Category Archives: Yankees

Red Sox catcher in the World Series

110 seasons.
That’s the combined timeline of the Giants and Rangers wait for a World Series win. It’s the second-longest in Major League history and the current record-holder. Only the 2005 combination of the White Sox and Astros (131 years) was longer. Both involved teams from Texas with their first Series appearance.

Pure pleasure.
It was pre pleasure seeing the Rangers knock off the Yankees. It’s a pleasure seeing anyone knock them off. Despite the disappointing injury-laden season for the Red Sox, it was nice seeing them bump the Yankees out of first place on the final weekend.

I think I’m rooting for the Giants at this point.
Nothing against the Rangers, but the Giants fans have waited longer. They last won as the New York Giants in 1954. They play in a great city, they have a great ballpark, Barry Bonds is no longer on the team, and they have a couple of players who I enjoyed watching play in the Cape Cod League only a few years ago. Tim Lincecum pitched for the Harwich Mariners, and Buster Posey played on back-to-back championship teams for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (see photo above). The PA guy at Red Wilson field in Yarmouth always announced him as “Bustah” Posey.

My take on soccer

This year the media, ESPN in particular, has tried harder than ever to make soccer a big deal in America. It isn’t working.

Certainly the term Soccer Mom has made it into the American lexicon, and no one talks about a Lacrosse Mom or a Softball Mom or a Crew Mom. Except for Sarah Palin no one talks about being a Hockey Mom.

The US was eliminated from the World Cup today by Ghana. Remember who knocked the US out four years ago? Ghana. (Did you know that? Did you know that they hold the World Cup every four years?)

Last night I was watching Sports Center and they were talking about the Team USA game today. They had four anchors, three of them former pro athletes. Every one of them pronounced Ghana “Goo-ana.” Two weren’t sure what continent it is on. To put that in perspective, my daughter did a project about Ghana in 3rd grade – it might even have been 2nd grade. Every kid in the class knew how to say it and where it is. Why don’t the ESPN anchors know? Because they don’t need to know. It isn’t important to them.

We get some e-mails at the radio station asking why we always talk about the Red Sox or Celtics when soccer is the most popular game in the world. Why? Because even though soccer is arguably the most popular game the in world, it clearly isn’t the most popular game in America. And that’s who we’re talking to: Americans.

We have five radio stations on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston. About 225 employees. How many are avid soccer fans? Two morning guys, plus an intern and one Air Personality’s husband. That’s 222-4. 222-2 if you only count paid employees. I randomly asked 25 employees if they could name anyone from Team USA. Only one – the intern – came up with a name.

One more piece of evidence: I’m on Cape Cod this weekend. Around 6PM today I went to Bass River Sports World which is right nearby us. They have miniature golf, a driving range, go carts and right next to each other they have batting cages and a full-sized soccer net.


The photo above shows the batting cages with ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trying to launch one over an imaginary Green Monster.


This photo of the soccer net, taken ten seconds later, shows absolutely no one trying to bend it like Beckham.

One of the few soccer fans at work accused me of hating soccer. I don’t hate it. I just don’t like it much. The goalies don’t even wear the same uniform as the rest of the team. What’s that all about? Players run back and forth, back and forth, and nobody scores. You have to listen to the constant buzz of the annoying Vuvuzela horns. You’d think it’s the Year of the Cicada. They’re worse than the cowbells at Tropicana Field. (By the way, the old folks in Tampa only ring the cowbells when the scoreboard tells them to.)

The American audience has plenty of exciting pro and college sports to follow, and they just don’t have time for soccer. What would you rather watch? A 103-101 Celtics-Lakers game, a 14-inning 7-6 Red Sox-Yankees game decided by a walkoff at 1AM, or a 0-0 soccer match between Uruguay and Slovenia?