Washington Post Column: Darren Clarke, Japan women illustrate sports’ redemptive powers

Here is my latest for The Washington Post ------------

At a time when just about every sports event is inflated into the single most important event of our time, the rare moments that truly do matter can easily slip past us.

Sunday was one of those days. Two remarkable events took place within hours of one another, the kind that remind us there is more to sports than selling ad space on caps and shirts and scoreboards.
Darren Clarke is a man who has endured genuine personal tragedy. Japan is a country that has been through one horror after another in recent months and is still reeling from the natural disasters that have rocked it to the core.

There is nothing that can happen to bring back Clarke’s wife Heather, who died from breast cancer five years ago, leaving him to raise their two sons who were seven and five at the time. There is certainly nothing that can wipe away the death and the suffering caused in Japan by the earthquake and the tsunami that ripped through the country earlier this year.

But Sunday gave those touched by those tragedies a moment to smile and to believe that life can be redemptive.

Clarke’s victory in British Open, 10 years after he last seriously contended in a major championship, was uplifting not only to him and his family and Northern Ireland, but to everyone in the game of golf.
Few players in golf are better-liked than Clarke. He has always been outgoing and funny and self-deprecating. He was always considered a major talent. He led the British Open for three rounds in 1997, and three years later, he easily beat Tiger Woods in the World Match Play final. While he won often around the world, he could never quite get to the finish line in a major.

He was, however, a Ryder Cup stalwart for Europe. Six weeks after Heather’s death in 2006, encouraged by friends and family to play, he won all three matches he played for Ian Woosnam’s team. The memory of the entire European team crowding around Clarke while he wept on Woosnam’s shoulder after his singles victory still lingers.

Click here for the rest of the column: Darren Clarke, Japan women illustrate sports’ redemptive powers

This is the week of Tiger Woods' annual golf tournament. Or is it?

So, there is no soccer today. That means, I guess, there will be one goal fewer scored than were scored yesterday in 210 minutes of play. I realize this is where I get into trouble with the soccer-istas for not recognizing the beauty of the game; the opportunities denied; the beautiful passes that led to great opportunities that were denied by a great save.

I have no doubt that’s all true but ONE goal? Worse—as I’ve said before how can you take an event seriously that decided who advances and who does not by way of a shootout. Or, as it is technically called, penalty kicks. Whatever. The only thing sillier than a team advancing in something as important as The World Cup through a shootout is someone advancing in a shootout after a 0-0 tie for 120 minutes. Name me another sport where you can NOT SCORE for an entire game and still advance. (Don’t bring up regular season hockey, we’re talking advancing in a championship tournament here).

Anyway, enough soccer. Call me when someone scores or the U.S. scores first in a game that matters.

Back here where soccer matters most when people can scream, “USA,” this is the week of Tiger Woods’ annual golf tournament. Or is it?

The PGA Tour announced early in the year after Woods’ fall from grace that the tournament formerly known as, “The AT+T National hosted by Tiger Woods,” would be known this year as just, “THE AT+T National.” Apparently the sponsor wasn’t thrilled with seeing Woods’ name right after its name so it was removed. The tour announced—in classic tour fashion—that Tiger wouldn’t be the host because he was at that moment taking a leave of absence from golf so, given the uncertain nature of his future plans, it was best to remove his name for this year.

Of course Woods’ plans to come back and play crystallized soon after that and, apparently, his ‘people,’ went to the tour and asked to have Tiger’s name put back on the tournament title. They were told no.

That said, everything else has stayed the same. The tournament director is an employee of The Tiger Woods Foundation. The foundation still runs the event, received the bulk of the charity money from the event—even though a directive went out from the tour to its TV partners this week to be sure to emphasize that two other charities were also receiving funds—decided who received sponsor exemptions into the event and put together everything else associated with the event.

Woods has acted very much as you would expect a player host to act. He was here (Aronomink Country Club outside Philadelphia, more on that later) for media day; he took part in today’s opening ceremony; he referred in his press conference yesterday to ‘we,’ on several occasions when talking about the tournament. The general consensus is that his name will be on the event again in the future, perhaps as soon as next year, almost certainly by the time it returns to Congressional Country Club outside Washington in 2012.

All of which is fine. The tour gave this event a plum date—the middle week of the three between The U.S. Open and The British Open when most top players want to play—as a come on to get Woods involved. It helped him secure Congressional as a host site because Woods didn’t want his name on a tournament played at the tour owned TPC Avenel Farms, even after its redesign. Avenel was best described years ago by Davis Love III who said, “Avenel’s a nice course—unless you have to drive by Congressional to get there.”

