elve THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, July 26, 1974
RKE COGSDILL:
Who needs pro football?

S FAR AS I'm concerned, the NFL
players' strike can go on forever.
It's not that I don't sympathize with
the players and what' they're asking
for. Nor do I want to associate myself
with the NFL propagandists and sports-
writers who focus on the players' less
important demands and make wild, East
Kentucky Coal Operator-style charges of
employe irresponsibility.
If we're going to have an NFL, its
players are absolutely right in demand-
ing an end to the Rozelle rule, finis to
the reserve clause, the right to negotiate
with more than one franchise in the
same league, and impartial arbitration of
grievances. Employers who would deny
their workers such fair labor practices
have no place in a free society, even if
their victims drive Thunderbirds and
make tons of money.
THE CRUCIAL POINT is: we don't
need to have pro football and we'd be
better off without it. If the players carry
on the strike, and the owners remain in-
transigent all the way into bankruptcy
proceedings, the public and the world
of sports will be the winners.

Pro football, by competing with the
college game for the same entertainment
dollars, has driven many college sports
programs to the point of insolvency. The
direct effects are obvious: inadequate in-
tramural facilities (most athletic depart-
ments cannot afford better), understaff-
ed and underpaid physical education fac-
ulties, discrimination in favor of male
athletes who can fill stadia and against
women and ordinary students, and the
encouragement of shoddy recruiting
practices by adding to the pressures
major-sports coaches face to "produce
or else".
Pro football, like the Nixon White
House, represents the acme of cynical
manipulation of communications media
to create an exciting, "truthful" image
of what is essentially an insipid, boring
product. The "hyper" language of the
NFL films, the hyperbole of announcers
just waiting to jump on and cheer any
sign of "viciousness" or "meanness"
on the part of the players - and to treat
this with approval!--and the deliberate
linking of football with all the bad traits
of machismo, all are pernicious.

MAYBE, as with the Nixon White
House, the people are getting what they
deserve, but just as with the Nixon land-
slide, the people can be dead wrong.
And the football shills haven't helped
their customers any by failing to point
out that pro football offenses (unlike the
college variety) are hopelessly stereo-
typed, that the game is much too slow-
paced, that all players are not super-
human models of athletic perfection, and
that the "virtues" of pro football have
nothing to do with principles people must
follow to live harmoniously in a com-
munity.
Pro football rips off taxpayers, by
creating a "need" for publicly-subsidized
facilities which do not justify the funds
spent for them. With the possible excep-
tion of the Astrodome, community-fund-
ed stadia have done very little to regen-
erate or upgrade the cities in which
they've been built.
THREE RIVERS STADIUM came aft-
er, not before, Pittsburgh rejuvenated
the Golden Triangle. Cincinnati's River-

front Stadium has done almost nothing to
brighten up the bleak Ohio river front.
Busch Memorial in St. Louis has been
a monumental disappointment. Metro-
politao Stadium in Bloomington hasn't
exactly made that city an urban hub,
and simultaneously has managed to hurt
both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Henry
Ford was perfectly willing to go ahead
with Renaissance Center even without
a stadium to match.
At least Walter O'Malley, disreputable
as he is, had enough integrity to finance
his ballpark himself, and take the risk
that it wouldn't be able to carry its
weight. In fact, football seems to be the
only sport where a well-run team can't
make money unless it shifts some of its
expenses to the whole community. De-
troit was right in refusing to kneel be-
fore the Lions.
Undoubtedly, pro football will survive,
because people have the right to insist
upon wasting their time in any way they
see fit. As for myself, as soon as I hear
Pat Summerall's voice come droning out
the tube this fall, I'm hopping on my
10-speed and getting lost.


LOLICH BOMBED
Rested Tigers routed, 12-4

By JOHN KAHLER
Special to The Daily
DETROIT-It used to be 13 out of 15. Now it's 14 out of 16.
The three -day All-Star break rest which was supposed to help
the Detroit Tigers break out of their prolonged slump appeared
to have no effect last night as the Boston Red Sox blasted the
Bengals, 12-4.
As has been their custom during the recent skid, the Tigers
took themselves out of the game in the first inning. With Rick
Burleson sitting harmlessly on first with two out, Mickey Lolich
yielded five consecutive singles to the division-leading Boston
sluggers.
When the barrage was over, the Sox had a 4-0 lead. After
Lolich allowed back-to-back solo homers to Rico Petrocelli and
Carl Yaztremski in the second, there were many who thought
Lolich would get the gate. But not all the Sox had gotten a hit off
the Obese One yet. After the last two, Rick Miller and Tommy

