Quakes-related Bay Area newspaper articles (Tuesday, 2/12/08)

Wow an article in the Chronicle. That's pretty unusual.

 

the fact that we're playing preseason games with only 12 players on the roster has me very, very worried. In Frank I trust, but we need some players.

 

Your not kidding, a few of us have sent emails complaining that they are not covering the only pro team in the Bay Area but with very little feedback from them. The Chronicle sucks as much as the Merc when it comes to soccer in general but definitely where MLS is concerned.

 

Apparently their are 30 people in camp.. we just dont know who they are.

 

Yeah I think we'll have more than twelve on field tomorrow.

 

Quakes could get a penalty for having 12 men on the field. Oh wait, that's the other "football."

There's the answer to a frequently asked question on this board.

 

It's probably a simple matter of them playing the game at Kezar that got them in the paper today. But I'd like to think this is the start of a new trend.

 

I hope your right.

 

I actually sent an email to the Chronicle's Readers' Representative: (ReaderRep@sfchronicle.com) last week regarding the lack of Quakes coverage and they replied saying that the Sports Editor had a story in the works that would be out today or Wednesday regarding the Kezar exhibition.

They also said that we should see more coverage once the Quakes are in season and that the Chronicle will cover the game on the 16th.

Another point that was made in the Chronicle's reply was that the Sharks currently take precedence because of higher readership. I kind of take this as if we all log on and read the articles and send more emails than we can expect more coverage. Hopefully thats the case but only time will tell...

 

I'm not worried at all. With the 30 in camp and with the leg work that Doyle just did in Argentina, I think we'll have a solid team come opening day. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an announcement of a solid striker (or two) signing from Argentina soon. After which point there will be a shortage in crow around these parts. In Yallop AND Doyle I trust.

GO QUAKES!!!

 

That is some crow I hope I get to eat.

 

Typical circular thinking from another dying daily newspaper's sports department.

News flash: If you don't cover a sport or a league, there is no readership for it.

The SF Chronicle's coverage of the Sharks is also less than stellar and only seems generous in comparison to the fact that in the 1980s it was hit-or-miss whether the SF Chronicle would even cover NHL box scores. No exaggeration there. In the '80s, often there were no box scores, and sometimes no line scores. But you had your pick of a half dozen or more moronic columnists spouting nonsense on green newsprint every day.

Biographical digression: During the late 1980s, as a law student from Buffalo, NY (an honorary part of the Great White North), I was almost persuaded to embark on my career outside California because it was such a hockey wasteland, as reflected by the piss-poor Chronicle coverage of the entire sport. (By the way, in Buffalo, Glenn Dickey is still persona non grata for a gratuitous column he wrote 40 years ago knocking the town.)

Only after the Sharks arrived in 1991 was there grudging acknowledgement by the Chronicle that professional ice hockey merited the occasional inch or two narrative to spice up the Sporting Green's wall-to-wall coverage of the 49ers' field goal kicker's every miss. And those were the days when the Sharks actually played in San Francisco (in the Cow Palace), a quaint barn of a temporary venue that makes Buck Shaw seem like San Siro. (Don't get the reference, Sporting Green? Look it up.)

So, the point is, there's a new major league sports team in town, with some fervent support by a cadre of rabid, and growing, SF soccer fans. And even without a full-fledged roster I will put money on the fact that the expansion Quakes will finish higher in their respective league standings this year than the Santa Clara Niners. In short, get your head out of the sand, SF Chronicle Sporting Green.

 

I agree. Ann Killion knows what the deal is. She is, or should be, aware of the Cleveland Browns precedent. So she's just copping an attitude. She's entitled to her opinion, but her opinion is an ugly and uncharitable one. Would it hurt her to thank MLS and Lew Woff for keeping the Quakes legacy here? Or to acknowledge the grassroots efforts of Earthquakes fans to get their team back -- including its legacy? Apparently she would prefer that Houston inherit the legacy as well as the players. If I didn't know better I would find that view somewhat "quizzical" coming from a San Jose sports columnist, to say the least.

 

I totally get your point about the readership.

I guess I was looking at it from the point of view where at least they replied to my email and put out a story. I think that it at least shows they listen to feedback and suggestions so hopefully we will see more Quakes coverage in the future.

