Burlington Men's League

I made my first pilgrimage to the Burlington men's league tonight. I must admit, it felt kind of weird watching guys that I had watched throughout high school for different, often rival teams, on the same team tonight. I had seen most of these guys play multiple times throughout our high school years, but one year does make a difference when you're away at college. However, I also observed another thing that I had previously noticed at the Barre men's league (although this is a much different level). Men's leagues are ruled by who can hit the most three-pointers on a given night. The refs do not call much, so that makes post play more difficult since every shot is hotly contested. Also, defense is a rare thing many times, so many of the threes are uncontested. Because of this, it makes more sense to take the treys. However, three-pointers are hard to make even when you are wide open. This means that the winner is essentially going to be the one who can make more wide open threes or can actually step up and play defense to make the threes more difficult. However, none of this really matters. It was a lot of fun, and I hope I can get back up there soon!

Photo by ricardodiaz11 on Flickr

Good Shots Needed

I was thinking about Japan as they lost earlier today. They had very few good opportunities whereas Paraguay was consistently putting pressure on goal. However, despite all the pressure that they were putting on goal, they had just as much success as Japan did. It is one thing to have opportunities, but it is another to convert. I know this from my own power soccer experience as well. When we played in New Hampshire last month, I did score a number of goals. However, I also sent several shots wide. Ideally, every shot should be a shot on goal. To improve on that, every shot on goal should be to an area away from the goalie. Of course, this is incredibly idealistic because we take shots we shouldn't take. The idea is to get quality shots, not just a high number of shots.

This is my challenge then to myself, my power soccer teammates, or any athlete in general. If you have a great shot that will very likely go in, by all means take it. However, if the shot is doubtful or a teammate has a better shot, don't be afraid of the pass. Nobody would criticize you for tallying an assist as opposed to a goal.

Photo by Miguel Vera on Flickr

Sports Ticket Pricing

I think that, watching Brazil beat Chile right now, Switzerland should have made it into this round. Anyway, enough complaining about the Swiss as much as I liked that the team for beating Spain. The other day I was looking at some ticket prices on the FIFA website and realized that for a ticket to the finals, you could be paying up to $900 per seat. I realize that this is outrageous, but that is in US dollars. I wonder how much more outrageous to people from a poor country. Very few of us have $900 lying around for no reason, and we live in one of the richest countries in the world. I would bet that most of the people who are able to afford a ticket probably didn't simply because as I have been complaining for the past few days, Americans don't care about soccer half as much as the rest of the world (or half as much as they should). I was also reading an article the other day that talked about a shortage of ticket sales. I wonder why? If people can afford the tickets, they won't go simply because they can't. I wish all sporting events would realize that trimming a little bit off of ticket prices might indeed bring in more fans who would make up the lost profit from cutting prices.
Photo by the US Army on Flickr

Sad Loss for Team USA

In four more years, the United States will care about soccer again. I'm sorry, but the only time that America cares about soccer is during the World Cup. It's kind of funny because many kids play soccer when they are young (at least around here). However, soccer seems to be one of the things that are sacrificed when busy schedules force kids to make a choice about whether to play piano or soccer. I'm not really sure why it happened this way because every other sport seems to be able to excite the American people. Compare Major League Baseball to Major League Soccer. One league is regarded as the best in the world for its sport whereas the other is only a league that steals players from Europe when they get too old or want a ton of money. We also have the best basketball and football leagues in the world right here and fans support them, but why can't soccer find a following? I don't have the answer to this question, but what I can say that the United States has the best power soccer team in the world has proven at the last World Cup in Tokyo, Japan! However, we will see if they can hold that crown in 2011; I will be cheering for them.
Photo by Dru Bloomfield - At Home in Scottsdale on Flickr

Soccer Time!

Today at two o'clock, everybody better be watching as coverage begins for the US and Ghana Round of 16 matchup in South Africa. I think that everyone in America will be watching Landon Donovan, the hero who got Team USA into this round with a stoppage time goal just a few days ago. However, I think that today will be a slightly tougher challenge than Algeria because Ghana is the only African team left. On top of being a very talented team, it would be a disappointment to Africa to not have a team at least go to the quarterfinals. To be honest, the United States has made me nervous. I was very excited when we drew with England thinking that this would finally be the year that the United States had plenty of talent to drive deep. However, after a miraculous rally was required to draw with Slovenia and finally only being able to beat Algeria in the added time, I'm a little bit more nervous about our chances because now it is one and done. They need to win today or go home. Hopefully, even though soccer is sadly not really a big deal most of the time, I hope that today everyone will turn it on and support their team!
Photo by Shine 2010 - 2010 World Cup good news on Flickr

Minor League Fiction

Naturally, since it is Friday, it is Fiction Friday!

I never thought that I would be in this situation right now. When you drafted right out of high school, you get your hopes up. However, just because you get that contract doesn't mean you're guaranteed for a future of stardom.

In fact, I was about as far from stardom as you could possibly get. I was standing on the pitcher's mound in a tiny ball park in basically a glorified men's league. It was quite the detour from where I intended to be as a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher with an 86 mph fastball and a pretty decent 12 to 6 curveball that occasionally hit the zone. Granted, I realized that I had a long way to improve, but I always thought that I would continue to improve. That is, I thought that until one night pitching in Clearwater, Florida when I felt that pop. I had always heard about arm injuries, but I never realized how devastating an arm injury could be when you run the edge of survival anyway. This was the beginning of the end for my professional career, or so I thought. However, I knew that I couldn't leave it forever, so I began to explore and find out where me and my slow fastball would still be wanted.

Photo by gregor_y

Phillie All-Stars

It is pretty interesting how the Phillies might actually have two All-Stars starters this year. As of yesterday, Chase Utley and Placido Polanco were leading second and third base respectively in the All-Star voting. Utley is not really a surprise since second base is a pretty shallow position, but I am a bit surprised about Polanco. We had him in Philadelphia, got rid of him to make room for Chase Utley, but now we have him back potentially playing beside Chase Utley on the All-Star team. It's kind of odd the way that things work out.

The Phillies might also have two more All-Stars as Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino or fourth and fifth respectively in the outfield vote. Again, I'm not overly surprised by either these, but who would have thought that a Rule 5 pick would turn into an All-Star or a failed prospect from the Dodgers would turn it around in Philadelphia? It's an exciting year to be watching the All-Star game hopefully, but I wonder about the regular season. At least we won last night and scored seven runs. Maybe this is the start of some offensive surge that will carry us to the World Series again.
Photo by dougtone on Flickr