By Brian Weidler
As some of you know, I spend a little time at the STL Today "Blues Talk" message board, posting under the screen name "Blue_Bavarian."Â The "Blue" part should be self-explanatory, and the "Bavarian" part comes from my family's origins in Bavaria, a current state of the Federal Republic of Germany and formerly an independent kingdom.
Anyway, while perusing "Blues Talk" earlier, I came across this posting from a fellow-traveler who goes by the handle of "King Leonidas:"
Hadley is ripping us on KTRS now for holding him accountable for his bogus special feature he NEVER completed about the blues.
Kerber just sat and laughed with him.
Hadley has called us using "fake names' morons over and over.
Leaving aside for a moment my confusion as to why, exactly, Mr. Hadley would risk alienating his current and potential readership by insulting them on the air, and my amazement as to why Mr. Hadley would feel the need to light into that readership for holding him accountable for his failure to produce, as promised, a "blockbuster" five-part expose on the current state of the St. Louis Blues... here's how I responded to "King Leonidas" and the rest of the posters in that thread:
Hadley's irrelevant. "Simply stated," who gives a hoot what Hadley thinks, or says?
Like others here, I too wanted to give Hadley the benefit of the doubt, because of his obvious passion for the Blues. But it's clear he has some personal issue with someone in management, and if for some bizarre, inexplicable reason he has a hard-on for John Davidson, he's fighting a battle he cannot win. John Davidson's credibility, and reputation in the hockey world, is solid gold.
Did Mr. Large and In Charge say, by any chance, why he reneged on his promised five-part blockbuster... or did he merely settle for insulting and impugning the intelligence of the posters here, some of whom are working journalists themselves (albeit as a sideline, rather than as a full-time job), and figure that this enormous red herring would mask the stench of his failure -- once again -- to deliver on a promised story?
"Simply stated," put up or shut up, John.
PS: These musings will be posted -- verbatim -- under my real name at the "St. Louis Game Time" website in just a few minutes. And if Mr. Hadley ever wanted to know my real name, he had only to look at the "Game Time" site and put two and two together on any number of occasions.
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many of our readers, we at "Game Time" are better hockey journalists for six months out of the year, part-time and unpaid, than Mr. Hadley is all year long, full-time and compensated (presumably) quite handsomely for his "efforts." And I'll stand by that statement any time, any place, under any circumstances.
So there it is, Mr. Hadley... and not from a "fake-name-using moron," but under my real name, for God and everyone to see.
"Simply stated," you sank your credibility like the Lusitania by first pimping this big, hard-hitting series of reports on the inner workings of the Blues, and then delivering only one post, a week after your promised "launch date."
I don't think there's much more that can be said, ladies and gentlemen.Â
IÂ close every one of my "Game Time" columns with this quote from Otto von Bismarck:Â "If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."
On behalf of all Blues' fans who have been let down by your insults to the intellgence and integrity of John Davidson and the many of us who post at "Blues Talk," consider me your personal hammer, Mr. Hadley. If you're reading this and wish to discuss this issue with me, feel free to contact me through this site, at my e-mail address: