One last time for the 146;91ers

8216;8216;We traded red caps for blue caps,8217;8217; said Shannon Boxx, one of the newer members of the US women8217;s soccer team. Out went the Boston Red Sox caps. Some of the players found Chicago Cubs8217; caps while others ordered them in a show of solidarity for Mia Hamm8217;s husband, Nomar Garciaparra, who was traded in one of baseball8217;s classic midsummer, dump-the-pending-free-agent business deals.

8216;8216;Some of us have experienced it in a very minor way,8217;8217; said Abby Wambach, referring to the current moribund status of their professional league, at slightly lower salary levels than Garciaparra8217;s.

At the moment, these Summer Games are the biggest thing the women have. Next Wednesday on the island of Crete, the Americans will take on the Greek team, half of them Americans.

The United States has not won a big tournament since the epic World Cup of 1999, losing to Norway in the gold medal game at the Sydney Games in 2000 and losing to Germany in the semis of the 2003 World Cup.

This will be the last time this team even remotely resembles the one that won the first World Cup in 1991. Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett may not collectively pass this way again. 8216;8216;The 8217;91ers,8217;8217; Wambach called them.

Somehow, Hamm became the poster player for the team. Maybe it was her feral intensity on grass or her reticent aura in civvies. The 150 international goals, the most by any male or female soccer player in history, helped. Not by her choice, Hamm became the marketable face of this admirable team.

Boxx was a college player in the Rose Bowl stands in 1999 when the United States beat China. She remembers Hamm8217;s impact on the sport. 8216;8216;It was amazing to see dads in Mia Hamm jerseys,8217;8217; she said. 8216;8216;It was men, it was boys.8217;8217;

Hamm and three other 8217;91ers did make a gesture to nostalgia when they rented a house together in California this year, with Fawcett staying with her husband and three children not far away.

In a telephone conversation Thursday, Hamm talked about having children, but 8216;8216;only after we have some time together, just the two of us8217;8217;. She had hoped they could spend the next few seasons in Boston, but cold baseball economics sent Garciaparra to Chicago.

Aside from changing baseball loyalties in a heartbeat, the American women said they had not detected the slightest preoccupation in Hamm. 8216;8216;She8217;s always the same,8217;8217; Wambach said.

Hamm rejects the theory that the women8217;s team needs to do something spectacular as a going-away present to the last 8217;91ers. 8216;8216;Our mentality is, always win,8217;8217; Hamm said. 8216;8216;They can8217;t feel, 8216;We have to do it for them8217;.8217;8217;

There must be a generational change soon. The team sent out four newer players 8212; Cat Reddick, Heather O8217;Reilly, Boxx and Wambach 8212; to a news conference Thursday while the older players rested after a midday practice. 8216;8216;We obviously want to give them something to smile about,8217;8217; Wambach said. 8216;8216;We don8217;t want to have three potential failures.8217;8217;

Hamm knows that Germany and Sweden have made progress. She talks proudly about watching Mexico get better every time it plays the United States. She would like to win one more championship against improved opposition before her career ends.

There may even be a farewell tour for the 8217;91ers, a final game for Hamm. It could be in a number of American cities. It probably won8217;t be in Boston.

The New York Times