Posted by
JuanPablo on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 1:17:27 AM
I love baseball.
Back in Ecuador I started playing baseball in a club when I was around 12. One of my mother's aunts lived in L.A. and every time she would come back home to visit she would bring me something from the Dodgers. Baseball cards, team posters, a t-shirt, etc. I had no clue what the Dodgers were, but I liked the idea of getting presents. One thing led to another and I started playing baseball. And I loved it!
Eventually I started playing Second Base and could have been a Golden Glove player. Man, was I good at fielding. But I was awful at hitting. Seriously, I was hitting something like .081 during one season. I guess that would keep you off the national team.
In High School I played Volleyball. Loved it too, but not as much as baseball, and since I'm like 5'7 I never had a chance to get far there. I made it to the Pingpong team in a story that should be made into a movie: The night before the qualifying games a friend broke my paddle and I literally had a piece of wood with a piece of rubber on one side and a piece of fake leather in the other. Lots of electric tape around the edge and what was something like the handle. The next day it all came down to me playing against the best player in my school. And I beat him with the coaches laughing about my paddle while watching the game. But that was the high point of my pingpong carreer.
So what's the point of these sport stories? Well, I also played soccer. Lots of soccer. The weekends were made for soccer. I was actually part of a team that won a championship and I was the goalie. But after that I was never like a star of the sport. I just enjoyed playing it.
And I think sports are about enjoyment. Just like I enjoy following the Redskins, having a Super Bowl cookout, or rooting for the Nationals and living the sleepless nights of the World Series... or one month of live or die soccer: I love the World Cup.
I'm just amazed at the amount of negative comments mainly from US citizens regarding the World Cup and Soccer. I mean I get it, soccer is not as popular here, just like baseball wasn't popular in Ecuador. But I spend all Monday flipping thru talk radio show hosts that for some reason had the need to defend the US' lack of interest in the sport. Some people sounded just nuts! The guy sitting in for Rush actually said something like the US doesn't play soccer because it's such an evolved society.
I get the dead-tree version of National Review (which I love) and I found some snippy comment about how inferior soccer is. And at The Corner it's the same theme: Soccer is just a lame european, UN-like sport that's reserved for underdeveloped nations and cultures.
Give me a break people! Leave politics out of some aspects of life! I mean sure, there are probably people that will consider a soccer game something like an election or dictatorship (depending on the outcome) but I'm willing to bet that the majority of us, sport lovers, just enjoy the passion that a sport GAME brings to life.
I think that the reason why the US is not really into soccer has more to do with tradition and history than with anything else... like soccer being so rudimentary that's just too bellow the level of entertainment that the american minds need. That's why the US had to invent baseball and football with all the complicated rules... this was another argument in the airwaves today. Jeezas!
I think that one of the reasons why soccer is so popular abroad is its simplicity. Just get a ball or something that can be kicked and mark 2 goals and play until you drop. In other countries baseball and football gear is not that affordable. Give me a bunch of old socks (washed, please!) and I'll make you a soccer ball.
Why can't some people just enjoy sports as what they are? You don't need to make it your national sport, but passion is contagious, let it get in you.
Another thing... let me ask something: Is NASCAR considered a sport? I heard people debating how Nascar is better than soccer and I just couldn't believe the arguments. I would think that stock car racing falls more into the category of a somehow "sport activity", but not athletic... at least I wouldn't think so. And I like Nascar! I just think it's in another level of the competitive world.
One thing that I heard people complaining again and again were the Penalty Kicks. Granted, may be the majority of us wants a game to end with a clear winner, but lets get something clear: PKs are not about luck. I'd love to see people living a moment like that, with all the tension and responsibility in your feet. Don't you remember how in 1994 (in the US) Baggio blew it for Italy against Brazil in the WC final? So many factors come to play, but luck is a term for the weak.
I can't wait for SouthAfrica 2010 but on the meantime, there's plenty more to enjoy.