Readers unhappy with Columbus Blue Jackets hiring Mike Babcock as coach

Have more comments, questions? Reach out to me at bwhite1@dispatch.com.

On the Columbus Blue Jackets and Mike Babcock

To the editor: So it appears the most pathetic team with the absolute worst front office in NHL history is about to hire a coach who is a bully, verbal and mental abuser, and, as several of his past players have said, “the worst person I’ve ever met,” “zero respect,” “scumbag.” Now, those are glowing recommendations, for sure. What a brilliant move to make when you have a young team with talent but much yet to learn. What could possibly go wrong by placing a blisteringly toxic personality in charge of developing them? This is something it seems only the Blue Jackets would consider. In light of that, why would any of our players want to stay in Columbus, and why would any free agent consider coming here? If we’re ever to have a successful team, ownership must change, and the entire front office swept clean and sterilized.

Jeff Pinkham, Plain City

NHL:Columbus Blue Jackets and Mike Babcock: 3 things to know about the likely CBJ coach

Dear Brian: Apparently the CBJ are waiting out the end of Mike Babcock’s current contract before giving him the job as head coach. Babcock has won a lot of games and titles with a salty, aggressive, demeaning “old school” kind of style. Why would he change now?

Our players are from a different generation than is Babcock. Young adults respond to instructional guidance and collaborative leadership. The CBJ has a lot of players who have not been screamed at, insulted and demeaned in their development. For that matter, the front office is full of young adults who don’t respond to being manipulated by elder “gurus” either. 

Who could possibly think Babcock and his domineering personality will bring the best out of those who answer to him in this era? This is a bad hire, plain and simple. 

Doug Shoemaker, Westerville

To Jeff, Doug: It seems the Blue Jackets fluctuate between nice guys and tough guys at coach, and now are hitting an extreme. Also, they certainly are making headlines now with the courtship of Babcock and the trade for Pride hater Ivan Provorov.

On LIV Golf and the PGA Tour

Dear Mr. White: During World War II, the U.S. ambassador to England − Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the future president − counseled president Roosevelt that the Nazis were going to win the war in Europe and FDR might be wise to begin negotiations with Hitler based on that assumption. FDR nixed the idea, and for his efforts the ultra-pragmatic Kennedy was branded a traitor and Nazi sympathizer. Switching to the golf wars, it appears a well-connected lawyer told the PGA it would lose an antitrust case to the wildly unpopular, gimmick-riddled though richly endowed LIV tour and thus the PGA might be wise to negotiate with the devil you know ASAP. In a flash, accusations of sports-washing, and worse, went away, and now it’s all about “the good of the game.” In any merger (of equals?) there are hundreds of…