SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : So Long, Sockers

Sure, winning isn’t everything--but it should mean something, right?

Not for the San Diego Sockers. Not in the end, anyway. Playing superb indoor soccer wasn’t enough to put San Diego’s only world champion sports franchise on the field for another season.

The Major Soccer League has folded, finally succumbing to years of financial woes. Unless the team demotes itself to a semipro league, that means the end of the 10-time champion Sockers--and a truly unique professional sports league.

Sports fans fed up with the greed that has infected other sports could always ease their blood pressure by looking at soccer salaries. No mega-million-dollar free agents here. In an unprecedented effort to save their sport, MSL players agreed to salary caps as the league’s troubles grew. The bottom line: Many of them played one of the world’s most demanding sports for blue-collar wages.

Last year, no team was allowed to spend more than $550,000 on player salaries. That’s about one-tenth the annual salary of Oakland A’s slugger Jose Canseco. But not making the big bucks didn’t stop team members from making big plays--at least in San Diego.

Despite the ever-rising tide of red ink, Sockers head coach Ron Newman managed to field an international team of winners year after year. All told, the team won the league’s championship every year it was a member except 1987.

That’s the record of a winner--even if its league was ultimately an economic loser.