the brits, the world series and the big cat.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

The NFL is considering playing the Super Bowl at Wembley. Why? Yes, it's a huge stadium. Yes, it's a huge city. NFL Europa was a flop--they had to shut it down completely. People don't care much about American football in Europe. And really, what is the Super Bowl about? Exposure, or two teams competing for a championship? It's already next to impossible for fans to follow their teams to the Super Bowl if they do indeed make it--now the NFL wants to make it a complete impossibility? Tickets are already prohibitively expensive, and that's if you can even find them: most go to corporate sponsors. I mean, I know that some people will be able to afford it, but it should be about these team's fans before it's about Europeans who shunned the game enough to force the league to close its doors. Europe doesn't like it's Professional American Football League? Great! Congratulations! Shut it down and let's give them the Super Bowl!

Get real. I know it's all about finding new markets. Give me a break, though. Europe doesn't care. Yeah, Wembley is sold out for the Jets/Dolphins game in London later this year--great. Barcelona v. Chivas sold out at the Los Angeles Coliseum last summer...but I don't think anyone is saying that soccer is about to become completely relevant in this nation (sadly) and I don't think UEFA is going to give us the Champions League final any time soon. In a sense, these are of comparable value. Get real, Mr. Goodell. First, you threaten to take the Pro Bowl from Hawaii, and then you tell us all you might move the Super Bowl from the US completely? Give me a break.

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Second: I won't talk about the Cleveland Indians being 3-1 up on the Red Sox, because I know that would dampen Pat's time in Amsterdam (Manny doesn't seem to care much...maybe he wants his old Indians to finally win the world series for the first time since..what...'47?). However, I don't get how the Cleveland Indians can keep their mascot when universities like St. Johns and Illinois had to get rid of their "racially insensitive mascots", I don't get how the Indians can still have this epitome of racist archetypes as a mascot. I mean, it's different things to different people, of course, but let's have an equal playing field you know? (Yeah, that probably means that the Redskins will have to change their name too...but they can keep the logo if they become the Washington Native Americans or Washington [name of N. American group that lived on the Potomac]). I'm not calling for an overtly politically correct world, just a fair, even politically correct one.

Suggestions? Well, the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a contest for kids to re-design the Indians unis, and if they're going to keep their name, the kids offered some great suggestions for new logos, using an "I" with a bunch of feathers. Most of the kids' mock-ups are horrendous, but some, including the last set, are really great.


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Seriously, though--the Rockies? My dad bought me a computer baseball sim when I was in third grade--you picked your line-up and picked the pitches and how you'd hit (hit-and-run, sac flies), but you never got to actually play (I hated the crap out of this game)--and I remember the only player that I had from the Rockies was Andres Galarraga.

I kid you not. And the team was more like my dad's team, but seriously, we won the World Series three straight years on the hardest setting. No joke. My dad could be a manager, I guess.

My point? That I know nothing about the Rockies. Did they ever make the play-offs before this season(I'm asking you, reader, because I'm tired of googling stuff)?

Seriously. Andres Galarraga. I have no idea how/why my dad picked him up (I usually sat him on the bench--we had Frank Thomas on our team too, and the Big Hurt was far more of a house-hold name to seven year-olds like myself). I can't stop laughing. Andres Galarraga? Dad?

anyway.