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!

MISL40 Confirmations

Names are slowly trickling out as to who will be in Las Vegas next week! Approximately 50-75 guests are expected to be in attendance according to Doug Verb's interview on Soccer Sam's radio show "Kick This!" in Rochester this past weekend. This is the first time I've heard an actual number attached to it. I don't know if this is just former players, or also includes execs or even fans. But whichever way, it sounds like a pretty nifty turnout.

Confirmed so far?

From Doug Verb: Doug himself, Ed Tepper, Juli Veee, Zoltan Toth, Kai Haaskivi, Guy Newman, Roy Turner, Billy McNicol, David D'Errico, Doc Lawson, and Gerry Gray.

Added by Greg Suttie: Paul Wright, Gus Mokalis, Chico Borja, Alan Mayer.

Added by Sydney Nusinov: Gordon Jago

Brad Smith has also said he will be attending, and there have been comments talking about a meet and greet with Eric Wynalda-- not an indoor player, but still well-known in American outdoor soccer.  Wynalda coaches the USL's Las Vegas Lights, and I believe we're attending the Lights vs. LA Galaxy II game at Cashman Field. So even if there's no M&G, I might be able to get him there, and I'll get to see a legendary minor league stadium that also hosted a few Oakland A's regular season games in 1996. Or I may venture down to the strip that night because come on, July 4 in Las Vegas? THAT is the way to do it.

So that's 16 names. I know the schedule talks about a Hall Of Fame get together, and some comments have been made about trying to get all the living Indoor Soccer HOF members as well (in addition to a few already confirmed, that would be Victor Nogueira, Kim Roentved, Tatu, Steve Zungul, Brian Quinn, Mike Stankovic, Dale Mitchell, Erik Rasmussen, Bruce Savage, Daryl Doran, Zoran Karic, Pato Margetic, Hector Marinaro, Shep Messing, Kenny Cooper, Timo Liekoski, and Keith Tozer; Kevin Crow, Branko Segota, and Don Popovic have already said they unfortunately can't make it, and Preki probably can't due to coaching duties with the Seattle Sounders). Hopefully some of these guys will be there.

Who am I hoping to see most? I might do a celebratory dance if I see Waad Hirmez, Dennis Mepham, Steve Kinsey, David Byrne, Kia, George Fernandez, Bernie James, Dale Mitchell, Dale Ervine, Victor Nogueira, Dave Hoggan, Gregg Willin, Bobo Lucic, Claudio De Oliveira, or Chris Hundelt. I either need multiple cards signed by them, or need them on a multi-player card to complete it. Stuart Lee too: I'd like to finish off my 1987-88 Sidekicks game program.

I'll add more names as they're announced...

June 27: Nick Megaloudis has confirmed he will be in attendance.

June 30: Doug added Jim Sinclair, David MacWilliams, David MacKenzie, Godfrey Ingram, and Len Bilous. Said 8 Hall of Famers will be there. By my count, we're at 23 names.

Vegas Prep

Sounds like some fancy-ass private high school, right?

Nah, just getting ready for the trip to MISL40.

It'll be tough limiting my baggage-- I'm flying with Sun Country, so I can carry a personal item for free (17x13x9), or a slightly larger (24x16x11, 35 lbs.) carry-on for a fee. I can get away without checking anything, but I may have to bite the bullet on the carry-on. I have three card boxes and two binders, plus clothes, some photos, a few other autograph-related items (envelopes and stamps in case someone says "Oh, I can get those signed for you," Sharpies, index cards) and basic living stuff so it might not be doable in something the size of a laptop computer case or small backpack.

Positive note, at least the photos aren't 11x14 the way they are when I go to the National Sports Collectors Convention. Of course, if I could find photos that size on a few players, I probably would print them.

I just got a couple new shirts as well-- OldSchoolShirts.com had Cleveland Force and Crunch shirts so I grabbed one of each. For you fans of the other MISL teams out there, they also have Baltimore Blast, NY Arrows, Philly Fever, Pittsburgh Spirit, Chicago Horizons and Sting, St. Louis Storm, Wichita Wings, Hartford Hellions, Phoenix Inferno, L.A. Lazers, Buffalo Stallions, Las Vegas and Memphis Americans, and a MISL logo shirt. And that's not even including the outdoor and non-MISL indoor teams they have, plus several defunct teams and leagues in other sports.

