Face It, Fans: MLS Is A Minor League

I don’t read Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle often. I think of him as a kind of minor league Richard Justice. But I couldn’t resist reading him the other day when he did one of my favorite things, piss off soccer fans. Last week, apparently, he made the mistake of stating the truth: the MLS, despite the use of the word “major,” is a minor league.

It’s wrong, apparently, to state the truth about the MLS. But though it might be the best league in the U.S. for the sport, when compared to the rest of the world, it’s a minor league. This shouldn’t be an indictment. They put out a good product, and the fans enjoy the action, but it’s not comparable to the best product, and calling it a major league is an insult to major leagues.

I cover the Houston Aeros for the Press. The Aeros are a minor
league hockey team. They’re a fun team to watch. The games are full of
action, hard-hitting, and a mix of incredible speed, grace, and
brutality. The Aeros management puts on a good arena show with
cheerleaders, loud music, sound effects, and just about everything
you’ll find in the NHL. However, there are two types of players in the
AHL: those players trying to make the NHL, and those players trying to
get back to the NHL.

The players, coaches, staffs, they care
about what happens in the game. They want to win games, they want to
make the playoffs, they want to win the championship. But more than
anything, they all want a promotion to the NHL, the top league of
hockey, the major league of hockey.

The guys in the MLS want to
win games and titles. And they care about the game. But they’re just
like the guys who play in the AHL, or the guys who play baseball in
Japan. They want to go to Europe and play on the best teams there. And
when players from Europe come here to play in the States, it’s generally
because they’re past their prime and can’t cut it in big-time soccer.
Just like those former MLB stars who end their careers in Japan.

Solomon
used last week’s MLS All-Star match-up against Manchester United to
make the point of his column about the minor league status of MLS. It’s a
point he reiterated in his blog post this week. Several of the commenters responded with a point about the Manchester team losing to a MLS team prior to that.

But
there’s nothing invalid about Solomon’s point. The MLS All-Star squad
lost to a Manchester team missing several of its big starters. It’s kind
of like the Yankees going on tour in Japan and playing without Alex
Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Mariano Rivera. The team is
still good enough to beat any team in Japan, but it’s also going to lose
from time to time. That doesn’t mean, however, that the Japanese are on
par with the Yankees – a good Japanese team, however, might be able win
series after series against the Astros, however.

Houston soccer
fans might not like what Solomon has to say. But that doesn’t mean he’s
wrong. Reality is sometimes hard to accept. But the fact is that the MLS
is a minor league. They’re not the best players. They don’t play the
best soccer.

That shouldn’t take away from your enjoyment of the
game. Watching minor league hockey doesn’t take away from the enjoyment
that Houston Aeros fans take away from the games, and anybody who has
traveled to Round Rock knows that, though the brand of baseball isn’t at
the level of baseball in the majors, it’s an enjoyable experience
that’s often a blast to watch.

Maybe you didn’t like Solomon’s
tone. But a minor league is a minor league, even if it adopts the
moniker of major in its league name.