The "I Miss Sassy" Sports Thread

Started by Rome, February 06, 2008, 10:16:29 PM

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PoopyfaceMcGee

Quote from: Rome on April 04, 2008, 08:18:07 AM
Beckham's first goal for the Galaxy...

They are not getting value for the money there.  He's played how many games for them without scoring until now?

phattymatty

7th game.  but i'm sure the attendance numbers have made up for his lack of production.

Rome

He was out of shape and then got hurt last year.  But like Matt said the money they made off of his mere presence on the team more than made up for his lack of production on the field. 

I read somewhere that the MLS has sold more Beckham jerseys than all other jerseys combined and that's really what he's here for anyway.  His days as a premiere soccer player are long behind him.

Beermonkey

#63
Quote from: Rome on April 04, 2008, 11:43:59 AM
He was out of shape and then got hurt last year.  But like Matt said the money they made off of his mere presence on the team more than made up for his lack of production on the field. 

I read somewhere that the MLS has sold more Beckham jerseys than all other jerseys combined and that's really what he's here for anyway.  His days as a premiere soccer player are long behind him.

Yep, MLS needed a "face" to make it more marketable and visible, which I think they've succeeded in doing.

While most of the people in our age group didn't have soccer as a sports option growing up, there's a generation of kids now maturing that have adopted soccer as a "main stream" sport, so the success of the new Philly franchise wouldn't be a surprise. I also wouldn't be surprised if it fell flat on it's face either, as I'm not sure if this market is ready to support it. I used to take my kids to Philly Charge matches until the women's league folded & it was the most fan-friendly sport I've been to.

Up until I was about 30, I was in the "soccer is gay" camp, but between being involved with my kids playing, coaching, the increase in soccer coverage on tv & now playing in a men's over 30 league, it's in my top 3 of favorite sports to watch.





ice grillin you

chuck klostermans essay on soccer is one of the most fabulous things ive ever read and 150% on point...


I've spent the last fifteen years of my life railing against the game of soccer, an exercise that has been lauded as "the sport of the future" since 1977. Thankfully, that dystopia has never come. But people continue to tell me that soccer will soon become part of the fabric of this country, and that soccer will eventually be as popular as football, basketball, karate, pinball, smoking, glue sniffing, menstruation, animal cruelty, photocopying, and everything else that fuels the eroticized, hyperkinetic zeitgeist of Americana. After the U.S. placed eighth in the 2002 World Cup tournament, team forward Clint Mathis said, "If we can turn one more person who wasn't a soccer fan into a soccer fan, we've accomplished something." Apparently, that's all that matters to these idiots. They won't be satisfied until we're all systematically brainwashed into thinking soccer is cool and that placing eighth (and losing to Poland!) is somehow noble. However, I know this will never happen. Not really. Dumb bunnies like Clint Mathis will be wrong forever, and that might be the only thing saving us from ourselves.

Soccer unconsciously rewards the outcast, which is why so many adults are fooled into thinking their kids love it. The truth is that most children don't love soccer; they simply hate the alternatives more. For 60 percent of the adolescents in any fourth-grade classroom, sports are a humiliation waiting to happen. These are the kids who play baseball and strike out four times a game. These are the kids afraid to get fouled in basketball, because it only means they're now required to shoot two free throws, which equates to two air balls. Basketball games actually stop to recognize their failure. And football is nothing more than an ironical death sentence; somehow, outcasts find themsevles in a situation where the people normally penalized for teasing them are suddenly urged to annihilate them.

That is why soccer seems like such a respite from all that mortification; it's the one aerobic activity where nothingness is expected. Even at the highest levels, every soccer match seems to end 1-0 or 2-1. A normal eleven-year-old can play an entire season without placing toe to sphere and nobody would even notice, assuming he or she does a proper job of running about and avoiding major collisions.

Soccer fanatics love to tell you that soccer is the most popular game on earth and that it's played by 500 million people every day, as if that somehow proves its value. Actually, the opposite is true. Why should I care that every single citizen of Chile and Iran and Gibraltar thoughtlessly adores "football"? Do the people making this argument also assume Coca-Cola is ambrosia? Real sports aren't for everyone. And don't accuse me of being the Ugly American for degrading soccer. That has nothing to do with it. It's not xenophobic to hate soccer; it's socially reprehensible to support it. To say you love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit. It should surprise no one that Benito Mussolini loved being photographed with Italian soccer stars during the 1930s; they were undoubtedly kindred spirits. I would sooner have my kid deal crystal meth than play soccer. Every time I pull up behind a Ford Aerostar with a "#1 Soccer Mom" bumper sticker, I feel like I'm marching in the wake of the Khmer Rouge.

