Mail Call #12: Doc

Doc Lawson arrived back in my mailbox today. The legendary Sidekicks defender signed six cards and also enclosed a flyer about the work he's doing with DonamiSport.

If you don't know, Doc has been working in his home country of Liberia to help the sport of soccer grow.  The country has been through two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, been ravaged by Ebola, is dealing with labor rights abuses in the rubber industry, and now has an incredibly young population. Approximately 80% of its people are under 18.

A largely unheralded humanitarian

Another example of Doc's selflessness came late in his playing career. The Sidekicks and Baltimore Blast agreed to a trade that would have sent Doc to Baltimore in exchange for former Sidekicks defender Richard Chinapoo.  The Sidekicks were on their way to a poor finish and Lawson wanted to play for the Blast. But Lawson vetoed the trade. Chinapoo had just moved his family to Baltimore and he didn't want his former teammate to have to uproot them again in the middle of the year to come back to Dallas. Lawson retired at the end of the season, while Chinapoo returned to Dallas the following offseason before moving on to Harrisburg of the NPSL.

Mail Call #11: Ervine and Cooper, plus a Facebook question

After a few slow days, Monday strikes again as the big day for my mail.  Dale Ervine and Kenny Cooper both sent theirs back fully signed.  Both also added postage to make sure it got to me.  I'm not worried: I've sent up to six cards with no problem.

The bottom-left card was in the first pack of soccer cards
I ever bought, about age six or seven

Cooper even used his own postage and envelope and wrote back a full letter:

Drew,
Many thanks for your kind message. Cleveland Force and Crunch was our number one rivalry (great games). The cards you sent brought back many wonderful memories for me. Thank you for your support of soccer. It's people like yourself who have made the game what it is today.
My best to you!
Kenny Cooper Sr. 

Cooper also personalized each with "My Best Drew." Awesome response from one of the greatest coaches in MISL history.

After spending his MISL tenure in Baltimore, Cooper now
lives in the Dallas area and has a son who plays pro soccer

Speaking of responses from great coaches, I got a message on Facebook from someone asking if I'd like the cards I sent to Ron Newman signed on the front or back. He was out of town but is back now and able to sign them for me. It's great to see such care being taken with the cards to go so far as seeking me out to ask how I want them signed. I'd be okay either way but asked for the front. So hopefully I'll see Ron Newman appear in my mailbox soon as well!

Mail Call #9 and #10: Moreland, Usiyan, James

Things have gone well after the Megson failure (which I re-mailed yesterday). pulling in three successes in two days.

Wednesday brought Thompson Usiyan and Victor Moreland to my mailbox. Moreland took only a week after I re-mailed from an earlier failure. Usiyan took 18 days and even wrote a short note apologizing for it taking long. That's awesome-- 18 days really isn't that long either as in other sports I've had at least 60 that have taken ten times as long. He did keep one card that I sent.

Funny story, Usiyan used a small binder clip to keep the cards from sliding around in the envelope. I got it back with a sticker over the address saying Return to Sender, 22 cents postage due as it became non-machinable. But I had used my own address as the return address (something I started doing recently) so it came to me anyway. AND to top it off, they didn't cancel the postage.

Thursday saw Bernie James arrive in my inbox. He signed all five cards I sent his way in 18 days.

As I said in an earlier entry, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays are usually good mail days for me, so hopefully I'll have a few to cover this weekend.  On top of that, I've started writing for my next batch of mailings, set to go out most likely next weekend.

Mail Call #8: Neil Megson

I may need to rename this "Fail Call" with the last few.

After two wrong-address notes back on Monday, Tuesday got the dreaded yellow sticker from Neil Megson.  He is no longer with Crossfire Premier but is still a coach with an organization in the Seattle area. so I will re-stamp and re-send to him soon.

I guess on the plus side, this means I'll have plenty of changes and additions for the 2016 edition of my address list. As long as I sell one, it'll basically cover the cost of my postage on re-sending. So there's that at least.

I did get a hockey success at least. So there's that.

Mail Call #7: Chapman and Wittman failures

You win some, you lose some.

Monday brought two to my inbox both with notes that I had the wrong address.  Andy Chapman's soccer program has a new name and new address; so my cards came back unsigned with my letter a a Post-It note simply saying "Wrong address!"

Fortunately I found their new website, organization name, and address, so we'll try him again soon.

