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.