That said, I don't feel my thoughts on soccer are radical. If push came to shove, I would be more than willing to compromise: It's not necessary to wholly outlaw soccer as a living entity. I concede that it has a right to exist. All I ask is that I never have to see it on television, that it's never played in public (or supported with public funding), and that nobody -- and I mean nobody -- ever utters the phrase "Soccer is the sport of the future" for the next forty thousand years.
i can take a phrase thats rarely heard...flip it....now its a daily word

igy gettin it done like warrick

im the board pharmacist....always one step above yous

Rome

I don't understand why you bother posting in threads in which the topic doesn't interest you.

For God's sake, IGY, we GET IT.  You don't like soccer.  You think it's boring and you don't see why anyone should have an interest in the game.  Good for you.


PoopyfaceMcGee

Don't worry, Rome.  We are all entitled to his opinion.

ice grillin you

no you dont get it or you would realize the plague that it is...its ruining our youth


and dont get it twisted it interests me...im interested in seeing its abolition
i can take a phrase thats rarely heard...flip it....now its a daily word

igy gettin it done like warrick

im the board pharmacist....always one step above yous

PoopyfaceMcGee

Every black kid should play basketball, every latino kid should play baseball, and every white kid should play math?

SunMo

I'm the Anti-Christ. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood.

Rome

You're interested in bludgeoning everyone here with your opinion, IGY, and that's fine.  Bludgeon away.  My point is there are other things in the world more interesting to us that reading your opinion on every topic in here.

Shocking, I know.

PoopyfaceMcGee

Actually, I was wrong.  Asians should play math (or chess), and whitey should work solely to create plans to narrow the racial divide by paying more taxes to government programs.

Either way, there is clearly no room for soccer.

ice grillin you

Quote from: FastFreddie on April 04, 2008, 02:07:03 PM
Every black kid should play basketball, every latino kid should play baseball, and every white kid should play math?


sure....as long as no kids play soccer...


except for one demographic...and thats girls btwn the ages of 5-10 who hate exercise...because soccer can get them to move without making them think they are playing sports
i can take a phrase thats rarely heard...flip it....now its a daily word

igy gettin it done like warrick

im the board pharmacist....always one step above yous

PoopyfaceMcGee

Quote from: ice grillin you on April 04, 2008, 02:12:54 PM
because soccer can get them to move without making them think they are playing sports

That's what field hockey and girl's basketball is for.  Pop Warner cheerleading is another option.

Beermonkey

Quote from: ice grillin you on April 04, 2008, 01:36:09 PM
chuck klostermans essay on soccer is one of the most fabulous things ive ever read and 150% on point...

I don't know about that, he's partly right on some aspects, but completely off on others.

As much as anyone else, I abhor the elitists in soccer who think the non-fan is too stupid or an "ugly american" for not getting the sport. I also dislike the "#1 Soccer Mom" types and am more than down with forced anal on people who parade their child's accomplishments on their cars (honor roll parents, that means you too).

I don't think soccer will ever replace the 4 major sports in the US (well maybe hockey) but I think you'll see in the next 10 years that it will find it's niche in the US & be among the higher end of the "2nd tier" sports like golf, tennis, Arizona Cardinals football & the World Series of Poker.

QuoteSoccer unconsciously rewards the outcast, which is why so many adults are fooled into thinking their kids love it. The truth is that most children don't love soccer; they simply hate the alternatives more. For 60 percent of the adolescents in any fourth-grade classroom, sports are a humiliation waiting to happen. These are the kids who play baseball and strike out four times a game. These are the kids afraid to get fouled in basketball, because it only means they're now required to shoot two free throws, which equates to two air balls. Basketball games actually stop to recognize their failure. And football is nothing more than an ironical death sentence; somehow, outcasts find themsevles in a situation where the people normally penalized for teasing them are suddenly urged to annihilate them.

That is why soccer seems like such a respite from all that mortification; it's the one aerobic activity where nothingness is expected. Even at the highest levels, every soccer match seems to end 1-0 or 2-1. A normal eleven-year-old can play an entire season without placing toe to sphere and nobody would even notice, assuming he or she does a proper job of running about and avoiding major collisions.

This part I can't agree with, partly because he's making an assumption that soccer players are not athletes in other sports & soccer is comprised of a bunch of Timmy Lupuses. The other part, is his assumption that players are not competitive & everyone is happy to just be there, win or lose, collect their orange wedges & participant ribbons.

It's a very popular sport at a very young age, as it's cheap & doesn't require extensive travel at the intramural level. It's at this young level where it's cool to just watch the kids swarm the ball & be happy if one luckily dribbles in the goal. Once the kids the hit 9-10, you start to see the "Timmy Lupus" types start to weed out & the kids who are still in it, aren't there because they can't handle the grueling endurance demands of baseball.  At this point, it becomes extremely competitive from both a player's & coaches standpoint with year round training, games/tournaments & special trainers brought in. The kid's at this level are highly scrutinized and can not hide their lack of skill behind other players like in some other sports. Play in most games can get very physical & confrontational. I played football, wrestled & competed in karate and I can vouch first hand that this is not a "non contact" sport, though the fake flopping I've see on some televised games gives it a bad impression.