Save the WPS!

"Ooooooh, can you believe it? Abby Wambach has just saved the USA's life!" Ian Darke made this call at the end of the USA vs. Brazil WWC quarterfinal. For those of you who lived under a rock at the time, Megan Rapinoe served a beautiful ball to Abby Wambach in the 122nd minute of stoppage time, and Abby(or that beast in the air) buried it in the back of the net. 
Watching the replay still gives me chills.

All of a sudden, women's soccer was back on the map in the United States, and bigger than ever. People from all walks of life jumped on the bandwagon. Wambach was fairly well-known before, but that fateful game last July bumped her and Hope Solo into bona fide celebrity status.

Did Abby and company take a break after the exhausting and emotionally draining World Cup? No. They got right back on the horse with their professional soccer league (WPS). Now that same league is in serious jeopardy. The USSF is debating on whether or not to sanction WPS as D1 for the 2012 season. Social media is abuzz with protests and pleading. This is great, but we need more. There has to be other ways to get the word out. #savewps please!

I live in South Florida, and I had the pleasure of attending several magicJack games this past summer. When the ladies got back from Germany, attendance at the matches nearly quadrupled in size. The outpouring of support was both astounding and incredible. I think what amazes me the most is the level of dedication that WPS players have.

Can you imagine running your butt off for 90+ minutes in the sweltering summer heat? Once the final whistle blows, all you can think about is a shower. Yet after every game, each and every player took to the sidelines, signing autographs, posing for pictures, and engaging their fans in small talk. Thousands of screaming kids (and plenty of adults) got their balls and posters signed. I watched Sarah Huffman patiently wait for a mother to learn how to work an iphone camera so that she could take a picture of her kids with Sarah. It took forever. Huffy could have easily walked away or moved on, but she stayed put with a smile on her face. Let me ask, what other professional league has players that do this? None! Sure, if you catch an MLB player on a good day he might sign a ball for you, but probably not. These women want to see their league succeed and they know that guestures like this mean a lot to their fans.

I was also fortunate enough to watch a lot of magicJack practices. Towards the end of the season I went almost every day. Sometimes I brought my dog. I would set up my lawn chair and just watch them do their thing. The team probably thought I was a practice stalker. Not quite. It was like Christmas for a soccer fan. I had the chance to watch some of the best in the world play the game, in an informal setting, a couple of minutes from my house. If you're a baseball fan, it would be like watching Albert Pujols take batting practice in your backyard. It was incredible, and I wish I had savored it more.

I played on a youth team growing up, but we weren't very good. In Saint Louis it can get pretty chilly in the winter months. My mom hated sitting on the cold bleachers, freezing, watching us lose, so she signed me up for indoor volleyball as soon as I was old enough. That experiment didn’t last long though, and soon I was right back out on the pitch. I had the chance to play soccer in college but my financial circumstances didn't permit it.

I worked full-time, I started smoking, and I quit running. Then I watched Wambach and co. play on a daily basis. It inspired me to kick the smoking habit and get my butt back in the gym. I'm running up to 6 miles a day now, and I am faster than I can ever remember being. I'm 25 years old and about to finally graduate from college. I don't have a crazy dream to play in the WPS-I know that ship has sailed. They still motivated the hell out of me though.

I was hoping to get a job with the league or a team in some capacity. When mJ went down, that only left 5 teams to choose from. Every article I've read, whether it was from Beau Dure, Equalizer soccer, or All White Kit, is optomistic about the future of the league. 2013 talks about West Coast expansion and up to 7 new teams joining the ranks. If the league dies now they won't have a chance.

If USSF doesn't sanction the league, they could continue play as D2 for a season. The national team stars would probably be gone though, and that's what draws the crowds. Investors and sponsors will be hard to come by. It seems like women's soccer in America has always been fighting an uphill battle. There a lot of young girls out there who dream of being the next Abby Wambach. I witnessed this myself last summer. They came to games in large groups, and drug their families along with them. The fan base isn't just the teenieboppers anymore. My 26 year old boyfriend used to scoff at women's soccer, but the mJ ladies successfully converted him.

