An Open Letter to the Wayward Among Us...

What more can be said about the Columbus Crew? We're top of the table, making things look unstable, and we might just be watching the most complete roster MLS has seen in the last 5 years.

Instead of raving about the performances of Guille, Iro, and Garey, as everyone has already done, I decided to writer a letter to Columbus sports fans who haven't yet trekked out to Crew stadium this year. With only 3 games left, it might be time for us to take matters into our own hands. Feel free to copy and paste this into an email and send it to your friends, especially the ones who don't understand what the hell you're talking about when you the words "Guille", "Brace", and "Crewsmas".

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Dear Columbus Sports fan,

By now, you've probably caught some inkling of a percolating set of circumstances over on Velma Ave and Hudson Street. You may have noticed that giant hunk of steel called Crew Stadium has gotten a little more massive this year, thanks in no small part to a gargantuan cantilevered-steel stage. You might also have noticed a few people wearing Crew jeseys at the mall, heard someone at work mention "the Black ad Gold", maybe even been fortunate enough to have the Hudson Street Hooligan parade stop your northward progress up 4th Street on a random Saturday evening. Regardless of how you've heard about it, the Crew are increasingly creeping back into the local conversation, even among non-sports fans.

Sadly, most of those conversations begin with the sentence "Hey, I heard the Crew were doing pretty well," and end with the phrase "Does McBride still play for them?"

It's hard to blame you for the ignorance. Despite some increased blogosphere action, an honest-to-God sportswriter named Shawn Mitchell, and Larry Larson's occasional mentions, the Crew are still fighting for media coverage in this city. 1460 The Fan, the main sports station in town, can't be bothered to stop breathlessly reporting about whether a college junior has an owie on his toe. (To be fair, 1460 wouldn't know a soccer ball if Chris Spielman produced one from his nether regions.) Despite their online coverage, which is a home run, the Dispatch fail to squeeze any mention of the only professional team in Columbus to win hardware onto it's front page. The TV channels are trying, but 2 minutes in between the last look at weather and the touchy-feely dog rescue story are a tough place to do any real reporting.

If only the professional athletes on the Crew could don pads and helmets, and regain some high school eligibility. Then they could get their own half-hour show on Friday nights.

Unfortunately for you skeptics, if you want to find out what's really going on down at Columbus Crew Stadium, you're just gonna have to pony up the cash and get a ticket. Since it may be your first time in a long time, it might be good to sit up high, take it all in from the upper deck and see what's going on. Or sit in the best seats in the house; either way it's only a $10 swing in Crew Stadium from the cheapest seats ($14) to the most expensive ($24). That's right, you can see a professional sporting event in Columbus, and bring your wife and kids, for under $100. That's a far cry from the cheapest seats in Nationwide Arena ($20 for the nose-bleeds) or at Ohio Stadium ($63 to be told by bluehairs to sit down). Of course, the Crew don't have the tradition of OSU, but then again, who can afford tradition at these prices? If they sold "tradition" by the gallon, gas and booze would be a bargain by comparison.

Anyway, when you get to venerable old Crew Stadium, you'll notice super crisp passing on the field, thanks to Guillermo Barros Schelotto (more on him in a second). You'll hear from our newly-unified supporter's section, The Nordecke. Don't worry, we're easy to spot. You'll be able to get brats for a buck on certain nights (like next Thursday), and if you sit low enough, you might get a free jersey from one of the players.

Oh and those players! Forget Beckham and Blanco, who you may have heard about. The Crew have the MVP of MLS. No, the voting hasn't been done yet, but if the Crew's Guillermo Barros Schelotto does not win the MVP award for the league, the award will cease to possess any meaning (kind of like Toronto F.C.'s season). In 23 league matches, he's been responsible for 24 goals (either on an assist, or a goal himself). If you're worried about the lack of scoring that typically is assumed about soccer, this guy will soothe any concerns. With Guille as the catalyst, the Crew are on a tear over the last 4 games, all wins, scoring 11 goals, 10 of which were caused by Schelotto. And it's not a fluke; in Argentina, Guille's home country, the man is a bonafide legend, havng been a part of 18 championship winning teams. Yes, 18. That's 6 times the Superbowls Tom Brady has won, 3 times the titles Jordan won, almost as many times as Roger Clemens has retired. Thus, when you see the masses of Crew stadium literally bowing down to the chant of "Guille", you'd be wise to follow suit.

Also on the field are a few U.S. National Team pool players (Frankie Hejduk, Robbie Rogers, Will Hesmer, and soon, Chad Marshall), a silver medalist (Emmanuel Ekpo, Nigeria), and the most solid defensive midfielder in MLS, Brian Carrol. Nevermind Mr. Hustle, Alejandro Moreno, and spark plugs like Brad Evans, Eddie Gaven, Steve Lenhart, and Jason Garey who has scored in every game he's played in this season.

Maybe you're sick of cupcakes on the schedule of that other football team in Columbus. Well, the last two wins for the Crew were against a team that was leading the Western Conference a mere month ago (Real Salt Lake) and the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champions (New England). Both were absolute dismantlings; the Crew played one of their best halves of the year in the first half against Real Salt Lake. They played their best game of the year against New England. Both will be in the playoffs this year.

(Oh yeah, the Crew will be back in the playoffs this year, something the Blue Jackets have yet to accomplish.)

Sitting at the head of this tremendous team is the mastermind, the chief, the grand poobah himself, Sigi Schmid. He's only the 2nd coach to get 100 wins in MLS; the other one coaches the U.S Men's National Team, and some have openly questioned whether Sigi would have been the better choice. He's built the best team in MLS this year largely off of guys who didn't have much cred in American soccer circles, pulling out gems like Adam Moffat (2nd division last year), Gino Padula (French 2nd division), Andy Iro (draft pick passed on by half of MLS), Brad Evans (never got a chance until this year), Robbie Rogers (ditto), and of course, the aforementioned Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who was not getting first team minutes and was thought by many to be done with his career. Now he looks like he could play until he's 40. And the man who built the Crew back from utter ruin? Sigi.

Look, I'm not telling you to throw out your Scarlet and Gray or Rick Nash jersey. I'm just asking you to think about making some room in your closet for Columbus' first major league franchise. Truth be known, most of you still have some Black and Gold from back in the days of McBride, Stern John, Mike Clark, Brad Friedel, and Jeff Cunningham. If you're not careful, you just might miss seeing the team that could rewrite everything those guys ever did, and then some.

So come out to Crew Stadium! We'll save you a seat, but not for long...