NEW YORK – On Wednesday, the city of San Francisco will hold its victory parade for the baseball Giants to celebrate their first-ever World Series title since moving to the West Coast.
It’s an event that D.C. United owner, Will Chang, who is also a part owner of the Giants, wants to replicate for his MLS club.
“I’d like to be able to build the sport of soccer to the point where the whole city comes out and celebrates when we win the MLS Cup,” Chang told MLSsoccer.com. “My goal in life is that the whole District of Columbia come out like the city of San Francisco is going to come out and celebrate. … If we can do that, I would have accomplished a major goal of mine.”
Chang has been part of the Giants ownership group since 2004, two years after the team’s last World Series appearance. But he has been a fan of the baseball club since he was a kid.
Growing up in Japan, Chang played baseball and soccer, alternating between catcher and right back. Already a fan of the Yomiuri Giants, he immediately fell in love with the American version of the Giants when he moved to San Francisco. The two teams share the same logo and colors.
So it’s of little surprise that real emotion comes across in his voice as he recounts his experience of the final out of the 2010 World Series against the Texas Rangers – the prayer by closer Brian Wilson and catcher Buster Posey throwing his mask in the air.
As the mainstream sports media told the story, the misfits from San Francisco had conquered the baseball world. Chang takes issue with the label.
“I think it’s not justified,” Chang said. “We were constantly underestimated. We scored as many runs as the Texas Rangers had hits.
“What’s a definition of a misfit? … A lot of credit goes to our manager and our general manager for identifying where the holes were and plugging those holes with veterans. We did sprinkle a few veterans to shore up our youth, but for us to be labeled as ragtag is not a fair assessment.”
The Giants were a team based on homegrown players. The four playoff starters, the team’s closer and the starting catcher all came through the club’s farm system. It’s no coincidence that D.C. United share the same philosophy and now feature the youngest ever Rookie of the Year, 17-year-old Andy Najar. [inline_node:317689]
“Unless you are a very, very big-market club that can afford to purchase the best players around the world, to be competitive you have to have a good youth and scouting system,” Chang said. “We have a good youth and scouting system at D.C. United. We have an excellent scouting system at the SF Giants.
“I want to really put more time and energy and effort in developing homegrown talent like Andy Najar and Bill Hamid and we have a number of others that are coming up.”
Chang says his main priority in 2011 is to work on bringing an MLS Cup championship back to DC.
From titles to homegrown talent and victory parades, Chang wants to carry over several of the experiences with the 2010 Giants to D.C. United and win the club’s first MLS Cup since 2004.
He also wants to see the baseball and soccer clubs closest to his heart become similar in one other important aspect.
“The Giants ownership group takes a very much quasi-public trust type of philosophy of ownership and we treat the San Francisco Giants like it really belongs to the people of San Francisco and we’re just trustees,” Chang said. “That’s the type of philosophy I want to bring to DC where the people in DC feel like D.C. United belongs to them and I’m just a custodian of something that belongs to the people of DC.”
