It's not often that my news reader fills up with soccer related news that doesn't come from a soccer focused site. Generally, I hear about happenings in the soccer world through various keywords that I hope will pull anything and everything related to American soccer that is floating around the interweb.
Blogs are the largest source, though I certainly get stories through soccernet, ESPN proper, CNN and the like (especially if the name "Beckham" is involved). Today, though, the web blew up.
Every sports site in the country posted a story on Don Garber's verbal beat-down by Yankees' president Randy Levine over The Don's recent comments about the baseball club's attendance "woes".
I don't quite get what all the fuss is about. First, I think it's very possible that Levine took Garber's comments out of context. Second, Levine is clearly guilty of overreacting. Third, even if Garber meant what he said, so what? Why is Randy Levine so sensitive that he felt it necessary to respond? Especially in light of his obvious disdain for Major League Soccer?
"Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke," Levine told the AP today. "We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.
Come on now, Randy. If MLS isn't even in the "same time zone" as the Yankees (what does that even mean?), why bother wasting your breath? Someone once told me that "eagles don't hunt flies". If the Yankees are the eagle and Garber/MLS is the fly, then all Levine has done is lower himself.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a staunch supporter of MLS, and I'm no Yankee-lover either; but the fact remain that the New York Yankees are one of the world's biggest sports brands, and Major League Soccer is one step removed from fly-by-night.
This little shot shows just how petty Randy Levine truly is:
"Hey Don, worry about Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league.''
There are two ways to look at this little overblown episode. Either Levine's comments have given the soccer-hating public (and they're falling over themselves to comment on the story wherever they can) license to bash the sport (again) and the league takes another P.R. hit, or the attention MLS is getting from the mainstream media over what amounts to a misunderstanding is a good thing, something that will actually be a positive in the long run.
What do you think? Is this another hit for MLS and American soccer, or is there a silver lining to all of the attention?
