Earthquakes on the Defensive

Three days ago, the San Jose Earthquakes held their expansion draft and selected 10 players from 10 other MLS teams.

Player	Former Team
Ryan Cochrane	Houston Dynamo
Clarence Goodson	FC Dallas
Ned Grabovoy	Columbus Crew
James Riley	New England Revolution
Joseph Vide	New York Red Bulls
Ivan Guerrero	Chicago Fire
Brian Carroll	DC United
Jason Hernandez	Chivas USA
Gavin Glinton	LA Galaxy
Chris Pozniak	Toronto FC

Who else is excited to see Cochrane back in a Quakes uni? Hope he brings a ring too.

Frank Yallop: Goodbye LA, Hello to the Bay

Operation Schadenfreude-

Phase 1: Sabotage the Los Angeles Dodgers by sending Mark Sweeney. Accomplished.

Phase 2: Send two-time championship winner coach to the Los Angeles Galaxy to compile a mediocre 18-20-12 record. Accomplished.

Phase 3: Have said coach return to the San Jose Earthquakes to win the MLS in their first inaugural season. Pending.

Earthquakes Have a New Home

...in Santa Clara.

The team will play at Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium during the 08 and 09 seasons. Buck Shaw currently houses 6,000 seats, but will be renovated to include 5,000 temporary seats and a digital video board a la the Phone Booth, among other upgrades.

The Quakes will hold games against larger opponents at larger stadiums. McAfee Coliseum, owned under Quakes' co-owner Lew Wolff, is a possibility with its 50,000 capacity. Another possibility is the newly renovated Stanford Stadium.

After finally finding a home stadium, the Quakes' next two items on the agenda is finding a coach and stocking players. Names for head coach include former Quakes coaches Frank Yallop (Galaxy), Dom Kinnear (Dynamos), Paul Bravo (former Quake now at Galaxy as assistant coach), and Troy Dayak (former Quake defender). The team will hold its expansion draft in November.


[SFGate.com]
[FanNation]

Welcome to The Front Row Johnson

No, this isn't an usher greeting a fan who bought $110+ Section 115 Field Club seats for a Giants-Dodgers game at Mays Field. Here's the real background on the origin of this blog's name:

FRONT-ROW JOHNSON n. A home run that lands in the first row of seats. Origin: Don Robinson, who pitched for the Giants in 1987-91, used "Johnson'' as an all-purpose suffix, often for no reason at all. Krukow said, "If Don Robinson wanted you to hand him the ball bag, he would say, 'Hand me that ball-bag-Johnson right there.' '' No matter how nonsensical, it crept into Krukow's vocabulary.

As for me, I'm just a long time Bay Area sports fan. My name is Catherine and I'm a Giants, 49ers, Warriors, Sharks, and once-they-come-back Earthquakes fan, but I started out as a bleeding black-and-orange kid. I remember the very first sports game ever my dad took me to: Giants vs. Dodgers (aka Bums or Evils on this blog) at the 'Stick. Sadly, I don't remember much of the actual game, but I do remember one thing loud and clear: the "Beat LA" chants reverberating throughout the stadium. I was hooked. From learning to throw a fastball, to a Jason Schmidt poster, to bouncing off the walls during the 2002 playoff run, I'm a diehard Giant.

Everything else just naturally branched off from there.

The Front Row is a conglomeration of the sole (so-lay) of the Bay Area. The soul and the awesome, as Isaac Sopoaga defines the Samoan word.

So here I am, writing on my very first blog which hopefully will be as fun for you (and me) as catching a front-row Johnson.

Feel free to shoot an email: frontrowjohnson@gmail.com