Congressional was given huge money for a rental fee in 2007 and when it came time to try to extend the contract in 2008 both Woods and Commissioner Tim Finchem flew in for a meeting with club members because there was a good deal of pushback from the membership about giving up the club Fourth of July weekend. The club approved a new three year deal beginning in 2012 with a three year option on both sides—by a voting margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

That vote took place when Woods was still a bullet-proof iconic figure. There’s little doubt if it took place today, the golf tournament would no longer be at Congressional. No one knows what Woods standing will be four years from now so it is hard to know whether either side will exercise its option then.

Of course everyone around here is claiming to know nothing. What percentage of the charity money is the Woods Foundation getting? No one seems to know. What is the likelihood his name will be back on the event next year or the year after? No one is sure. Will the tournament be at Congressional after 2014? Well, there is an option on both sides.

Aronomink isn’t a bad backup. The plan all along was for the tournament to come here this year and next because the U.S. Open was already scheduled for Congressional in 2011 and the greens had to be redone there this year to prepare for it. If Congressional doesn’t want the event back after 2014 it could come back here.

But there’s also the issue of sponsorship AT+T has four more years on its contract after this year. If it does NOT want Woods name back on the event an opt-out compromise might be reached. It’s a sure bet the tour is going to want Woods’ name back on the tournament as soon as possible. He still sells more tickets and sponsorships than anyone, regardless of the hits his reputation has taken the last six months.

That’s why the tour made no attempt to remove Woods’s foundation out of control here or attempted to take any of the charity money from the foundation. Finchem has made it clear almost since day one that he understands he still needs Woods more than Woods needs him. You can bet he’s negotiating with AT+T to get Tiger’s name back on the event for next year even as we speak.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just a tad hypocritical for the tour to act as if it, ‘took action,’ after the Woods revelations when in fact it did almost nothing. And what it did do was because the sponsor insisted on some kind of action.

Here’s one thing I’m willing to bet on: If AT+T (or another sponsor) hasn’t agreed by this time next year to put Woods’ name back on the tournament no later than 2012, Woods will find a reason to play somewhere else or not play at all while this event is going on in 2011.

That’s more of a sure thing than a 1-0 lead in soccer.




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John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:



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John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases

FIFA could be more of a mess than the NCAA – who knew?

I didn’t think it was possible but it may be that there is an organization in sports that is more of a mess than the NCAA. That organization would be FIFA—which if you don’t speak French stands for, “Federation Internationale de Football Association.”

In English I believe that translates into Absolute Joke.

As I’ve said before, I’m hardly a soccer expert but the number of blown calls—I don’t mean controversial calls, I mean BLOWN ones—in this World Cup has been completely ridiculous. It happened again twice on Sunday where the officials somehow missed a clear goal scored by England and a clear offsides on a goal scored by Argentina.

These were not the kind of errors where we needed to see the plays from 15 different angles and then thought, yes, there it is a mistake was made. These were, ‘Oh My God what were they thinking?’ screw-ups. In both games, the better team ended up winning the game but that begs the point. Upsets do happen, in fact upsets are what make us watch sports. If we all know that Germany and Argentina are going to win why bother to watch?

The fact that The English goal that was disallowed would have tied the score at 2-2 a few minutes before halftime after Germany had jumped to a 2-0 lead certainly gives one pause. The momentum would have had to be with the English at that point. Germany’s two second half goals that made the final score an embarrassing 4-1 were both scored on counterattacks that occurred with England pushing forward to try to get the equalizer. (How do you like that for soccer talk, huh?).

The Argentine goal that was allowed in spite of an obvious offsides is tougher to argue in terms of the outcome because Argentina appeared in control of the game at that stage.

But all of that entirely misses the point. FIFA’s response to all this is two-fold: “We don’t comment on calls on the field.” (Good thing, because the only reasonable comment it could make would be the same as yours and mine: OH MY GOD!). And, more important, FIFA sees no reason to go to replay.

Really? Are you completely insane?

Alexi Lalas, the former U.S. World Cupper who is now one of ESPN’s 47 soccer analysts, said repeatedly on Sunday that Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, believes this sort of controversy is good for soccer because it gets more people talking about the game. Let’s examine that statement for a moment: If Lalas is to be believed, then Blatter thinks that totally botched calls are good for soccer. He believes that it’s a good thing that we will never know what might have happened had England tied the game (as it DID) 2-2. Maybe Germany wins 4-2 but we will never know. It’s a good thing, according to that way of thinking, to shortchange the players who work four years to prepare for The World Cup.

Blatter and his cohorts are also idiotic in their insistence that all games from the round of 16 on can be decided in a shootout if the game is tied after 120 minutes. To begin with, overtime should be sudden death. This isn’t basketball where teams score constantly. This is soccer where a goal is gold—thus the term golden goal in the old days for a sudden death overtime goal—and where a team that scores in overtime prior to the final should be able to go home and rest its legs.

