The Unprotected

D.C. United and the rest of MLS have announced their unprotected players for Wednesday's expansion draft. DC left available:

•Barklage, Brandon
•Boskovic, Branko
•Brettschneider, Blake
•Burch, Marc
•Cronin, Steve (GK)
•Da Luz, Austin
•King, Stephen
•McTavish, Devon
•Morsink, Kurt
•Ngwenya, Joseph
•Quaranta, Santino
•Zayner, Jed

Of these I would think Brettschneider and King would be the most attractive, though I wouldn't be surprised if Montreal selected Burch.

I'm Beginning Not To Care

This crap keeps getting worse: DC United may have to consider move

Winner of MLS titles in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004, D.C. United has explored building a venue in Baltimore near Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. For now, Garber said the team must have a lower rent next season.

“If that means that they can’t get a new improved lease in D.C., they’ve got to move to another facility in the region. I will be supportive of that, and in fact will help them do that,” he said. “And if it means they can’t find a solution in Baltimore, then we’ll have to go through a process as we did with San Jose to think about potentially moving the team. I believe that we’ll have to go through that process, as well.”

Unless someone wants to move them to the Twin Cities this will just suck. I will not support "Baltimore" United. Ever.

Not that I'll even have reason to care as Garber seems intent in NBA-ing the hell out of MLS.

Garber also said MLS will go to an unbalanced 34-game schedule next year

What a stupid fucking thing to do. Shit Garber, why not go to a league of ten two team divisions where the top two in every division make the playoffs? Dipshit.

I still cannot stand it. It is SOCCER fans that have made MLS as stable as it is. Football or basketball fans will NEVER support this league. So run the fucking league for SOCCER FANS ALREADY.

What bullshit.

The Season Of Sad Continues:

I must be getting old. It seems all the greats are leaving us: SLU great 'Easy Ed' Macauley dies

Ed Macauley, who led St. Louis University to the NIT basketball title in 1948, which remains the school's signature moment on the court, died Tuesday (Nov. 8, 2011). He was 83.

His SLU days, though, weren't the end of Macauley's basketball career. He went on to a 10-year career in the NBA, being named to the league's first team three times and eventually being inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960.

The 6-foot-8 center played for the St. Louis Bombers and the Boston Celtics before being traded back to St. Louis to play for the Hawks in a deal that sent Bill Russell to the Celtics. The Celtics retired his uniform number, 22. He also coached the Hawks for two seasons.

Macauley went to St. Louis U. High before coming to SLU, where with a team made up entirely of St. Louis-area players, the Billikens won the NIT at a time when it, not the NCAA Tournament, was considered college basketball's premier event.

Macauley scored 24 points as SLU, which finished with a 24-3 record under first-year coach Ed Hickey, beat New York University in the final at Madison Square Garden. Three days later, the team arrived at Union Station by train and was greeted by 15,000 fans for a parade.

"It was like a fairy tale," Macauley once told the Post-Dispatch.

Macauley's playing career ended long before I was born, but just like Stan Musial, he represented the glorious past of a team I love with eminent class and grace. I see from news reports that "Easy" Ed's wife had passed away earlier this year. That is the way it is with some blessed couples. They are never seperated for long.

Rest in peace, Ed.

Bob Forsch

Sad news yesterday with the loss of Cardinals great Bob Forsch. Bernie Miklasz gets it just right:

This is just awful news. I know how much Bob Forsch meant to all Cardinals fans but especially a certain generation of Cardinals fans -- those who were coming of age in the mid-1970s and into the 1980s. Forsch was one of the players that created special memories for an untold number of young Cardinals fans who began to fall in love with baseball and the franchise during that time.

Yep. Forsch was Cardinals pitching in this era.

Thank you for being one of my heroes, Bob.

Rest in Peace.