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mranderso

Hamm kicks open a world of opportunity

Dec. 9, 2004 12:00 AM

Life held up a red card and beckoned Mia Hamm from soccer Wednesday night. It happened quietly, in Carson, Calif., a city of refuse dumps, landfills and the shiny Home Depot Center, where Hamm played against Mexico and then retired.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/columns/articles/1209boivin1209.html

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http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=318773&cc=5901

Hamm cements her legacy

Marc Connolly
ESPN.com

She began her career as Mia Hamm, and ended it as Mia Garciaparra, wearing the last name of her shortstop husband on the back of her jersey for the first time during the second half of her final match on Wednesday night. But for the overwhelming majority of her 18-year soccer career with the U.S. Women's national team, she was simply Mia.

mb · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:13 pm Post subject:

Like the commercial says, "Thanks...".

aml10 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 323 Location: iowa

my soccer fanatacism aside, Mia Hamm will be one of the greatest female athletes of all time.

what she did for women's sports, in america, around the world, and past soccer, is beyond measure.

until college I had to play on all-boys teams for soccer. at least I had female role models to look up to.
i'm confident that there is enough popularity for little girls now to be able to play soccer together.

to Mia and the other two '91ers that retired last night, Julie Foudy & Joy Fawcett... THANK YOU!

rebolpuppy · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:14 am Post subject: Good luck, Mia, Julie & Joy!

Thanks to all three players - and others - but especially Mia, for inspiring so many women to play soccer, and for providing *real* role models for girls and women everywhere.

:)

mb · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:37 am Post subject:

Hey pup! How goes your soccer career?

Mia rocks! Saw a Tiger Woods interview the other night and was very impressed. Glad some classy athletes are drawing needed attention to sports and giving role models to some youth who never had them prior.

Congrats to Danika (female driver) for getting a gig with Rahal-Letterman racing!

rebolpuppy · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 12:44 pm Post subject: Hi!

Hey, M! Good to here from you.

My soccer game isn't good enough, yet. Getting cut gave me a deserved whack upside the head. Losing two years of heavy duty conditioning in Canada didn't help. Being lazy about trying to do it myself didn't help either, but I hope to make the team next year. :) The weights and endurance I'm catching up on, but the footwork is going to take a lot of work.

Yeah, Danica made it big, huh? She's actually been under contract to Bobby Rahal for two years now, driving Formula Atlantic and doing well. Of course doing the old spread - literally *and* figuratively - in FHM didn't hurt her career. She's sort of the crown princess of motor sports, although the NASCAR chica who starts in the trucks & Busch next year will give her some competition anyway.

I have the complete collection of Danica Patrick pics from FHM ... :0

aml10 · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 323 Location: iowa

why the US Soccer Federation needs a good kick in the @ss:

U.S. `Girls of Summer' deserved better sendoff
by Scott M. Reid, The Orange County Register

CARSON, Calif. - American soccer as we know it today has been shaped by three primary forces, three guiding lights for a sport that has so often stumbled in this country.

The first was Pele, the Brazilian icon, who arrived on these shores in the summer of 1975 to launch what became known as the soccer boom. The second was the 1994 World Cup.

And there are the Girls of Summer, a ground-breaking group of women who forever changed how the world looks at the world's game and how a nation views its mothers, daughters and sisters.

Pele played his farewell match on Oct. 1, 1977, at Giants Stadium. Muhammad Ali was there along with 75,646. So was Mick Jagger and Henry Kissinger. President Jimmy Carter's son presented Pele with a plaque from his father and the nation.

Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett and Julie Foudy said goodbye to the game they changed Wednesday night with a match in a maybe half-full stadium named after a hardware store. Their 5-0 victory against Mexico wasn't so much a fond farewell as it was a slap in the face.

To three women who have played a combined 785 matches for the U.S. national team and won a pair of Women's World Cup and another pair of Olympic gold medals.

To the millions of girls they taught to dream.

Pele's final match was played on an autumn afternoon on ABC. Wednesday night's game kicked off at 11 p.m. Eastern time on a cable network a few clicks short of QVC.

U.S. Soccer, the sport's national governing body, should have sent Hamm, Fawcett and Foudy out the right way. They should have brought back Michelle Akers, the game's greatest player, Carla Overbeck, captain of the 1999 World Cup team, Shannon MacMillan and Tiffeny Milbrett. They should have rounded up old rivals such as Brazil's Sissi, China's Sun Wen, Germany's Birgit Prinz for a world all-star team. And they should have played on one final sun-drenched afternoon at a Rose Bowl filled to the brim.

At least the U.S women delivered Wednesday night even if their federation wouldn't. Hamm scored just six minutes into the match with a left-footed shot that bounced off the crossbar. Two minutes later, she set up a goal by Aly Wagner. In the 17th minute, she created the first of Abby Wambach's two goals.

But even with Hamm's brilliance, even with Foudy's persistence, the spontaneous "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant that broke out an hour into the match the night had the feel of a late run past the drive-through window.

Foudy, Fawcett and Hamm won't complain about the shabby treatment. They won't even complain about the fact that they had to buy tickets for their friends and relatives. They always saw their message, not themselves, as bigger than the game.

It's the message U.S. Soccer was so clearly sending Wednesday night that's so disturbing. A federation that was always a reluctant passenger is ready to jump off the women's soccer bandwagon.

Only in the prehistoric world of global soccer can U.S. Soccer's views on the women's game be considered enlightened. While the federation's suits have worked up a sweat patting themselves on back for the success of the women's program, the truth is the players had to drag the federation kicking and screaming into the 20th century. Even after a 1999 Women's World Cup that brought in $200 million in merchandise sales and corporate sponsorship, the players had to fight for an equitable contract and support system.

Those battles left more than a few egos at the federation bruised and now there's almost a sense of payback. U.S. Soccer already has proposed a substantially reduced 2005 schedule for the women's team. The federation also is promising to take a Bettman-esque hard line in upcoming contract talks.

In the 80th minute, Hamm, wearing a jersey bearing Garciaparra across its back in tribute to her husband, the Chicago Cub shortstop Nomar, limped off the field one final time. At midfield she stopped and hugged her substitute Heather O'Reilly.

"You're the future," Hamm told her.

Then O'Reilly raced onto the pitch. A few small steps forward on a night American soccer took a major step backward.

1carol · Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 1050 Location: Phoenix AZ

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041228/OPINION02/412280309
excerpt from Toledo Blade
published Tues Dec 28 2004

Quote: Mia's Mark

MIA Hamm didn't invent women's soccer, nor did she blaze the trail allowing women on the field. But she turned what had been a dirt road into an interstate highway, presiding over an era of astronomical growth and popularity for women's soccer.