Toronto is a very fun town to visit, it might be just a little too much fun. In the few days, Toronto has had major problems with alcohol, and the Blue Jays are even banning sales during the next few home games. The first incident came over the weekend during the Seattle Sounders' third win of the season, and second home sellout in as many games. The team's owner, Price Is Right host Drew Carey, was on hand for their last game against Toronto, and an angry fan of the Canadian team decided he would express his opinion of Carey by dumping beer all over him. Via Blogcritics....

With a 2-0 lead after the half, Seattle buckled down and held on but Toronto FC did not mount much in the way of an attack. The best attack was by a Toronto FC fan when he poured beer on Sounders FC owner Drew Carey. His reply, as quoted in the Toronto Sun, was as sterling as his team when he told the fan, "We get as many X-Box's as we want. You guys get all the B-M-O's you want. Whatever they are." Carey was referring to the Toronto FC stadium, BMO Field.

Now that's just not nice. After all that Seattle has been through Sports-wise this year. But that's nothing compared to the seen at the Rogers Centre during the Blue Jays Opener yesterday. From ESPN via With Leather....

The Blue Jays' 12-5 win over the Tigers on Monday was delayed nine minutes in the eighth inning when fans threw two baseballs in the direction of Detroit left fielder Josh Anderson and tossed a handful of paper planes and empty beer cups onto the field.

Anderson was pleased to hear alcohol would not be sold Tuesday.

"That's good," he said. "These people can't handle it."

The panel cited five broken rules at baseball and football games and concerts dating to the Canadian Football League championship game in 2007. The stadium will also be dry on April 21 when Toronto plays Texas, and for a CFL game on Aug. 1.

Both affected baseball games fell on dates when the price of upper deck seats was cut to $4, a promotion called "Messin' With Recession." The ban covers everything from concessions, vendors and restaurants to the beer refrigerators in both locker rooms.

While the ban on Tuesday was just a coincidence, obviously the citizens of Toronto probably need a break from the booze. But honestly, who can blame them with the way their team's have been doing as of late. The Raptors are missing the Playoffs for the first time in three years, the Soccer team has finished 7th in the East during each of its first two season and the Maple Leafs haven't been to the Playoffs since the 2003-2004 season. I'd be drinking a ton too....oh wait, I'm a fan of the Redskins, Wizards and Orioles....I have been! I feel your pain, Toronto.

Sounders Take Down Toronto 2-0 (Blogcritics)
Blue Jays Face Beer Ban After Opener (With Leather)

Outside of the Inauguration, it's a pretty slow news day, which probably explains why I'm posting on the MLS. ESPN has decided to drop it's Thursday, Major League Soccer game of the week, and will be moving to a rotating set of days throughout the week. Via Sports Business Journal....

After two years of anemic ratings that started low and finished lower, ESPN executives decided to cancel the league’s regular Thursday night telecast on ESPN2 this season. In its place, ESPN2 will carry an MLS game of the week, which will air on four different nights during the season. The weekly matches will occur on Thursdays (10 times), Saturdays (eight times), Wednesdays (six times) and Fridays (three times).

“We didn’t see the kind of ratings climb we’d like to, so we’re trying something different,” said Scott Guglielmino, ESPN vice president of programming.

The decision to cancel the regular Thursday night game marks a stunning turnaround for a league that two years ago believed it was creating destination programming that would increase interest in MLS. But even the 2007 arrival of David Beckham couldn’t boost MLS ratings.

This is news is another sobering hit that alludes to Soccer never really being able to gain solid footing in the U.S. It's a shame too because of the popularity of the Sport throughout the rest of the World.

ESPN booting MLS from its Thursday slot (Sports Business Journal)

Rob Stone continued ESPN's recent run of working with blogs by granting and interview with Unprofessional Foul. The topics were US Soccer, US Soccer, Bill Simmons, US Soccer and broadcasting overseas games from Bristol.

What's your opinion of broadcasting games from the "Bristol Broom Closet"? I am staunchly opposed to it because it limits the broadcasters ability to point out things to only the things shown on screen and in replay. Plus, it doesn't give them a feel for the ambience of the stadium.

Trust me, if money was no object it wouldn’t be done. But sometimes you have to be reasonable with your expenses. I am not an executive, but I do know that UEFA was charging insane amounts of money to have a crew call games at the Euro venues. I have never called a game from a monitor, and I know it takes a special skill, and I think we all agree it’s best to be there live. But just having the Euros on our air was a major coup, and the suits at ESPN noticed how successful it was…it can only mean better things for soccer on TV at ESPN down the road.

Everyone knows my stance against not broadcasting on location, but that response seems pretty par for the course. I guess I really don't have a problem with the answer, but we're talking about ESPN here. This is the same network that, up until recently, was prepared to send about 30 people or so to Green Bay for a season opener. They can probably afford some broadcasting fees.