The one that surprised me was Tim Wittman, who apparently is no longer at Johns Hopkins. Like Chapman, my letter and cards came back with a note on the back of the letter saying Wittman no longer works there and they have no way to get a hold of him.

But once again, I found another organization he's involved in coaching, so we'll give him another try.

Here's to hoping Tuesday brings better news. It's a bit unlikely though: in eight years of collecting via mail I've had more successes on Monday than any other day (25.7% of my mailed successes have come on a Monday) and fewer on Tuesdays and Wednesdays combined than on any other single delivery day (lowest single day besides those is Friday at 17.8%; Tuesday and Wednesday combine to 17.4%).

Mail Calls #5 and #6: Vaccaro, Collins, Collins, Borja, Moreira, and a purchase

I got a little busy over the weekend. On Friday I had to pull cards for a baseball outing, Saturday was spent not crushing it at the Rangers-Mariners, and Sunday was spent with the Rangers and at Browns Backers. So, life and other sports got in the way of the project. I'll try never to let it happen again.

Bazinga.

Anyways, I had three successes and two failures as the project hit its two-week mark.  Friday brought in Cris Vacarro and Chico Borja as well as the dreaded yellow sticker from Ben Collins. On the positive side, I did find the team Collins is working with, so I re-enveloped, re-stamped, and re-sent to him there on Saturday.  Vacarro and Borja were both excellent signers. Borja signed all five cards I sent, and Vacarro did as well, even personalizing them all. I have a couple more to send Borja's way in the future, and am still looking for the alternate black-letter version of Vacarro's 87-88 card.

In addition to personalizing, Vacarro added a "Best Wishes"
type message to each, including a nice "Thanks for being a
true fan" on the Wings All-Stars card

Saturday brought in a hockey success, two baseball successes, and another Collins-- Michael this time, who signed all four cards from the sets. I also received a bunch of items I purchased from Ray K. in Maryland.  He had two signed Billy Ronson cards, two signed Kai Haaskivi photos, and the vast majority of the unsigned cards I need, all for $13 including postage.

I was a bit worried about Collins since I had
not seen any successes from him posted on
the various boards I researched. Not to fear:
it came back in 12 days.

I may donate one of the Haaskivi photos to the Finnish Heritage Museum in Fiarport Harbor, Ohio. My dad has worked with them quite a bit and since Haaskivi played most of his career nearby in Cleveland (and even made an appearance once at the Finnish church in Fairport when I was about two years old), it may be something they would like for their collections. I donated a card of Kai to them about ten years ago, but I think this would be better.

I also had a second failure as Chico Moreira came back undeliverable to an address in Broadview Heights, OH. From what I can find, he may still live there (it's near Cleveland) but I can't find the exact address if he is there. I have a few potential addresses, but nothing concrete just yet.  If anyone can help me out on this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Mail Call #4: Chinapoo

Yesterday was a slow day with no soccer sigs to add-- I did pull in a hockey one though at least so the success streak rolls on to six delivery days in a row with a return in some sport or another. I'm not surprised though-- I ran the numbers recently and in my nine years of collecting via mail, Wednesday has only brought in 6.9% of my successes. Monday, Saturday, and Thursday are usually bigger-- 63% of my successful returns have come on one of those three days.

These stats prove one thing: that I have far too much time on my hands.

On the plus side, Thursday was indeed bigger-- I got in a baseball success as well as another for the soccer sets as Richard Chinapoo's cards graced my mailbox with their presence.  The former Sidekick also used my letter to help protect the cards in the envelope and even signed the back of it, so there's a nifty bonus.

I met Chinapoo at the ASG in 2002 as well, so
I now have all of his cards signed. He joins
McLeod and Toth as the first players who
have signed every card of themselves in the
Pacific sets.

I'm getting my next batch prepared-- cards are pulled, envelopes are addressed, and I likely will start getting writer's cramp again next week, and finally purchase stamps at the start of October.  I also sent out a few internationals. Paul Buxton hooked me up with some Dutch stamps, so I was able to send off to Theo Kulsdom, Marcel Loosveld, and Dwight Lodeweges, and also re-sent to Victor Moreland through his work address.

Mail Call #3: Crow and Segota

Three mailing days have hit in a row with success on the project, this time bringing in a pair of former teammates from the San Diego Sockers, inaugural members of the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame, and 1984 Olympians for Canada and the US, respectively.

