Aug. 27, 2007

by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

This may sound soulless, but one of my favorite stories about the late Mickey Mantle - a baseball player known to me only in New York Yankees legend - is told by Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton in his juicy tell-all book, Ball Four.

Mantle could hit balls out of the park the morning after drinking you under the table, his flawed nature off the field underscoring his flawless nature on it. I never saw Mantle play, but I love that about him.

Maybe that's why I like Brian Dougherty.

"Doc" has his flaws. He's a notorious trash talker who's universally hated by anyone who is not his teammate. There are a few guys like that in Major League Lacrosse - love 'em if they're on your side; hate 'em if they're not - but none more so than Doc.

He's no stranger to a post-game beverage, either.

Doc got knocked around pretty good this weekend at the MLL championship in Rochester, N.Y. He came in battling the flu, got his bell rung in the semifinals by a Scott Sowanick shot that left a welt on his temple, and took a Sean Lindsay shot off the cup in the championship game, during which he spent half the fourth quarter dry-heaving on the sideline before returning.

Despite all the elements, and thanks to backup goalie Kevin Keenan keeping both opponents at bay while he recovered on the sideline or took an IV in the locker room, Doc came through when it mattered most - the fourth quarter.

Loopier than usual after a grueling semifinal victory in overtime Saturday over Denver, the three-time MLL Goalie of the Year was asked about playing in a championship game less than 24 hours later.

"Can't be any harder than today, man," he said.

At that moment, for some reason, I was reminded of Bouton's story about the time Mantle hit a homerun hung over. When he returned to the dugout, Bouton asked his bleary-eyed teammate how he could see the ball.

"I saw three balls," Mantle would say, "and I hit the one in the middle."

With the crowd still cheering, Mantle added, "Those people don't know how hard that really was."

Over the years, Dougherty may have made lacrosse harder on himself with his behavior off the field and his ability to incite opponents on it. But like Mantle, he is a pure competitor.

"I don't think about tomorrow. I think about right now," Doc continued. "Take a shower, go home, rest up and maybe have another drink with you at the bar, and that'll be it, ya know? But I know I like our chances, because we're the champs."

Doc then grabbed the video camera by its lens and pressed his face up to it like a pro wrestler on pay-per-view.

"We are the champions," he crowed. "That means we have the belt. Until somebody comes and rips it off us, we are the champs."

It was like a switch had been flipped in his brain by the ball that rattled his skull. Immediately after he made the save on Sowanick, he did a jig toward the crowd, playfully removed his cracked helmet, and flicked the sweat off his brow as if to say it was going to take more than a minor concussion to keep him from playing.

The Barrage said there was no concussion, but as Denver goal after Denver goal flew by him in the second quarter, Dougherty told Philadelphia head coach Tony Resch he could not see the ball, and was removed at halftime.

When he came back in the fourth quarter, stoning all six Outlaws shots, it was the lift his team needed.

Philadelphia erased a 12-9 deficit and won on a Roy Colsey goal in overtime, 13-12.

"Pretty sick moment, ya know?"

Doc said this as he paced in circles. He was chewing his gum so hard, I thought he would bite his tongue off.

Then something funny happened: Dougherty, one of the toughest SOBs I've ever met in this sport, cried.

"There's something about this squad," he said. "You just get a feeling. No offense, but you're writers and we're athletes. There's something to be said about a team coming together for a goal, and battling all sorts of [crap] to get there."

Perhaps I'm only feeding into his self-promotion by dedicating this space to Doc. But anyone who's human enough to show this range of emotion, and superhuman enough to do what he did in circumstances such as these, is worth it in my book.