Rave Green Griffey?

It’s an interesting idea, Dave. I think you might see a similar situation arise in MLS down the road, say if Altidore or Freddy Adu make a triumphant return after becoming international stars. For that to work, though, you might need some changes to the league’s salary cap structure to make DPs a more viable option. There’s no reason that a Griffey-like figure couldn’t eventually arise, though.

I don’t think that Altidore nor Adu could do it. They just never really became a part of the community(ies). While it would be big, it wouldn’t be Griffey big.

And thanks for stopping by Andrew

In Seattle you will a need a phenom doing things others are unable to do. Junior was a natural making spectacular plays in the field while hitting beautiful home runs at a very young age. You knew before he was 21 that he would be one of the all time great baseball players. And, the rest of the country quickly caught on.

Ichiro was similar. No one hit like him and he was great in the field and on the basepaths. Again, the rest of the country quickly caught on.

Could it happen in soccer? Yes it could. Suppose Fredy Montero scores 8-10 goals in the first five games and some of them are golazos. Great goals get on ESPN. A bucketful of goals early could get national attention because Fredy is a young rising star. Donovan, a veteran, could do it and not attract nearly as much attention as young Fredy. I don’t think language is much of a factor. Ichiro became an icon without speaking much English. Let’s hope for a good start for the Sounders and a smashing debut for Fredy.

The big obstacle to a Griffey-type emerging for the Sounders is the fact that Europe, even at the second tier, is out there to lure talent away as it begins to peak. Griffey was with Seattle for eleven seasons as he reached his best. Realistically, a great player will be with the Sounders for three or four years at the outside before they move on.

I agree that a player such as Montero is our best chance for a soccer Griffey, but the window will be short. This calculation changes, of course, if the MLS salary cap grows to the point that the Sounders can offer the kind of money that the second tier European teams can offer. Raising the window that a top player will stay to five, six, or seven years would greatly increase the chance that a top player could build a Griffey-style career arc.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH DANNY DICHIOOOOO DIcHHIO DICHIO DANNY DiCHIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Although DD will always have a special place in TFC fans hearts, I think his fame will always be of the cult variety. There is however, a better TFC example of what Dave is getting at.
 
 DeRo.
 
 Imagine for a moment if DeRo had started his career at a time when TFC was around. Imagine if he had accomplished what he has in T.O. To me, he could have transcended soccer and been a Junior type of player in the community. He still has a chance to do a lot of great things in Toronto, but the window has likely passed for him to become a legend.
 
 It’ requires a near perfect storm. The player has to be talented enough to go to Europe but he must stay in MLS for some reason — and I think it has to be on his terms. Not many players meet those criteria.

“To be a Ken Griffey, Jr. within MLS it must:
1) be a for a team that has a passionate and large fan base…”
That would certainly help, except the M’s before Junior (and 1995 even more specifically) did NOT have much of a fan base. The type of player you’re looking for would very likely be one of the main CAUSES of the “passionate and large fan base.” But this is certainly egg-chicken discussion-worthy…
Having that player be a big part of the team’s first real dramatic fairy tale would most certainly help (although in Griffey’s case it was more postseason “glory” (and post-season glory is generally usually more well-cemented in people’s memories than regular season accomplishments).

“2) the player must be amongst the league elite, and must start play young, so as to establish themselves. "
Yes, this is very important. Unlike, say, a Felix Hernandez who’s been heavy-hyped with less-than-hyped results — the player would have to be somewhat hyped even before they reach the spotlight AND would have to meet or exceed those expectations right out of the gate. Like Griffey (at least pre-injury), almost an inner-circle HOF’er (whether or not you agree with the concept of “inner-circle HOF’er”, of course) right away.

“(2a) Speaking decent to better English might be a key as well.”
Unfortunately this is true. While we are pretty progressive here in the PNW with the bad side of stereotyping and prejudices, we still have a ways to go.

“Will we ever see an icon in Rave Green? Probably not with the way the league is structured, but sitting in my living room listening to the press conference for Griffey’s return all I could think is I want this for my new team, my new passion.”

I’d agree that it would be awesome to see this. I’m a bit further behind my fandom in soccer than I was when I started following baseball regularly about the same time Griffey was drafted by the M’s (my hard-core fandom in the M’s was cemented in its genesis with my protest of the Rey Quinones for Spike Owen, etc., deal), but that’s something that would be more helpful in drawing me in, without a doubt.

I’m not much of a soccer follower (yet), but I do recall the USL Sounders having a pretty darn good post-season run before (and WIKI confirms my foggy memories, telling me that they won the championship back-to-back in 1995 & 1996). So it’s not necessarily about winning big in the post season — the LEAGUE itself obviously has to have a reasonable following, league-wide. Not a perfect analogy, but it’d be something like the Tacoma Rainiers having this franchise-type player (assuming, of course MLB affiliation rules didn’t exist, and that player was playing at the highest pro level in the locality — say the M’s indeed moved to Tampa, leaving the NW corner without a reasonably close MLB team). And you hint at this – MLS players depart for bigger and brighter stages all the time, from what I understand.

Wayne Gretzky was close for the NHL, but the NHL is pretty huge in Canada (just like Soccer, even if not specifically the MLS, is huge in other countries). But I agree that it’d be really cool for MLS to have its Tiger Woods or Ken Griffey Junior.
Especially in Seattle.

(I swear I had more whitespace in there)

Fixed

Ya you are right. Since football has become more of a club sport and very few national games held every year, the problem of players crossing over has risen and this causes a craving among fans to have the best players in their teams.