A hump-day smorgas-bored…and from Cherry blossoms to Cherry bombs…
Yes, now that you mention it, Donald S. Cherry’s 15 minutes of fame lasted longer than most 15 minutes, and I doubt anyone is genuinely surprised that he finally fell on his own sword on a hill of his own choosing.
Bigotry, after all, was as much a part of his Saturday night shtick as the clown suits, the butchered English and botched names, the Russian/Euro/Francophone baiting, the pre-game fashion parade, the beat-’em-in-the-alley advocacy, the stereotypical, faux gay lilt to his voice when mocking “pinkos” or anyone unwilling to settle a dispute with fisticuffs (“like good Canadian boys”), the grandfatherly counsel to “you kids out there,” women as lesser-thans, and draping himself in the Maple Leaf to dress up blatant Archie Bunkerism as patriotism.
It was quite an act, almost four decades of bellowing from a Hockey Night in Canada studio that, rather than serve as an instrument for the good of the game, morphed into one man’s bully pulpit, a platform from which to skewer those who didn’t subscribe to his horse-and-buggy notions of hockey and his level of True North passion.
If there was a soundtrack to Coach’s Corner on HNIC, it was outrage. His and ours.
It’s not that Cherry always was an old man yelling at the kids kibitzing on his lawn. Indeed, I confess there was a time when I viewed his Saturday sermon as a minor source of humor. Alas, he reduced the gig to bad farce, much like the Three Stooges but without the noogies, face-slapping and eye-poking. By the time Rogers Media finally got around to firing him on Monday, all he had left in his tank was a shaking fist and a loud squawk box raging at the clouds.
Everything about his shtick had become an amped-up rant. EVERYTHINK! Perhaps that’s why no one at Rogers took the time, or cared, to notice that Cherry was borderline incoherent on many Saturday nights. Consider, for example, this bit of babble-on from a few weeks ago:
“Ya know, the Leafs, ya know, the Leafs…highly skilled team. I will say highly skilled team, but they’re regular-season game. You cannot win unless you’re tough in the, in the (closes eyes, shakes head)…the playoffs have proven by St. Louis. Sixteen Canadians, Canadian coach, Canadian GM, tough. Look what they did to San Jose, they put…now I know a lot of guys, we know a lot of guys that don’t like this…they put out Hertl, Pavelski and Karlsson. The put out…and, uh…I like what Berube said. Berube said, ‘Don’t worry about the penalties.’ SIXTEEN CANADIANS! You CANNOT WIN unless you’re tough.”
Surely that gibberish should have been enough to get Cherry removed from Sportsnet’s air, because it wasn’t a one-off. But no. Not until he went off on immigrants (“You people”) and the purchase of poppies did Rogers Media president Jordan Banks feel obliged to stir and pull the plug on Grapes.
Cherry has since conducted a media blitz to defend the indefensible, and those who believe he should still be on the air might want to check out his chin-wag with Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
Carlson: “Tell us, for those of us who aren’t Canadian, what you said. Unless I’m misunderstanding, you’re basically saying we have a day to honor the men who died fighting for Canada, and people who move to Canada, ’cause it’s a great country, and it is I think, should acknowledge that and join in our tradition because it’s worth remembering these guys who died. Is that what you were saying?’
Cherry: “I would say, and evidently I…you know, I did a great thing, I thought, on Max Domi and he, he had his book for diabetes, I did for two young lads that died, 15 and 17, that was, that was never mentioned. I did a great thing, I thought, for fifteen hundred troops that were at a hockey game in Brampton, and they were all forgotten. The one thing that got me, uh and, was ‘you people.’ And I suppose if I had it to do all over again I would have said ‘everybody.’ But ‘you people’ are the people that they listen to. The silent majority, as you know, are always silent. The police are with me, the, um, forces are with me, everybody’s with me, and the firefighters, the whole deal. It doesn’t make any sense, and I was brought in and was told I was fired after 38 years. You know, I stand by what I said and I still mean it.”
