Not a very flattering story in the Delco times about the Chester stadium. Jack McCaffery reviews Delco's previous failures to get a pro sports franchise and makes it seem like the idea of pro team in Delco is just the folly of a few local crackpots. He also unleashes many of the same anti soccer stuff we've all heard. He even found maybe the worst possible person to give a reason soccer could work as a real legit pro leauge. Right in the Sunday edition for maximum exposure...
Lets see: pro Chester stadium: James Nevels, Swarthmore Jay Sugarman. iStar Andy Reilly, Chair, DelCo Mayor Butler, Chester city Dwight Evans, (Philly) State Rep Sen. Pileggi, State Senate Majority Leader Gov. Rendell, PA Gov. and Herrin, Sports Editor of the DelCo Times Against: Jack McCaffery, unknown dweeb at DelCo Times Ok, I will still sleep good tonight
Mr. McCaffery, I and a number of other soccer fans in our area were troubled by your article in the Delco Times this morning throwing cold water all over the Chester Stadium idea. With all of the positive news lately (e.g. Rendell's support, this week's meeting) it's curious to us that you could still write an article like this. It's interesting that you've "decided" that no one is going to come to Chester to watch soccer in the summer. I'd like to the see the market research I'm sure you've conducted to come to this conclusion. Also, calling soccer "kickball" was quite childish and classless. If you knew anything about the sport, you would also know that Major League Soccer is not a second division league, you surely know that USL-1 is the second division of soccer in our country, unless you were being facetious. I am one of the founders of a group called the Sons of Ben, which is a supporters' group for a potential MLS team (think flags, drums, etc.). Without a team, we've accumulated over 600 members, have had scarves made, gatherings, an adult soccer team of members, etc. These are a growing number of rabid soccer fans in our area that are dying for this team. Everyone I've talked to is beyond excited at the prospect of a team in Chester. You should give this plan a chance. There is some real momentum and buzz behind this project and writing articles like this, based on really nothing, is not helping. With the countless soccer hating journalists clogging the internet and newspapers, why do you need to fall in line beind the rest of the lemmings? Thank you for reading my letter and I hope you have had a good holiday weekend. Dave Flagler Sons of Ben www.sonsofben.com
Yet people from the burbs schlep from the burbs to Philly routinly to watch second division sports all year round...... (I know, the Sillies are in posistion to make the play-offs and there is the normal pre-season Eagles craziness again. But you guys know I speak the truth over here......)
I think he's afraid that if a Major league team of any kind comes to Delaware County more people will read his uncreative, cliche filled drivel and he will be out of a job.
Jack is a basketball guy. He feels threatened. (What if you were a watchmaker and watches suddenly were banned and totally outlawed?) The weakest link anywhere squeaks loudest.
I'll never understand this. Wouldn't you think as a person who writes about sports for a living, you'd embrace the idea of more sports? Wouldn't as a responsible professional you see this as an opportunity to make yourself more familiar with the sport of soccer and when the time comes that a pro franchise comes to the area you'll be totally prepared to be an authority? I'll never get that. It would be like a record exec seeing some good young band and saying "Meh, let someone else sign them.. After all, I signed Ozzy Osbourne 30 years ago." No, DO BOTH!!! Soccer is no threat to basketball. They don't even play at the same time. For a sportswriter, more sports to write about should be a dream come true!
You'd think...but he'll have to learn the rules and intricacies of a brand new game...one he calls kickball or ********** ball and not sound like a moron. Cause that kickball crack means we will be all over his every article, correcting him like a little kid.
You know what though? If he was writing about soccer on a consistent basis, even if he was making mistakes, I wouldn't give him crap about it. I'd understand that he's at least making an effort to learn the game. To just dismiss it out of hand or ridicule it is just plain old lazy journalism and frankly dereliction of duty as a sportswriter.
it's not like we're asking them to give up other sports...it's just the sad slow passing of the dinosaurs...baseball, football, basketball - made in America so they are better.
THere needs to be a younger generation of sports writers that more accurately reflects the growing generation of fans. I think traditional media has missed that market, and blogs/other new media are owning. Soccer is a part of that. Guys like McCaffery are going to have to accept that there are lots of guys out there like me who are both obsessed with the Eagles and huge fans of soccer. I'm as big a Liverpool supporter as I am an Eagles fan. To a lesser extent I'm a baseball and hockey fan, while I could care less about basketball. You go to the big general sports blogs like Deadspin and With Leather and the like and they give soccer coverage(Euro soccer at least) right along with their NFL/MLB coverage. And yet these old timers in the newspaper biz still wonder why their industry is dying off?
Dave & Bryan, nicely articulated (especially the line about lemmings The only threats soccer poses to this guy is competing for column space, which really isn't much of a threat at all if he's covering basketball, or worse, altering his job description to include soccer coverage and actually having to do some research, which isn't playing to his strengths if we're going by this fodder. However I'm sure he'll counter that it was just an opinion column, so he can say whatever he pleases without backing it up... Also, I like the point about newspapers being antiquated, b/c they are absolutely threatened by the dawn of the web and alternate media's sports coverage. Don't think they haven't noticed. If covering soccer will improve their bottom line, the papers will cover it. Not many young people read the papers though.
I just got finished speaking to one of my professors who has a background in sports writing. And he told me sending letters to the author is a waste of time. Calling him and writing his editor will have a greater effect. We will never get a retraction for the statements, but we will get his ass in a vise. And my teacher also said that the news writers have a tendency to write this kind of trash just to get people reading their articles.
I think Anthony Filippo is the writer's name not Mr. SanFilippo. I think San comes from SansSerif font error on the DelCo "worse website in the world" Daily Times website. Although I could be wrong.
Then that's funny - I could only go off of the web version, I gave the hard copy to my folks. EDIT @ 1:36 Actually his email is listed as asanfilippo@delcotimes.com, thanks for scaring me though.
When a writer is vested... simply cruising and getting whatever he seeks from a sports team...why take on more work without special "benefits" from the franchise? The freebies and side benefits in covering golf and baseball in particular are nice. And the work pace is so slow. I have covered soccer, and know it is the toughest sport to report and write. There are no big gaps in the action; you are forced to grasp tactics quickly and file stories to editors who also find themselves challenged by writing on a sport they don't know. Soccer flows, and provides few numbers which can be used in lieu of real reporting in other sports (carefully look at football game stories). I have watched baseball reporters in press boxes sit around chatting and eating munchies supplied by the team and not even looking at the field; every few minutes a team employe dropped off a written account of what had been happening. Harder work? No thanks.