Ron Newman to the Rescue

A few episodes in history would not be the same if Ron Newman had been a part of them.

For example, had Newman been the captain of the Titanic, it would be just another ancient ocean liner, probably serving as a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. If anything had sunk, it would have been the iceberg.

Had Newman been at Little Big Horn, there would have been no last stand. He would have chased the enemy all the way to Lake Superior.

Had Newman been involved, there would have been no stock market crash in ’29 nor an Alamo. It was just a darn good thing he was not involved in coastal defenses at Normandy.

The man will not be defeated.

As it is, he is the head coach of the seemingly dead Sockers. They are not dead because he is so much more than a head coach. He is the spirit of the Sockers, the lifeblood as well as the lifeguard.

If I ever get caught in a riptide and go down three times, I want Ron Newman to be standing on the beach.

Nothing dies when he is around.

Especially nothing he loves as much as he loves soccer as a sport and the Sockers as a team.

Under Newman’s direction, the Sockers have won nine indoor championships in 10 years . . . and seemingly survived at least one major off-the-field crisis for every championship banner.

This summer’s has been the most critical. Ron Fowler, who had bailed out this franchise after Bob Bell bailed out a few years back, had had enough. He had lost too much money and he had to draw a line. He was done as of June 30 . . . and so were the Sockers if no one came forward.

Ron Newman went to work. If Las Vegas put a line on the Sockers’ chances of surviving this one, it probably would have been a long shot tantamount to Newman beating Mike Tyson. It looked bleaker than a June morning.

Give up?

Forget talk like that. So what if this franchise had lost like $12 million over the last 10 years.

“You’ve got to go back to what the other sports were like,” Newman said. “Look at basketball and hockey when they were just beginning. They were going through the same things. I think this is a healthiest 10-year-old league ever in this nation.”

The Major Soccer League, he would insist, is going to work. It’s going to fly. It’s going to expand and gain credibility. Someone would jump on this opportunity, even though it seemed to be disguised as a money-swallowing monster.

The Anciras, Oscar Sr. and Oscar Jr., would be the angels of mercy. Another group or two are interested, but these guys head a group that seems positioned to take over. They have put up the bucks . . . a half million of them.

“I think they’ll probably end up with it,” said Newman. “They are strong, and they have such powerful backing in Mexico. I’m trying to control myself from getting too excited, but I’m ecstatic.”

Saving the Sockers, however, is only part of the chore at hand. The MSL itself must survive. You don’t want to save your own boat from sinking and then find out it doesn’t make any difference because some one has drained the lake.

“The Sockers are in a beautiful position,” Newman said, “but there are obvious problems around the league to be adjusted or corrected or helped or whatever needs to be done.”

The Sockers might have been the most important piece in this puzzle. Tacoma and Dallas, for example, are on the bubble. They could go either way.

“Maybe we can boost confidence all through the league,” Newman said. “It would be awful hurtful to have the champions fold. That would send a real bad shudder through the league.”

Indeed, if the perennial champions could not make a go of it, why should anyone else bother?

Ron Newman was on the other line when I called him Thursday morning. That didn’t surprise me. When he called back, it did not surprise me that we were repeatedly interrupted by those little beeps indicating yet another caller was trying to get through.

You know the subject of all those conversations.

You see, saving this franchise and this league is more like a crusade than a campaign to Ron Newman.

“It’s my life,” he said. “It’s my passion. I can’t get up and walk away.”

This sport will never die hereabouts, not as long as he is around to breathe air into its lungs or pound its chest or merely shake until it stirs.

Indeed, you put Ron Newman in charge of the Democratic Party, and I guarantee you George Bush will be running for mayor of Kennebunkport in 1993.