What’s more, there’s magic in sudden victory and sudden death in all sports. That no longer exists in World Cup soccer.

Worse though is the notion of the shootout. As I’ve said before, you don’t decide the most important soccer games played every four years by NOT playing soccer. You play until someone scores and if it takes 250 minutes so be it. Sure, the winner will be exhausted but that’s the price you pay for not winning more quickly. Knowing you have to score to win would also changes strategy in overtime and cause teams to push up more knowing that they can’t just play for the shootout—which is Russian Roulette in shorts. At the very least there is NO excuse for allowing the final to be decided by a shootout.

Worst though is Blatter and cohorts insisting that replay should not be used at all. At the absolute minimum it should be used to decide goal/no-goal. How long would it have taken to decide if Frank Lampard’s goal for England was good on Sunday? About 15 seconds—if that. That call made Jim Joyce’s missed call at first base on the final out of Armando Galarraga’s imperfect game look too close to call.

At least Joyce said he blew it. At least Bud Selig said a mistake was made and more replay needed to be looked at by Major League Baseball. FIFA? Nothing. No comment from anyone. Who died and made Sepp Blatter the world’s last jock dictator?

If soccer wants to be taken seriously in this country two things must happen: The U.S. must continue to improve and not blow opportunities like the one it blew Saturday when it lost 2-1 to Ghana, missing out on a genuine opportunity to make the semifinals—Uruguay is good but beatable—for the first time since the first World Cup in 1930.

And second, you can’t have people sitting around talking about calls that are completely missed. Argentina dominated Mexico but the only real talk after the game was about the missed offsides call that led to one of the goals. It is NOT good for a sport when the focus is on the officials and not on the players. There are certain calls in every sport that can’t be fixed by replay.

In soccer, goal/no-goal almost always can be corrected if need be—and if it is too close to call, the ruling on the field stands—and a clear offsides that leads to a goal can also be corrected. There should also be postgame penalties when someone is clearly shown to have taken a dive if only to cut back on the acting going on.

Sunday was a disgrace on every possible level. The only thing worse than the calls was the reaction to the calls. If what Alexi Lalas says about Sepp Blatter is true, Blatter should be fired first and then locked in a room and forced to watch ‘Around The Horn,’ on a continuous loop for the next ten years.

Yes, he’s that bad.

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While some of the details are dated, on Washington Post Live on CSN Washington last week, John discussed with Ivan Carter and Barry Svrluga the World Cup and soccer's growth in the United States. Click to play the video below:

World Cup fever; Soccer is solid niche sport with bursts of popularity

So now we have World Cup fever. Sort of.

There’s always a buzz when the United States is doing well in an international event—especially if it is on television and there’s no doubt this World Cup is on TV—non-stop. My friend Sally Jenkins wrote a column about being in a New York bar yesterday morning and the electricity inside when Landon Donovan scored the goal that saved the U.S. from being eliminated after an embarrassing 0-0 tie with Algeria. Instead, the Americans escaped with a 1-0 victory to reach the knockout round where it will play Ghana on Saturday in a very winnable game.

That’s all good. With ESPN’s non-stop promotion of the event during the last year and with the U.S. team managing to make it this far, there will be tremendous focus on soccer the next couple of weeks. There’s even a chance the U.S. could reach the semifinals to play one of the world’s true powerhouse teams. A win over Ghana would lead to a game with Uruguay or S Korea, both good teams but not in the same class with Argentina, Germany, Brazil—the teams that (along with defending champion Italy, which is struggling) usually dominate international play.

So, it is a day for U.S. soccer fanatics to celebrate. As I’ve said before, I like soccer and I love the electricity of The World Cup. I’ve covered soccer, back in my early days at The Post. I would never claim to be an expert on the game, but I like it and I’ve liked most of the people I’ve encountered through the years. Just a couple of weeks ago I ran into D.C. United Coach Tom Sohn and his assistant Ben Olsen at a TV studio and they patiently explained to me why the U.S. had a very good chance to win or tie in its opening game against England.

Having said all that, soccer is going to remain a niche sport in this country unless—and even then it isn’t guaranteed—the U.S. wins the World Cup. The closest we’ve ever come was a third place finish in 1930 and there aren’t too many folks around with memories of that occasion. In fact, from 1934 to 1986 the U.S. team didn’t even make it to the World Cup tournament. Since then expansion to 32 teams, being named the host team (1994, which gives you an automatic berth) and improvement in U.S. soccer have allowed us to at least make the tournament the last six times it has been played.

