God, it was annoying! Joe Castiglione says, "You don't play on a field, you play on a pitch. It's not 0-0, it's nil-nil." Franchino didn't sound too pleased.
Better yet, did anyone see our beloved captain throw out the first pitch? To quote Bob Uecker, "Juuuuuust a bit outside." He'd have gotten it closer to the plate if he had kicked it.
I'm not sure what more there is to add. Franchino was being interviewed during the Red Sox game on the radio and had to deal with these ridiculous anti-soccer/soccer is a foreign sport comments. Not a big deal, but it sort of annoyed me.
The easiest way to shut them up would be to say that No-mahh himself was a pretty decent soccer player (not to mention being romantically involved with one) and that should be good enough for Red Sox Nation. It's silly to get worked up about this sort of thing, but think how far on to the radar screen we've come that now, all those Red Sox fans are at least aware that the Revs are opening the season Saturday. In the past, it would have been "...oh, we have a soccer team now?" Tom
Also Shea Hillenbrand was a major prospect, and Derek Lowe has got game too. Put them together with, at a minimum, the Dominicans on the sox (Pedro, Ramirez and Ortiz) and the sox players are assuredly a lot more soccer saavy than the broadcasters or the audience.
Although I wouldn't assume that Dominicans (same goes for Cubans and Puerto Ricans), just because they speak Spanish, generally know or care much about futbol.
And of course, Nomah played against Joe-Max in high school and is good friends with him now. Nomah's younger brother also played soccer and was going to go to college to play, but instead opted for the baseball draft where he got picked by Seattle I believe. True.
/me patiently waiting for the day for Nomar and Mia to have the ultimate soccer child lets hope its a boy.
Wouldn't TT have been a better choice than Joey? Don't know about the other Revs, but Taylor's got some really good baseball genes.
Ah, but Joey is the Captain! I assume that's why he was picked. Who ran the opening bell at the Boston Stock Exhange? I suspect it was Wolde because of his gold tooth.
Not that it matters, but Nomar's little bro was drafted by Seattle. Also, soccer ain't exactly EPL-popular in the Dominican Republic.
the real sport Growing up, I played soccer with and against Hillenbrand's older brother. I remember hearing that Shea was a stud on the pitch (not field). I didn't know them that well, but they seemed to be more of a footy family than a baseball bunch...
Yeah, there was a thread a while back about baseball countries vs futebol countries in Latin America, and the DR, along with Cuba and Puerto Rico would definitely qualify. In fact, if there ever was a baseball equivalent of the WC, those countries would give the US a run for their money, if not be odds-on favorites to win it. Tom
Wasn't it George Carlin who talked about the arrogance of American pro sports playing for "world championships" that other countries aren't invited to compete in...?
Did you see Thierry Henry's free kick in the Arsenal/ManU match yesterday that he launched directly ten rows into the stands on the opposite side of the field? The commentator said something like, "My God, he's human after all."
FWIW, Joey's toss was pictured in today's Boston Herald...in the "Inside Track". In the background were other Revs, (I could pick out Kamler with a camera). I couldn't find it online, but it was in the hard copy. -john