up’ and lead by example. Talk about throwing the baby out with bath water!!!

So some advice, Bob - be careful that you don’t totally alienate your roughly 13,000 Die Hard Fans who are starting to throw in the towel because their primary purpose in forever supporting this team is to WIN or at least be closely competitive in losing if we are rebuilding, none of which is remotely happening!

You have been very good at increasing our fan base by getting a lot of new Party Goers to come to Ivor Wynne with your slick PR campaigns and fancy promotions. However, they are a fickle lot and are really there just for The Wave. When they get bored of all the ‘fun’ times and the team continues to lose endlessly, both the Party Goers and the Die Hards could be permamently AWOL if you are not very, very careful!

However, you could do some useful ‘caretaking’ by getting Mitchell to do something asap before it is too late. Let’s get an experienced GM to fix this unmitigated disaster now.

Goodbye Marcel, nice to have you pass through Hamilton via Montreal yet - was he a plant by Popp to have us never make the playoffs again? We certainly don’t want the JFJ MLSE experience here!!!

And, Bob, pleeeeze stop with this silly ‘we are ok’ garbage. Tell it like it is, we deserve it and we can take it as long as we know you are seriously going to get some outside professional sports help - not this rag tag collection of misfits advising you right now.

Maybe we could talk Bill Parcels out of retirement to manage us. You’ve got the bucks! But hey, any proven winner to replace what we got would do though! We are not that picky even if we are a little suicidal in our present depressed state.

Go! Cats! Go! Oskiweewee!

Yours truly,

The Lamentable Loser

P.S. For the record, our only fifteen keeper players who can actually start for other Canadian football teams are:

Corey Holmes #3
Tay Cody #4
Timmy Chang #7
Nautyn McKay #9
Jason Maas #11
Richard Karikari #12
Nick Setta #13
Zeke Moreno #16
Dwight Anderson #20
Jesse Lumsden #28
Lawrence Gordon #29
Jojuan Armour #32
Julian Radlein #33
Jonta Woodward #69
Brock Ralph #80

Who else is there???
Brutal! Brutal! Brutal! There, I feel much better!

Goodnight, Bob. Sleep well.

2

I agree. New GM and Head coach please.

3

Great idea! I think we should clean house and start over. How about new coaches, a new GM, new players--maybe bring in Ron Lancaster for the interim, and then next year hire some new blood and give then 2 games to turn the whole mess around.

4

Dear Lamentable Loser,

Two games into the season and you're demanding a new GM and Head Coach. What makes you think that you have any idea how to fix this team? On what basis do you bash Bob Young, the man who rescued this team from oblivion? Is it because you aren't happy with the direction the seaosn has gone TWO GAMES IN.

Are you so short sighted and ignorant as to the development of an incredibly bad 2006 team into one that will begin winning? Were you expecting to see immediate success? What exactly were you expecting?

You slam Marcel Desjardins as if he is responsible for the performance of individual players and then go on to suggest that he gutted something that was somehow better than what we have now. Something tells me, and I'm not sure what it might be... perhaps common sense, that Marcel and Coach Taafe have forgotten more about football and football team managment then you will ever be able to absorb between trips to the beer fridge.

Many people are disatisfied with the team's result thus far, but perhaps you also need reminding that we started with a rather awful football team. Which brings me back to what your expectations were. Maybe you'd like to go back to the days of just the "13,000 die hards" in attendance for each game; or the desperate pleas to hit 13,000 season tickets or goodbye team.

Maybe you'd like to go back to the genius of the previous ownership group... oops, I forgot, they have no money. You seem to demand that Bob Young personally generate TDs. Just so you know, Bob signs the cheques, he doesn't catch passes, he doesn't take snaps or make tackles or anything else regarding football. But I suppose, since you rather long windedly lambaste a very generous man, that you may have no grip on football reality.

I am not so dillusional as to believe that this team would go out and start destroying the opposition. But, I certainly have more patience then 2 games to wait for results.

Bob has repeatedly admitted his past mistakes and moved to correct them. Do you, by your blind attacks on the owner, GM and Head Coach, suggest that you could do better? Again, I assume not, as I'm fairly certain that at no point did you get an email asking for you to come on down for a GM interview.

I seriously hope that you're joking when you demand another top down reorganization of the team. Which, I should remind you, is precisely the thing you blast Bob for in the first place. Do you honestly believe that TWO GAMES into the season a coaching change would fix the situation?

Maybe, just maybe, the people running the football team have a better idea what they're doing then you do. I'm sure Bob Young is sleeping quite well.

5

I'm sure your Caretaker knows he isn't a football expert. That's why he hired a CFL coach of the year and a GM who learned the ropes in the winning Als organization. Greg Marshall and Joe Paopao were mistakes and he corrected them by firing them as difficult as that must have been. He had the class and good sense to retain Lancaster, a legitimate CFL icon and goodwill ambassador.