I didn't find it really odd that the active teams don't have shirts (probably some major trademark protection on them), but moreso that the Baltimore Blast DO have one-- the only still-used MISL name to have one. So no Sidekicks, Stars, Sockers, or Comets. But also no St. Louis Steamers or Minnesota Strikers?!

I also grabbed some extra cards on SportLots and eBay to fill in some gaps-- including a 1980s Kansas City Comets team set. I saw a few L.A. Lazers and Memphis Americans sets, but they were more than I was looking to spend. And as alluded to above, I'll put together some 4x6 photos on a few players, done in the style of the 1989-90 Pacific set. Plus an 8x10 of me with Kai Haaskivi from back in October.

I haven't heard any more news on potential players for it. Over on Turf and Boards, Sydney Nusinov makes mentions of a few players that I hope will be there, along with the schedule of events. And Greg Suttie has mentioned a few players in Facebook groups that have he has near-100% confirmation from.

I also grabbed a few cards of Eric Wynalda, as he's head coach of the USL's Las Vegas Lights. They'll be playing against the LA Galaxy II. I'll grab some Pete Rose cards too-- after all, it's Las Vegas AND he was co-owner of the Cincinnati Kids. I also am considering an Aviators-Aces AAA ballgame, but it's looking unlikely.

Hope I'll see some of you out there!

MAIL CALL: And then there were nine...

It took a few tries, but I managed to track down Heinz Wirtz.

I had heard of my original address on him getting a RTS, then I found one that got a success and a RTS before I tried it and got RTS'ed.

But after some searching, I found a new one, tried it, and yesterday received two cards signed.

With that, I now have every single error and variation signed from the 1987-88 Pacific set. It puts me down to nine remaining for that set, and down to needing only one on the errors and variations across the entire series (I need Chris Hundelt on his 1989-90 error with Kevin listed).  And it's soon to be eight on the 1987-88 set: Brian in Kansas City has a Desmond Armstrong set aside for me.  I can also add a 1990-91 soon too as Ray in Baltimore is sending an Angelo Panzetta sig to me.

I went through and did a few updates to the address list. I've been helping out Doug Verb a bit whenever I can for the 40th Anniversary so I figured it was time to do some more digging and correcting.

Speaking of which, I don't have any new additions to the list of people who will be there just yet, but I did get all my cards sorted last night. I'm able to fit everything into three boxes and a binder. I'd like to limit my baggage to a single carry-on if I can. It'll be tough, but I might be able to pull it off. I might even look into seeing if I can grab some old team sets on the cheap somewhere. I know the Kansas City Comets had a Pizza Hut sponsored set, Wichita had their Burger King sets, and the L.A. Lazers had some as well. Cleveland used to do some postcard sized ones with various sponsors-- Oh Henry and Smuckers off the top of my head.

I also bought a couple shirts for it today that should arrive in the next couple of weeks. I'll wait to show them off though...

See you in Vegas!

It's official, I'll be at the MISL 40th Anniversary Reunion celebration in July!

I reserved my hotel spot, along with my ticket for the invite-only events and plane ticket so I'm all set to be there for everything.

I haven't heard any official list of former players who will be there yet, aside from Greg Suttie mentioning that he's gotten Juli Veee, Zoltan Toth, George Katakalidis, and Cha Cha Namdar likely to be there. Alan Mayer has also said he will be there along with Norman Piper, league co-founders Doug Verb and Ed Tepper and the family of legendary coach Ron Newman.

Several historians of the game will be there as well-- I'm seeing the likes of the aforementioned Greg Suttie of the Suttie on Soccer podcast and Sydney Nusinov of the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame.

A few have said they won't be able to attend, including Otto Orf, Branko Segota, Marco Rizi, Paul Dougherty, and Marty Templin.

And it looks like there's at least interest in attending from players Chico Borja, Doc Lawson, Kia Zolgharnain, Dave MacKenzie, Keith Tozer, Hayden Knight, Freddy Garcia, Dave MacWilliams, and Gerry Gray; coaches Joe Machnik, Len Bilous, and Roy Turner; exec Paul Garofolo; and broadcaster Randy Hahn. Hopefully we'll see more added to that list!

Either way, I plan to carry every unsigned card I have with me, especially those I need for my sets. And I may even take the signed collection with me to show off and possibly doubles to trade if there are other collectors in attendance. I know a few have expressed interest.

Doing a little housekeeping on here, I added the 1992-93 NPSL set officially to the project and took down the Soccer Shots set-- a little bit of a tradeoff, making one available as deal bait while adding the other officially to the canon.

