WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : DEAR ALEXI

And now, Letters to Alexi.

Some come to U.S. Training Camp, 27301 La Paz, Mission Viejo, Calif. 92692. Some come addressed simply to “Alexi.”

Isn’t it true some come to “Red-Haired Player, USA?”

“I hadn’t heard that,” Lalas said. “But probably.”

OK, let’s open the first one on today’s pile.

“ ‘Dear Alexi: I’m 13 and I live in Virginia and I think it’s cool that you play the guitar,’ ” Lalas reads aloud. “ ‘I wish I could play soccer like you. But you’re 6-3 and I’m only 5-1. Oh, well. Good luck. P.S.: Oh, yeah. Love the hair!’

“That was a good one. Some of these letters, the kids start telling you about their goldfish, their hamster, whatever, but they get off on little tangents and forget what they were writing me about in the first place. It’s like, ‘Today I rode my bike and oh, yeah, could I have your autograph?’

“OK, here’s one. ‘Edina, Minnesota. Dear Alexi: Hi, my name is Kelly and I have one sister and one dog named Hershey. What is your favorite kind of girl?’ Ha! I usually like them alive! What else does she say here, let’s see: ‘My sister wrote to Cobi (Jones) but I think you’re cooler.’ OK! Where’s Cobi? Show him this. This one definitely gets a reply from me.

“Whoa, here’s one from Michigan, my state. Should’ve opened this one first. ‘From Kevin Coburn. I hear you like Slurpees. You should try Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a 7-Eleven on every street almost.’ Look here, Kevin even included a pen. Kevin is taking no chances. Kevin’s giving me the scoop on Philadelphia 7-Elevens. He definitely gets a reply, too.

“If it’s a really good letter, I’ll write back. Sometimes I’ll even call. I called some kid in South Dakota or someplace the other day. He says, ‘Who is this?’ He thinks it’s one of his friends playing a joke. I love it. ‘Come on. Who is this?’

“OK, one more. This one’s from, let’s see, Kati. ‘Dear Alexi, hmmm, blah, blah, blah.’ OK, here we go. ‘I know as well as the stars that this letter will not take flight into your hands.’ Hmmm. Interesting. That’s the thing about writing letters. It takes imagination. It takes ingenuity. And in this case, I think maybe it took a little tequila.”