By Joe Torosian
Kick it!
My insignificant prayer to the Lord today is… “Please let Team USA lose to Paraguay…just so I can talk and write trash about soccer.”
But, I jest!
If I were working in a country that was in the process of making me a billionaire, I would stand respectfully for its national anthem.
Victor Wembanyama has chosen not to…and in the end, he’ll still wind up a billionaire. While it’s noticeable he remains in the locker room when the anthem is played, I think it is better than making a scene on the court. I give him props for that.
If that’s his choice, I’m fine with it. He’s still a great player, and he’s going to have a great career. He’s going to be the face of the league.
The only thing it is going to cost Wemby is the status of being beloved. LeBron’s been the face of the league, but I don’t think he’s ever been beloved. I don’t even think Kobe was universally beloved, although his tragic death moved his legacy in that direction.
I think Michael Jordan—in a pre-social media world—was the last face of the league to be beloved. Could someone make an argument for Shaq? I suppose, but I lean Jordan.
And if we need a face of the league, I’ll take the New York Knicks.
A report this morning said thousands of tickets were still available at SoFi tonight for Team USA’s World Cup opener versus Paraguay:
Prices are as follows:
FIFA’s official face value comes in four categories:
Top Three Tiers: $1,120-to-$2,735.
Lowest (Upper Level): $560.
Costs via resale on SeatGeek, Ticketmaster, and StubHub range from $690 to $900, and can go as high as $5,000 to $6,000.
Or you can choose the Dodgers-White Sox at Rate Field in Chicago—for 86 bucks.
Or you can hassle the traffic to the Big A to see the Rays & Angels. You only need 9 bones to get into that one.
Or watch a free “Seinfeld” rerun.
Or do what I’m going to do…take the wife to dinner.
“RamView” is LIVE today on YouTube
I saw a Twitter/X proposal: Would you take 12 years of peak Rob Gronkowski or 12 years of peak Calvin Johnson? I like Megatron, but I’d go Gronk.
And I’d give them both up for 12 more years of peak Matthew Stafford.
Watched an average Indiana Fever team hold on in overtime to beat the Chicago Sky last night. Caitlin Clark, who is so good she makes a terribly run team average, scored 32, grabbed seven boards, and delivered 10 assists.
The fact that she keeps assaulting the record book in only her third season tells you what the level of play has been in the WNBA.
However, when all is said and done, her career is going to look like Pistol Pete’s, and Paige Bueckers is going to have the rings.
By the way, that was a Commissioner’s Cup game between Chicago and Indiana…Whatever…Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indy can hold 17,274…Attendance was announced at 15,30… that’s a great crowd, but the “Commissioner’s Cup” doesn’t move the needle.
Someone tries to sell me the Commissioner’s Cup (NBA or WNBA), and I’m back to reruns of Seinfeld.
The Dodgers have an eight-game lead in the National League West. It’s the end of May and the beginning of June, and it’s the perfect time for some of their key players to take a week or two off. Haven’t we seen this before?
The Harry Hystericals will weep and mourn, but a true Dodger hater like myself knows this is just the Bums getting things aligned for another October surge. This plot is more played than a Marvel movie.
#65—May the San Francisco Giants rot and lie stinking in the earth…
The Dude abides…
1,312
Proverbs 3:5-6
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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4-1 over Portgugal wasnt what I expected. WOW! and I cant stand futbol…😝
From T. Peterson: Or even Paraguay.
From Joe T.: I guess my standing with the Lord when it comes to sports isn’t as strong as I thought it was.
I find it odd that Wemby, who hails from a country that was liberated by the U.S., has a beef with the place that, as Joe says, is making him rich. Obviously, his problem with our nation doesn’t reach the level of him turning down any of that money.
