Virgin quakes and aeroplanes

Despite my unavowed soccer fandom, I've had trouble getting into the MLS, partly because the caliber of competition just isn't as good as the European leagues, but mostly because we haven't had a local side to follow here in the SF Bay Area for the last couple of years.

Until now. Version 2.0 of the San Jose Earthquakes are playing their first match ever against Beckham and the LA Galaxy. There was a MLS team called the Earthquakes who played in San Jose from 1995-2005, but the coach and players left to Houston and became the Houston Dynamo when San Jose wouldn't build them a stadium, and now there's a new MLS expansion team called the Earthquakes in one of those Cleveland Browns - Baltimore Ravens deals.

This year's Quakes enter the league with the records and history of the former San Jose Earthquakes. They're an "expansion team" with two MLS championships from the early 2000s, but from the looks of tonight's game, they aren't a very good team in 2008. They're currently down 2-0 to the Galaxy (who besides Beckham and Landon Donovan, are not very good), and haven't mounted much of a challenge. And the caliber of play in the MLS is also not that good. If the M in MLS stands for "major", they should put that letter in finger-quotes ("M"LS).

I'll still make an effort to follow the Quakes this year, and might even go see a game in person. They're owned by Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff and are playing some of their marquee matches (like those Beckham/Galaxy games) at the Coliseum. There's even a joint A's/Quakes mini ticket plan that I'm thinking of springing for. The Earthquakes regular non-marquee matches are going to be played at SCU's Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, kind of a long haul for me, so my best chance is to see one of their games in Oakland.

If they're splitting matches between Oakland and Santa Clara, shouldn't they be soething like the "Earthquakes of the San Andreas, Calaveras, and Hayward faults" instead of just the "San Jose" Earthquakes? I think so.