Why Question 'reality check'?

Guys, whether you think this 'reality check' is a troll, or is pat, what he says is true. Again, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who and what Nick is. Fact is, first time Nick made a speech to the team, Tab was disgusted with him. Hell, we all know that, because if you've been around the boards, you'll remember that was an 'reality check' type post.

Pat is easy to sniff out. This one doesn't have his ring to it. See, I tend to believe these type of posts. Fact is, I wrote back to one of these 'insiders' and he turned out to be the first of my rumor guys, who happened to be Jim Rooney's brother. My second guy Goalpost didn't work out so well, but if you knew who HE was you would've listened to him a little closer. And we all all about Mr. Rumor. All three were acquired for the taxi fanzine simply by trusting what they say, establishing a relationship, and e-mailing them to write for my site. Anyone who disregards everything posted just because of a small post count or lack a sources is an idiot.

...and let me tell you about pat. Quick character study on the kid. Youngest in a family of boys who have all gone on to be star athletes. Gets picked on and beat up all the time (said so in one of the Walsh Cup programs if i'm not mistaken). As a result, he's got got a chip on his shoulder, an ego from 15 years of living in a testosterone-controlled house, and is looking for confrontation to prove himself, because he's had to prove himself to his more successful and stronger brothers his whole life. So yes, he's an annoying prick. Hell, the kid won't even talk to me anyone because he thinks *I* made him look back in front of all you people with my last Chat With Pat (Did I tell you he's insecure too?) Well guess what. If pat comes here and in his annoying manner says "Octavio Sucks" or "Nick is ruining the metrostars", it's because billy came home and said the same thing. Guess what? Billy also said WHY they're pricks, and so did pat. It's very easy to find out the reasons behind all this, but most of you fall into the 15 year old's trap of confrontation. He WANTS your attention, and WANTS you to challenge him. He wants to be big and tough like his brothers and is angry enough to prove it. and you give him what he wants. Maybe if you listen to what he's actually SAYING, and what many other people are saying, you'd learn a little something.

As for insiders posting on these boards, you know who's going to say something? The idiot with the knowledge. I'll give you two clues: 1) soccer players ain't smart, 2) THEY ARE ALL ON BIGSOCCER. I'd say 90% of each MLS team reads these boards. A smaller percentage post under pseudonyms. But see, it's like any dumb thief. The more you get away with it, the more confident you get, and the more you give away. Read what people say. Who's to be sure that Bigfoot is Guppy, but you know what? He certainly had an agenda that he pounded into each post. Look around the boards. If you can tell who the geeks are, and you can tell who to respect, you can tell who the players are. Look at what they say. LOOK AT THEIR SIGNATURES. They most of the time inside jokes, meaning it will make no sense to you. in other words, you see a signature that makes no sense, there's something suspicious about that poster... that is, if you consider a player making a post 'suspicious'. i just call it being bored on a road trip typing on the laptop.

If you frequented the DC boards, there was a poster who constantly defending a certain player. No matter what this player did, he had an excuse. He had a signature no one could figure out. He kept going on and on about Rongen. "He sucks" "Why do you (the fans) keep ragging on this guy when Rongen doesn't even given him time to play?" etc etc. There was an air of ego around the poster. Like he knew something the others didn't. Like he was speaking down to them. He stopped posting after a certain player got traded this offseason.

Again, most players are stupid. Once they get comfortable, they will post and post and post. They will give themselves away.

A quick thought for you... Who on these boards haven't you met yet?

Anyways, 1) dont' ignore the phantom posters who have 2 posts to their name. 2) We've had alot of phantom posters here on the Metro boards. Has any ONE of them been supportive of the front office besides Bigfoot? That says something about bigfoot that i think we've all figured out by now, and it says something about the opinions of those that post once or twice have about our front office. They're all frigging negative as hell.


