We say soccer, You say football

About a month has passed following the Euro 2012 tournament, soccer's second largest event, and as the club season begins to commence in Europe, some of biggest clubs in the world our playing pre-season matches here in the United States. For example, tonight ESPN2 is showing a double header beginning with Liverpool vs Roma playing at Fenway Park (Liverpool and the Red Sox share the same owner, John Henry), followed by the Chelsea playing the MLS All Stars outside Philadelphia. Yankee Stadium hosted a match last week featuring Chelsea and will host Real Madrid and A.C. Milan in early August, and I'm told attendance will be spectacular. The MLS has grown in recent years adding a bunch of teams and building stadiums specifically for their clubs.  Soccer has never been more popular in America than it is now.

Still, it lacks something behind the other major sports. Two year ago shortly after the World Cup ended in South Africa, I went to see USA vs Brazil at the Meadowlands. The stadium was almost sold out but to my dismay was filled with at least 75% yellow jersey of the Portugese speaking country. If soccer ever will hold the same place in the hearts of Americans as baseball, football, or yes, even our love-hate relationship with basketball, fans must become more involved in our own league. No one will deny that the Premier League in England or La Liga in Spain is light-years ahead in terms of talent of the MLS, but I've watched a few MLS games that are very entertaining. There is a lot of young homegrown talent, as well as some older European players who still have some left in the tank. I know Americans who will watch the shittiest European game but scoff at the very mention of the MLS. As is proven, the fans will turn out in droves when those clubs come to America, but take a chance at see whats brewing here in America as well. You might be surprised.

An Indictment

In corresponding moves, the Yankees placed Alex Rodriguez on the DL and recalled utility man Ramiro Pena. While I'm glad to see Pena return to the Yankees, this is a clear indictment of Eduardo Nunez. While his bat plays well in the bigs, Nunez just can't defend. His poor (horrific?) infield defense is no good on a team that has several ground ball pitchers, and the Yankees clearly feel more comfortable going with the sure glove and solid arm of Pena as a backup all over the infield and playing former all star and gold glove winner Eric Chavez at third with Rodriguez out. The lineup can handle that. The defense cannot handle Nunez.

Marlins Fish Fry

How does it feel to be Jose Reyes and the other new free agent acquisitions who just joined this terrible franchise? How does it feel to be the city of Miami, paying for a new stadium to watch a supposedly talented team now dumping players in a fire sale. At least the last two times the Marlins did this it followed World Series appearances. Besides the state of Florida being God's waiting room, the fact that the Marlins are an awful team caused their poor attendance. The team tried to buy its way into the hearts of the people and instead over extended themselves, and now will turn into the new version of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Until they bet the house again, and bust.

Pirates Plundering, Not Surrendering

It is good to see the Pirates twelve games over .500 and only two and a half games out of first place in the NL Central. It's even better to see them actually adding a player heading towards the trading deadline instead of dumping players. Although Wandy Rodriguez is not a dominate pitcher he is a veteran that has an ERA under 4.00 and can eat innings. Besides his abilities it seems as if the Astros will eat most of this contract. Its been twenty years since the Pirates have finished over .500 and it looks like history might not repeat itself this year. Good for Pittsburgh.

A Japanese player becomes a Yank

I haven't seen this much excitement about a Japanese player coming to the Yankees since the Rising Sun himself Kei Igawa...hopefully this move works out way better then that did. Even at the age of 38 and coming in with a way below par .261 average Ichiro will bring some speed and solid D to the Yankees. He still has enough range to play left or right field, I'd rather see a 38 year old Ichiro out there then a 40 year old Raul Ibanez any day. I also think that being in a winning atmosphere in a club house of veterans might help reignite a fire to be a better play. It could only be a rental and all the Yankees gave up were a middle reliever and a 25 year old minor league pitcher so its hard to lose here. Hopefully he plays out the rest of the year well and the Yankees seem like the winners of this trade, it might make up for the steal Seattle got in the Pineda deal.

Oh the Marlins

Florida is dealing Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to the Tigers for highly regarded prospect Jacob Turner.

The Marlins are a mess. Always have been.

Joe Paterno

Today the big news in sports is the NCAA handing down its sanctions to Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. The four year bowl ban and reduction in scholarships are pretty severe but necessary and it should be at least a decade before the Nittany Lions are relevant again. I am glad that the NCAA is allowing current athletes to transfer without penalty to another school as they had nothing to do with the scandal. But the football program needed to suffer. If Ohio State was sanctioned with penalties for their head coach covering up some of their players trading merchandise and autographs for tattoos then the penalties here must be more severe.

That is not to say that the NCAA has long been one of the most corrupt institutions sports, an organization that has taken advantage of its student-athletes who devote their time and effort and are not compensated for what amounts to a billion dollar industry. The culture around some of the bigs name coaches in college sports can seem cultish and can be seen by those who still defend Paterno to this day. The statement by the NCAA President that they were protecting "the values of higher education" reeked of hollowness. In the end, this whole scandal has taken away what little interest or respect I had left for college sports in general, especially college football. Though I take it that Penn State found this punishment preferable over the alternate sanction, renaming the school to Perv State.

Yankees

I am a huge Yankees fan, but I was sad to watch a four game sweep at the hands of Oakland. The Yankees who are lauded for their offense was unable to muster as many as 5 runs in any of these games. The A's are playing great ball this month going 14-2 and their starting pitching matched that of the Yankees. The Yankees seem to rely too much on the homer and have issues getting runs across. I am not turning on the team, or demanding a crazy trade for pitching or a bat at the deadline, I just feel that a veteran team should be able to get runs other then via the home run.

And Cinco was his name-o?

In news today, Chad "OchoCinco" has changed his name back to Johnson. If this was 2007 I might be interested or entertained by this news, but it is 2012 and no one cares anymore. I am more interested in the life and times of the horse he raced then on his last name. It might be time to just stop talking and try and catch more then 10 passes this season Chad...just saying.

Ryan Dempster?

Dempster to the Braves? Really? I get that he's having a good season, but he is also 35 and in the midst of a good season in a TERRIBLE division. Not that the NL East is the AL East, but its sure better than the NL Central. The Braves seem to be a smartly run organization, so maybe no top prospects went back to Chicago in the deal...but you have to wonder.