I agree with 'stox' that the team's personnel isn't good enough to win. I think his list of 15 keepers is a little too generous actually. Apart from Cody, I wouldn't think twice about replacing anyone else in the secondary. And why you would keep Brock is far beyond my comprehension. Anyway, it takes time to find good players, time to build depth, time to acquire good Canadians, and time to bring it all together. I hate to say it but 2007 is already a write-off. This team isn't strong enough to win more than a few games at best. However, 2007 can be used to bring in NFL cuts for look-sees, give players like Chang, Setta and Moreno more game experience, re-jig the playbook, etc. etc.

An Argo-Cat fan

6

It was not necessary to cut ALL of those veterans from last years team..... Some? Most? Yes... but i still think this was a little excessive.

7

Its not the organizations problems...charlie taaffe has experience and he knows what it takes to make a winning team..him and marcel are rebuilding and its going to take time..

I think were not utilizing our players well and we have some injuries that need to be addressed to help out this team..thats all i think it is..and everyone workign a little harder to help out the quarterbacks.

as for this whole bob young bashing..thats just unacceptable..Bob young saved this team and we have to give him the respect that he deserves..he brought the fans back to the games...before Bob Young..when did we see 28,000 at a game..other then a labour day game..i remember the years of 13,000 filling a stadium...now we always get over 20,000 easily. The prices did go up but we brought the fans still. Thats pretty impressive..yeah there is still a lot of work to do but you dont see bob young giving up adn saying...im selling!! no!!! hes sticking it out and having a little patience. everyone talks about how they spend money on watching a losing team...yeah it does suck...but look at all those losing seasons we had and the amount of money Young has put into this team...if he can do im sure we can...we need to have faith that something will get done..it takes time...charlie taaffe and company knows what it takes...its just taking a little more time becuase we gave the team a whole new facelift of rookies..

we are building the dream...trust me on this one...OSKEE WEE WEE..

8

don't you think you gotta give taaffee and desjardins at least 3 games before you fire him LOL

9

One of the most hypocritical and ridiculous posts I've seen. Stating the obvious about the mistakes Bob has already attested to, then asking for exactly whats already been done: a top-down rebuilding of the team.

10

I will be happy if the Cats have 5 wins this year because that would at least be an improvement.

Under Marshall they started well at 9-8-1 then went 5-13 then 4-14. So as long as the new team and staff improve just 1 or 2 wins over last season then its a step in the right direction.

My best guess is 6-7 wins this year... we shall see.

edit: Chang will win 4-5 of those btw :slight_smile:

11

Bob Young is a great Hamiltonian who is making all the right moves with this football team. We are very lucky to have him as the owner of the Ticats. Building a good team will take time. Get off Mr. Young's back.

12

Bob Young is a great Hamiltonian who is making all the right moves with this football team. We are very lucky to have him as the owner of the Ticats. Building a good team will take time. Get off Mr. Young's back.

13

id be suprised if some of our import receivers last after labour day when the nfl cuts are made.
but i am willing to be patient cause ive seen what kind of coach was in montreal and know he will demand results. is anyone really that suprised this thing was gonna be improved so quickly? especially with all the new players,etc

14

It's hard to argue with a lot that stox has to say. Much of it is fact. But the truth is that Bob has no choice. He has to stick with Marcel and Charlie and hope that they can sort this out. Charlie's comments in some of the Toronto media today were scary. He essentially admitted that he didn't have any answers and that he'd never been around a team that played that poorly on offense two games in a row. For us fans, its been a lot longer than two games. Heck they should offer a free hotdog to any fan that can remember the last time we scored a touchdown at Ivro Wynne (in a regular season game)! Keeping the faith is getting awfully difficult. Another stinker at home next week, especially another zero touchdown game...well I can't help but wonder if we're watching the death of a once proud franchise. Saturday's game was truly pathetic. Well its true that Bob inherited this mess, after 3 plus years I have to say that the on field product is no better than the 1-17 mess he was brave enough to pick up.

15

NOT A CHANCE…please, what team could maas be the starter on???

ralph would be a practice roster guy on any other team…tell me a receiver on another team this loser could beat out for a job???

the ONLY guys worth keeping are setta, lumsden and POSSIBLY chang…thats it!

16

Cody, Armour, Moreno, McKay Loescher, Bekasiak, Reid, Anderson. There are a lot more that given a few more games could be Dynamite. i think our D will be keeping us in alot of games come mid season. there seems to be alot of talent on that side.

17

I'm sure your Caretaker knows he isn't a football expert. That's why he hired a CFL coach of the year and a GM who learned the ropes in the winning Als organization.

Marshall was coach of the year too no? Marshall is a great coach he was not a mistake.

18
One of the most hypocritical and ridiculous posts I've seen. Stating the obvious about the mistakes Bob has already attested to, then asking for exactly whats already been done: a top-down rebuilding of the team.
Agree. For all the frustration these first two games, you have to give Charlie and Marcel some time.
19

Yes there is some good guys in this team but
we are again the joke in the CFL!Bob did say this is a three year plan and after years we are still sad as always!This will be a long year again of rebuilding instead of winning!SAD!VERY SAD!

20
the ONLY guys worth keeping are setta, lumsden and POSSIBLY chang....thats it!
If you want to use Caps at least be right... Cody, McKay, Bekasiak, Holmes, Armour to name a few have played around the league.