I write back all these posters and ask where they get their information. Thankfully, some know me and will tell me, and know that I will keep their identity a secret. Again, rumor guy #1 was Rooney's brother, and his information was so explicit that they had to confront rooney in the locker with a printout of my site and tell him it had better stop, or else. Jim Rooney's brother is a minor league hockey player. Very nice guy. The second guy was a metro player. Every week he would say what was going on in practice. Everyone on these boards totally ignored him because he didn't have the greatest writing ability. It was a shame, i had to take him down because no one was even paying attention to him. Give you a hint... he's on the front page of MetroFanatic.com. The third guy, Mr. Rumor is legendary by now. The halls echo with the sounds of his true identity, but what fun is coming out and telling you? "Mysteries that are left unsolved are more fun", once said a great man by David Lynch (he's still trying to transfer Eraserhead to digital by the way, so the DVD has been delayed for all you Lynch-ites like myself).

As if you couldn't tell, i'm slowly moving away from what i used to do - be a fan and try to get on the 'inside'. Guess what. I got TOO inside, and when you figure out the mystery, and realize what it's all about, you are horribly disappointed. I'm still a MetroFan, i just have no want to be the fan that snoops and craps on MLS anymore. Someone who snoops and craps on MLS is on the outside. I dont' wish to work for MLS, but being on the inside is where reality is. A hint of my plans. The Sony DSR PD 150 is about $3,500 and B&H. Not a bad price, and after a summer of working at video video, i'm approaching that sum. I may take out a loan to buy a G4 with all the trimmings. I will do my senior thesis, and then concentrate on the world of MLS. I suppose it's just me trying to figure out who is more wrong... them for letting my childhood fantasies down, or myself for letting myself have childhood fantasies. Pefection exists when you are a child, and is shattered when you see what reality is. I started watching MLS only because I was so devestated after baseball went on strike. Why are the Yankees striking when this is the first time they've been in first place since I've followed them? What is more important to them, winning or money? I soon had my answer, and started to follow MLS. They had guys that made $20,000 out of college. Certainly these guys played for the love. Certainly a small league had honest people who had love for the game and would make grassroot campaigns out of that love. The average MetroStars fan accepts a giants stadium looking like a coffin filled with ants because you cannot change it. You've swallowed the dream. I can't. and I can't swallow the fact that the players do what they do, and I can't swallow the rampant egotism and bullying that happens.

The worst thing that ever happened to sports was when some people started to watch, and other craftier people realized that those people would pay to watch. When you put people in charge whose primary goal is to make money, they will make money or be fired. Everyone in MLS has been hired to succeed. Success, to the investors, and therefore to MLS, means to make money. Remember, when the first people started to watch sports, they were watching the game. The beauty. The perfection. The passion. The people that realized they could make money weren't looking at the game. They were looking at the onlooker's pocketbooks and wallets. Fact: If you state in an MLS application that you are a passionate fan of MLS and wish MLS to succeed in this country, you will be automatically turned down. Try it for yourself. Go so far as to have an interview and say those exact words. You will not be called back. I know, because a few of my friends did and weren't called back. MLS wants people who will work to help the FRANCHISE SUCCEED. The franchise succeeds when it makes a sizable profit, even if the team loses every game. Certain baseball teams, like the Phillies, have been accused of not using the money they make off the team back into the team for better players. Scott Rolen realized this. He publically questioned the ownership's dedication to a winning team. He was traded to a team that puts money back into the team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Say what you want about Steinbrenner. He makes alot of money, and alot of it goes back into buying the best players he can get.

I don't want to say too much about JB here. Fact is, he's always been nice to me, but beyond that, I've spoken to him once or twice in person. When it comes down to it, I really don't know him all that well. However, I consider him to be a class guy, and no one questions his love of soccer. He worked for the MetroStars as head of PR. Perfect job, right? Any soccer lover would KILL to work in soccer, right? So then...um... why'd he leave? He's not going to tell you. I'm not exactly sure either. But I have my speculations. Maybe totally off base here, maybe a bit of a dramatic solution, but here goes nothing. I don't think it was anyone's fault... i don't think any 'nicks' were around to drive him away.....I just wonder if he simply realized working in soccer was destroying his love of soccer.

