Just Another Day in the Life

Brett Myers has taken much in stride during his few years as a pitcher in Philadelphia - the harsh booing from the notoriously brutal Philly crowd, year after year of 'almost but not quite' in the playoff race, allegedly beating his wife publically in midtown Boston - wait, what?

If you were as shocked by the last statement as I was, you can join the thousands of others sans, of course, Brett Myers. Hours after Myers was arrested for an alleged domestic assault against his wife openly in the city of Boston and soon after Myers was released from prison on 200 dollars bail posted by his wife, he was out in the open, talking to the press. How did he handle it? What remorse, if any, was shown? For Myers - none.

"I'm sorry it had to get public. Of course it's embarassing." That's all the Phillies ace had to say on the topic. No apology. No remorse. Not even an inkling of regret. Myers is sorry he got caught not for what happened, plain and simple - that much is clear from his ice cold responses.

So what did the Phillies, as an organization, do following the incident? Why, they trotted him out there to pitch his next start, a day and a half after the alleged incident. Sounds like swift justice to me.

"I think getting back on the mound will be good for him and I think he's ready," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "I don't think this is going to be a big distraction at all for him." Nevermind how having a domestic assault case fresh off your hands couldn't be distracting to Myers, what about the rest of his teammates? How do they feel about going to war with a man who allegedly put welts on his wife and mother of two in public?

The Phillies complete failure to act aside, the question now that begs to be asked is - is this an isolated incident? This being purely speculation, but Myers' cold, remorseless and manufactured response makes one think if this is run of the mill, routine or simply a happening in his life. Secondly, that very same aforementioned response has almost villified him up with the likes of John Rocker or OJ, at least in the hearts of baseball fans.

So where does this circus lead us to next? Perhaps I'm wrong about all of this, maybe it was one grand ole' misunderstanding and I'll be shown the err of my ways, but I doubt it. The only thing I can guarentee, at this stage of the game, is that the fans won't be as forgiving of the situation as he seems to be.

So The Yankees Play Who Next Week?

The much-hyped, much bally-hooed United States soccer team has just been eliminated from the World Cup in the group stage. That's right, the same team that 'officially announced' they've arrived on the international scene lost in a blow out to the Czech Republic, a game they barely showed up in, and showed zero consistency in a 2-1 loss to Ghana.

A phantom call by the referee resulting in a penalty kick and a goal for Ghana didn't help, but the U.S. ultimately shot themselves in the foot - I watched as they blew chance after chance to tie the match up. Out of all three matches, the U.S. showed up for one, playing incredible football against perennial world power Italy, but overall, this will go down in history as a terribly managed American team, led none other than by American football trailblazer, Bruce Arena. But hey, 1-3 ain't bad, right?


Landon Donovan was doing plenty of this in the 2006 World Cup

As the U.S. is eliminated from the World Cup, America can go back to what we do best - no, not policing the world with our policies - being completely apathetic about soccer as a sport. Ghana, a country with the combined population of Illinois and Iowa, defeated a nation with limitless resources and 300 million citizens - we're supposed to care about soccer again, why? You don't think if we devoted all our resources and citizens, if we abolished all other sports and cared as much about soccer as those European hooligans, that we couldn't dominate the world scene? Of course we could. We just don't care.

Unfortunately for its fans, soccer will never take off in the United States. We have an overabundance of major sports as is (looking at you hockey fans - all four of you), you think there's room for another? The Playstation Generation demands instant gratification, fast paced, fury-driven madness, and flashy shows of dominance. The major 4 American sports already provide all that and, most importantly, in a more convincing, culturally embedded and readily available fashion than soccer.

So soccer fans, prepare yourselves for another four years of relative quiet, only gaining a mention on Sports Center because of the MLS championship game - maybe - and another patriotic burst of attention in 2010. Until then, what do you think the Yankees chances are of another AL East title?