What's the deal with Majid Jay?

Bad news from the failbox: Waad Hirmez came back RTS, having moved from the address I had down for him. I have a good three others to try out though.  Anyways, on to the main point of this post...

*Cue the music from Unsolved Mysteries*

As I've been delving back into this project, I know I'm going to have to do some searching. And so one major mystery to me has been former referee Majid Jay, card #166 in the 1990-91 Pacific set.

All the referees in that set have signed for me: Esse Baharmast, Brian Hall, Gino D'Ippolito, Marty Templin, Herb Silva, Kelly Mock... all but Majid Jay.

When I wrote to Hall, he told me that no one knows where Jay is now.

Searches for him mostly bring up this card, MISL boxscores, the fact he officiated the 1990 CONCACAF Champions Cup, the 1991-1993 Gold Cups, and at least one 1991 NCAA game (a Cal State Fullerton vs. UNLV game that ended in a brawl). He was even listed on the United States Soccer Federation's Referee Honor Roll from 1989-1993, representing California.

Searching out addresses brought up the name Majid Abotalebi, and at least one MISL boxscore confirms this as a likely alias.

Further searching on addresses brings up that he is 64 years old (which would be approximately correct) and what appears to be a wife, Brenda M. Ortega-Abotalebi, age 71.

Now here's where the oddities begin...

The last listed address that I could dig up on Majid Jay was in Riverside, CA. This address was tested by my friend Brian, and met with a note saying "Wrong address, Please Return" and the dreaded yellow Return To Sender sticker back in early 2016. Most addresses tied to his name have been in Riverside, Corona, and Los Alamitos CA, from 1995 to 2017.

The last listed address for Ortega-Abotalebi was in Capistrano Beach, CA. Her addresses have been in California from 1989 to 2010.

The last listed address for the Abotalebi name was at a Las Vegas extended stay hotel.  In fact, the previous three addresses for him were all Vegas extended-stay hotels and a PO Box, dating 2011 and 2012.  Prior to being in Vegas, his is associated with addresses in Houston (2010 and 1997), Virginia (2008 and 2009), Riverside CA (2007-2011), Los Alamitos CA (1996-2002), Waco TX (1998-2000), Kirkland WA (2001), Hewitt TX (1998), Irvine CA (1989-1996), and Cypress CA (1989-1993). That's a lot of movement, and the Vegas ones are an interesting touch.

And then we get this strange comment dating back to 2002: "Call the university to verify; I am no Majid Jay."

*record scratch*

Is this a fraud allegation of some sort? For no one to question the Jay comment makes it seems like there's something widely known about him that I'm missing. And I can't ask the person who said it: Robert Evans died in 2016.

Digging further, it appears he (or someone with his name) was arrested in Clark County, NV in February 2012: Burglary with intent to commit a felony, and possession or sale of false identification.

Alright, help me out here. I can find no record of Jay's involvement in soccer post-April 1993 or in anything at all post-2012. Most in this project I can find info on-- current jobs, addresses, places they're coaching. Even those who are deceased, I can typically find their date of death and place of burial. But aside from a string of seemingly unconnected addresses, some associated names, a fairly low-level arrest, and a previously unknown-to-me alias, Majid Jay has completely disappeared.

It's just... bizarre. I'm at a loss here. And I say that as one who was able to find Nenad Nikolic's death that it seemed no one knew about, and have been praised for my ability to find the whereabouts of a lot of players that no one else could track down.

I've reached out to the BigSoccer forum linked above, and was simply told there's "way too much to go into here." Egad man! Inquiring minds want to know!

If you have any information (or if any of the above is factually incorrect), leave a comment here. I'm intrigued, to say the least.

UPDATES
JULY 27, 2019, 10:30 PM: I was messaged by a member of a soccer forum with some information and the whole situation sounds almost Dolly Gray or Byron McLaughlin-esque; I just would prefer not to have to pull a Dave Cameron to get my cards signed (I tried to link to the Cameron story but it's in a Facebook group and the post is set to Members Only; I'll post it as a comment).

