I have to be honest and say when Liverpool first hired Rafa Benitez in the summer of 2004, I did not know too much about him. Sure I knew he had done well with Valencia, but I was skeptical of a Spanish manager coming to Liverpool and doing a good job. Boy was I wrong! At the time I was sure Liverpool would hire Martin O'Neill whose reputation was immense and had done incredible things at Celtic. Surely a manager who had experience in the UK would be better.
I think Liverpool got the appointment right with Rafa, not to say Martin O'Neill would not have done a good job, but I don't think he would have won the Champions League in his first season. The two managers, who I respect a lot, are now involved in a transfer saga. Gareth Barry wants to move to Liverpool, however, Aston Villa are asking too much in a transfer fee, 18 million pounds. I can understand Villa wanting to make a generous profit, but since they know Barry wants to move to Liverpool they feel they can ask more then usual. Here is Liverpool's best players reacting to hearing he might Gareth is coming to Liverpool:
Liverpool are going in the right direction, however, they have a strong nucleus of Spanish players and will only compete for more trophies if they add some veteran premier leaguers in Gareth Barry and Robbie Keane. That would put them over the edge and allow them to win what every fan waiting for: The English Premier League Championship. I will leave you with a funny video of Liverpool players protesting a game being canceled because of the weather by using the authority responsible as target practice:
Showing posts with label English Premier league. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English Premier league. Show all posts
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
MLB needs the ALL-Star Game, But should it?
The MLB just had it's ALL-Star game and Homerun Derby, which I only found the Homerun Derby entertaining when Josh Hamilton was trying to knock over the center field wall of Yankee Stadium by himself. But I find myself trying to figure out anything else that will be exciting for most baseball fans in the country from now until October. The fact is half of the 30 teams in the MLB already have no chance of making the playoffs and are already looking towards next year or worse 5 years away.
Many people blame this problem on there being 162 games in a baseball season, so each one has little meaning. Others blame it on teams financial situations, smaller market teams can't compete with the "big boys". I have a better solution to the problem and would make the game on September 15th between the KC Royals and Seattle Mariners worth paying attention to.
Major League Baseball needs to adopt a system similar to the English Premier League (or any of the top leagues in Europe). This would mean creating a drop zone in major league baseball. The two worst teams in the National League and American League would be relegated to the current triple A league, and the top 4 teams in triple A would be promoted to MLB. In order for this to happen the Triple A teams would have to be independently owned, and free from being a farm system for MLB teams and become a league of 12 "big market" or "potentially big market" cities. This would be your Las Vegas' of the United States. These teams would be able to give higher paid contracts to veterans a the end of the career unwilling to hang up their glove feeling they could still contribute (ala Ricky Henderson). They would also be able to "loan" developmental players from MLB teams in order to give them more experience. Of course the Triple A teams would have to pay their salary during their loan period.
The reason that this would be so successful is that it would make the owners of teams, such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, to stop treating their franchises as an investment. There would be much more to lose in not investing in their teams fully where as now they have nothing to lose besides fans. But more importantly it would create more interest in every game being played throughout the season! Games between the worst team in the NL and the 10th placed team would now be a lot more interesting and mean a lot more creating a scene like this:
A picture from Fulham's last game of the season where they avoided relegation
Instead of this:
An image from Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 of a game in Baltimore between the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals
If the MLB developed a system like this the All Star Game would become a distraction from the passion of regular season game instead of an attraction needed in the middle of boring mid season MLB season where no games matter.
Many people blame this problem on there being 162 games in a baseball season, so each one has little meaning. Others blame it on teams financial situations, smaller market teams can't compete with the "big boys". I have a better solution to the problem and would make the game on September 15th between the KC Royals and Seattle Mariners worth paying attention to.
Major League Baseball needs to adopt a system similar to the English Premier League (or any of the top leagues in Europe). This would mean creating a drop zone in major league baseball. The two worst teams in the National League and American League would be relegated to the current triple A league, and the top 4 teams in triple A would be promoted to MLB. In order for this to happen the Triple A teams would have to be independently owned, and free from being a farm system for MLB teams and become a league of 12 "big market" or "potentially big market" cities. This would be your Las Vegas' of the United States. These teams would be able to give higher paid contracts to veterans a the end of the career unwilling to hang up their glove feeling they could still contribute (ala Ricky Henderson). They would also be able to "loan" developmental players from MLB teams in order to give them more experience. Of course the Triple A teams would have to pay their salary during their loan period.
The reason that this would be so successful is that it would make the owners of teams, such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, to stop treating their franchises as an investment. There would be much more to lose in not investing in their teams fully where as now they have nothing to lose besides fans. But more importantly it would create more interest in every game being played throughout the season! Games between the worst team in the NL and the 10th placed team would now be a lot more interesting and mean a lot more creating a scene like this:
A picture from Fulham's last game of the season where they avoided relegation
Instead of this:
An image from Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 of a game in Baltimore between the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals
If the MLB developed a system like this the All Star Game would become a distraction from the passion of regular season game instead of an attraction needed in the middle of boring mid season MLB season where no games matter.
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