In 1994, playing at home, the U.S. reached the round of 16. In 2002 it got to the quarterfinals. If it could reach the semifinals, there’s no question TV ratings would be as high as they’ve ever been for soccer and, with all the ESPN hype, there would be as much talk about it as there has ever been. Some of that will carry over, no doubt, but it doesn’t mean attendance at MLS games is going to suddenly double or TV ratings will triple. One thing soccer people have always had trouble doing is understanding that, YES, soccer is the world’s sport but NO, it is not the United States’ sport. Even with all the ESPN hype it is worth nothing the U.S.-England game didn’t get nearly the rating the four letter people had been projecting.

Football—American football—is our number one sport and that isn’t going to change. Baseball and basketball come next and then there’s hockey and golf and once there used to be tennis. Soccer is always going to fit somewhere in that second tier, moving up or down depending on circumstances. This is certainly a chance for it to move up.

Some history here: When I covered the North American Soccer League in the late 1970s, the Cosmos were a true phenomenon. They had brought Pele here and followed that by bringing genuine international stars like Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia to their team. They drew huge crowds in Giants Stadium on a consistent basis. The Washington Diplomats traded for Johan Cruyff, who had arguably been the No. 2 player in the world behind Pele in the early 1970s, and even the Dips drew well in RFK Stadium—averaging more fans in 1980 than D.C. United averages now, including a crowd of more than 53,000 one Sunday afternoon for a game against the Cosmos.

“Soccer—the sport of the 80s,”—that was the NASL’s slogan. Then Pele retired, the league over-expanded and by the mid-80s, the NASL was completely gone, one of the great league collapses in sports history. It wasn’t until after the 1994 World Cup that MLS was launched and, even then, it was done so with the notion that salaries would be modest and the pursuit of big-money superstars would be controlled. For most of the first 10 years that’s exactly what the league did. The big experiment—bringing in David Beckham, created buzz for a while until everyone realized Beckham couldn’t play anymore, even on those days when he did limp onto the field.

In 1999, the U.S. women’s soccer team created great interest—why?—because it was WINNING and because some of the players were extremely attractive. Most people forget the U.S. and China played to an incredibly dull 0-0 tie in that World Cup final and remember Brandi Chastain ripping off her shirt after scoring the winning goal in the shootout. (Seriously soccer fans how can you hope to have your sport taken really seriously if you continue to decide World Cup knockout games in shootouts? It’s the equivalent of deciding postseason baseball games with a home run Derby; postseason football with a field goal kicking contest or a major golf tournament with a chip-off. Ridiculous. You have to play to a real soccer result).

After that U.S. victory, women’s soccer was going to be the next big thing. I remember a dopey New York publishing guy named David Hirshey going on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show saying there was going to be an “explosion,” in women’s soccer (the fact that he was publishing a women’s soccer book may have influenced him). So a league was launched and it failed in a couple of years and now there’s another league where they play mostly in high school stadiums in front of crowds of maybe 5,000.

You see there is NOTHING wrong with being a solid niche sport that has an occasional burst like the one going on now. Hockey isn’t that much different: People were riveted by the Olympics this year and ratings DID go up during the Stanley Cup playoffs but nowhere close to what the big three get in ratings in postseason—or for that matter what the NFL gets for a routine Sunday afternoon.

So, soccer fans, enjoy these next couple of weeks. Maybe the U.S. will pull off a Miracle on Turf. More likely it might reach the semis, which would be a fabulous achievement. People WILL be paying attention and will be talking about it. But don’t be disappointed or rant and rave when normalcy returns and crowds of 15,000 show up at MLS games and the TV ratings are in the 1’s and 2’s again. Actually, that’s progress and it’s okay.

Just don’t think soccer is going to be the sport of the teens. The last group that made that mistake was the NASL and we all know how that turned out.


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John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:



------------------------------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases

The World Cup, we’re still awaiting the soccer revolution in US; Answering a few comments

They announced the United States World Cup soccer team yesterday. This was a big deal on ESPN, which has decided to try to convince Americans to see in soccer what the rest of the world sees and in The New York Times and The Washington Post, each of which carried two major stories on the naming of the 23-man roster. One thing I couldn't help but notice in looking at the roster: Only FOUR of the 23 players on the U.S. roster are currently playing professionally in this country on teams that compete in The Major Soccer League. That's just not enough.

I have said this before and I will say this again: I am not one of those people who rip soccer just because there are times when it seems that no one ever scores. In fact, I watched a chunk of the U.S.'s game--or 'friendly,' as these exhibitions are called--against the Czech Republic and there were plenty of goals to watch in the Americans' 4-2 loss. On the other hand I am not someone who is going to sit here and claim there is nothing like the artistry of a 0-0 tie that has 14 corner kicks or that those who don't see the beauty in the game simply don't understand the game.

I will certainly watch The World Cup. Whether I will watch very many entire games is another question although the U.S. opener against England on June 12th is one I'm curious about on several levels: England should be one of the better teams in the tournament so we'll probably find out a lot about the U.S. in that first game. Beyond that, I've probably watched more World Cup soccer FROM England than anyplace else, dating back to the long-ago days when I spent a lot of time there every summer covering Wimbledon and The British Open.