JUNE 18, 2020, 12:25 PM: He did indeed legally change his surname from Abotalebi to Jay. This name change, as the link shows, came up again in 2008 and 2013. I still am lacking information on him and my aforementioned forum source never responded with more. I plan to reach out to him again soon.

JULY 28, 2020, 4:29 PM: I have been in contact with two former referees, one of whom seemed insistent on Jay being deceased, saying "he was killed years ago, virtually 100% sure." The other said that Jay is alive, living in California, and either he or an associate of his has spoken to him recently, but also that Jay himself said he can't sign my card (not sure of the reasoning-- whether physical ability or just something related to not wanting to be found). I have also been communicating again with the forum source, but we have agreed that anything that he tells me will remain silent and not posted here. Several pieces from the forum source were corroborated by the referee though, without me even having to ask-- he just dropped some of that info himself.

MAY 28, 2021, 7:55 PM: My forum source has gone radio silent for several months now. I've pretty well given up on getting the whole story here.

AUGUST 9, 2021, 3:22 PM: My attempt at mailing the last known address for his (possible) wife ended with my letter returned from Fiduciary Real Estate Services, and a note that he did not live there. I also found some info back in May that he (under the Jay surname) was a registered flight instructor in Las Vegas through 2015. I have seen Vegas addresses for him, but they appeared fairly temporary (a hotel and a mailbox rental) so I didn't try them. Ditto on most recent California addresses.

Finishing with a sure thing

An important lesson I've heard on multi-player cards: Get the hard ones done first.

Of course, flying blind on a project like this as I have been, it's hard to know who the hard ones are going to be. You may send to a guy early and find out he's easy to get and then discover someone else is tough. Or sometimes an easy signer might turn tough out of nowhere. There's nothing worse than getting a few and then never seeing it again: a 1991-92 Kansas City All-Stars card that disappeared on its way to Iain Fraser with Gorsek, Goossens, and Roentved sigs is my biggest tale of woe. I reacquired it with Roentved's sig, and it's currently off to Goossens to try it all again; then Valentine, then Gorsek, and then maybe someone, somewhere, can get me Fraser in-person.

And so with the 1990-91 Cleveland Crunch All-Stars card, how was I to know Kai Haaskivi would be the toughest one to get?  Not that it mattered: I've gotten him a couple times in-person and he was the third one I got on the card out of four. And I actually did it right: I mailed the completely unsigned card off to him first... and never got it back.

I reacquired the card already signed by Michael King via a trade (I thought it was part of my mailed success from him, but as my entry on it proves, it was not; I likely got it from either Ray in Baltimore or Brian in Kansas City).  Mike Sweeney, a solid TTM signer, signed it in-person at the NASL50 event in Dallas back in October. Kai Haaskivi signed it as well there (and signed a few singularly at the MISL40 event in Las Vegas too; good in-person, he's just not accessible TTM as my two mailings including one written in Finnish have shown).

I did it right on the last one at least. I knew Bernie James was a good signer since he had signed his individual cards for me in 18 days back in 2015, not long after King.  This time, it took him only 13 days to return it, finishing off the quad.

This is the first team where I've completed both their 1990-91 AND 1991-92 All-Stars multiplayer cards.  The Sidekicks didn't have one for 1991-92 for unknown reasons (Tatu, Wes McLeod, and Kevin Smith were their All-Stars, and I would have completed this card easily), and Baltimore didn't get one in 1990-91 (Savage, Manning, and Valentine would be gettable now; sadly, Dominic Mobilio would not).

I'm glad this one came back and I hope it starts the ball rolling on more. Considering the number I've gotten back in under two weeks (75 out of 180), I was starting to get a little concerned since I hadn't received anything from my most recent batch yet. Clearly patience is not always my strong suit.

Cashing in?

I tried something different on this batch of international mailings.