An edit to the earlier...

Bad news, the Las Vegas reunion had to change its date.

Good news though, they believe it will be able to attract more former players!

Per an email from Doug Verb, the Reunion will now be held in Vegas on July 2-4.

Further details will be posted as they are made public.

Another Anniversary Event!

I'll have to miss this one, but if you can get to the Cleveland area, check it out!

"Be there. Aloha."

Not sure if I'll be able to make it, but my fingers are crossed...

If I can't, I may need some assistance on getting some cards signed.

Farewell to a legend

Throughout the existence of this project, I haven't had the opportunity to meet many of the players who have signed their cards. I'd guess that somewhere around 90% were acquired via mail, trades, or the rare purchase. It's great getting to correspond with these guys via mail, especially receiving letters back from them, but actually getting to meet them is even better, especially when you know you're talking to one of the game's greats in a sport that is almost criminally under-recognized.

Back on March 18, 2017 was one of those moments. After having met a number of former Sidekicks at their alumni events, Fernando Clavijo was the first non-Sidekick I had met since the 2001-02 All-Star Game. I was warned ahead of time that Fernando will talk and sign and do almost anything for the fans for hours if you let him. The four of us who were waiting after the game certainly didn't leave disappointed, as Fernando regaled us with stories of playing along other greats like Steve Zungul, Juli Veee, Branko Segota, and Preki, while signing every card we had with us.

A defender and midfielder, Clavijo wasn't one to put up boatloads of points (120-139-259 in 466 career indoor games) but was a solid, speedy, tenacious defender both indoors and outdoors. When you talk about players doing big things that don't appear on stat sheets, Clavijo fit that to a T. In addition to his MISL play, he spent time in the NASL and after becoming a U.S. citizen in 1987, joined the U.S. Men's National Team and U.S. National Futsal Team. He played in the 1994 World Cup, helped lead the USMNT to the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and a second place finish at the 1992 FIFA Futsal World Championships.

When you look at the greats of any game, once in a while you find that one guy who played with seemingly all of them and helped push them to that greatness. Clavijo's teammates and coaches in the MISL included Indoor Hall of Famer members Kevin Crow, Slobo Ilijevski, Victor Nogueira, Brian Quinn, Zoltan Toth, the aforementioned group of Zungul, Vee, Preki, and Segota, plus Ron Newman and Don Popovic. He also spent a year playing alongside future all-time indoor scoring leader Hector Marinaro as he made the transition from defender to forward in Los Angeles,

In 2005, he was inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame followed by the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame in 2014. He joins Preki, Dale Mitchell, and Branko Segota as the only players in both the Indoor Hall, and either the U.S. or Canadian Hall.

His coaching and front office work were Hall of Fame caliber as well. He was a player-coach in his final MISL season, won the Coach of the Year and a Championship in the CISL, assisted with the 1998 Nigerian Men's National Team, took the New England Revolution to a 2000 playoff berth and 2001 U.S. Open Cup Final appearance, coached the Haitian Men's National Team, and spent four seasons coaching the Colorado Rapids with a pair of playoff appearances. With FC Dallas, he held the role of Technical Director for seven seasons, helping to assemble a team that won the 2016 U.S. Open Cup, one other regular season first place finish, and three other playoff appearances.

Fernando was in good spirits that day. He had beaten multiple myeloma months before, still battling a few health issues, but seemed to be positive and was looking forward to some trips to scout potential players. He even appeared to be doing well at the NASL 50th Anniversary event in October 2018, not long after he announced a leave of absence his FC Dallas position to focus on his health after a return of the cancer. So to say it was surprising to hear he died earlier this week is an understatement.

Fernando Clavijo was 63 years old. He leaves behind a wife, two sons, two grandchildren, and legions of soccer fans who were grateful for the chances to meet him and see him play.

End of year sigh of relief

On the last day of the year, the Scott Manning cards I mentioned in my last entry found their way into my mailbox-- 4 months, and finishes a dual and adds to another multi-player card.

2018 was a lighter year for soccer mailing, but my targeted attempts were successful-- six mailings, five successes with one RTS from Heinz Wirtz. Plus I pulled in a long wait from Brian Quinn, and added several needs in-person at the NASL 50th Anniversary event in Dallas. I also found my 2002 MISL All-Star Game pennant, purchased a large lot of sigs I needed, and though I haven't gotten to a game yet, the Sidekicks are back.