In fact, I was in a London pub with my friend Tom Ross--who in spite of being an agent is a good guy--for Maradona's infamous Hand of God goal. The reaction to the goal and to its being allowed and to Argentina winning the game is one of my most vivid sports memories. If you were in that pub that night you would never again call The World Cup boring.

As I've mentioned here before soccer was my first beat at The Washington Post when I started there as a summer intern 100 years ago (okay, 1977). In fact it was soccer that allowed me to meet Bob Woodward for the first time. I was covering The Washington Diplomats, then Washington's team in The North American Soccer League. I had taken over the beat from Donald Huff, who was going on vacation and the first two games I covered the Dips--as they were called--were shut out. That made three straight games without a goal.

As I was leaving RFK Stadium that night I said to Terry Hanson, then the Dips PR director, "geez, I wonder if Dennis (Viollet who was then the coach) might be in trouble." Hanson, who has now been my friend for more than 30 years, looked at me and said, "If I were covering the team I'd make some phone calls tomorrow."

Eager young intern, I did just that. No one would take my calls, a pretty good clue something was up since normally soccer people would come to your house to get publicity. Finally, I got Steve Danzansky, the team president on the phone at about 9 o'clock at night. Even though I didn't know Danzansky well I had found him to be extremely outgoing and friendly. When he picked up the phone that night the first thing he said was, "you've got a lot of nerve calling my house at this hour."

Now I KNEW something was up. I apologized for the intrusion and said I wondered if Viollet might be in any kind of trouble given the team's goal drought. "Well," Danzansky said, "he isn't exactly a candidate for coach of the year right now is he?"

Whoops. By the time I hung up the phone with Danzansky I knew Viollet was done. Soon afterwards I reached him on the phone and he told me there was a press conference the next morning and that assistant coach Alan Spavin would be there--without him. I had enough to write.

George Solomon, the sports editor, stripped the story across the top of the sports page because it was late June and nothing else was going on. Washington had no baseball team and the Redskins hadn't opened training camp yet. The next morning I was sitting at my desk--which, as luck would have it, was only a few yards away from Woodward's desk. Being in The Post's newsroom was a thrill for me at that point in my life; being a few yards from Bob Woodward made me feel slightly faint. This was not long after "All The President's Men," had come out in theaters. I had read the book and had gone to see the movie three times--in one day.

So, when Woodward approached me with a smile on his face, I wondered if he had me confused with someone else.

"Hi John," he said. "I'm Bob Woodward. (no kidding). Great job this morning on the soccer coach."

If I had been able to find my voice to say something other than, "t-t-t-t-thank you, it's g-g-g-g-great to meet you," I might have said, "yeah thanks. Nice job on Watergate."

Soccer coach, Watergate--about the same thing, right?

Anyway, covering soccer was great for me. The players were always cooperative and Steve Danzansky apologized for barking at me on the phone and we became good friends. I've always had a warm spot for the sport and whenever Steve Goff and I cover a basketball game together I ask him about D.C. United and about the MLS.

Here's the bottom line though: You can't FORCE people to like soccer just by telling them they should like it. You can't sit back and hope the U.S. gets the World Cup again in 2018 or 2022. And you can't have your best players playing overseas all the time. Imagine if the best college basketball players all played in Europe. What would that do for the NBA--and basketball is OUR sport, it isn't a game in which we are learning as we go.

So if people like my friend George Vecsey, who has written so enthusiastically on soccer in The New York Times for so many years, really want to see the game grow here--and I don't mean grow to NFL or NBA or Major League Baseball levels--they should focus on telling the people who run MLS that they MUST invest in keeping American stars at home. Freddy Adu bombed in Washington and Landon Donovan DOES play in L.A. There needs to be more effort to keep the top Americans home--PAY them to stay home.

Build the MLS rather than telling us we must watch the MLS. The same with The World Cup. The niche fans will want to watch England and Italy and The Ivory Coast. The mainstream fan wants to see the Americans compete. And they want to see the best Americans playing regularly on American soil in an American-based league.

So, let's look forward to the World Cup and let's see how this U.S. team does. But as we do so remember this: back in the days when I covered the Dips and the NASL the league's motto was this: "Soccer, the sport of the 80s." That was thirty years ago. We're still waiting for the revolution to take place.

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Answers to a couple of questions from recent days: My name is pronounced Feinsteen--since my family was from the Ukraine it is not pronounced Feinstine, which is usually the way it is pronounced for those with a Germanic background...I have NO intention of attempting the Bay Swim, I will leave that to my much braver swimming friends. I get nervous DRIVING the 4.4 miles across that bridge much less swimming under it...And to the poster from yesterday who referred to the "shoddy reporting," of the Detroit Free Press, two points: That reporting led to the Michigan investigation which MICHIGAN now says uncovered rules violations and in the blog yesterday most of my references were to the Michigan report--not to the Free Press...