It's tough sometimes to get international postage. Paying face value for the appropriate stamps is almost impossible since someone somewhere along the line has to eat the shipping costs to get the stamps from their original country. If I buy direct from Canada Post, South African Post Office, Correo Argentina, Royal Mail in the UK, Post NL in the Netherlands, BH Pošta in Bosnia, Pošta PBS in Slovenia, Croatia's Hrvatska Pošta, or ЈП Пошта Србије in Serbia, I'm not only paying face value for the stamp, but also the cost to ship that stamp over here, essentially paying double. Even if I buy from a stamp dealer who buys in bulk, it'll still be slightly higher to disperse shipping costs and likely have a premium added on so that they get their profit.

So, why not cut out the middle man?

This time when I sent to Dale Mitchell in Canada, Dali in Bosnia, and Bobo Lucic in Slovenia, I just slipped in some cash to cover the postage. Around $2 in USD should cover a stamp from any of these. Slovenia's postage costs €1.17, about $1.31. A few years ago, Bosnia's was 2.15 BAM, about $1.23. Canada's is currently C$1.33, approximately US$1.02.

I plan to do the same tomorrow with Damir Haramina, Jan Goossens, Omar Gomez, and Pasquale Deluca; then Mark Karpun once I get a couple more singles (pro tip: don't send coins), and once Goossens returns Carl Valentine.  I know another collector had success just including cash for postage from Goossens.

We'll see how it goes. Trial and error is about all you can really do in this hobby sometimes.

Let's Go!

The first batch has hit the mailbox. I held off on Kia-- I got the card I was missing for $1 including shipping; same deal on Tim Wittman's card. They should be here next week. I also have held off on Steve Kinsey (only because I forgot to stamp the envelope; it'll go out tomorrow) and Greg Ion. Turns out Ion was hired by Temecula United in California, so I'm hoping to hear from them about an email address or mailing address to reach him directly. The addresses I had found for him were all in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona-- I doubt those are correct now.

Also, I found David Byrne on Facebook. I tried messaging him about how I can mail him. We'll see if I get an answer. That would be a huge one if I hear back. Looks like he's still in South Africa, but no longer coaching Glendene United. I also emailed Hellenic FC, where he once played and his brother is currently Technical Director. They gave me his phone number, but I've never tried to make an international call before. I'm way better with writing anyway. I may try texting him.

A little more digging has found me Bobo Lucic's whereabouts, so I plan to try him soon, along with a second attempt at Dalibor Cvitanovic.  Related: I need Slovenian and Bosnian stamps. Canadian ones too so I can get my last Mark Karpun card signed, and hopefully try Pasquale Deluca again, along with Dale Mitchell and Carl Valentine. Maybe an Argentinian one to send to Omar Gomez. Probably some Italian ones too, since I'd like to try Roberto Baggio. And a Swiss one so I can send to Roger Federer. Okay, I'm getting off-topic now.

I also need to contact Stuart Lee about finishing my Sidekicks game program.

As of right now, the project is down to needing at least one signed by each of these guys.

TRIED WITH NO LUCK - 18
Arturo Velazco (2017), B.J. Esposito (2017), Chris Simon (2017), Desmond Armstrong (2016), Ed Anibal (2017), Erik Rasmussen (2015), Gregg Willin (2016), Hugo Perez (2017), Iain Fraser (2016), Joe Papaleo (2016), Keder (2017), Marcelo Carrera (2017), Paul Peschisolido (2016 RTS), Poli Garcia (2016), Teddy Krafft (2016), Terry Rowe (2016 RTS), Victor Nogueira (2016), Wes Wade (2016)

HAVEN'T TRIED - 20
Alan Hinton, Alex Tarnoczi, Brian Enge, Chris Haywood, Chris Szanto, Claudio De Oliveira, Dan O'Keefe, Eric Dade, Fahmi El-Shami, Frank Rasmussen, Jason Putthoff, Jimmy Daka, Joe Kirk, Joe Mallia, Majid Jay, Rick Snyder, Russ Prince, Saeed Bakhtiari, Shane Schwab, Tony Csiszar

