Gooooaaaaaaaal!

The World Cup soccer tournament started today, and several players sat on the overstuffed leather couches rapt with attention (none more than Bobby Abreu) as Ecuador held off Poland, 2-0.

Then again, it was raining really hard outside so outdoor batting practice was cancelled.

I’m not up on what’s happening in soccer, but when I was a kid we used to go to see the Washington Diplomats of the old NASL play at RFK. That was always a thrill because no one could get tickets to see the Redskins back in those days. As I recall, in 1979 the waiting list for Redskins tickets was 159 years.

No, that’s not an exaggeration. If you think Eagles’ fans are crazy, you ought to see how the native Washingtonians love the Redskins.

I always rooted for the Eagles, though it was hard not to get caught up in the hype when John Riggins was running the ball way back when. Hey, I was a kid… favorite teams and stuff like that mattered.

Anyway, I remember a game at RFK between the Dips, as we called them, and the New York Cosmos that was settled in with penalty kicks – what a revelation. I had never seen a game decided that way before.

If I remember correctly, Giorgio Canalgia was the top player for the Cosmos, while Sonny Askew, Alan Green, Johan Cruijff and Joe Horvath took care of business for the Dips.

Next: remembrances from Memorial Stadium and the 1978-79 Baltimore Orioles and how to properly mimic Lee May’s batting stance. In fact, I showed Charlie Manuel a bit of it before the game today. He seemed more impressed that I remembered who Lee May was rather than the bat waggle.

Anyway, I’m thinking about inviting my friends over this weekend so we can all sit around and ignore the World Cup.

Then we’ll watch Bernard Hopkins get knocked out by Antonio Tarver.