Mel Avanzado

Lawyer (entertainment, sports, intellectual prop, labor), UCLA & Notre Dame alum, rabid sports fan (UCLA, Dodgers, LA Kings, Lakers, Rams), golfer & dog lover

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year.

That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer.

FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset.

US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records.

So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros.

Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability.

Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business.

They will not.

[This Day In Sports Clips @TDISportsClips]

April 6, 1994: @jimeverett goes after Jim Rome on ESPN2’s Talk 2 show (which was televised live).

[Nate @dodgernate]

Top 5 Dodgers walk-off home runs of all time

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

My stepmom, Editha Cariño Avanzado, married to my 95 year old dad for 42 years, passed away on January 14. Here is her obituary and the details of the services.

https://t.co/IOFPQWwair Obituary information for Editha Carino Avanzado

[Catholic Sat @CatholicSat]

Pope Leo XIV responding to the US bishops’ statement on the detention and deportation of migrants: 

“No one has said that the United States should have open borders. I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter. But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful to say the least, and there has been some violence unfortunately. I think that the Bishops have been very clear in what they said and I think that I was just invite all people in the United States to listen to them.”

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

Legendary stuff. @Dodgers

[MLB @MLB]

OH MY GOODNESS WE ARE GOING TO EXTRAS

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

Reminds me of Ozzie Smith hitting a walk off home run against the @Dodgers in the 1985 NLCS. Just as unexpected from a light hitting infielder. But obviously Miggy's was more impactful. #LetsGoDodgers #Back2Back #WorldSeriesChampions

[MLB @MLB]

MIGUEL ROJAS WITH THE BIGGEST SWING OF HIS LIFE 💥

GAME 7 IS TIED IN TORONTO

[MLB @MLB]

MIGUEL ROJAS WITH THE BIGGEST SWING OF HIS LIFE 💥

GAME 7 IS TIED IN TORONTO

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

Nice reunion of the key actors from @thewestwingTV @AllisonBJanney @bradleywhitford

[Bradley Whitford @bradleywhitford]

The Diplomat: Season 3 | Official Teaser | Netflix https://t.co/cr4I5eVkKJ via @YouTube

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

@LakersNation Kareem @kaj33 before all of them anyway. #TheCaptain

[Jeff J. Snider @snidog]

If you're wondering why both Freddie Freeman and Brandon Nimmo thought Freddie's ball was gone tonight, here's a little thread.

Freddie hit the ball 105.9 MPH at a 30° launch angle. It traveled 358 feet. Remember those numbers (but I'll also remind you of them). [1/6]

[Los Angeles Dodgers @Dodgers]

Tonight’s Photo of the Game presented by Daiso.

[Anthony @Catholicizm1]

Pope Leo XIV gives 1st Wednesday general audience in English. Very surreal.

[Alessandro Gisotti @AGisotti]

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will present the Ring of the Fisherman to Pope Leo XIV during the Mass for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry.

@UCEPO @HolySeePress

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

NEW: Cardinal Tagle will place the Fisherman’s Ring on Pope Leo tomorrow during his installation Mass.

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

In other words, shut the fuck up.

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

“All persons born…in the United States…are citizens of the United States….” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
"The Fourteenth Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory....”United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 693 (1898)

[☩ 𝕁𝕄𝕋 ☩ @SecretFire79]

You know, it’s funny when people hear that Pope Leo XIV has a math degree, taught physics, and wrote a thesis on monastic leadership, they act like it's some wild plot twist. The Catholic Church has always been low-key obsessed with education. I mean, did you know nearly every pope since the Renaissance has had a PhD? Benedict XVI had five. Cardinals today basically need doctorate-level expertise to even get a seat at the table. Leo XIV isn't an outlier; he's following a 2,000-year-old playbook where faith and reason are BFFs. This is the same institution that gave us the Big Bang theory (thanks to a Jesuit priest, Georges Lemaître) and the guy who invented genetics (shoutout to Gregor Mendel, the pea-plant-obsessed Augustinian friar). Yet somehow, we still think of the Church as just incense and hymns.

The Church's duality; defending doctrinal tradition while pioneering intellectual frontiers, is its defining paradox. Consider the Vatican's astronomical observatory, which has operated since 1582, or the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which has included members like Hawking and Einstein.

Let's break it down. Those monks and nuns you picture copying manuscripts in candlelit monasteries? They weren't just praying, they were preserving ancient Greek philosophy, advancing math, and basically saving Western civilisation during the Dark Ages. Fast-forward to today, and the Vatican still runs its own space telescope (yes, really, Jesuit brothers track asteroids). The Chúrch condemned Galileo, sure, but now it funds ethical stem-cell research and partners with IBM on AI ethics. It's like the ultimate comeback story: "Oops, we messed up on heliocentrism; here's a think tank on quantum physics."

And let's talk about those religious orders. Jesuits? They basically invented the modern university system. The Jesuits founded in 1540, by a chap called Ignatius Loyala, (half monk, half soldier) ran over 800 universities globally. Franciscans gave us Occam's Razor; you know, that "simplest explanation is best" rule you learned in science class? That came from a 14th-century friar who loved logic more than the Pope loved his fancy hat. The Dominicans had Thomas Aquinas, who merged Aristotle's philosophy with theology. Augustinians, Leo XIV's crew, were all about community and critical thinking, traits he took to Peru, where he spent 20 years teaching in slums while quietly holding dual citizenship. The guy's got more layers than a medieval manuscript.

But here's the upper-cut: the Church thrives on this weird paradox. It's conservative enough to make your grandma nod approvingly ("No women priests? Classic.") but progressive enough to have a Pope who trash-talks eco deniers and slams border politics. Leo XIV fits right in; he's a Republican primary voter who also called Trump's family separations "illicit," a social media critic who warns bishops not to be divisive online. It's like the Church says, "We'll debate evolution with Darwinians by day and chant Latin psalms by night and we'll look good doing both."

So next time someone acts shocked that a pope knows quantum physics or tweets about refugees, just smile. The Catholic Church has been playing 4D chess with knowledge for centuries. It's not a relic; it's a living library, where friars argue about black holes over breakfast and nuns run coding bootcamps. Leo XIV? He's just the latest chapter in a story where faith doesn't fear science…It fuels it.

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

Coolest thing ever.

[Joe Binder @JoeBinder]

Pope Leo XIV made the broadcast while at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series

[Mel Avanzado @BruinMel]

Outstanding take. Thank you. #IlPapa