Harper, had singled to lead off the fourth, Houk lifted The Mick.
Bill Slayback came in and was amazingly ineffective. He
permitted a Burleson single to load the bases, walked in two
runs, and Danny Cater singled in another. That ended Slayback's
stay on the mound. Dave Lemanczyk got the Tigers out of the
inning, but not before the Sox got two more runs to snake it 11-0.
A trifle late, the Bengals got into the offensive act. Al Kaline
homered to lead off the Tiger fourth, and Boston starter Rogelio
Moret gave up another run in the fifth on a single by Ed Brink-
man, a walk to Jerry Moses, and a single by Gary Sutherland.
They added- two more off reliever Dick Drago, and a homer by
Harper rounded off the Boston scoring.
The one bright spot in the game was that Tiger veteran Al
Kaline collected three hits. He now needs only 55 to reach the
coveted 3,000 career hit plateau. The way the Tigers are going,
that race will be all the fans will have to cheer about for the rest
of the year.
Brewers blanked
NEW YORK (') - Bobby
Murcer singled home a run in
the first inning and George
"Doc" Medich protected it with
a five-hitter for his fifth con-
secutive complete - game vic-
tory, giving the New York Yan-
kees a 1-0 decision over the
Milwaukee Brewers last night.
Roy White opened the Yan-
kees' first by outlegging a slow
roller down the third base line
and Elliott Maddox sacrificed
him to second.
lMurcer, who has driven in 23
runs in his last 20 games, got
White home with a single to
right off Clyde Wright, 5-13.
Reds riot
CINCINNATI - Tony Perez'
two-out, two-run homer in the
.- bottom of the ninth inning cap-
ped a five-run rally that pro-
pelled the Cincinnati Reds to a
14-13 victory over the San
Francisco Giants last night in
the first game of a twi-night
doubleheader.
Dan Driessen, batting for
winner Jack Billingham, 11-7,
started the outburst with a one-
out single off Randy Moffitt, 4-
4. Merv Rettenmund walked
and Pete Rose singled for one
run.
Joe Morgan's grounder scored
Rettenmund and Rose came
home on Johnny Bench's single
before Perez hit his 17th homer
of the year, a belt over the cen-
ter field fence.
s' Lou Piniella gets picked off S
a after a pickoff throw from
ut by Doc Medich. Bobby Mur- world Football League
York New York 17, Philadelphia 15

Major League
Standings
American League
East
W L Pet. GB
aaston 51 45 .531 -
Cleveland 49 45 .521 1
Balimare 49 46 .i516 Y
NewYourk 49 47 .510 2
Milwaukee 47 49 .490 4
Detroit 45 51 .469 6
Weat
Oakiand 55 41 .573 -
Chicago 49 46 .516 5
Kansas City 47 47 .500 7
Texas 49 10 .495 7
Minnesota 47 50 .45 58
Caiforna 59 59 .398 17
Yesterday's Results
Cleveland 9, Baltimore 7, 1st
Baltimore at Cleveland 2nd
New Yaek 1, Milwaukee0
Boston 12, Detroit 4
Texas 4, Chicago 1
Minnesota at Oakland, inc.
KansasCity at California, inc.
Today's Games
Chicago( a n( 11-6) at Texas
(Bibby 13-12), night.
Baltimore (Cueliar 13-6) at Cleve-
land (G. Perry 15-3), night.
Milwaukee (Colborn 6-7) at New
York (Dobson 7-12), aight.
Bostun (Tiant 14-7) at Detroit
(Coleman 8-9).
Minnesota (Blyleven 10-10) at
Oakiand (Abbot 2-1), night.
Kansas Ciy (Busby 13-9) at Cali-
foraia (Lange 3-6), night.
National League
East
w L Pet. GB
Philadeiphia 50 46 .521 -
St. Louis 47 49 .490 3
Montreal 46 49 .484 3%
Pittsburgh 46 50 .479 4
Chicago 41 53 .436 8
New York 40 53 .430 8Y
West
Los Angeles 64 34 .653 -
Cincinnati 59 40 .596 5%
Houston 51 47 .520 13
Atlanta 51 49 .510 14
San Francisco 45 54 .455 19%
San Diego 43 59 .422 23
Yesterday's Results
Philadelphia 10, Chicago 2
Cincinnati 14, San Francisco 13, 1st
Montreal 10-2, Pittsburgh 5-3
St. Louis 4, New York 3, 1st, 10 inn,
Los Angeles 11, Houston 3, 1st
Atlanta 1, San Diego 0, 10 inn.
Today's Games
Philadelphia (Lonborg 12-9) at
Chicago (Reuschel 9-7).
San Diego (Freisieben 7-4) at At-
lanta (Niekro 9-9), night.
Pittsburgh (Ellis 5-8 or Kison
5-4) at Montreal (Blair 5-2), night.
San Francisco (Barr 12-6) at Cin-
einnati (Gullett 7-5), night.
New York (Seaver 6-6) at St. Louis
(Mcffiothea 12-6), night,
Los Angeles (Messersmith 11-2) at
Houston (Griffin 11-3), night.

"YER OUT," cries umpire Joe Maloney as the New York Yankee
first base. Milwaukee's Pedro Garcia made the tag on Piniell
catcher Darrell Porter. The Yankees won, 1-0, on a five hit shuto
cer singled home Roy White with the game's only run for New'