Branko Segota, a Croatian-Canadian who now lives in Cleveland signed seven cards for me, two of which will be sent out to others soon. The Sockers All-Star card also features Zoran Karic, George Fernandez, Brian Quinn, and Kevin Crow. I likely will wait and send it off to Karic once I get back my card of him with Jan Goossens. If it comes back, at least: it's currently in the Netherlands.

Negative points for using pen instead of Sharpie,
but I can't complain; 7 is the most I've had in a single
mailed success in any sport!

Speaking of Kevin Crow, he's the other one who responded today, signing six cards of himself. That particular Sockers All-Star card will be held until I send to Paul Wright-- and I'll be holding onto it until Kevin Smith sends back the MSL Action card featuring the two of them, and Ralph Black sends back the card featuring the Sockers celebrating their 1990 Championship.

The Ray Bourque of the MISL, Crow won
five Defender of the Year Awards in his career.

This is going to be an adventure with all these multi-player cards. Some guys signed them small enough to easily fit more (see Crow today and Fernandez yesterday). Others signed pretty large (Segota today and Clavijo yesterday). At the very least, I'll know who signed them first that way.

I also bought a couple signed cards and a couple signed photos today off a fellow collector-- Ray in Maryland. He had two Kai Haaskivi photos and two Billy Ronson cards for my sets. For Haaskivi, he played a number of years in my hometown of Cleveland and is a fellow Finn. I may donate one of the photos to the Finnish Heritage Museum in Fairport Harbor, OH. I did some video work for them a while back and gave them a card or two of Kai.

Ray also is filling several of the gaps in my unsigned want list, so I'll edit that down pretty soon too. I'll be down to only 6 needed in 1987-88, 1 in 1989-90, and 1 in 1991-92 once they arrive!

Mail Call #2: Toth, Fernandez, and Clavijo

I'm more surprised every day with how great these former indoor soccer players are about signing. I always had hockey players ranked as the best signers, but the soccer players have passed them so far in this project. It's been only nine days and I'm up to 29 signed cards and three notes sent back from the players.

Today brought in Fernando Clavijo, George Fernandez, and Zoltan Toth. Clavijo is close by-- he now works in the front office of FC Dallas. He signed the six cards I sent, including a card showing both him and Chico Borja, and a card showing him with Slobo Ilijevski, Godfrey Ingram, and Gary Heale. Hopefully it will be headed to Godfrey Ingram next, and then eventually Gary Heale.

New York Arrows, San Diego Sockers, Los Angeles Lazers,
St. Louis Storm, and a 2014 Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame Inductee

George Fernandez was one of my favorites as a long-time player and coach for the Cleveland Force and later the Cleveland Crunch. He signed six as well as writing a short note back.

The note reads: "Hi Drew,
Just wanted to say thanks for the
memories. They were the good ole
days. Hope you're doing well. God Bless!
George #6"

Last was Zoltan Toth who went completely above and beyond-- he personalized each card To Drew, and added Good Luck! with his signature. On top of that, he even wrote a full letter back. It is obvious that English is not his first language, but I understand what he was saying and the addition of a letter back to me is highly appreciated.

"Zollie the Goalie" mentioned his son
is the current goalie for San Diego,
plays for the US Beach Soccer Team,
and that he sees Steve Zungul quite
often.

I'm already getting my next batch ready to send out. Getting great responses makes me want the end of the month to hurry up and get here so I can buy more stamps and mail more requests out!

Mail Call #1: McLeod, King, and Moreland

A week after mailing, I've received my first successes today.

And also my first failure. My request to Victor Moreland got the dreaded yellow sticker on it-- Return To Sender, Not Deliverable As Addressed.

On the positive side, a quick search found me the carpet business he owns and manages, so I will re-try him there soon.

One of the Sidekicks' greats, McLeod signed six cards VERY quickly

My first two successes came in quickly-- only seven days to wait.  Wes McLeod signed six cards for me in a blue Sharpie, and Michael King signed five-- four Crunch cards in red, and the Sidekicks card in green.

Very cool of King to switch pens. Not many players think of that.

Michael also enclosed a short note on Milwaukee Kickers stationary, it reads...

Drew
Thanks for sending the player cards for me to sign. I hope this is what you wanted. Good memories of some great times. I hope the indoor league survives.
Best Wishes
Michael King

Back in 2012 I got a short note back from Otto Orf as well, and Hector Marinaro dropped in his business card from John Carroll University. I always like receiving notes back from players. Many times I wonder if players actually read letters when I send them, or if they just grab the cards, sign them, and send them off. Notes like that indicate they took the time to read it.