DECEASED - 11
Barry Wallace (d. 2006), Billy Ronson (d. 2015), Domenic Mobilio (d. 2004), Earl Foreman (d. 2017), Keith Weller (d. 2004), Mike Reynolds (d. 1991), Nenad Nikolic (d. 1999), Pedro DeBrito (d. 2014), Slobo Ilijevski (d. 2008), Stan Stamenkovic (d. 1996), Stan Terlecki (d. 2017)

TRIED WITH SUCCESS - 10
Daryl Doran, Diego Mandagaran, Doug Neely, Jim Gabarra, Kim Roentved, Kris Peat, Pato Margetic, Rene Ortiz, Terry Brown, Tim Schulz

MAILED/PLANNING - 24
Bernie James (mailed today)
Bill Crook (mailed today)
Bobo Lucic (mailing once I get a Slovenian stamp)
Chico Borja (mailed today)
Chris Hundelt (mailed today)
Dale Ervine (mailed today)
Dale Mitchell (mailing this weekend)
Dali (mailing once I get a Bosnian stamp)
Damir Haramina (mailing once I get a Croatian stamp)
David Byrne (hoping to get an address and South African stamp soon)
David Hoggan (mailed today)
Dennis Mepham (mailed today)
George Fernandez (mailed today)
Greg Ion (mailing soon)
Jan Goossens (mailing once I get a Dutch stamp)
Kia (mailing next week)

Mark Karpun (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Mark Kerlin (mailed today)
Omar Gomez (mailing once I get an Argentinian stamp)
Pasquale Deluca (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Steve Kinsey (mailing this weekend)
Steve Zungul (mailed today)
Tim Wittman (mailing next week)
Waad Hirmez (mailed today)

CONDITIONALS/SPECULATIVES - 12
Zoran Karic (mailing once Fernandez returns)
Paul Wright (mailing once Hirmez returns)

Kevin Smith (mailing once Wright returns)
Brian Quinn (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, and Wright return)
Kevin Crow (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, Wright, and Quinn return)

Donald Cogsville (mailing once Hirmez and Wright return)
Jacques Ladouceur (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, and Cogsville return)
Rod Castro (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, and Ladouceur return)
Ralph Black (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, Ladouceur, and Castro return)
Bruce Savage (mailing once Dale Mitchell returns)
Carl Valentine (mailing once I get Canadian stamps and Goossens returns)
Jim Gorsek (mailing once Goossens and Valentine return)

I'm always looking for trades as well if it will help lighten my writing and postage expenditures.

Inspired for a restart

Returning from MISL40 has re-energized me a bit to get going one more time on mailing and researching addresses to try to finish off as much of this project as I can. Overall, I'm down to needing only 168 signatures to complete the project.  Of those, 142 are still alive as far as I know.

There are a lot of these guys that I haven't tried at all, or tried at a failed address but I've been able to update them. And some I had success with once already and just need to get on a few cards I was lacking at the time. So, let's see what I can do.

Headed for the mailbox this weekend:
David Hoggan
Steve Kinsey
Dale Ervine
Kia
George Fernandez
Bill Crook
Greg Ion
Dennis Mepham
Steve Zungul
Mark Kerlin
Waad Hirmez
Chico Borja
Bernie James
Chris Hundelt

If I manage to go a perfect 14/14 on these, I'll finish off three multi-signed cards, and it will leave me only three away from the 1987-88 set (I'd need Pasquale Deluca, Poli Garcia, and Hugo Perez, each of whom I have failed with by mail) and four away from the 1989-90 set (I'd need Joe Papaleo, Bobo Lucic, and the late Domenic Mobilio and Pedro DeBrito) being completed.

I'm not betting on it though.  I'm 100% on Ervine, Kia, Borja, and James at least. Had mixed results with Zungul and Fernandez. I have a giant 0-fer on Hoggan, Kinsey, Mepham, Hirmez, and Ion. And I have yet to try sending to Kerlin, Hundelt, and Crook.

I also have a Paul Wright envelope ready to go, but I'm hoping to get Hirmez back first. Both Waad and Paul are on the 1991-92 San Diego All-Stars card and the 1990-91 champions celebration card.  If I can go 2-for-2 on them with those, then the ASG card will go to Brian Quinn next, then Kevin Crow, and the celly shot will go to Ladouceur, Black, Castro, and Cogsville in some order.

