Friday, April 17, 2009

Dragonslayers?


Whale, although new recruit “Rafa” had his baptism under fire upon reportedly taking out Open Wheel’s Diva Princess Danicker on the streets of St Pete, as the irrepressible Darren “Danger Mouse” Manning playfully asked during his Autosport Radio interview Tuesday night: “Did they ever solve whose fault it was?”

Yet, this little nugget has been bouncing around for Mwah ever since I stumbled upon it in an altogether foreign sport to the majority of us Yanks stateside... As it’s known Across the Pond as Foosball... Not to be confused with our ‘lil ‘Ol Pigskin game called Football and thus it’s referred to as Soccer. As the premiere league in the U.S. is the Major League Soccer (MLS) series which has just announced its two newest Franchise members Vancouver, BC and Portland, Oregon for the 2011 Major League Soccer season which will then boast 18 MLS Franchises.

The naming of Vancouver and Portland, of which Seattle Sounders FC co-owner Drew “The Price is Right” Carey has named the “Triangle of Death,” helps resurrect the long ago triumberant and rival sports triangle of Seattle-Portland-Vancouver BC from the glory days of the Sounders, Timbers and Whitecaps during the long forgotten NASL (North American Soccer League) of the 1970’s, of which the Pacific Northwest has a rich tradition in the passion of Soccer... As I’ve for reasons unknown managed to keep a total of seven buttons from the original Sounders team proudly affixed upon my bulletin board all of these years. (What’s that, eh?) As the Sounders FC team has just begun playing in Quest Field, where our Seahawks are wonderin’ if they’ll manage to regain their past glory next season?

And thus I stumbled upon the announcement that:
“Current (Vancouver) Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot, a reclusive Vancouver millionaire, heads a power-packed group that paid US$35 million for the (Vancouver MLS) franchise. Joining Kerfoot on the ownership team is NBA star Steve Nash, San Francisco Giants co-owner Jeff Mallett and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Luczo.”

With particular interest being paid to the final name above; Hmm? That couldn’t be the same Stephen J. Luczo whom is co-owner of an Indy Racing League team with somebody named Jay Penske, could it? You know the latter is the youngest son of somebody known as The Captain, a.k.a. Roger Penske.

This brash duo made its Indy Car debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2007 with a “Satellite” third Penske entry for soon to become Penske Racing driver Ryan Briscoe, whom at the time was part of Penske Racing’s ALMS Porsche RS Spyder team, before running a partial six race season with Tomas “Rockem Sockem” Scheckter in 2008 without any assistance from Penske.

As in the Steve Luczo who:
“Is chairman of Seagate Technology, the world’s largest hard-drive manufacturer, and a man who moves in interesting circles. He’s part of a Silicon Valley group that owns about one-third of the Boston Celtics, and he also owns a large chunk of the National Lacrosse League’s San Jose Stealth.”

“Luczo, who was not at the (Whitecaps) announcement, surfs, snowboards and mountain bikes and is a songwriter and co-founder of a music company that develops San Francisco artists.”


You see, the Seattle Sounders (1974-83) once were at the pinnacle of professional soccer, as I fondly recall my ‘Ol Man having season tickets for the NASL Franchise whose home pitch was Memorial Stadium, part of the beleaguered Seattle Center and Key Arena where some other team named the Supersonics once inhabited... Before some Yokel JACK ASS named Clay Bennett drug ‘em off to Oklahoma! And thus it was in 1977, when the Seattle Sounders played against the dreaded “Yankee’s” of N. American Soccer, a.k.a the New York Cosmos whose star studded line-up included such names as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer... As the Cosmos would ultimately defeat the Sounders 1-0 for the Championship; known as Soccer bowl, of which would be the Sounders zenith before the NASL slowly faded into obscurity, but I digress...

So it must be nice to be able to dabble in whatever professional sports categories one is interested in, eh? As I’d suggest that while although a relative newcomer to the Indy Car Series, Luczo Dragon Racing certainly has the financial resources to run a full time two car team if so desired and two fairly astute and savvy financial experts at its helm.

Hence, I’d look for LCR to go places in the future and perhaps you’ll wanna pull over next time Rafa’s coming up fast to overtake you Danica...

Whitecap’s All-star cast of owners seal the deal