Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I had to cut out of Wooden Ball early because my new indoor soccer team started up over at Bladeworld.

We were up 5-3 at the half, but the other team took us apart in the second half. They put me in goal for most of the first half. Lucky for me, the defense was tight. They managed three against me though.

Then, I was playing forward. I never played forward in high school or Metro league, but for some reason, they like to put me in forward in indoor soccer. Go figure.


Before the game, we were just called "Team 2." Then they asked what we wanted to call the team. I suggested Bethlehem Steel. Either they all liked the name, or they didn't care either way. That is now the name of our team.

The other team was "Team 3," but afterward got named for the T-Shirt the goalkeeper was wearing.

Do you suppose this is how the MetroStars got their lame name?


For those of you who are not familiar with the history of American Soccer, Bethlehem Steel was the top US team in the 1920's. In those days, the American Soccer League was the main league in this country, and its teams would often attract more fans than those of the fledgling National Football League. The league was poorly run and chaotic, and was gone by the time of Franklin Roosevelt's re-election.

Bethlehem Steel won five National Cups, now called the US Open Cup, a record that still holds today. They also had a player named Archie Stark, a Scotish import who managed to score 67 goals in the 1926 season. This is a record that still holds among American leagues, and beats other storied goal scorers like Giorgio Chinaglia (32 goals for the New York Cosmos in 1980) and Roy Lassiter (27 goals for the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996) by miles. His tally of 300 career goals still ranks him as number 43 on the list of division 1 scorers world-wide.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.