I see so much potential for the league. Sure it has its problems, but it's still here - for now. The only way to fix it is to keep it going. Please sign this petition and help us spread the word.

http://www.change.org/petitions/us-soccer-for-womens-professional-soccer-sanction-the-league-to-be-division-one-under-ussf

You can also join the conversation on twitter.  #savewps

BASEBALL CARDS AND AUTOGRAPHS...EMBRACING YOUR INNER 9 YEAR OLD

It's an off day in Cardinal nation, so I decided to discuss some of my favorite things. I'm not Oprah though, so I'm not giving away new cars...



Did your dad ever tell you about how he had thousands of baseball cards when he was younger? Mantle, Gehrig, Aaron. Boxes upon boxes, all stacked and separated. You name it, he had it. And then his mom cleaned out his closet and threw them all away. When I was younger, my dad loved to tell me about how his little brother took his Stan Musial rookie card and lost it in a dramatic game of Flip Cards. I'm sure the story was exaggerated over the years though, sorry Uncle Shannon.
My dad was a smoker. He would buy his cigarettes at the courtesy counter of the local grocery store, Dierbergs, with my older brother and I in tow. Every trip to Dierbergs meant a new pack of baseball cards for Ryan and I. We were barely in the car on the way home before we ripped open the packs to see which cards were inside. Bonds, Griffey, McGwire, Sosa, Ripken. You name it, WE had it! I think Ryan enjoyed the gum more than the cards though.
At some point he stopped buying packs for us. Maybe we thought we grew out of it. The thousands of baseball cards were boxed away until one fateful hot summer day (maybe I was 11) when two of my cousins and I had the brilliant idea to separate all of the cards into teams. Our interest in this task waned, and it took all summer to finish...
Fast forward to 2007. I moved out of my mom's house, and in packing I discovered the long-forgotten boxes of baseball cards.
My mom's best friend's son used to mail cards to players houses asking them for autographs. I figured it wasn't a bad idea, so I bought Harvey Meiselman's address book and a couple hundred stamps and went to work.
I send out a couple of them every few months. As of June 2011 I have 256 autographed cards that I have received back through the mail. Sure I've sent out a lot more than that. Some guys write personal messages back, while others demand money for signing. You win some, you lose some.
Some of the better ones in my collection are Barry Larkin, John Olerud, Carlton Fisk,  Mark Whiten, Robin Ventura, Jay Bell, Mo Vaughn, Bert Blyleven, Fred McGriff, Bobby Bonilla, Gary Carter, Shawon Dunston, Don Zimmer, Mark Grace, Fernando Valenzuela, Brett Butler, Matt Williams, Raphael Belliard, Javy Lopez, Luis Gonzalez, Roger McDowell, Lonnie Smith, Josh Johnson, Bob Forsch, Chris Coughlan, and Carl Pavano. Not bad for some 44 cent stamps, a couple of envelopes, and a little bit of time on rainy afternoons. I will go into my autographed baseball collection from Spring Training another time...
I don't plan on selling the cards. It's a collection. Some people collect stamps, coins, or bottle caps. I collect baseball cards. I can pass them down to my kids one day.

Feel free to call me a nerd, or a dork. Trust me, I've been called much worse. Everyone has hobbies. Some people love to tinker with their cars, some like to paint or do arts and crafts, and still others enjoy doing absolutely nothing. I like cars, but don't know enough about them to even attempt to mess with what's under the hood. I can't draw worth a crap - even my stick people look weird. Baseball is something I know a lot about. It's a hobby, a past time, and I love every minute of it. I try to watch every Cardinals game that Direct TV's extra innings package permits. Even if I had all of the money in the world, I wouldn't spend my summer nights any other way. (Except maybe I'd buy my own team and watch from the owner's box instead of my couch).

I would think that most people out there have baseball cards stashed away somewhere: in the closet, the attic or the garage. I encourage you to get them out and flip through them - you'll be amazed at what you might find. I'm not telling you to mail them out for autographs, although I have to say that it makes going to the mailbox a lot more exciting - in between your cable and electric bills you might find an autographed rookie card. If you were planning to throw those boxes out though, I would be more than happy to take them off your hands...