Gritty Garrity

"Be curious, not judgmental" - Ted Lasso. I enjoy sports fandom pain and dynasty football. #RingtheBell #BrotherlyLove

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@fuzzyfromyt That was awesome

[Citizens Bank Park @PhilliesCBP]

A night 250 years in the making, ENJOY IT PHILLY!

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@GrantPaulsen Earned it. Kid is a beast

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@athleticsfan_4 Woah congrats Zack!

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@theaceofspaeder

[MLB @MLB]

10 strikeouts for Zack Wheeler!

He's recorded 10+ Ks in 3 consecutive starts 👏

[Phillies Tailgate @PhilsTailgate]

NEWS: Cristopher Sanchez will start the All-Star Game for the National League!

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@TheGoodPhight truly absurd. 🐐

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@JoshReynolds24 Just like we all expected….

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@NBCSAthletics kid can't catch a break 🫣

[Talkin' Baseball @TalkinBaseball_]

Bryce Harper wants MLB to let Home Run Derby participants use metal bats during the bonus round, per @Buster_ESPN

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@Hall_Thomas_ Wow.

[Philadelphia Phillies @Phillies]

There will be Schwarbombs bursting in air

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@espn Oh no! He's going to miss.....wait, nevermind.

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

14K's lol that's MY all star 🤩
#RingTheBell

[MLB @MLB]

Total dominance from Zack Wheeler 🔥

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

Damn. Aakash spits fire 🔥

[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.

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

Awful

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@TalkinBaseball_ ouchie

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@JoePompliano 100%

[Gritty Garrity @GTGarrity]

@UKPhillies Congrats! that was an excellent match!