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John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases

To listen to 'The Bob and Tom Show' interview about 'Moment of Glory', please click the play button below:

PR Guys, Large Cities and Small – Akron Zips; Covering Coaches – Gerry Faust and Lefty Driesell

I can’t explain why but I’ve always liked mid-sized cities. I have lived most of my life in two of the most major cities in the world—New York and Washington. I loved growing up in New York and still like visiting, especially on weekends when the streets aren’t completely choked with traffic.

Washington’s different. It’s spread out more and I’ve never felt a real sense of PLACE there—maybe because I didn’t grow up there or maybe because when I first went to work there the obsession both in the media and among people living there with the Redskins was like a dead weight on everyone’s shoulders.

Terry Hanson, who has been a friend of mine dating back to those days, was the public relations guy for the soccer team, The Washington Diplomats, when I arrived in town as a summer intern for The Washington Post in 1977. I was assigned to cover the team and Hanson and I began a friendship that continues to this day.

Needless to say the Diplomats were starved for attention and publicity. One August morning, Hanson was sitting in his office, which was located in RFK Stadium, a facility the Diplomats shared at the time with the Redskins, when his secretary came in to tell him that George Solomon was on the phone.

Hanson took about 1/10th of a second answering the phone. George Solomon was the sports editor of The Post. If he was calling to talk Diplomats soccer on any level, it was a big day.

“Terry, I need a big favor,” Solomon said.

“Anything George,” Hanson said, visions of a major story on Coach Alan Spavin or the marketing of the Diplomats spinning through his head.

“I know your office is right near the press box,” Solomon continued. “The Redskins are playing their first exhibition game tomorrow night. I need you to walk out there and make sure our phone is working.”

Yup, that’s about as big a favor as Solomon would ever need from the Diplomats PR guy.

I was remembering some of this two nights ago en route to dinner here in Akron, best known as the home of LeBron James and lots of tire and rubber companies. It has also been the home of what is now the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club (great golf course) for years.

Flipping radio stations I came to a guy who was “on site,” at the opening of the newly refurbished home of the Akron Zips. He was almost hyper-ventilating with excitement. If people came down that night, they would get a tour of the new stadium, the chance to buy discounted season tickets (of course) AND would get to have their picture taken with Zippy—who, surprise, is the Zips mascot.

Now, as a big city guy, it would be very easy for me to laugh at the guy going on and on about what Zippy was doing while he was talking and how fabulous the new stadium was going to be once it was completed—apparently there is still some work to be done before opening day.

But as I sat there listening—not changing the station—I had a smile on my face. All I know about the Akron Zips, if truth be told, is that they’re in the Mid-American Conference and Gerry Faust coached there after getting fired at Notre Dame. In fact, I think Faust may still live in Akron.

Without doubt, Faust was one of the nicest men I’ve ever met in any walk of life. He just couldn’t make the jump from being a great high school coach (Moeller in Cincinnati) to Notre Dame. But I was there when he coached his first game n 1981 against LSU. Everyone at Notre Dame loved the guy because he was so outgoing, in sharp contrast to the dour (to say the least) Dan Devine. On opening day, Faust was in a golf cart riding around campus greeting people as they made their way into the stadium.

Seriously.

I was part of the national media on hand for the debut/celebration and I wrote a glowing story about Faust and how excited everyone was at Notre Dame. Roger Valdiserri, the great Notre Dame SID even taped his pre-game speech and played it for us so we could add it to our stories. Notre Dame won, I think it was 21-3, and we all wrote Hail to Faust stories the next day.

Two mornings later, back home, I was sound asleep when the phone rang.

“Fahnsteen, wake up son, I gotta get on you.”

I wondered if I was dreaming. Usually Lefty Driesell only called to yell at me during basketball season. “Lefty, it’s September, what can you be made at me about in September?” I said.

“Yo buddy Faust,” he said. “He wins ONE game and you write that he’s Knute Rockne. Dan Devine won a national championship out there and you act like he was a dog.”

“Lefty,” I asked. “What have you got against Gerry Faust?”

“Nothing. But I got plenty against you.”

This was typical of our in-season conversations. He would usually slam the phone after saying he was never going to speak to me again, then sidle over to me at practice that afternoon and say, “What’s up Feiny, you got a scoop today?”

Four years went by and things didn’t go so well for Faust. After a third straight lost to Air Force, ‘Oust Faust,’ signs began to appear around campus. One morning, the phone rang again.