I also need Nogueira (ASG) and Wade (Champs) on them, but I've heard of little to no luck with them TTM, so I'll be holding off on those until maybe someone can get them for me in-person. I may even try directly emailing some of the guys that are toughies to see if I can find a good address.

I also am in need of a few unsigned cards (or signed, I won't reject those!) as well. From the 1992-93 NPSL set, I'm missing card #87 of Joe Kirk, as well as several gold "Pacific Picks the Pros" inserts-- #3 Fahmi El-Shami, #4 Zoran Karic, #6 Joe Mallia, #9 Kia, and #10 Tim Wittman.  If I can find someone with a Kia for trade, I'll hold off on sending to him until I get it. I'd buy copies of them, but not at the $3 each I've seen on eBay.

MISL40 Recap

I'll admit freely that I was a skeptic when two weeks out, the organizers of MISL40 were still looking for contact info on about 300 former players.  But yet, the entire event went off quite well and I was able to get over 140 cards and photos signed.

I arrived in Las Vegas, checked in, and got all my stuff together... and still arrived at the welcome reception earlier than everyone else. After a while I saw a few people that I recognized as Kai Haaskivi passed by, along with John Louis (trainer from the Chicago Sting). After a while, the doors opened and we all went in. I got to talking for a bit with someone I later found out was Brad Smith. He actually remembered that I wrote to him, and also signed three more cards I had with me.  He asked if Ralph Black was coming-- he wasn't unfortunately.

I laughed at his mentioning of Black, asking "Gonna have round two out in the hallway here?" referring to their 1991-92 season fight in Tacoma.  Smith laughed and said "You know, after all that we're actually really good friends now."  It's like Darren McCarty said about hockey fights: you go and pound each other's faces in, and then after the game you buy each other a drink.

A trio of cards from Brad Smith

After a break for some food, a chance to talk to a few fans who showed up (notably Cowboy Salazar from San Diego and Joey Thomas from Dallas who was getting a lot of cards signed as well; Sockers fan Gabriel Clum showed up the next day as well with a binder full of photos to get signed) and to just stand back, take it all in, see these guys all interact with each other, I started making the rounds.  Guy Newman came by to talk to Cowboy and signed a photo for me.

Oh yeah, I had a few guys from the Philadelphia Fever (including 76ers broadcaster Marc Zumoff) see my Cleveland Force shirt and apparently had to settle a bet among them that I wouldn't be able to answer their question: Who was known as Ruben Twelve Letters?

Now, going back to my hockey broadcasting days I was known as "The Schwab" because of my trivia prowess and the ESPN show Stump The Schwab where amateur trivia gurus go up against ESPN statistician Howie Schwab in an all-out trivia battle royale. So whoever bet against me lost when I quickly named Ruben Astigarraga, former forward for the Force and the ASL's Cleveland Cobras.

Dave MacKenzie was next up, signing nine cards for me and laughing about the card of Mike Sweeney from 1988-89 that depicts him instead of his fellow countryman.  His wife asked to see the cards I had with me so I got the binder of the entire set project for her to check out.  At the same table were Billy McNicol and Norman Piper, who each signed a photo.

Nine cards from Dave MacKenzie, AKA Not Mike Sweeney

Alan Mayer was one of the newest inductees into the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame (two members of the Class of 2019 came out for the weekend, Roy Turner being the other). His son and grandson both came with him and were around at events the entire weekend. He signed seven cards and a photo that I had with me. I also spent some time chatting with Dave D'Errico about what he's been up to in the business world-- he's been working on a project that's like a pumped-up version of LinkedIn that has a ton of potential. He also signed a photo for me.

