Put Down the Canary, and Slowly Back Away

By: Ian | July 10th, 2008

So here we are. Our beloved Quakes are on a sad, sad road that could lead us to a new record in offensive futility, even making the tepid Toronto side of a year ago look like an attacking juggernaut. The good news is that I’ve seen encouraging signs during this grueling road trip. The midfield seems to be gelling together, the defense has banished most of the dumb mistakes (not all, mind you), Corrales can now put a ball on frame (unfortunately, now he can’t put the ball anywhere but the frame). Through it all, though, one thing seems to stay the same: our forwards cannot finish. They couldn’t put the ball in the net past a narcoleptic keeper, because they’d probably send it ten yards wide. Given a good finisher, we would undoubtedly be several places higher in the Western Conference rankings. Enter Darren Huckerby. A fan favorite from Norwich City in England, known for his goal scoring prowess, wants to play for San Jose. Surely all our troubles are over. Score one for us and for the league as a whole. Well, not quite, because a team called Toronto F.C. has us by the round ones.

Now much has been said about the impossibly complicated mess of rules and regulations that MLS has slowly refined over the years. I for one, am not ready to throw the baby out with the bath water. I’m glad there are parity protections to keep the league competitive, though I hate when those rules are so often ignored when the league has a chance to realize its schizophrenic wet dream of throwing parity out the window and making a team like the Galaxy into a superclub. But that’s a whole ‘nother topic. The point is that while it sucks for the league and Chicago that Toronto are holding Brian McBride for ransom, I can’t fault the allocation system. It is designed, at least in theory, to help out the teams that need it the most, and so Toronto should receive something for giving up the rights to McBride.

However, this discovery claim nonsense is something else altogether. To enable an MLS team like Toronto or anyone else, to claim that they “discovered” Darren Huckerby and thus have first rights is ludicrous in the extreme. Are we back to grade school, where somehow calling first dibs means something? I don’t think Toronto should be allowed to hold Huckerby hostage, just because they somehow “discovered” him in the uncharted backwaters of the football world. I mean, whoever heard of English football, or Norwich city? No one had even heard the name Huckerby until it came from the lips of Mo Johnston. Ok, my sarcasm meter is drained, but you get the picture. This is not a mechanism to help out weak teams. Toronto F.C. is doing quite alright this year, while we are stuck at the bottom of the heap, yet they get to have all the cards? Something is definitely off here. Toronto could make unreasonable demands, such as asking for NIck Garcia or Joe Cannon, and if we say no, they could just scuttle the deal altogether. They have no incentive or pressure to give up Huckerby’s rights. The league has stepped in so many times in the past to help our friends down south and the more “sexy” markets, so for the love of all things Quake, now’s the time to intervene and throw us a bone here. And please, discard this discovery claim system now.

Hey Toronto, I just discovered this guy called Ronaldo. He plays for some team called Manchester United…