Back from Vacation, Back in The 70's

I'm back from the beach. It was new girlfriend-awesome except for an unexpected trip to the local Doctors office. Why was I seeking medical treatment? Because I was bitten on the ankle by some sort of bug that I'm allergic to and my ankle swelled and grew this gumball-sized bag of puss. Seriously, it's like the makeup artist from Sean of the Dead was doodling on my leg. So now I'm on antibiotics for the infection, some topical stuff for the allergic reaction and 'roids (just like baseball players and murderous wrestlers!) to speed the healing process. Fun!

While away I was on full media blackout in regard to footie; no TV, no Internet, no phone calls from anyone who even knows that 4-4-2 is not a locker combination. I DVRed a few games in hopes that I'd show some will power and not find out the scores beforehand; the Red Bull game was somewhat worth the wait, seeing the Fire not win again…not so much.

I'd gotten a few treats in the mail while I was away from Dave Brett, the keeper of all footie video that is holy and related to the NASL. If you haven't seen his website, check it out. With over 350 NASL matches and hundreds more US Soccer, MLS, and international games (like the BBC's original black & white broadcast of England's World Cup victory at Wembley in '66) it's like the national archive for the American fanatic.

Amongst the DVD treasure's that he sent my way was this New York Cosmos 1977 season highlights special; we've all read about 1 million times how many people went to those games, but it's still fairly shocking to see 50K-75K in the stands of Giants Stadium to see 2 domestic teams. That was the season that culminated in the team winning the Soccerbowl in Portland (incidentally at the very stadium that might possibly host a MLS expansion club for Rose City).



Dave also reminded me that Clive Toye's book is now available from Amazon.com. For those of you with a life, Clive was one of the honchos behind the NASL & the Cosmos; some say this book is the "she said" on the story of the league's demise.

And while we are getting all 70's over here, who wants a qualude? I'm kidding. But who wants super high-quality NASL t-shirts? My boys over at Bumpy Pitch have just done a line of them with some great vintage club logos that are just starting to pop up in boutiques around the country. Me, myself & I are rocking the Atlanta Apollos top.




I think this logo is absolutley brilliant becuase it's kinda abstract in that unless you study it for a bit you're not exactly sure what you're looking at. Although it was designed in the 70's it has a look and feel about it very similar to the logos that forward-thinking labels like Bumpy Pitch are putting out on the fronts of shirts these days.

Apparently some people think that it has some hipster quality about it as well; I was at a Bloc Party gig about a month ago and two different people asked me what band that was. You can check out the full range of shirts (and new fitted caps) at www.BumpyPitch.com.