Carlson: “So, I mean, I think what you were saying, tell me if this is what you were saying, that people who move to Canada ought to at least nod at the traditions of Canada. Like, why is that controversial?”
Cherry: “Don’t ask me. And the big thing is, I should have said, if I had a come through, if I had a been smart and protected myself, I should have said everybody should be wearing a poppy.”
Carlson. “Ya, that’s fair.”
Cherry: “Ya, and fair, fair enough and the whole thing. It’s the two words that, that got it, that ‘you people’…as you know, people are very sensitive like that, and that’s, uh, they got me. But I, I…”
Carlson: “They’re not sensitive at all. They’re fascists. They actually have no real feelings. They’re faking their outrage, they’re trying to crush you because (Cherry nods and says “Yup.”) they want to assert power ’cause it makes them feel big when actually inside they’re small.”
That’s right, Cherry agreed with Carlson. He said “Yup.” Those of us who don’t share his world view are “fascists” and “small” with “no real feelings” and it’s us, not them, who are the bullies.
Gibberish aside, that’s a man you want delivering socio-political sound bites on a hockey show? Not bloody likely.
It’s good riddance, and if that makes me a fascist or a snowflake, so be it.
Jock journos across the country have, of course, weighed in on Cherry and L’Affaire Poppy, with the majority submitting that Grapes had survived well beyond his best-before date, at the same time tsk-tsking CBC and Rogers for allowing the charade to continue for so long.
At least one of them, Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail, was typing from both sides of his keyboard.
Here’s what he wrote in February of this year: “I don’t find myself agreeing with him, but I still find Cherry delightful. His clearly genuine fury at the stupidest little thing and complete lack of filter is a lovely contrast from the way some other pundits treat hockey—like a cult they’re constantly worried they’ll be kicked out of. Don Cherry’s opinion is, for me, even more valid now because he has seen the tide shift and remains unchanged. Though his standing in the court of popular opinion has diminished, he’s still a king as far as I’m concerned.”
And here’s what he wrote after Cherry’s ouster on Monday: “Ostensibly, Mr. Cherry’s work was analyzing hockey games. But, really, what he did was insult people—Quebeckers, Scandinavians, Slavs, pinkos, anyone who didn’t appreciate the beauty of blood on the ice. As a Canadian, you felt embarrassed watching his Coach’s Corner segment with foreigners. This wasn’t TV. It was vaudeville. It was two guys chasing a hat.”
So, which is it? The guy was a “delightful” king or an insulting, embarrassing ass clown? Stay tuned for the next installment of Cherry Bombs by Cathal.
It’s worth noting that Cherry isn’t the first high-profile gasbag to disappear through a trap door due to offensive spewings. Mind you, unlike Grapes, squawk boxes Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder and Ben Wright were punted for commentary off the job.
The Greek was among the many talking heads who worked National Football League broadcasts for CBS back in the day and, being a self-promoter, he never met a microphone or notebook he didn’t like. Thus, when a news snoop approached and asked for a sound bite on the eve of Martin Luther King Day, he stuck his foot so far into his mouth that not even the jaws of life could pry it out.
“The black is a better athlete to begin with, because he’s bred to be that way,” the Greek said. “Because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back. And they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. And he’s bred to be the better athlete because this goes back all the way to the Civil War, when during the slave trading the owner, the slave owners would, would, would, would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid, see. That’s where it all started!”
Meanwhile, Wright worked golf for CBS, and was ruled OB for his take on the women’s game.
“Let’s face facts here,” he told a reporter, “lesbians in the sport hurts women’s golf. When it gets to the corporate level, that’s not going to fly. They’re going to a butch game and that further’s the bad image of the game.”
He added that lesbianism was being “paraded,” then turned his attention to female body parts, saying, “Women are handicapped by having boobs. It’s not easy for them to keep their left arm straight, and that’s one of the tenets of the game. Their boobs get in the way.”
And, finally, I don’t know if I’m a snowflake, but I’d rather be that than acid rain.
The River City Renegade 
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