“Fahnsteen, wake up son,” the familiar voice said. “I gotta ask you a question?

“What is it Lefty?”

“Yo buddy Faust. He still ridin’ around out there in a golf cart or did he get himself an armored tank.”

I fell out of bed laughing.

All of which brings me back to Akron and the smile I had on my face listening to the guy talk about the Zips six game home schedule. Chances are I won’t be at any of the games. But I know there will be people there who genuinely care about the Zips. So, I’ll keep tabs on them this fall. And whenever I hear one of their scores, I’ll remember an August night and a guy who was really fired up to be hanging out with Zippy.

Seems to me there are worse things to do in life.

Beckham Situation Like Pele’s in 70’s, But Without Production? Another Cruyff Story

So there are all these stories about David Beckham’s impending return to the Los Angeles Galaxy that imply this is some kind of big deal.

Let me say this first: I’m not a soccer basher. I covered it at the start of my career at The Washington Post when the old North American Soccer League was actually flourishing with real stars like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and Johan Cruyff—who is still the most entertaining athlete away from the field I ever covered on a regular basis.

That said, I have two problems with soccer: first, the fact that World Cup games are decided in shootouts. I’m sorry, you simply can’t do that and expect people to take you seriously. It would be like stopping a World Series baseball game after 12 innings and having a Home Run Derby. Or having a chip-off to decide The Masters or a field goal kicking contest if The Super Bowl was tied after a fifth quarter. (For all I know Donovan McNabb thinks that IS the rule).

The other issue for me is the soccer-istas who insist that if you don’t think soccer is the most wonderful, beautiful sport ever played you aren’t just ignorant, you’re evil. I hear this sometimes from hockey fans who think I shouldn’t write about hockey because I don’t cover 80 games a year at this point in my life. You must either LOVE soccer or hockey and nothing else or be banished from the kingdom forever.

Here’s the deal: I like hockey and I like soccer. I enjoy covering them when I get the chance because my dealings with players in the two sports have always been very pleasant.

But I don’t analyze the quality of D.C. United’s corner kicks.

And I really don’t get the whole Beckham thing.

The guy has been a very good player for a long time now. That said, my most vivid memory of him is when he was, “sent off,” (red-carded) during a World Cup game forcing England to play a large chunk of the game a man short. That eventually cost England the game and it was said that Beckham would never be forgiven by his countrymen.

Well, he was forgiven, which is fine. He married Posh Spice, which I guess is the European equivalent of dating Jessica Simpson. Beckham and Spice (is that the right way to second-reference her?) became one of the world’s hot couples. Again, I don’t really get it. Beyonce and Jay-Z, I get. They both have talent.

Beckham’s coming to LA was hailed as the equivalent of Pele coming to New York in the mid-70s to play for the Cosmos. Except he’s rarely played and when he has played he hasn’t done much and his team has done even less. The Cosmos won championships with Pele on the team. In a league where almost everyone makes the playoffs, the Galaxy don’t even make the playoffs.

Beckham has sold a lot of tickets because of the buzz connected to his name but frequently those buying tickets have watched him sit no the bench or come in midway through the second half or play an entire game and touch the ball three times. This is the man they name movies for? (“Bend it like Beckham.”) From where I sit, “Bend it Like Ben (Olsen)” might have been a more apt title.

I enjoy World cup soccer—except for the stupid shootouts. I love the passion and the pageantry. I like the fact that The MLS has found a niche in our sports culture here. In cities like Washington, the local team has a solid fan base that, no doubt the ownership wishes was larger, but is very loyal and shows up in all weather regardless of whether the team is winning titles or missing the playoffs.

But I don’t get the Beckham thing. I didn’t get it when Tiger Woods and his minions were allowed to pair Romo with Woods in the pro-am at Woods’s tournament and consign Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell to another group. Anyone who knows me at all knows how I feel about the Redskins owner, the team’s management and the fanaticism about the team in this town.

But if you’re in Washington and you’re the host of a golf tournament and the quarterback of the Redskins and the quarterback of the Cowboys are both playing you play with the guy from the Redskins. I don’t care if the Cowboys QB is dating a young Lauren Bacall—which, for the record, Jessica Simpson (now Romo’s ex, cry me a river) is not.

I digress.

Maybe Beckham will have one last great flourish in Los Angeles. Clearly, he had little interest in going back there this year since he somehow conned the club into ‘loaning,’ him to A.C. Milan for more than half the season. Wow talk about an eager-beaver, huh? More likely, he’ll play half-games, whine about some injury and depart to sign some multi-million dollar contract for another year or two in Europe.

Having said all that, I have this memory of Cruyff, shortly after he came to Washington. He hadn’t scored a goal in his first seven games when my then-boss, George Solomon, came to a game against the Seattle Sounders. (That was the NASL’s team as it is now MLS’s team in Seattle). I had been writing about Cruyff a lot because he was a star and SO quotable.

