He Just Loves Being Hated : Minnesota’s Tino Lettieri’s Goal Is to Attract Attention

A couple of weeks ago at the Richfield Coliseum, some Cleveland Force fans threw the contents from a garbage can at Minnesota Striker goalkeeper Tino Lettieri.

“I grabbed the scraps and ate them,” said the effervescent and controversial Lettieri. “There were some chocolate bars and pretzels.”

At the San Diego Sports Arena Friday night, a fan without hair was razzing Lettieri.

Lettieri pointed to his own head of long, bushy black hair and mimicked the fan. In return, the fan treated Lettieri to a view of the seat of his pants.

“He had a smile with no teeth,” Lettieri said. “Then he showed me the other side of his good looks.”

Lettieri is a master at playing against his opponent and playing to the crowd at the same time.

“It’s a serious game,” said Lettieri, whose team will play the Sockers tonight at the Sports Arena in Game 2 of the Major Indoor Soccer League championship series, “but if you’re confident enough to do what you’re doing, you can have fun. I’ll entertain as long as I’m playing.”

For years, Lettieri was part of a duet.

Who will forget Ozzie II, the good luck stuffed parrot that Lettieri used to keep in the goal with him?

That was before former MISL Commissioner Francis Dale ruled before this season that goalkeepers had to play solo.

“Now Ozzie sits on the bench,” Lettieri said, wearing one of his many T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of parrots. “But I’m going to write a letter to the new commissioner to see if he can reinstate him.”

At Friday night’s series opener, which the Strikers lost, fans at the Sports Arena hung stuffed parrots in effigy as they did in last year’s playoff series.

“It’s fun to know that there are people who care enough about the bird,” said Lettieri, who owns four real parrots, including one named Ozzie. “The electricity in this building is tremendous. When they wave the stuffed parrots, that gets me going even more.”

Lettieri has had his spats with fans in San Diego, and he admits they sometimes get rather abusive, but he says he would rather play in front of a wild crowd than “10,000 quiet fans.”

“The fans are a little too conservative in Minnesota,” Lettieri said. “Sometimes I get a little upset at that. They don’t harass opposing players.”

This guy sounds as if he should be playing for the Sockers. He is brash, quotable, talented and cocky.

“He dares you to score,” Socker midfielder Brian Quinn said. “He has great reflexes and he challenges you. He says, ‘Put the ball in the corner if you can.’ ”

In the playoffs, Lettieri is 6-3 with a 3.44 goals-against average. He made 15 saves on 29 shots and kept the Strikers in the game for three quarters Friday night.

During the regular season, Lettieri was 24-15 with a 4.40 average. He led the league in games played with 41 and tied Krys Sobieski of Dallas for most wins.

Lettieri, who is expected to be the starting goalkeeper for the Canadian National team in the upcoming World Cup, is as competitive as he is talented.

“I don’t exactly keep a cool head during the game,” said Lettieri, whose professional career started in 1977. “Sometimes I get frustrated. The next guy who comes my way gets nailed. The poor guy gets it.”

His 37 penalty minutes and nine minutes in a single game against Dallas Feb. 25 are league records.

In the MISL Eastern Division final series-clinching victory against Cleveland last Sunday night, Lettieri received a red card and automatic ejection when he hit Force defender Pasquale DeLuca in the back with the ball.

Lettieri said DeLuca had intentionally stepped on his foot as he ran by.

“I’m an aggressive player who hardly ever stays in the goal,” Lettieri said.

That helps explain his positive mark of 11 assists this season. That tied the league mark set by Zoltan Toth of the Sockers and Scott Manning of the Blast in 1984-85.

In one of the playoff games against Cleveland, Lettieri decided to become an attacker with the Strikers holding a comfortable lead late in the game.

“It was my best chance of scoring, so I just stayed up there (in the offensive zone),” Lettieri said.

Lettieri didn’t score, but he sure had fun.

“At one point,” Lettieri said, “I was laying on the ground and stamping my feet like a little kid.”