Late Night Royals Links: Kendall, Duffy, Wimmers, Baseball In The Seventies

But we fans that enjoy hockey are in love with the Preds. They may not sell out every game and it may not be a hardcore hockey area, but so many of us would miss the Preds if they ever left. A lot of people from hockey markets end up in Nashville, which creates this mass chaos of different fans that come just because they love hockey. It’s not about the warm weather; it’s about creating a great place to watch a game. People put too much stock into the weather.

1. I’ve read in more than one English newspaper (when David Beckham went stateside) a comparison between MLS and the middle of the English Championship level (AAA). Ie, your average MLS club would be a middle of the road AAA team. How valid that is I don’t really know, but it seems about right

2. It is way worse in some European leagues, like Spain and Italy, less so in England, the Netherlands etc. It’s a cultural thing, the English game has always been much more physical, less cards are handed out etc. In theory, in any league the offender should get a card for “simulation”, but it is incosistently applied.

3. That I really dont know. I would alway assume that the lack of fear of relegation, common to soccer everywhere else would allow a more expansive, attacking game. But it doesn’t seem to be that way. To a certain extent it is a cyclical thing I expect, like the 90’s was the Home Run era, the Eighties not so much not quite so much.

4. I know Albert Pujols is backing their expansion bid. Who knows?

5. I don’t know about the states so much, but I know Soccer has exploded here in Calagry from even when I was a kid. The pecking order (sadly) is now very much Hockey>>>>Soccer>Baseball. It’s here to stay. It’s easy to play, needs no equipment of any real note, can be played with ad-hoc rules and fields. And as the US national team continues to improve the profile is only going to rise further, especially as we now see European teams make a concerted effort to spread their brand on this side of the Atlantic.

since they have hockey as well

i hate soccer as a spectator sport.. i just simply am not entertained.

That being said, it’s popularity with the kids is understandable. It is a GREAT game for the little ones. I’ve watched my kids and now my grandkids play.

At low level baseball the least athletic get thrown in right field and the ball is simply never hit to them. So the ones that are all ready behind the curve get further behind, they are frustrated & bored. Peewee soccer is a blast for them. Even the ones that are 3 steps slower are constanly in the action and feeling they are participating.

1. AA seems about right to me. If replacement level for MLB is AAA, then MLS would have to be slightly lower than that in comparison to the Premier League.

2. Not much can be done about flopping. It truly is part of the sport. It is coached at a young age and players are expected to dive when it could be advantageous for their team. Think if an outsider complained about all the times catchers ‘frame’ pitches by pulling them back to the strike zone or when outfielders trap a ball but hold it up for the world like they made a clean catch or when batters act as though they were hit by a pitch that actually hit the bottom of the bat and so on… It’s just a matter of realizing it’s part of the game and the participants are going to do everything they can to maximize their chances of winning, even if it means intentionally deceiving the referee or umpire.

3. You could make a few radical changes like eliminating the offsides rule but in the end it’s not soccer anymore. Imagine if they eliminated strikeouts to increase scoring in baseball. Goals are not the only thing to be appreciated in soccer just like home runs are not in baseball. If you saw Zack and Felix Hernandez have a 1-0 pitchers duel with lots of strikeouts would you be complaining that there were no runs scored? Just as there are little things to appreciate in baseball, there are plenty of little things to appreciate in soccer.

Ultimately, to increase scoring without rule changes (that the rest of the world would mock) you need more talented and skilled players. American players lack the ability to attack a defense individually. I think the only way this changes is by getting the best American athletes to play soccer (pipedream) and by having better coaches at the youth levels who place an emphasis on attacking your defender.

4. No clue.

5. http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/04/18/mls-average-attendance-higher-than-nba-and-nhl/ The MLS is doing it right by requiring expansion teams to have soccer specific stadiums. This makes for a much better experience for the fans, which in turn helps keep them coming back. The problem is that soccer does not fit in the American television sports model where there is a break in the action every 10 minutes or so for a commercial. This means that the ESPN executives that dictate the sports market don’t want soccer taking up two hours slots that don’t have a commercial break for 45 plus minutes. The only logical commercial break is halftime when everybody is going to take their own break and not watch commercials anyway. Without ESPN’s hype machine, soccer will never supplant the major sports in terms of relevance and revenue but I do think the MLS is here to stay. And without the ESPN hype machine, America’s best athletes will continue to choose other sports so I don’t ever see the talent level in the MLS being comparable to the best leagues in the world. If our best athletes devoted their full attention to soccer, I think America would be the dominant soccer super power. But that just isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Half back passes to center, back to wing, back to center! Center holds it! Holds it! Holds it!!