WANTED: A few unsigned (or signed) cards

In going through and organizing cards to mail out, I've found a few that I'm missing.  I bought complete sets of 1987-88, 1988-89, and 1989-90 a few months ago, but figured I was close enough on 1990-91 and 1991-92.

Apparently I thought wrong.  Here are a few I'd like to find. I'm also short on a few errors and variations from the complete sets.  If you have any for sale or for trade, let me know! And I'm cool with them either signed or unsigned. Already signed ones would save me some time and postage though, I just don't have much available to trade in terms of soccer sigs.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

1987-88: 17 Ricky Davis (Rickey error), 74 Chris Vaccaro (black lettering), 75 Heinz Wirtz (white lettering), 76 Ben Collins (black lettering), 77 Frank Klopas (white lettering), 79 Chico Moreira (white lettering)

1989-90: 67 Chris Hundelt (correct name)

1991-92: 6 Tatu

I'd be willing to trade unsigned doubles, the few signed doubles I have, or possibly a copy of my address list if someone can come through with these. Leave me a message with your email or message me on BigSoccer (MISLGrapher) if you can help me out.

Getting this party started...

I started playing soccer when I was a kid during recess in first grade. I wasn't particularly good and I didn't start playing at an organized level until I was in fifth grade (and still wasn't particularly good, with one goal and six assists in three seasons) but I enjoyed playing and watching. It certainly didn't hurt that it was the only sport my home city of Cleveland had a championship in since 1964 (NPSL champs in 1994, 1996, and 1999), and that two of the top three all-time indoor goal scoring leaders played and still live in Cleveland (Hector Marinaro and Zoran Karic; Michael King, who is fifth all-time, also spent a few seasons there).

Indoor soccer's all-time leading goal scorer

So as soon as I found out that indoor soccer cards do indeed exist, I was buying them. I started collecting cards as a whole when I was six and it wasn't long after those first packs of 1990 Score and Pro Set football, 1990-91 Pro Set hockey, and 1991 Donruss baseball that I found out that the Lawson's up the road from my house (which, after a few name changes, is still in operation as Painesville Food Mart) had some 1990-91 Pacific MISL cards. At the county fair a few years later, I found a few boxes of Pacific's 1991-92 product. I even got a few packs of 1989-90 from a local card shop and some 1987-88 as freebies at a card show.

Now an assistant coach with the Sidekicks

By the time I was in high school, the MISL had died, the NPSL saw growth and its eventual death, and then the MISL returned for a second go-round. In 2002 the All-Star Game and Skills Competition came to Cleveland. To make it even better, the Skills Competition was being held at the Cleveland Metroplex sports complex where I had just finished the high school hockey season. It came with an autograph session with all the players as well as the legends who were playing a Force/Crunch vs. MISL Stars alumni game.  Needless to say, I went through the cards, pulled one of every player who might be there (because the idea of getting multiple cards signed never occurred to me until I started graphing on a serious basis the next year), and went down to North Randall to watch and graph. Somewhere (maybe in my dad's house) there is a 2002 ASG pennant signed by nearly every member of the All-Star Teams as well as the alumni squads. I also managed to get 23 cards signed.

While this is where my quest technically began, it wasn't until 2015 that I really got the itch to put some time into it.  I had mailed out a few requests, having success on Marinaro, Karic, Otto Orf, and Daryl Doran (and coming up with nothing from Tatu). But in 2015 I got free tickets for a few Dallas Sidekicks games in the MASL and went to their Alumni Game in January, getting another 17 cards signed. From there, I set out trying to get every card, picking up the sets I was lacking major quantities on (the first three) and scouring the internet for potential mailing addresses.

One of the few Finns in soccer; most tend to
gravitate toward hockey, running, and skiing

I found most of the players and now sell an address list with all of them on it. Starting this week, I am finally going to test them all out. I figure if I write 40-50 requests per month (that's one roll of stamps), I can get them all tested and mailed out in about six months. I have one out in the mail currently, 34 ready to go tomorrow, and seven more that I just need to write.

I plan to post an update here every time I get a request back, every time I send a batch out, and every time one fails. Of what I've seen of the few requests sent on SCN and of what I know from getting these guys in person, most indoor soccer players love signing and respond very quickly. I hope that continues.