Talk to people you trust who you know work in MLS. I've talked with a man who you've all undoubtedly talked with who would go into the city and put up metrostars posters. That's how passionate he was about soccer. He walked away from it all. Nick moved in, and it was too much for him. He realized he was losing the passion for soccer. It was being tainted by this new representation of what a head of a soccer team should be. He left.

My suggestion to you is to watch Major League Lacrosse games. These are players who have to get jobs in the offseason because the MLL pay is so low. Yet they still bust heads and crack their stick over another's skull every game. The league is completely grass roots. Hell, I think the NJ Pride played at Montclair St. last year. I think they're playing somewhere else this year. It's a even a northeastern league. Maryland, New Jersey, Conneticut, Long Island, New York. Those are where the teams are located. They play at colleges, if they're lucky. The management is completely grassroots. they're lucky if 1,000 people show up, and i'm probably grossly overestimating. Jake Steinfeld (Body By Jake) loves lacrosse, and put up a large amount of money to start the league. Think he did it to eventually make a large profit? Think he did it so that his football stadium would have games during the summer to make more money? No. He actually just loved lacrosse, and felt it needed an outdoor league, and happened to have alot of money.

As some point you have to ask yourself. Do you like watching soccer, or do you like watching passion and pride?

At this point, give me the Newark Bears over the MetroStars. Rick Cerone gave up a very promising broadcasting career to start the Newark Bears. What? a team in Newark? who the hell is going to come to newark unless they want to be stabbed? What? you're naming them the NEWARK bears? at least call them the New Jersey bears to hide the whole newark thing. Guess what, rick cerone made the bears because he grew up in newark, and remembered the hey day of the old Newark Bears. He wanted to change the reputation of Newark back to what it used to be when he was a KID.

Oh, by the way. The Bears just won the championship of their league. 1,000 people showed up. Rick Cerone was happy, but was depressed at the lack of a turnout because 'he wanted more people to know that a team from newark won something and had something to be proud about'.

The best leadership for any country is a level-headed, open-minded, warm-hearted king or queen. Someone who cares. When your parents decided to have a child, did they do so because they'd think it would turn a profit? When they woke up at night when you were crying, did they do it because one day they earn that "Parent of the Year" award? When you turned into a difficult teen, did they give you your space and provide you with guidance because you're a good investment? No. They did it because they loved you. Unconditional love. No reasoning behind it. No scheme. Just love. Reasonings and Schemes are matters of the brain. Love is a matter of the soul. Love is the reason you are here. Maybe that's why so many of us are disappointed with how business works, and get so jaded when we enter the business world....because we were born with love, raised with love, and taught love is how we live. Is business about love, or turning a profit?

I got alot of messages about my last loooooooong-ass post. All were from people who spoke from a heart that longed for how things were as a child. When they were loved. Now they're in the business world, where they are told that no one cares about you. You do the job or there's someone younger and better to replace you. You keep an eye out for yourself because you can't trust anyone. It's not how well you work, or how much you care, it's who you know. How many contacts you make. Business makes no sense to a child. Why would it? A child comes into the world loving, TRUSTING, open. A child is sent from god, and comes with the values that whatever you believe 'god' to be holds most dear. It is the adults of the world who corrupt the child, and teach him their ways. And we the child get used to it. We fall into place. We go to school because..... that's the way it is. We go to college because that's the way it is. We go to work because.....well, now we have to. We're already part of the system. Have any of you hit the pause button on your life and realized what has just happened to you? You swallowed everything the adult world created for you without questioning it. You rationalized and swallowed. Hell, americans now take the twin towers being run into by planes for granted, and hell, that was a sudden, devestating blow that no one will ever forget. But it's been accepted. If we can accept that, why wouldn't we take the adult world as children, and swallow it slowly as a flawed society slowly and deliberately, grade by grade, freshman to senior year, slowly pushes it down our throats?

"Here comes the airplane, son.... Open wide".


