Uhhmm, AP, how many Beckham stories are you going to shove down our throats?

If David Beckham played golf with Tiger Woods before going to a Yankees-Red Sox game, would the ESPN and AP spontaniously combust?

 

Only if Michelle Wie and LeBron James showed up.

 

To paraphrase John Lennon (who apparently, was less successful in the U.S than the Spice Girls) give soccer a chance.
It's a great game when you understand it, like most sports.

 

Where do Michelle, Lebron, Tiger and Becks stand in the Who's Now thing? Anybody following that crap?

 

With Nick Saban flying in to watch...

 

On TO's private jet.

That said ... Becks playing in the MLS will be a pretty big story during a slow time of the year. But all these "He's coming. He's almost here. He's here!" stories have been a bit much. I'd have preferred to have seen AP hold some of these stories until the day of his first LA match.

 

We've given soccer chances and chances and chances. We gave it chances in the 1970s with Pele and Beckenbauer, we gave it chances in the 1990s with the U.S. women's team. Sooner or later, you've got to make good on one of those chances.

 

You gave it two chances when the way the game was being presented as one dominant team (the Cosmos or U.S. Women's team) and nothing else.

MLS right now is highly competitive, with eight points seperating seven teams in the Eastern Conference. The West is more strung out, but that is in part because the teams in the West have a bigger difference in the number of games played because they wanted Beckham to play as many games as possible when he got here.

The L.A. Galaxy have only played 12 games this season, compared with 17 for Dallas, Chivas USA and Houston. That's one of the main reason's they're second from bottom in the West. Win three, or even four of those games in hand, and they're in the playoffs.

The NASL had one great team, but top to bottom it was terrible. Women's soccer now is has reached a point where it's more than just the U.S. and China. That wasn't the case eight years ago.

So all these chances you've given soccer were made when the sport wasn't ready for it in the U.S.

It is now, which is why Beckham is here.

 

Chances to do WHAT? To please YOU? To please people who aren't interested?

And what were these "chances"? Grumbling that "Well . . . .soccer will never make it here, but we're giving it a chance!!!"

Wow. How benevolent society has been toward soccer.

"Well, OK . . .I'll give soccer a chance. What? It's 20 minutes in and no one has scored? This sport sucks!!! At least I gave it a chance!"

MLS has been around for 12 years. It has only grown in the last six years after some shaky early years. Now it will only grow more with new ownership and stadiums. The turning point was the success of Home Depot Center starting in 2003, as teams can now own their stadiums and reap the rewards. It's not going away any time soon.

I don't get why people can't live and let live when it comes to sports they don't like. We're a diverse country, and our readers have diverse interests. There's plenty of room for coverage of hockey, soccer, MMA, a hot dog eating contest, etc. in addition to the NBA, MLB and the NFL.

Soccer dorks don't care if you give soccer a "chance." But it is foolhardy to act as if sports sections should ignore it.

 

Checked the Chicago Fire's Web site. Plenty of seats available for the rest of the season's home games.

Except for Sunday, Oct. 21, vs. the Galaxy. Sounds like the public has spoken.

 

I think MLS is now on solid enough financial footing that it can take the next step and begin to attract European stars. I'd like to see Thierry Henry follow Becks here (not that it's going to happen for a few years) or other players of his stature. But MLS needs to limit it to one per team and avoid an NASL-like spending orgy.

 

That's why they have the designated player rule. Teams are allowed a maximum of two players who don't count against the salary cap. Each team had a DP slot, but some have traded them to others. The most any team can have is two though.