I wonder if this young man has ever wondered how the U.S. became a dominant player on the world stage. It certainly wasn’t by following the teachings of Marx or Lenin. Nope, the secret of the U.S. is that it is the nation of the enlightenment, founded by guys who were intoxicated with the notion that nothing is beyond the scope of reason to understand. That’s heavy philosophy, whose author was Aristotle.
The achievement of our founding fathers was the creation of a revolutionary political structure, but the system they set up lacked the intellectual foundation needed to sustain it, and that’s the exact reason we’re seeing the grand project disintegrate. What, essentially, is this “intellectual foundation” I’m talking about? It is the firm conviction that reason and facts supersede emotions and feelings. Look around you and you will see that in everything that’s rotten, there is a group of sniveling, child-like people who will tell you, point-blank, that their feelings are the most important thing, and they couldn’t care less what the dictates of reason might say.
Getting back to the anthem, when I hear it, I think about the first 150 years or so of this nation. There has never been a greater outpouring of invention, production, and outright happiness anywhere in recorded history. The candle was lit so brightly that this phenomenon spread to many other nations around the world. That’s what the music means to me, and perhaps in time, with a decade or so of maturing, Wemby will come to understand that there is something priceless in what the United States once stood for.
It is weird that trout is hitting 220 and still near the top in OBP, walks, and runs scored. I guess that proves Moneyball does not work for the Angels.
It depends on what soccer you’re watching. If you’re watching MLS all the time then you’re probably not going to see good soccer. Watch International soccer (World Cup) or the Premier League and it’s a totally different ballgame. Like night and day. When I used to cover the Galaxy and they played Manchester United in a friendly (similar to an exhibition) they were absolutely blown out. It was like men against boys. And the Galaxy was pretty good at the time. They won the MLS title in 2014. I saw Zlatan Ibrahimovich (a former premier League player) score a goal once for the Galaxy that can only be described as miraculous. A bicycle kick from mid-field. Google it. There’s bad basketball and good basketball…same for all sports really. Same for soccer. You’ve probably just been watching the wrong soccer.
In one sentence, you criticize Wemby for not respecting the country in where he makes his money. In another sentence you actively root against your own country….. HMMMM
From Joe T.: I don’t support soccer because I think it’s Communist Kickball and I don’t want it to flourish here…and if the USA wins…it will continue to flourish…in my extrapolated way of thinking…I think it’s bad for the country…Doesn’t mean I don’t love my country…I just don’t like soccer, and less soccer is always a good thing… Regarding Wemby; I didn’t consign him to the fires of Hell…I applaud him for staying in the locker room instead of becoming a spectacle…I have worked for good people who held beliefs that were exactly the opposite of my worldview…and their paychecks paid a lot of bills and vacations…I respected them wherever I went…There should be a basic level of gratitude for the country that will make him generationally wealthy.
Gratified to hear that the soccer tickets aren’t moving. That sport is way behind football and basketball for one simple reason: it’s almost impossible to score! How about getting rid of that offside rule, or if that ruffles too many feathers, tell the goalie he/she can’t use their hands, same as everyone else? Loosening up those restrictions would serve the purpose of giving credit to a team that works harder (or more skillfully) to get the ball in scoring position, meaning the win would go to the better team, not just the luckier one. Notice how many soccer games end 0-0 and tell me I’m way off base.
From Joe T.: You’re talking to the right dude…I enjoyed playing soccer when I was young…but to watch it…with very very very few exceptions…I can’t stand it. I’m curious, when indoor soccer was a thing was “offsides” relaxed? Remember when hockey still had the two-line pass rule?
Clark = Trout.
From Joe T.: Good pull…with the exception that Trout has settled for this…Jury is still out on Clark settling for Indy. The league may force her to go someplace else because she remains a draw….Last thing on Trout: I did a funeral for a family with connections to the Angels…they sit in the primo boxes for all the games. And I asked about Trout, and they told me Trout cares about playing hard, but that he really likes Newport Beach doesn’t care about being traded to a contender. (For what it’s worth)