The Kamikaze, Alan Mayer

Juli Veee was a major one I was hoping to meet. The aforementioned Greg Suttie helped me out in getting my set cards signed for me a while back so I was pretty much all set on him, but I agreed to help out a couple of local collectors in Dave and Brian (both of whom have been mentioned on here before) as they've helped me out a lot in the past with player ID'ing at Sidekicks events and hooking me up with cards when needed. I also printed up a photo of Veee as well. He signed all of them, and even said he had never seen the photo before, asking me to email it to him when I had a moment.  He said it's been tough to find color photos from the MISL.  Veee also brought along prints of some of his artwork for everyone to take with them. A lot of the players were even having each other sign them to commemorate the reunion.

Over the weekend, we had a late addition to the list in Godfrey Ingram. Luckily, I had success in mailing to Ingram, sending to an address in the UK, and getting it back with a US stamp and a San Diego postmark. Attempts from other collectors to addresses in San Diego and St. Louis were unsuccessful, so he's been a tough one to get a hold of.  Fortunately in-person he was incredibly personable. I had a ton of cards with me and he was excited to sign them all, saying that he had never seen a few of them before.

Godfrey saw the cards and photo I had of Gordon Jago and it stopped him dead in his tracks. So he went with me over to Gordon saying he wanted to show that one off to him and presents it to Gordon's table with a "Long long ago... in a galaxy far far away..." and turns over the photo showing a young Gordon Jago at the Meadowlands in New Jersey when he was Tampa Bay's coach.  Gordon signed it and three other cards I had with me.

I'm surprised I had any cards of him left!

Perry Van der Beck was another late addition that I found out about a day or two before the event, but I was able to pull a few cards of him. I had gotten most of mine signed at the NASL event back in the fall, but fortnately I had a couple and Brian came through with a bunch. I followed that up with Nick Megaloudis signing a photo.

I had about five more of the 1991-92 card, but I felt this was plenty

The last two for the night were Gerry Gray and Zoltan Toth. "Gerry with a G, Gray with an A" as he put it is a member of the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame's class of 2001.

Seven cards from Gerry Gray

Zollie the Goalie was great-- lots of stories about the Sockers' championships in the 80s and 90s. Apparently the team owner was upset at their 1988 sweep of the Cleveland Force for the championship-- by not winning in five in the home arena, that was a potential for one more huge crowd that he lost out on.  He signed a bunch of cards I had as well, including finishing the dual with him and Victor Nogueira from the 1990-91 set. I had one signed by each, but now I finally have a completed one.

I haven't posted the photos yet since I took a shot of them all together. Back about a year ago, I printed business cards for myself in the style of the 1989-90 Pacific set, since it was my favorite design of the MISL sets and easy to replicate. So I reused my Photoshop template for it, enlarged it to 4x6, and printed off photos for several of the players to sign. I had to take some liberties on the colors of the name box: several of the teams weren't around when the sets came out, so I took a guess at what color they likely would have used.

Day Two started off with an Uber over to a soccer facility to go out and kick it around a bit.  It's pretty cool getting to just sit back and listen to Gerry Gray, John Louis, and Kai Haaskivi just talking soccer. At one point Louis asked Kai if he was Danish, and Kai responded that no, he was Finnish. So Louis apologizes, saying he didn't mean to insult him if he accidentally did, and I said "It could be worse, you could have said Swedish," to which Kai deadpans in typical Finnish fashion "He would have to get out and walk if he had said that."

I wasn't planning on playing at all, just maybe kick it around a bit and then sit back and watch. But as I was standing getting ready to take pictures, Cowboy comes running off the field and gets into his goalie gear. I asked if they need another goalie and he said they could use one since the other team didn't have one. So I scrambled to get my shirt and gloves on and jumped in on a team with Gray, Ingram, D'Errico, Kenny Mayer (Alan's son), Dallas fan Joey Thomas, Sydney Nusinov of the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame, Doc Lawson, and Bob Bozada.  A few minutes in, the first shot comes rolling in on me... and I manage to mishandle it right into the net, leading D'Errico to shout "Who the hell gave us the Swiss National Team's keeper?!"  But after letting that one in, I played pretty well with a couple decent saves. We lost 4-3 with 1980 Rookie of the Year winner Jim Sinclair sniping me upper 90 just moments after a free kick.  No one could have stopped that one-- absolutely perfect placement on it. Alan Mayer said "You really should have had that winner. I mean, all you had to do is jump about five feet in the air, stretch out as far as you can, and get about eight inches taller, that should have been an easy one!"  Juli Veee said I played well in goal: I'll take praise from an Indoor Soccer HOF member over the win ANY day.

