Canto CDXXXII: The Parable of Ron Wilson

Gentle cabrones:

First off, I’m good! Gracias for those of you who wondered why I didn’t send out my canto at my customary Saturday morning slot yesterday. Given I don’t do Best Ofs here save one time, the holidays caught up with me…oh, who am I kidding, I got too FAAAAADED with NelCyn on Christmas Day after Benihana with my family (Canto LXXXIII) , so I had to wade my way out of THAT.

But really, I had finish up some hockey with my honey.

She’s now mad for men on ice because of the HBO smash series Heated Rivalry, the tale of hockey superstars in love but still in the closet. Great show with wonderful performances and steamy — its first season ended on Friday, and a second season will happen. Hockey fans will appreciate the coded references to certain NHL stars whom I won’t name here because I know my libel law; romantics will flutter over the happy story lines.

My honey’s the one among us who latches on to great shows way before me — I always tell her she could’ve been a Hollywood executive in a previous lifetime. She can’t remember if she’s ever attended a hockey match — “It wasn’t hot, but now it’s hot,” she just told me. But now that she seems to care a bit about the sport — she actually wants to catch a Ducks game! — I can share with her my own limited hockey anecdotes.

How my Kelly’s Korner Tavern lace-up sweatshirt has the bar’s name across the front ala the New York Rangers and also features a take on the old, swooping Winnipeg Jets logo. How my cousins and Art got hockey-mad in 1993 with the debut of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, which got one of us to buy NHL ‘93 for Super Nintendo and subsequent versions across different platforms in the years that followed. How Art was in the crowd as an extra in D2: The Mighty Ducks, which consisted of him being in the stands for hours all for not making the final cut of the terrible film.

How Art and I once bought Ducks season tickets that I ended up giving away in a contest in the Infernal Rag once I stopped using them because I started going out with my honey.

Hockey is my fourth-favorite league sport after baseball, football, and basketball, which means I know the big players and some of the Los Angeles Kings and Ducks ones, can name all the franchises and recite the sport’s history but am clueless enough to wonder how the hell did the Florida Panthers become good enough to win back-to-back Stanley Cups these past two years and how the hell have the Tampa Bay Lightning won three.

But it’s hockey that taught me one of the most important cautionary tales I’ve learned, one that’s never been far from my mind as my life and career have advanced and that always remember when I see someone getting high off their their own hype.

So, Ron Wilson? Gracias.

First head coach of the Ducks. Hapless in that first season but brought them up fast. Got the break of a lifetime not just when upper management drafted future Hall of Famer Paul Kariya but also traded for another future Hall of Famer, Teemu Selanne. They helped Wilson guide the then-Mighty Ducks to the playoffs in 1997, where they won in the first round.

And this is where the story begins to transcend sports.

Before Game One, Wilson spoke to the Detroit Free Press. Next up for the Ducks was the mighty Red Wings. The paper wanted to talk to Wilson not just as the hotshot coach of the opposing team but as someone with a stake in the Motor City — his uncle and father played for the Red Wings, and Wilson was from Windsor just across the river.

Wilson could’ve talked about how fond his memories were but that he had a job to do…but no. Instead, he told the Free Press that coaching the Red Wings was always a “dream” of his and would be a “dream job” in a “perfect world.”

All this before Game 1. After being told by management not to talk about the Red Wings to the press.

I read Wilson’s comments in the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times at the time and was flabbergasted. I wasn’t into hockey as much as Art, and my team was and is the Montreal Canadiens because of the French Catholic thing. But who the hell, I thought, openly pines for another job while still at their current one — openly pines for their rival, no less?

The obvious happened: The Red Wings swept the Ducks on the way to the first of two straight Stanley Cup. Shortly after that, the Ducks fired Wilson — he and team executives were clashing on other things, but his comments were the proverbial final straw.

Then karma really happened.

While Wilson quickly got a job with the Washington Capitals and took them to the Stanley Cup finals the year after losing the Ducks, he would never coach the Red Wings. He wouldn’t win a Stanley Cup. He wouldn’t win an Olympic gold medal. He’s the 19th-winningest coach in NHL history, but who really talks about him?

I do.

First time reading this newsletter? Subscribe here for more merriment! Feedback, thoughts, commentary, rants? Send them to [email protected]

When the Wilson story broke in 1997, the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register covered the issue extensively — and it wasn’t all reprobration against the coach.

Most of the ire then was directed at Ducks president Tony Tavares, remembered even today as a hothead who was underachieving in his job heading the Ducks and the Anaheim Angels for Disney. While Wilson got slammed, the press thought the bigger mistake was Tavares getting rid of an up-and-coming coach all because he said something stupid — indeed, the Times would report a few years later that Tavares wanted to can Wilson before the second-round series with the Red Wings started but was vetoed.

