SPORTS NOTEBOOK / PAUL McLEOD : Cerritos Grad, Back From Ankle Surgery, Joins U.S. Soccer Team
Marcelo Balboa, the United States Soccer Federation’s 1992 national player of the year, was spotted putting gasoline in his car last week at a La Palma filling station.
The Cerritos High graduate was topping off before leaving for his new home in Mission Viejo, where he will train with other members of the national team for the 1994 World Cup.
Balboa, 23, has been the starting sweeper for the national team since the 1990 World Cup in Italy. He tied for second on the team in goals last year with three. He says he has recovered from an operation to remove bone chips in his right ankle and is eager to begin training, even though he has yet to sign a contract with USSF.
Balboa balked at USSF’s first offer but anticipates signing soon, although it will be for less than he wants. “Compared to everyone else in the world of sports, we should be getting paid better,” he said.
But Balboa said the reality is that soccer has been a very limited spectator sport in this country. It receives very little television exposure, making it difficult for USSF to generate enough revenue to pay the players what they want.
“That’s what we get for playing soccer in the U.S.,” Balboa said. “It’s not as popular here, but then, that’s why we are here, to get it up (in popularity) with football.”
For the first time, the national team has its own training facility, a $2.3-million, seven-acre site built by Mission Viejo at Oso Viejo Community Park. It has several playing fields, including two lighted grass fields built to international specifications. A 3,800-square-foot clubhouse is expected to be completed in April.
At the end of the 24-team World Cup competition, the fields will be turned over to local youth soccer groups and the clubhouse will be converted into a youth sports center. The national team will move to a permanent training facility in Florida in 1995.
The USSF has paid for an apartment for Balboa, who is single. Other players and their families are also being housed near the facility.
On Monday, 22 players were in camp for opening ceremonies. The number is expected to increase to as many as 30 as Coach Bora Milutinovic invites players to try out for the 18-man roster. The team opens its season Jan. 30 against Denmark in Tempe, Ariz.
In previous years, the players had no training facility and came together only to for games. That led to poor results. Last season, the national team finished 6-14-1. One of the biggest highlights was a 1-1 tie with Italy.
“Being together for the next year and a half will have a lot to do with helping us,” Balboa said. “I think we’ll shock a lot of people.”
Several of the players in camp have been playing in Europe or have business commitments that make it difficult to play soccer full time without being compensated.
Last summer, Balboa played for the Colorado Rockies of the American Professional Soccer League when he was not with the national team. He wants to play in Europe when the 1994 games are over.
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After serving nearly seven years in prison on a federal drug conviction, former Lakewood High outfielder Bill Simpson hopes to pitch for a minor league team.
Simpson, 35, an all-CIF selection at Lakewood, was the top pick of baseball’s 1976 draft, chosen by the Texas Rangers. But after three seasons in the minor leagues, he was out of baseball. He became a courier for a cocaine cartel and in 1986 pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine and illegally using a telephone to further a conspiracy. He was sentenced to 10 years but was paroled Dec. 31.
A year ago, while an inmate at a federal camp in Lompoc, Calif., Simpson met former San Diego Padre slugger Nate Colbert, who was serving six months for bank fraud. Colbert played catch with Simpson in the camp softball program and thought that Simpson had a good arm. He encouraged Simpson to throw daily. Simpson built a pitching mound but it was razed by jail officials who thought that inmates should not receive special privileges.
Simpson requested a transfer back to the camp at Boron, Calif., where he was first sent after his conviction. Boron had a well-established softball program and officials in the minimum security facility were more helpful. Simpson built a pitching mound and threw every day.
Through weightlifting, Simpson added 50 pounds to his 6-foot-2, 175-pound frame in the first six years he was in prison. Colbert suggested that he stop lifting and run more. Simpson now weighs about 200.
Simpson, who intends to ask several major league teams for a tryout, said he has been throwing at between 90 and 95 m.p.h. A player agent who watched Simpson throw at Lompoc estimated his speed at between 88 and 92.
A long shot?
“If I do make it, it will be one hell of a story,” said Simpson, who is living in Los Angeles. “I know what my odds are. I’ve realized that from the beginning and I’m not going to let it deter me.”
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The Cal State Long Beach men’s basketball team, with a 10-1 record, is off to its best start in more than two decades. But for the 49ers to keep up the pace, they have to win on the road, beginning tonight at Nevada.
The 49ers have won 19 consecutive games in their campus gym, a streak that began with the final game of the 1990-91 season. However, Long Beach is 9-15 in games not played in the gym during that span.
Seven of the 49ers’ next nine games will be on the road, including intersectional matches at Virginia Commonwealth on Jan. 23 and at Kansas on Jan. 25.
After tonight’s Big West Conference game at Reno, Long Beach plays at Utah State at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and at UC Santa Barbara at 9 p.m. Monday. The 49ers (3-1) are in first place in the league, a half-game ahead of four others, including Utah State and Santa Barbara.
Traditionally, it has been difficult for Big West teams to win away from home. Nevada Las Vegas, 12th-ranked at the time, was defeated last week by Long Beach, 101-94, snapping the longest winning streak in the nation at 29.
But this season, several Big West teams have had some early success away from home. New Mexico State defeated host UC Santa Barbara, 71-69, last week, then fell to Long Beach two nights later, 97-71. Long Beach opened conference play by winning at San Jose State, 88-73, but then fell at the University of the Pacific, 68-56.
Utah State (5-5, 2-1) took two of its three games on the road to open Big West play. The Aggies beat Nevada, 84-61, and UC Irvine, 70-65, before losing at Cal State Fullerton, 91-71.
Nevada (6-4, 1-2) is competing in the Big West for the first time. The Wolf Pack split two road games last week, losing to Fullerton, 81-62, and defeating Irvine, 71-67.
