rabi's profile

rabi
461
Location: Chicago
Member since: May 31, 2002
Last visit: March 27, 2019

rabi has posted 8 links and 22 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 1 comment to the Locker Room.

Recent Links

A World Cup 2010 Google Calendar: So you can be ready. Or so your family and friends can be alerted to the vast swaths of time during which you'll be unavailable this summer.

posted by rabi to soccer at 12:23 PM on January 04, 2010 - 11 comments

US Soccer assistant coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick dead at 51.: "We lost a great person today," said former U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Bruce Arena. "He was an unbelievable husband and father, and the finest soccer person I've ever come across in the United States."

posted by rabi to soccer at 06:53 PM on October 09, 2006 - 2 comments

FIFA ranks USA at #7: This is the highest the USA has ever been ranked by FIFA. Still at #15 in the Elo Ratings, though.

posted by rabi to soccer at 04:59 PM on July 07, 2004 - 10 comments

Reinstated.: Gary Barnett was reinstated yesterday as head football coach at the University of Colorado. The president of the school said 'it was the right thing to do.' She also said that that Barnett had 'paid a price' for his offensive statements. What price?

posted by rabi to football at 12:24 PM on May 28, 2004 - 6 comments

Take your mind off Sammy for a while and kick it old school while checking out logos from now-defunct sports leagues. My favorite: The NASL's New England Tea Men. Not to be confused with the Jacksonville Tea Men.

posted by rabi to culture at 02:28 PM on June 04, 2003 - 7 comments

Recent Comments

Marco Melandri is some sort of Robocop.

You know, it looks like he took that fall just about as perfectly as anyone could. Not that this is something that you'd want to get really good at...but if you have to fall off a bike, that's the way to do it.

posted by rabi at 10:10 PM on September 12, 2007

'Wild Bill' Hagy

As a kid growing up in Baltimore in the 70's and 80's, this guy seemed like he was bigger than life. To me, he was as important to our city as the mayor.

posted by rabi at 07:31 PM on August 22, 2007

Beckham Comes to the Colonies

FonGu- I'm surprised Pittsburgh isn't big enough for at least one of the Telefutura channels. I think the u20 Cup is also being broadcast on- surprisingly enough- ESPNU. Another way to stay on top of US soccer news is by subscribing to the soccer RSS feeds from Yahoo! Sports and USA Today. ussoccer.com always has a schedule and a match tracker for every national game. But to the original question: I think media generally responds to a given market. I don't think the fact that mainstream media hasn't responded to soccer has hampered its development in the US. Objectively, US soccer has made great strides in the last 10 or 15 years. None of the progress came with mainstream media help; in fact, it came despite the tired Rome-like jibes. I live in Chicago, which is a big soccer market. Despite that, the local news rarely have anything to say about the Fire and never mention the national team. Even so, the Fire are in their own soccer-specific stadium and the national team played the Gold Cup final here in a sold-out Soldier Field. So, who really cares what dinosaurs like ESPN think? The real thing that hampers the development of US soccer is that there's not a good system for scouting players outside of the normal venues. You can be sure there are some great players out there who aren't getting looked at under the current system. Once that changes, the rest of the world will be playing for second place.

posted by rabi at 06:41 PM on July 14, 2007

Beckham Comes to the Colonies

That clip is two months old. Has Rome commented on Bekcham in the last couple of days? A lot of things, including Calderon's opinion, have changed since then. To your question: it depends on what media we're talking about. Minutes ago, I watched the under 20 squad (sadly) lose to Austria on Telefutura. They or their partners have broadcast the u-20 World Cup, the Copa America and the Gold Cup this summer. That's broadcast TV we're talking about. There's certainly a market for soccer in the States, and some media are responding.

posted by rabi at 04:38 PM on July 14, 2007

Carpenter and Cards take 2-1 lead in series

dbt302- You're remembering 1983.

posted by rabi at 10:34 AM on October 25, 2006

US names World Cup Roster

Yes to Brian Ching and no to Taylor Twellman? That was a bit surprising to me.

posted by rabi at 09:10 PM on May 02, 2006

Safe at home.

Great story. Thanks.

posted by rabi at 01:46 PM on January 21, 2006

History of Tour de France

Great, great, great. A magnificent madness. Thanks, FB.

posted by rabi at 10:24 AM on June 06, 2003

If you want some of the old #10, billy, it will cost you. First, you will have to master another language. Then, you will have to pay 89 CHF (whatever that is) for it. There must be some kind of copyright laws still in place for some teams. I bet these guys know something about it.

posted by rabi at 04:02 PM on June 04, 2003

Sosa ejected for cork in bat.

The most surreal moment in the press conference last night was when the reporter asked Dusty Baker "What can we trust?". Dusty said, "What?", and the reporter repeated slowly and clearly, "What can we trust?". What a strange moment for a baseball press conference.

posted by rabi at 09:59 AM on June 04, 2003

Bringing up cell phones these days is almost like bringing up religion at the dinner table. People freak out. Speaking of religion, the editor of "Darwinmag" (whatever that is) needs to get some, if only to raise his credibility. John 2:13? Huh? I would wager many dollars that no one has ever seen that reference on a sign in a stadium.

posted by rabi at 09:55 AM on May 10, 2003

Here I am, SF.

posted by rabi at 11:44 AM on March 12, 2003

New Zealand lost to England at Rugby today

Thanks, FB. Great article. There should be a Spofi category called "Passion" or even "Primeval pride" where we could post pieces like this regularly.

posted by rabi at 06:27 PM on November 10, 2002

Two teams to play next UEFA games in empty stadiums.

My mom used to tell me that fair was what you pay to get on a bus (get it? fare?). She insisted that the world wasn't fair. It appears that UEFA is proving my mom was right. I'm wondering if this will make any positive impact on the fans in the long run. Rest assured, it won't in the short term. I would guess that the next time the "banned" fans are admitted into the stadiums that they will be more wound up than ever-- like bees who have been swatted at. The real questions: Two or three games down the line, will these fans have "learned their lesson"? Will UEFA have the balls to do this more than once?

posted by rabi at 03:41 PM on October 11, 2002

Stop the holy showboating

Nice article about a pretty silly practice. McGraw is concerned with "posturing" prayer or religious display- and that's exactly what we see week in and week out in the NFL. McGraw is also on target to admit that sport and religion have almost always been joined at the hip. You know, like the Olympics. Named after the god Olympian. So joined together are these concepts that the adjective "olympian" is used to refer to the loftiness and excellence of a feat. This is kind of like saying, "Did you see him jump that hurdle with jesusistic ease?" I digress... The point is that I doubt this will ever go away in sport. Does anyone else? I also wondered what this really had to do with the point McGraw was making: I know of no accountants who point to the heavens after they balance their ledgers. If posturing religious display is the problem, we certainly shouldn't expect to know any accountants who showboat in the quiet stillness of their office. But if they had cameras pointed on them, who knows?

posted by rabi at 09:07 AM on September 28, 2002