After the game, Gus Mokalis signed the cards I had plus a photo, Sinclair signed his photo (shown above) and Bozada signed an index card since I had nothing else for him as a super-late addition. I rode back with Mayer, Sinclair, and MacKenzie, hearing a few more stories, with Mayer lamenting the fact that players used to always use Vaseline on their knees to prevent rug burn from the turf and it would get all over the ball and make it tough for a goalie to handle. I told them I was using that as my excuse on that first goal.  Did you know MacKenzie played both soccer and hockey at Colgate? He left the school as the hockey team's fifth leading scorer all-time and still goes back for their alumni game.

In hindsight, I should have asked Sinclair to add "MISL40 Game Winner"

Later that night, we had the Hall of Fame dinner, where Doug Verb thanked everyone for attending and teamed up with Nusinov for the induction of the newest class, recognition of past inductees who were in attendance, and a memorial recognition of HOF members Ron Newman, Earl Foreman, and Fernando Clavijo, all of whom passed away in the last twelve months. I also was able to get the last two players I had cards of to sign theirs: Doc Lawson and Kai Haaskivi. Len Bilous, 1980 co-Coach of the Year winner, also signed an index card for me.

If you've never met him, Doc is one of the nicest people you could ever meet (well really, I haven't met any bad people in the indoor soccer world). He does a lot of work with youth sports in his native country of Liberia. One of the best stories I've heard from his playing days was close to the end of his playing career. Richard Chinapoo, previously of the Dallas Sidekicks, had just signed with Baltimore and moved his family halfway across the country to play with the Blast. Late in the season, the Sidekicks were appearing likely to be out of playoff contention, but they wanted to give Doc one more chance at a championship before he retired, and were all set to send him to the defense-hungry Blast in exchange for Chinapoo. But Doc vetoed the trade. He believed it wouldn't be right for Chinapoo to have to uproot his family yet again.

You'll have to pardon any over-pontificating I do of Haaskivi.  Being half Finnish myself, I follow a lot of Finnish athletes. Finland is usually best-known for hockey, ski jumping, pesapallo, and eukonkanto. We aren't well represented outside of those sports in America: in the NFL there was Tyler Varga; basketball only has Lauri Markkanen, Erik Murphy, Hanno Mottola, and Drew Gooden; in baseball it's only Jeff Lahti, Kevin Tapani, Luke Putkonen, Chad Mottola, and Will Ohman. The soccer team has yet to ever qualify to play in a World Cup or UEFA Euro Championship, recently was promoted to the B Division of the UEFA Nations League, and only qualified for the Olympics in 1980, 1952 as the host country, and 1936 where they finished 14th ahead of only Luxembourg and Turkey.

So to have not only an indoor soccer Hall of Famer, but one who played in my homeland of Cleveland? You're damn right I'm a fan. I actually met Kai when I was about two years old-- my family attended a Finnish church near Cleveland and he made a few appearances there. I remember getting a card of him in the first pack of soccer cards I ever got when I was about six or seven years old from the Dairy Mart up the road from my house. So getting to meet him at the NASL50 event back in the fall and again at MISL40 was great.

Typically I try to limit to no more than a single page of cards for a player to sign.  This is one event where I made an exception: seeing as I was helping out Dave and Brian with some cards and also considering I didn't know if I'd ever have a chance to see some of these guys again, I felt it was reasonable to do so. And no one seemed to mind either-- these guys got a kick out of seeing the cards and photos and would have sat and signed and recounted stories all day. I figured it would be like that-- so many players I've mailed to have written notes back, which you rarely ever see in other sports.

Here's to hoping we'll see a MISL50 event in another ten years!