Here's a list of what I have so far, and when and how I got them...

1987-88: Tatu (2002 ASG), Doc Lawson (2002 ASG), Ali Kazemaini (2002 ASG), Marcio Leite (2015 Sidekicks), Gino DiFlorio (2002 ASG), Victor Nogueira (2002 ASG), Charley Greene (2002 ASG), Hector Marinaro (2002 ASG), Dave MacKenzie (2002 ASG).

1988-89: None

1989-90: Zoran Karic (Mail, 2012, 7 days), Cris Vaccaro (2002 ASG), Slobo Ilijevski (2002 ASG).

1990-91: Daryl Doran (Mail, 2012, 10 days), Willie Molano (2015 Sidekicks), Rod Scott (2015 Sidekicks), Benny Dargle (2002 ASG), Hector Marinaro (Mail, 2012, 11 days), David Doyle (2015 Sidekicks), Ron Newman (2002 ASG), Glenn Carbonara (2002 ASG), Marcio Leite (2015 Sidekicks), Terry Woodberry (2015 Sidekicks), Mike Powers (2015 Sidekicks), Krys Sobieski 2x (2015 Sidekicks), Otto Orf (Mail, 2013, 35 days), Zoran Karic (Mail, 2012, 7 days), Kia (2002 ASG), Billy Phillips (2015 Sidekicks).

1991-92: Daryl Doran 2x (2002 ASG and Mail, 2012, 10 days), Branko Segota (2002 ASG), Wes Wade (2002 ASG), Carl Valentine (2002 ASG), Willie Molano (2015 Sidekicks), Richard Chinapoo (2002 ASG), Terry Woodberry (2015 Sidekicks), Mike Powers (2015 Sidekicks), Krys Sobieski (2015 Sidekicks), Roderick Scott (2015 Sidekicks), David Doyle (2015 Sidekicks), Marcio Leite (2015 Sidekicks), Zoran Karic (Mail, 2012, 7 days), Hector Marinaro (Mail, 2012, 11 days), Michael King (2002 ASG), Kai Haaskivi (2002 ASG), Bernie James (2002 ASG), Otto Orf (Mail, 2013, 35 days), Trevor Dawkins (2002 ASG).

I'm going to mail out first to the players from whom I've seen semi-recent successes, and those of whom I have the most cards since I'm planning on writing to them twice. I don't like sending out more than four cards per request, but I'm going to allow myself a hard limit of seven. Most I'm limiting to six or fewer.  The first few are Mark Karpun (sent last week), Jan Goossens, Erik Rasmussen, Kevin Crow, George Fernandez, Ralph Black, Brian Quinn, Gary Heale, Doc Lawson, Kim Roentved, Victor Moreland, Chico Borja, Fernando Clavijo, Thompson Usiyan, Branko Segota, Cris Vaccaro, Steve Zungul, Zoltan Toth, Ben Collins, Beto, Wes McLeod, Andy Schmetzer, Ali Kazemaini, Kia, Kevin Smith, Chico Moreira, Andy Chapman, Troy Snyder, Michael King, Bernie James, P.J. Johns, Richard Chinapoo, David Hoggan, Ron Newman, and Dale Ervine. I also have ready Mike Stankovic, Michael Collins, Steve Kinsey, Tim Wittman, Kenny Cooper, and Mark Frederickson; I just need to write the letters to go into those requests.

Ready to go, hopefully soon to return

I know a few of these guys will be tough: Nogueira, Haaskivi, and Waad Hirmez haven't had any successes via mail, several live in European countries that may not have the best postal systems based on my hockey writing experiences (Dali and Bobo Lucic are both in countries of the former Yugoslavia), several are deceased (Ilijevski, Mike Reynolds, Stan Stamenkovic, Pedro DeBrito, and Billy Ronson to name a few), and some just seem to have disappeared (Nenad Nikolic and Eloy Salgado, anyone? Also, #WheresPreki?).

Tragically, Ilijevski died in 2008 near Seattle,
suffering a ruptured aorta while making a save
in an over-55 tournament game. He played a
record 391 games as a MISL goalie.

I likely will get some help from other collectors along the way. Paul Buxton is a big soccer collector up in Seattle. I also know a few here in the Dallas area, and hopefully I will find some in other cities. I also plan on updating my address list in early 2016. I also have a few cards I'm missing entirely. But I'll post that list another time. This is enough for my opener on this blog.