Bell’s Latest Model Is Apparently a Winner

Bob Bell had a perfectly good car. It may have had 125,000 miles on it, but it waxed up to a nice shine and its engine ran smoothly. So what if it had a flat tire now and then?

However, Bell was concerned. After all, nothing lasts forever. Particularly cars.

And athletes.

Bell did not really possess such an automobile. Instead, he had soccer players--athletes--and they had some miles on them.

Like a perfectly good automobile, they kept rolling along without a clatter in the valves, a leak in the radiator, or, for that matter, even a flat tire.

Bell’s athletes, known hereabouts as the Sockers, won the championship in 1981-82, switched leagues and won in 1982-83 and switched again and won in 1983-84. They lost all of two playoffs games en route to those three consecutive indoor championships.

And yet Bell was concerned. He did not want to be soccer’s version of the guy who traded for a newer model car a year too late rather than a year too early. He did not want to wake up one morning and find rust had eaten through the fenders and the engine was sounding like Michael Jackson’s percussion.

So it came to pass that Bell decided to take a perfectly good soccer team and, in essence, trade it in. Julie Veee, Alan Mayer, Gert Wieczorkowski and Martin Donnelly were on their way out, all of them headed for the Las Vegas Americans. Bell, for his part, enjoyed the distinction of being that rarest of individuals who walked out of Las Vegas with a pocketful of chips.

Bell’s decision did not, however, endear him to the populace.

“I’ve got drawers and drawers of letters,” he said Tuesday. “People wrote and said they’d never come to another game. They said I was greedy for money. They said I was unloyal. They said all sorts of negative things.”

I suppose being called a greedy traitor might be considered negative. It’s nothing a fellow would want to include in a resume.

In truth, media and fans alike were bewildered by the Sockers’ owner. What did he have in mind?

Bell had taken a calculated risk. He knew the Golden Bay franchise was about to go under, and he saw an opportunity to sell older players coming off three championship seasons and acquire younger players he thought could more than adequately replace them.

Bell and Ron Newman, the Sockers’ coach, put together a list of players they thought would be timely to sell. Sure enough, Las Vegas was interested. Bell offered players who had something Las Vegas needed--instant gate appeal and credibility.

And the Sockers’ fans reacted like the owner was dumping players in order to build a new addition on his house. He had sold players who were immensely popular, and the fans cared little that those players might be watching the last grains of sand trickle through their athletic hour glasses.

“If it was up to the fans,” Bell said, “nobody would ever retire. Lance Alworth would still be playing for the Chargers. Heck, Babe Ruth might still be playing for the Yankees. Fans never want anyone to retire or move on.”

Apparently, a number of those chagrined fans have made good on their threats to stay away. Attendance was down some 1,700 in the regular season, and the playoffs thus far have not drawn any of those frenzied, sell-out crowds from the seeming glory days of the last few years.

And there is irony here, because this may well be the best team the Sockers have put together. Since the Sockers have perennially been the best of the indoor teams, logical progression should then dictate that this could be the best indoor team anyone has put together.

One of the new faces, Steve Zungul, will likely be the most valuable player in the Major Indoor Soccer League--unless, of course, he is beaten out by another of the new faces, Branko Segota. Bell got them both from Golden Bay, cashing in some of the chips he brought home from Las Vegas. He also picked up Fernando Clavijo and George Katakalidis.

“We’ve taken players averaging 33 years old and replaced them with players averaging 25,” Bell said. “We’ve gone from being the oldest living soccer team to a team with the nucleus to be strong for another five, six or seven years.”

Indeed, these fresh new faces have blended with veterans such as Kaz Deyna and Jean Willrich to produce the most successful season in the history of indoor soccer. The Sockers are 41-11 and going for their ninth straight win entering Game 2 of the best-of-five semifinal series against the Minnesota Strikers tonight in the Sports Arena.

“This is definitely the best indoor soccer team ever put together,” Bell said. “It’ll be like the 1927 Yankees. Ten to 15 years from now, great teams will be compared in relation to this club.”

Bell’s “new model” does have some work to do. The Sockers looked overwhelmingly unbeatable in Sunday night’s 8-1 rout of the Strikers, but they should probably continue to play ‘em one at a time. And this is only the semifinal series.

This Socker team cannot rank as history’s finest unless it completes its task in 1984-85. It cannot be the best ever until it is established as today’s finest.

Meanwhile, Bob Bell has to be feeling quite vindicated. He has made controversial changes, and they have been for the good. What’s more, Las Vegas was beaten in the quarterfinals with that nucleus of athletes Bell took so much heat for selling.

While all those negative letters smolder in the drawers behind him, he sits smiling at his desk.

“I’m still waiting for the first letter telling me I did the right thing,” he said. “It hasn’t arrived yet.”

It won’t come from Las Vegas.

‘I’ve got drawers and drawers of letters. People wrote and said they’d never come to another game. They said I was greedy for money. They said I was unloyal. They said all sorts of negative things. . . . I’m still waiting for the first letter telling me I did the right thing. It hasn’t arrived yet.’

--Bob Bell