We are talking about Soccer though. Priorities people....priorities. Read the rest of that interview though....it's a good one.

Rob Stone's Not Broadcasting From The Bristol Broom Closet (Unprofessional Foul)

We all know that Rob Stone is a little nuts after his antics last year, but he might be a little more off his kilter than we realize. There's nothing he won't do for a spot and that includes holding a hawk that kills pigeons and getting into a streamer fight with fans. Oh and the hawk's name is "Bitchy"....Bitchy the Hawk....

These don't beat the pimp action from last year, or the hot pepper, but using the name "Bitchy" repeatedly is a winner in my book. I think the name "Stoner" fits him in Toronto. Bravo my friend. Also, if the MLS did stuff like this more often, I might actually watch. Maybe they should just make the entire league, one Premiership team.

Update: I totally missed the corn part. Here it is and thanks to those who mentioned it in the comments. That hamburger looks damn good too....

Meet Bitchie the Hawk (Meet Bitchie The Hawk)

I have no idea why you would ever take your goalie out in Soccer, but doing so brought us this Beckham highlight from late Saturday night....

I've seen players do that before with a goalie in net but that's still pretty impressive.

After all of the controversy that Eric Wynalda went through last year it isn't surprising that the WWL has benched the former Soccer star in favor of another. According to ESPN....

ESPN and ABC will kick off its 13th straight season of Major League Soccer coverage with a new line-up of in-booth commentators – veteran soccer television announcer JP Dellacamera and former U.S. Men’s National Team captain John Harkes – for MLS Primetime Thursday and U.S. Soccer telecasts including, the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

Dellacamera and Harkes will lead ESPN’s new on-air crew for U.S. domestic soccer telecasts with sideline reporter Allen Hopkins returning for the second year on select MLS and U.S. Soccer telecasts. Rob Stone, who has been involved with soccer at ESPN since 1997, will continue his role as on-site studio host and play-by-play commentator for select MLS matches, with former U.S. Women’s National Team captain and soccer Hall of Famer Julie Foudy as studio analyst.

I don't really watch MLS on ESPN, but doesn't the addition of JP Dellacamera mean that Dave O'Brien is out as well? Either way it'll be interesting to see where Wynalda ends up now.

Eric Wynalda Might Be Done As A Soccer Analyst (Awful Announcing)
Eric Wynalda Has A Clever Nickname For Jim Rome (Awful Announcing)

This is right up there with the Sean McDonough quote “I noticed your occasional paralysis kicked in at dinner when the check came” right after mentioning injured Bills' player Kevin Everett. During last night's MLS opening round playoff game, as the DC United were taking on the Chicago Fire, Eric Wynalda had this to say as ESPN2 went to a shot of the crowd....

As ESPN2 cameras panned to the Chicago Fire supporter's group Section 8 with about 15 minutes left in the match, fans in the section set off flares that gave off a red, fire-like glare. Wynalda responded to this image by saying, "Looks like California," a flippant reference to the wildfires currently plaguing California. The haunting silence that followed after the comment leads me to believe Wynalda realized the mistake he just made.

How many times must an Announcer screw up before they are fired. Sean McDonough's joke was unfortunate and I'm sure he regrets it, but Wynalda has had a history of terrible and reprehensible comments, and this should be the last straw. I never call for anyone's job, but how much of an idiot do you have to be to make a comment like that?

Wynalda's Brain Cramp (Soccer By Ives)
Eric Wynalda Attacks and Threatens Jim Rome Verbally During Soccer Blog Interview (Sports By Brooks)

In last week's installment of The Press Buffet, I looked at the newspaper coverage of the College World Series. For those of you who think collegiate baseball is a fringe sport, just wait for today's column.

We all know that summertime is a bit of a grind for sports fans. We grow accustomed to overlapping seasons every other time of the year, and we usually have several televised major sports to choose from. But there's always that late summer trudge through the middle of baseball season (which is a nice season, but the middle is, well, the middle) as we wait for the first pro and college football games to grace us with their presence. I acknowledged that this was a slow period in last week's column, and made the joke that I would probably be reduced to covering the MLS this week.

My colleague, Awful Announcing's weekend editor OMDQ, read that statement and double-dog dared me to do it. I'm not inclined to turn down a double-dog dare anyway, but since Brian is about to become a papa at any moment, I am doubly inclined to grant him his frivolous request, though he should have used his last one on something more entertaining. So after the jump, we'll check out that league with an identity problem - Major League Soccer.

One thing I liked about the notion of covering MLS was the chance to visit some cities that haven't come up in my coverage of other sports. I've hit the newspapers in New York, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles pretty often, of course. But quite a few of our nation's finest cities have yet to star in a pull quote of their own. So let's get goin'.

