Here we go again – more perplexing animus toward Major League Soccer from the Sun Journal’s “edgy” sports columnists. The latest swipe mentioned the “thousands” who attended the New England Revolution game against the Los Angeles Galaxy and implied that TV ratings will be very low. To set the record straight, it was more than 30,000, and the fact that Galaxy star David Beckham didn’t play thanks to an ankle injury didn’t seem to bother the festive crowd, except for a handful of teenage girls chanting, “We want Beckham.”

This is the first time I’ve ever seen columnists systematically take on a legitimate professional sport, particularly one enjoyed in its amateur form by millions of American kids. I can see bashing a team (the Yankees) and an athlete (Barry Bonds), but why a whole sport? If they have to go after a sport, why not take on competitive eating, or that bloody spectacle where guys try to beat and kick each other senseless?

Maybe they object to MLS’ hype machine. But all professional sports market themselves intensively. In fact, as MLS builds on crowds like the one at Gillette Stadium, I can imagine a lot of in-the-know sportswriters waxing sarcastic about pro football clamoring for attention in the 1930s or the same for the NBA after World War II.

Dave Griffiths, Mechanic Falls