[Leica] The United States Grand Prix - this is a long post

[msmall at aya.yale.edu (Marc James Small)]

At 07:54 PM 6/21/05 -0400, Seth Rosner wrote:

>P.S., Marc James, the U.S. Grand Prix has taken place at a fair number of 
>different locations: Sebring, Watkins Glen, Detroit, Long Beach, I think 
>Miami, but never, never at Lime Rock. P.P.S. how many know (I know Frank D. 
>does) that in the early days of the modern world championship, the 
>Indianapolis 500 counted toward the F.I.A. world driver's championship? 
>Because its organizer, USAC, was the U.S. representative to the Federation 
>Internationale de l'Automobile.
>

>P.P.S. Marc James, your gratuitous knock on U.S. soccer suggests that you 
>have no idea about what is happening on the playgrounds of American 
>schools. 
>And why you persist in using raised-pinky effetist caricature language is 
>beyond me. But your analysis of American attitudes toward G.P. racing is 
>not.

Thank you, Seth, for your comments.

First, I was unaware that there has never been a US Formula One race at
Lime Rock, and thank you for the correction.

Second, I did not make the comment that you thought I made:  I merely
commented that soccer is seen as an effete sport by most of the USian
populace.  If you feel differently, then "'splain to me" why soccer has
been unable to mount a successful league in the US.  The short answer is
that most USians view soccer as an effete sport, regardless of the number
of kids playing the sport.  (My own son played soccer until he was 15, when
he decided to concentrate on baseball.  Today, he is 23, and follows NASCAR
and baseball to the extent that he can continously intone that the sport
has been ruined by the American League's adoption of the DH rule, as I
noted in an earlier post.  He does not follow soccer and has no interest at
all in the sport.  I have a somewhat older former step-son who also grew up
playing soccer and who dropped it and who has no interest whatever in
following it today.)

My comment was not a "gratuitous knock":  it was a factual statement about
the realities of the USian regard for soccer.

Marc

msmall@aya.yale.edu 
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