But sometimes, even a pendejo is right.

We all have our dreams and aspirations and we should be allowed to have them. But when you’re in charge of a group of people, you clamp down on any past or present ambitions in the name of them. You don’t think about the future; you think about the now.

When you sign up to work for someone, you focus on the task and never half-ass it. Yeah, you can look for better opportunities and probably should if your current job is weak salsa — but you don’t publicly wish for what’s next. That’s hubris deserving of Ron Wilson’s fate.

I’ve never been in his situation because I’m no fookin’ ingrate, because I don’t believe my own hype (Canto LXIV) but also because I saw what happened to Wilson. What happened to him scared me straight of any future pretension to the present day — and remember, I was just about to graduate from high school, so I was absolutely nobody except Anaheim High’s Most Likely To Succeed (the subject of a future canto haha).

Maybe I flagellate myself too much over any achievements I accomplish, but I don’t care. Makes me WERK harder that way. Makes me remember all triumphs are fleeting. Makes me remember it can all fall down fast — been there, done that, so guard against there and that at all times.

Thank God I learned this in the summer of 1997 just as I was about to leave Anaheim High.

Ron: Thank you for teaching me so long ago that when you’re at the height of something, you gotta come down — so don’t let yourself get too high because you can always go higher. You didn’t. I hope I can.

**

Enough rambling. This was the semana that was:

IMAGE OF THE WEEK: Terrible photo of DELICIOUS carne asada pupusa by Sivar Treats in Fourth Street Market in SanTana near my honey’s spot. Not pictured: good curtido, great red salsa and a perfect tomato salsa that’s all about the savory.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost” — Arthur Ashe

LISTENING: “Hey Mr. D.J.,” Zhané. A beautiful voice, descriptive lyrics, the simplest yet catchiest of beats, a his-and-her trade-off — when this was played at a recent Friendsgiving, all the ladies sang it in unison and grooved from their seats while the guys just stared gape-jawed at their gals. Makes my honey happy every time it’s on — top 10 one-hit wonder, easily. Hence included in Gustavo Arellano’s Weekly Radiola of Randomness YouTube songlist, where I’ve included every song I’ve ever featured in a canto — give it a spin!

READING: “Casual Viewing”: It’s long, but this takedown of Netflix is history, criticism, slightly below well-written but still gripping then all of a sudden does a bookend worthy of Tom Wolfe.

BUY MY NEW CO-BOOK! People’s Guide to Orange County tells an alternative history of OC through the scholarship and reporting of myself, Elaine Lewinnek, and Thuy Vo Dang. Last time I’m plugging it here, so buy your copy TODAY. And, yes: I’ll autograph it!

Gustavo Events  

Get ready for a grip starting next week!

Gustavo in the News

“Free, and Worth Every Penny: Remembering OC Weekly”: My compa and fellow Weekling Anthony Pignataro delves into Cal State Fullerton’s Infernal Rag archives to remember the early years.

“Guest Star List”: In which Peter Murrieta, the Most Important Chicano in Hollywood That You Don’t Know, shouts out my WERK ethic and my occasional love of listicles.

“Doss v. Bernal: Fighting Housing Segregation in Fullerton”: Jesse LaTour, Fullerton’s finest historian, shouts out my work on a case that still doesn’t get enough attention.

“New California law requires ingredient change for this grocery staple“: A #tortillatournament columna of mine gets a shoutout in the San Francisco Chronicle by el compa Mario.

“Trumpist Fascism: The Worm Turns”: Monthly Review shouts me out!

“Our Favorite 2025 Public Programs”: Zócalo Public Square kindly re-shouts out me hosting a panel for them just after the Eaton and Palisades fire.

Gustavo Stories 

“Grítale a Guti”: Latest edition of my Tuesday night IG Live free-for-all…was disappeared by Zuck #fuqzuq

“Shea Serrano’s ‘Expensive Basketball’ headlines remarkable year for Latino sports books”: My latest L.A. Times Sports columna rounds up a bunch of good reads sobre deportes. KEY QUOTE: “Each is anchored in Latino pride but treat their subjects not just as sport curios and pioneers but great athletes who were and are fundamental not just to their professions and community but society at large.”

“‘It’s a Wonderful ICE?’ Trumpworld tries to hijack a holiday classic”: My latest L.A. Times columna makes use of my film studies degree. KEY QUOTE: “But in recent years, Trumpworld has claimed that the film is actually a parable about their dear leader.”

You made it this far down? Gracias! Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram while you’re down here by clicking on their logos down below. Don’t forget to forward this newsletter to your compadres y comadres! You can’t get me tacos anymore, but you sure as hell can give them — and more — to the O.C. Catholic Worker!