MSL NOTEBOOK / JOHN GEIS : Handling of Fight Is Under Fire

Leave it to the Major Soccer League to take a controversy and turn it into a brouhaha.

In the March 15 game between the Wichita Wings and Tacoma Stars, Tacoma’s Ralph Black and Wichita’s Brad Smith came to blows, with Black landing several solid punches to the Smith’s face and Smith returning the favor.

So what does he league do? Black was fined $750 and Smith $650, and each was suspended for one game.

No one argued with the amount of the fines or suspensions, but there was some question as to why the league suspended the players for games on Friday.

Tacoma Coach Keith Weller tried persuading the league that the suspensions should have been served Saturday when both teams were scheduled for a rematch in Wichita.

But deputy commissioner John Borozzi apparently didn’t listen and instead worked it so that each player would return from the suspensions in time to face one another once again.

That led to speculation in Wichita and Tacoma that the league was trying to use the prospect of violence to sell tickets.

Whether that was the case, the Wings’ front office was able to turn the controversy into an asset. In addition to Saturday’s potential showdown, Friday’s game against Baltimore was proclaimed “Ralph Black Appreciation Night,” and everyone named Ralph got in free.

The Wings estimated they sold an additional 2,500 tickets for the weekend’s games and that the fight translated directly into an infusion of $20,000 in ticket sales.

Those who paid their way into the Kansas Coliseum on Saturday hoping for a hockey game were disappointed. Both players participated in the game, a 5-4 overtime victory for the Wings, but neither was on the carpet at the same time, giving the appearance that both coaches, Weller and Wichita’s Roy Turner, conspired to keep the two away from each other.

Also, the Wings placed a security guard on Tacoma’s bench and another in the stands right behind the visiting bench.

Sockers midfielder Paul Dougherty has been carrying the brunt of his team’s offense lately and is in range of setting a career high in goals for the second consecutive year.

His 26 assists already establish a career high, but his 35 goals are eight short of the 43 he had last season.

Dougherty currently rides a 12-game point streak but he has been especially successful in the past eight games, a span during which he has scored 13 goals and assisted on five others.

If he is to surpass last year’s goals total, he’ll have to hurry: only four games remain in the season.

What is more likely is that Dougherty will surpass his career high in points. With 61, he’s only three away.

He accumulated 64 points in 1987-88, a season during which the MSL employed a 56-game schedule, and Dougherty played in all 56 games.

The season was shortened this year to 40 games.

Dougherty, in his fifth season with the Sockers, recently surpassed Hugo Perez as the Sockers’ eighth all-time scoring leader. With 224 points, Dougherty is within striking distance of moving to No. 7 on the list and past another former great, Kaz Deyna, who finished his five-season indoor career with 232 points.

Informed that the Sockers now have a roster opening with the loss of defender Ben Collins to a knee injury, former Socker Brian Quinn, now with the U.S. national team, shook his head and said, “not for me.”

He now knows he made the right decision to leave indoor soccer in favor of the national team, which is guaranteed a spot in the 1994 World Cup since this country will serve as host.

“This is where my challenge lies,” he said.

More than that, however, the national team is allowing Quinn to realize some lifelong dreams.

“Probably the highlight of my professional soccer career was playing in Brazil,” Quinn said of the national team’s 3-0 exhibition loss there Feb. 26. “We lost the game, but there’s not many teams that can win down there. . . .

“When I was growing up, Brazil was the greatest team in the world. After they won the World Cup in 1970, whoever wanted to play the best soccer in the world had to emulate Brazil.”

But in seven exhibition games this year, the U.S. has only one victory and three goals.

But Quinn pointed out victories in exhibition games aren’t that important. What is important is that Coach Bora Milutinovic used the dressed rehearsals to “look for different attributes from different players,” Quinn said.

The U.S. team next plays China April 4 at Stanford. On April 29 the national team will be playing approximately two hours from where Quinn grew up (Belfast, Northern Ireland) when it takes on Ireland in Dublin.

Sockers’ playoff tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. for Games 1 and 2 of the semifinals. Also available at the Arena box office will be playoff strips, which guarantees the buyer of the same seat through all eight possible playoff games.