U.S. Should Feel at Home in Cradle of Revolution
How badly does the United States want to win Sunday’s important World Cup soccer qualifying match against Mexico? Not badly enough to enlist John Calipari to stand on the sideline and taunt the visitors, but badly enough to forfeit $1 million.
The U.S. Soccer Federation would have earned that much more in gate receipts if it had awarded the game to the Rose Bowl. Instead, USSF officials selected Foxboro Stadium.
It was the best million they ever lost.
That was the cost of a home-crowd advantage, a rarity for the United States even in the United States.
The Rose Bowl would have drawn 92,000 fans, but, as we know from experience, a large majority would have cheered Mexico. Although Foxboro has a capacity of only 58,000, the fans there are as red, white and blue as Paul Revere, unless the opponent is Ireland.
The USSF chose Foxboro after studying the results of a survey conducted by its managing director of events, Emilio Pozzi. It revealed that the New England Revolution has the third-fewest Latino ticket buyers among MLS teams.
“The composition of the stadium will be much more Anglo than in the past,” USSF spokesman Jim Froslid said.
The day will be as awash in Americana as a Boston Pops concert. That means no mariachi bands.
Over to you, Larry Merchant.
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Keyshawn Johnson will sign copies of his book, “Just Give Me The Damn Ball!’ from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at the USC bookstore. . . .
New York Jet quarterback Neil O’Donnell says he spoke to Johnson and now believes there was nothing personal intended in such passages as, “O’Donnell had been nothing but a stiff puppet back there.” . . .
Is it possible O’Donnell is gullible? For instance, Dallas cornerback Larry Brown told him before the 1996 Super Bowl, “Throw me the ball; I won’t catch it.” . . .
Maybe I just thought I heard that somewhere. . . .
Speaking of wordsmiths, Carl Lewis, who wrote “One More Victory Lap,” will appear on The Times’ Festival of Books program at 5 p.m. Saturday at UCLA. . . .
On Sunday, Lewis will take his last victory lap in Southern California at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. . . .
On a panel with Roger Kahn (“Boys of Summer”) and Times columnist Jim Murray at 10 a.m. Saturday will be Joan Ryan, whose “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes” provided an incisive look at elite women’s gymnastics and figure skating. . . .
UCLA is seeded second to Michigan in the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships, which feature competitors older and more mature than those Ryan wrote about. . . .
The Bruin men, not supported by the athletic department, repeated as champions in the USA Gymnastics club division, then disbanded because of the loss of six seniors. . . .
Oscar De La Hoya and Pernell Whitaker set a record for non-heavyweight fighters with a pay-per-view take of $32 million. . . .
That’s $2 million more than the gross for the first closed-circuit fight produced by the late Jack Kent Cooke and Jerry Perenchio in 1971. In the ring were Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, who each received $2.5 million. . . .
“Thirty million dollars!” Ali said when told the bottom line. “Frazier, we’ve been taken!” . . .
A rematch I am looking forward to seeing: After losing on a disputed, fifth-round disqualification in November, Marco Antonio Barrera gets another shot at Junior Jones on Friday night in a junior-featherweight title fight. . . .
Santa Monica Crossroads’ Baron Davis, chosen by Gatorade on Wednesday as the national high school boys’ player of the year, is visiting Georgia Tech on Sunday. . . .
He also is considering UCLA and Kansas. No matter what you hear, and anyone who ever tried a hook shot seems to be speculating, those closest to Davis say only he knows how he’s leaning.
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Notre Dame is finally handing over the new shillelagh that goes to winner of the annual football game between the Irish and USC. It will be on display at Heritage Hall during Saturday’s spring game.
The Irish were reluctant, claiming the original shillelagh, now retired, was once spotted on the counter of a bar when previously in the Trojans’ possession so many years ago.
Indignant USC officials respond that they have far too much respect for the shillelagh to allow something like that to happen.
Besides, Julie’s is closed.
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While wondering how baseball can fight racism while allowing offensive Native American logos, I was thinking: Northwestern and Oklahoma sign for the Pigskin Classic and it’s Oklahoma that doesn’t belong, Allen Iverson’s points barrage would be more impressive if his team were winning, we need another Branch Rickey.
