No Crying in Baseball

David Beckham crying?









One of my favorite lines from a movie comes from "A League of Their Own" when Tom Hanks' character says to one of the female baseball players "Are you crying? Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball!"

But there is crying in soccer. The World Cup has been cause for tears.

Today is the final game of the World Cup. Host country, Germany, closed out the event with a third place finish and today, Italy takes on France to determine who is the best soccer team in the world. Unlike American baseball's "World Series", soccer's World Cup is actually country vs. country. But have any of my numerous readers watched any of the World Cup games? My guess is probably not. Soccer just isn't as popular in the U.S. as it is around the world. I've only watched some of the games and that's because our friends, Mr. and Mrs. T., are really into it. Mrs. T. and I work together and several times over the past few weeks, she has rounded up a bunch of her co-workers to join her at CNN's Jock's and Jill's for lunch-time soccer games. It was fun, but thank goodness the World Cup ends today. My gut has clearly been overstuffed with nachos, chicken wings and buffalo bites.

I'm curious as to why soccer hasn't gained huge popularity here in the U.S. yet? I don't know about you , but I see those soccer ball stickers on Caravan after Voyager after Odyssey on a daily basis. Soccer moms with minivans have become ubiquitous vehicles on the Atlanta area roads. But still, soccer is not as big as football, baseball and basketball. Shoot, even breakfast at Wimbledon this morning will probably draw more viewers than the World Cup finals.

Here's my theory. I think we American's like action. When a World Cup soccer game can end in a zero to zero tie - what's exciting about that? No one has even scored and the game is over? That makes no sense to us competative Americans who at least want a sudden death to the finish. We want high scoring games with a clear winner when it's all said and done. And we don't want crying unless it's tears of joy. We only want to see wet eyes when the trophy is being held high above the MVP's head and he's thanking God for making it all possible.