The people close to him, Jim Gregory for example, said that Ballard did want to win. Winning would have meant more exposure for him, which according to Gregory would have been important to Ballard. But I think he just made things a little too personal. He traded players for the wrong reasons. No one could really reign him in either. In a way he was exactly like George Steinbrenner, except eventually George came together and made things right with the Yankees. Still not the type of owner I'd want to work for, but at least he was winning.
Yeah, IMO Jim Gregory is the leafs all time best GM, and probably will be forever in my eyes. He rebuilt the leafs from trash to a truly competitive hockey club twice in what, less than 15 years, and Ballards interference burned it all down both times.
I guess part of what Im wondering is if the right personality had come in with management, whether they could have worked around Ballard. It probably would have needed to be someone as bombastic as Ballard, good at playing internal politics in the sort of way that guys like Roger Neilson were very much not gifted. I seriously wonder if Cherry coaching the leafs starting in 1980 might have worked out well in the long run.
Its just kind of sad. Im not old enough to remember the Ballard era in person, but when I hear about the things he did now, sometimes I wonder if it wasnt a cry for help from him. So many of his moves seem like desperation for attention, I cant help but wonder if some of what he did was a manifestation of some sort of depression or something similar.
Here is an interesting question, the whole Gardens sex abuse scandal which lasted a long time...............in all of your opinions did Ballard have knowledge of it? He was dead by the time it was revealed. But was it like a Penn State/Joe Paterno type of thing where the powers to be knew about these things but covered it up?
I lean on the side that Ballard wouldn't have known about this because he fired people for much less and the franchise was not exactly known to be a pillar of success at the time. I am guessing he wouldn't have stood for that.
Im not sure. I think my final answer would be a definite maybe. Ballard wasnt the greatest human being, but I think sometimes his legacy with the Leafs tars the public image of who he was as a person too much. People see him as the guy who destroyed the leafs more than as a human being who existed on other levels.
But at the same time, I dont have enough confidence in what Ive heard about his character to entirely rule that possibility out.
It just sort of seems out of character for him. Ballard wouldn't have liked knowing about this stuff, but the fear of having it come out might damage the brand...............unless you are the one revealing it. I just get the feeling Ballard would have loved the attention of being a hero that unlocked that whole thing. I guess we'll never know.
That possibility does sound uncomfortably plausible.