Midway through the first half, Solomon, whose knowledge of soccer extended to the fact that he knew players were not supposed to use their hands, turned to me and said, ‘when are you going to have the guts to write that this Dutchman is overrated?”

It was a classic Solomon dig.

As if he had heard Solomon, Cruyff, at that very instant, stole the ball at midfield, went through five Sounders and scored the greatest goal anyone in the stadium had ever seen. It was breath-taking.

I turned to Solomon and said: “What were you saying George?”

“Never mind,” he answered.

I await a moment like that from David Beckham.

Why I Still Follow Soccer

It doesn’t happen very often but there will actually be people paying attention to soccer this weekend. The timing is actually perfect: The U.S. Open was last week; the Wimbledon finals aren’t until next week and the days when Yankees-Mets or Cubs-White Sox were actually a big deal are long past.

So, when the United States plays Brazil on Sunday afternoon in the championship game of something called The Confederation’s Cup, there is actually a chance people will be watching. That’s because the U.S. pulled a stunning upset in the semifinals on Wednesday, beating Spain, which is a true power in world soccer.

Now, let’s be honest about this: this isn’t The World Cup. It’s one of the gazillion soccer tournaments played around the world ever year. There are so many different tournaments that teams in The MLS break off from their schedules in mid-season to play in them. It can be dizzying.

So, this was not as a colleague of mine tried to claim, “one of the great upsets in history.” What makes it significant is that it may bode well for next year’s World Cup. If the U.S. beats Spain THEN it’s a big deal. If it beats Brazil on Sunday it’s also a big deal because Brazil is the Yankees of world soccer. They don’t always win but when they don’t win, well, heads roll.

Now, your first question as you read this, especially if you are a soccer-nista is, what the hell do I know about soccer?

Look, I’m not George Vecsey, my friend whose New York Times columns are always peppered with soccer references because it is easily his favorite sport. But when I was a kid reporter at The Washington Post my first beat was covering the old Washington Diplomats in the now-defunct North American Soccer League.

Covering the Dips—as they called themselves, “Get Your Kicks With The Dips,” was their slogan—was a blast. The NASL had actually become fairly popular in the late 70s and early 80s after Pele came to play with the New York Cosmos followed by superstars like Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia, The Cosmos often played to sellout crowds in Giants Stadium in those days.

The Dips actually averaged more than 24,000 fans a game playing in RFK Stadium in 1980. The draw was Johan Cruyff, the Dutch superstar that ownership—Madison Square Garden believe it or not—brought in to bulk up attendance.

I’ve said this often but to this day Cruyff is my all time favorite athlete among those I’ve covered. Johan would say ANYTHING. This was a typical post game Cruyff analysis of a loss. “We lost because the coach is an idiot, the players don’t know what they’re doing and no one is listening to me. If they don’t listen to me we will never win.”

I would write that and the next day Johan would scream at me for writing it—I would point out I was standing there taking notes while he was taking—and say he would never speak to me again. Then, after practice, he’d walk up and say, “where are we going for dinner?”

I look back at my days covering soccer in today’s era of athlete websites and interview rooms and shake my head. I often joked that the soccer people were so cooperative that they’d come to your house to be interviewed and I wasn’t exaggerating by much.

In 1981 the so-called “Soccer Bowl,”—the NASL championship game—was being played in Washington. The league’s biggest star at the time was Chinaglia. On the Sunday before the game I was covering a football game at Giants Stadium when my boss called me. “As long as you’re up there, why don’t you stay over until Monday and see if you can talk to Chinaglia,” he said.

Okay, fine. It took me about five minutes to get Chinaglia’s home phone number from a Cosmos PR guy. When I called his wife he was asleep but would take a message. Sure enough, an hour later The Washington Post’s press box phone rang. (No cell phone in those days).

As luck would have it, Tony Kornheiser was closest to the phone. He answered it, got a funny look on his face and said, “John (no he didn’t call me Junior back then) there’s an Italian guy on the phone for you.”

It was Chinaglia, a little stunned that someone didn’t know who he was. I told him I was hoping to talk to him the next day.

“Where are you staying?” he asked.

I told him. He said. “I have to go into the city in the morning for a meeting. I’ll pick you up, we’ll drive in and have breakfast. We can talk in the car and at breakfast. Is that okay?”

I probably should have asked why he wasn’t inviting me to the house for breakfast but I said that was fine. When Kornheiser, listening to the conversation, heard the plan he began shouting all over the press box: “Giorgia Chinagli (he did know the name) is going to be Feinstein’s chauffeur tomorrow.”

I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for those days. Which is why I still follow soccer even though I haven’t covered it for years. And I’ll be watching Sunday.