Gave: 'Detroit or Buffalo' a tune to accompany Babcocks' decision
"Detroit or Buffalo
"Anybody want to know where?
"You don't know.
"God knows everybody gotta go sometime."
If Maureen and Mike Babcock needed a little background music this evening while they're discussing where they're going to call home when he signs a new coaching contract, we have the perfect song.
"Detroit or Buffalo" is the choice they're anguishing over. It's also the title of the first song on Side II of Barbara Keith's 1972 LP, and her lyrics 43 years ago are hauntingly appropriate as the Babcocks try to answer a question Mike says will be answered Wednesday.
"It's hard to open up the door
"like you've done so many times before.
"Sometimes you think you just can't
"do it anymore.
"Take a chance and take a train . ."
This can't be an easy conversation. Mike Babcock has had a wonderful run in 10 years behind the Red Wings' bench, winning more games than any other coach in Detroit's glorious NHL history. He's won a Stanley Cup, been to the finals a year later and his team never failed to make the playoffs in each of those 10 seasons.
But the stars here are getting old, as he has noted repeatedly, and there may be greater opportunities to win elsewhere. That may or may not be true in Buffalo, which finished 30th in a 30-team league this season, but the pastures in upstate New York are certainly greener. Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula are backing up the Brink's truck in an effort to lure Babcock away from Detroit.
Buffalo's starting bid was $30 million for six years, according to an NHL source, but there were reports today that the ante has been upped to $50 million over 10 years. This would be an extraordinary opportunity to pass up -- no matter how much Mrs. Babcock loves her life in Detroit.
And why shouldn't she? Doesn't it tell you something when star athletes from all four major-leagues stick around in their retirement? One even became mayor of the city. Another is the general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, has been for years, and still lives here. They all know what well all know: Detroit and its surrounding communities offer a magnificent place to live and raise a family.
But we digress. The Babcocks are holding a winning lottery ticket. Whether we're talking $30 million or $50 million over six or 10 years, this is life-changing money they're not likely to get even from outrageously generous owners in Detroit in Mike and Marian Ilitch. So it may be time to say so long.
Detroit or Buffalo?
We don't know, but there's a line in the song that has me thinking Mike Babcock is humming to himself:
"And I'm taking this train to end of the line."
That line ends in Buffalo.