We start out with FC Dallas, who are covered by the Dallas Morning News. Michael Hitchcock is the GM of the North Texas entry in the MLS, and he has found that David Beckham's marketing allure extends beyond the L.A. Galaxy.

The Beckham factor doesn't hurt ticket sales," Hitchcock said. "He is truly a rock star in every sense of the word. Everywhere we go, the first question people ask is, 'How can I get my Beckham tickets?'"

I had hoped to write about our only homegrown player with Rock Star potential, but Freddy Adu is not currently with Real Salt Lake. He's been attached to the national under-20 team, so we have to read about someone else. Hey, here we go! Speedy Robbie Findley was recently traded from L.A. to Salt Lake and immediately scored two goals:

Talk about successful debuts. Findley, who had scored two goals in nine games - three starts - for the Galaxy, beat the D.C. United keeper twice on Saturday to help spark RSL to its first win of 2007. He did it on a bum right ankle, too, having rolled it a week earlier.

Apparently Findley comes by his talent honestly. He is somehow related to both Mike Bibby of the NBA and Shaun McDonald of the NFL.

Houston Dynamo striker Brian Ching, who is fresh off of a Gold Cup triumph with the national team, writes a blog in the Houston Chronicle:

In regard to the national team things have been good. The team has won its first two games and is off to a good start. This has been something that has helped me get out of my drought. I think the change of environment was good for me and has helped me get out of the rut I was in.

I'm not sure how to take that. Is he calling MLS play "a rut"?

Hey, you wacky counter-culture white Rastas, with your Ben & Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream! Colorado Rapids defenseman Kyle Beckerman has dreadlocks, and the Denver Post is going to get to the bottom of this foolishness:

"You do wash them, you just don't comb them," Beckerman said. "I've always been a Dread. Before I had dreadlocks, I was a Dread. And if I cut them, I'll still be a Dread. I get called a hippie every away game. I'm like, you don't know what kind of music I listen to."

For the record, it would be reggae, hip-hop and Tom Petty.

Yep, he really blew that stereotype apart.

And since Denver has two daily newspapers, the Rapids get two articles in the Buffet.

Want to end a losing streak? Play a good team on the road! [Rocky Mountain News]

"We've had a tough string of games and didn't get any results, and what better place to go in and turn it around than on national TV against one of the best teams in the league this year and probably also the best team in the history of this league," Rapids defender Mike Petke said.

The league recently expanded into a country that has a much closer relationship with futbol than we do - Canada. We've read above about the MLS problem of losing top players to CONCACAF events during the heart of the season, but Toronto FC has it even worse. They lose players to both national teams. [Toronto Globe & Mail]

Just as Toronto FC welcomed back defender-midfielder Chris Pozniak, defender Adam Braz and goalkeeper Greg Sutton from duty with Canada's national team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, it will say farewell for at least a couple of games to defender Marvell Wynne.

Wynne, 21, was named Friday to the 22-player U.S. team that is taking part in the Copa America tournament in Venezuela.

And, I was extremely surprised to find that I had no memory of ever quoting the Boston Globe (ID: awfulwrite Password: freeharold). They've tracked down a couple who love the New England Revolution and don't really give a damn if they ever see a foreign-born superstar like Becks.

Instead of luring international stars to MLS late in their careers, as the Galaxy are doing with Beckham and the Chicago Fire with Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the Gideons would rather watch their countrymen.

"Compared to Europe, the level of play is not as good," Brad Gideon said. "But it's cool to see Americans playing a sport that has been historically European. The stars on the Revs -- Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Matt Reis -- they're Americans."

I must admit that I have posted from the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch before, thanks to the Buckeyes' appearance in the NCAA basketball championship game, which was my first Press Buffet event. But the Columbus Crew are a pretty impressive survival story, playing in a much smaller market than any other team in MLS, and surviving since the league began.

The big story out of Columbus is that Crew player Marcos Gonzalez is causing a stir about that ol' chestnut - female reporters in the locker room:

Gonzalez, a devout Christian, created a minor stir in a Home Depot Center locker room Saturday night after the Crew's 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy. According to freelance soccer reporter Andrea Canales and Gonzalez, he repeatedly asked her to leave the locker room, in English and Spanish, until he could get dressed. He also attempted to shoo her out the door, but Canales ignored him and both went about their business.

"I was without my clothes," Gonzalez said. "For me, it's not normal for women to be in a locker room. I said please leave until I put my clothes on. She ignored me."

So let us all avert our eyes as Marcos suits up. That's our whirlwind tour of the MLS for this week, and it just goes to show that there are great stories everywhere. I'm just glad I didn't make this crack about Arena Football. Fortunately, the guys at It's Still Football have the ALF playoffs covered.

See you next weekend, when I will blessedly be able to cover the MLB all-star festivities.

--Extra P.