Oh! I seem to have gone off on a tangent again. Time to make it MLS related once more. Listen to all the voices on this board. Many are insiders who want to tell you, the innocent souls, what hell really is like. They want you to know that their dream of a healthy soccer program has been crushed. They don't want you to swallow it. They want you to question it. Listen to all the voices. Many are from the players themselves. They will give themselves away in small quantities, especially after this post. Or, you could choose to remain in your ignorant bliss, where that 1-0 scoreline is your reason to live, your way to deal with your pointless job which you unquestionally took, and your way away from reality.

You know, I work at a god damned video store. I make six goddamn fifty an hour. After the trauma and the nervous breakdown i had after the transplant, I didn't leave my room for 4 months. After another few months went by, It took every once of my strength (and a few valiums) to get me to go down to the video store and apply there. I knew I had to get out. I knew I had to be around people that would care. Today, I work in a place where people actually like me. they smile when they see they are working with me. I screw up alot because I can't focus anymore, and I get yelled at, but they always apologize afterwards. You know what I like better than the staff? I like doing my work. I like sorting the shelves and making them in alphabetical order. I like order. I like things that are neat and tidy. I like to have everyone go by and look at how neat everything is. I have passion for the job because I like the order. The order makes my brain calm. I actually was sad to go home from work today because I was in the middle of deciding which movies face out, and which go in horizontal. I wondered which movies i should face out. Which movies would catch people's attention? Which would they like? I liked Cinema Paradiso, so I put that one facing front. I care about these things. The job i do reflects upon me. It is a stupid movie store. But the job i do there represents me. I am definitely not there for the money. I want to work to build up my self esteem by doing a good job. I want to re-socialize myself after being so horribly scared to walk out my bedroom's doorway, or even to get up, or even uncover my eyes to look at what i was going to see for the rest of my life. reference time! Look up the words "depersonalization" and "derealization" on yahoo. Anyways, I cared about me, and wanted to help myself. You have to care. You have to have passion. You have to. This is no other way. Any other way will lead to failure. If you want to make money, you will. Until the day comes you realize that nothing you buy can ever make you truely happy. My goal in life is to get married and raise a healthy, happy child. It's not a choice anymore. I have to do it. It's medicine. The times when I am most depressed are when i'm alone. I'm happiest when i'm at work, where i am useful and are given jobs.. Even when people laugh at me when i mess up, i laugh too.

During my trials in january, february, march, april, etc, I realized i was dieing. I knew it. I knew that the old me was dieing. I clung on to what i knew until the end. No one wants to leave their comfort zone, no matter how unhealthy it is. When the time came, I prayed to god (which i don't do at all, but when you're dieing you tend to find faith rather quickly) and asked him for help. It's strange. I asked in a different way. More sincere. More desperate. More in need of help. More, Me i guess. I was Me.. a soul who was dieing, but didn't want to, and honestly felt that way. I prayed, and a vision popped into my head. You ever have a prayer answered? I have. My priorities are very much different now. People mean everything to me now. The #1 thing i get yelled at for at work is for talking to customers for 10 minutes when there are 5 people behind them. I talk in class all the time now. It's not because i'm very friendly or open. I'm still a rather shy person. It's because it's medicine. I open up and get all the bad out. They open up and give me their stories, their lives. People are so good when you listen to them. Except now i don't just listen to them, i can feel them too. When someone is especially open with me, I feel a tingle in the back of my neck. It feels like the hand of a lover and a loved one brushing against the back of your neck, and making your hairs stand up. It feels very good. I've asked around, and some tell me i'm feeling their aura. Who knows. I believe that i'm reaching people somehow and feeling their soul. Anyways, enough from me for today. I tend to ramble as we know.

Oh, by the way, Octavio got fired.

Mm


PS - don't worry folks, not crazy. It's like Marky Marky in Three Kings..... gotta open up the valve every once in awhile to release the air. Hot air maybe, but air nonetheless

 

i don't know... why'd i get tired of it in the first place? Once you hit your peak, there ain't nothing more you can do. April Fools Day prank = peak.

 

true genious you mean?