As I said before only time will tell...

 

Agreed. They get points for responding to feedback. But their rationalization for not improving their coverage is demonstrably weak. So, feel free to respond to their response.

It's a simple syllogism: No NHL coverage = no hockey readership. Better NHL coverage = larger readership. Switch MLS for NHL, shake and stir. Seeing as how hockey is alien to California and soccer is not, I think that the SF Chronicle's own experience should translate equally well, if not better, to MLS coverage.

 

I just checked the email they sent and it also claims that newsroom staff was cut by 25% over the summer. I'll Just post the whole email so that you can diessect it as you see fit:

"Sports Editor Glenn Schwarz tells me he'll have a story about the Earthquakes' upcoming exhibitions running on Tuesday or Wednesday. He plans to cover the Feb. 16 match against the Dynamo.

Sports will run stories on the Quakes in season but won't always be able to use staff writers. As you probably know, the paper cut its newsroom staff by 25 percent over the summer so it has to do triage on coverage. The Sharks take precedence over the Quakes when it comes to using staff writers, just because of the higher readership."

Enjoy!

 

When I read this, I felt that Killion is merely grinding her old axe against MLS, which is perfectly all right, it's just the way that she swings that axe.

 

That's exactly what's going on. And every Earthquakes fan ought to be offended by Killion's insinuation that the City of Houston is entitled to the trophies that were won here in San Jose. If that's what she thinks, she should say so directly. If not, she should be more careful about her choice of words.

 

I think she was just describing the absurdity of a two-time champion expansion team playing against the squad which was responsible for winning those two trophies.

 

Nothing "absurd" about it.

A little over a week ago, the two-time Super Bowl champion NY Giants team knocked off the 3-time champion New England Patriots -- even though none of the Giants players on the 2008 team ever played for the earlier Super Bowl-winning teams (1987 & 1991). The Giant players nonethless had a right to claim the legacy and their owner spoke to that legacy in his comments accepting the team's third Super Bowl trophy. What tied those disparate Giant squads together? It wasn't Eli Manning's jockstrap; it was the fans. The Giants owner claimed the trophy in the name of the Giants fans who had endured with their team decades of ineptitude in the Meadowlands, the Yale Bowl, and the Polo Grounds.

The San Jose Earthquakes team that takes the field tomorrow is a two-time MLS Cup winner, for the same reason the NY Giants were two-time Super Bowl champs when they took the field in Arizona nine days ago. Oh, and by the way, these Earthquakes have an even greater right to trumpet their legacy than the Giants did; at least one member (Joe Cannon), was a member of one of those title-winning teams, and the coach (Frank Yallop) was at the helm for both.

And when in the near future the Earthquakes claim their THIRD MLS Cup trophy, I hope to hear Lew Wolff accept it in honor of the fans who endured years of absentee ownership, two years of hiatus, and two or three more of temporary quarters before occupying their Epicenter and, through it all were never "ambivalent" and NEVER GAVE UP on their team or the players.

I don't give a damn what she meant. Ann Killion can take her "quizzical" comments about the San Jose Earthquakes and shove them in a place where soccer isn't played.

 

One other thing: by my count, there are only four players on the Houston Dynamo who were members of the Earthquakes' 2001 MLS Cup-winning team: Dwayne DeRosario, Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett and Richard Mulrooney.

Of these four Dynamos from the 2001 squad, Barrett did not play for the 2003 San Jose Earthquakes' MLS Cup team, and Richard Mulrooney did not play for the 2006 Houston Dynamos' MLS Cup team. So there are really ONLY TWO four time cup winning guys: DeRosario and Robinson. (And of course the Houston coach and Fremont native, Dominic Kinnear.) They are the only constants over the entire seven year span from the first to last of the four cups by the Quakes and Dynamos.

So the whole "absurdity" paradigm that you say Killion is positing really breaks down on close examination. If that was her point, it is indeed absurd, but not in the way she meant it.

 

I agree that the concept of these matches is a little absurd. Your American football analogy doesn't really work here, seeing as, yes, those Giants didn't win the club's previous two Super Bowls, but they aren't playing against the previous team either. The Pats didn't use to be the Giants or anything. It's really a one-time strange event that is taking place for a couple seasons.

 

Never before have I been ripped apart for use of one word...