The Michigan Daily--Saturday, May 24. 1980-Page 15
TALKS GO PAST DEADLINE
o strike: Play ball
NEW YORK (AP) - Baseball's
longest night ended in an agreement on
a nbw four-year contract between
owners and players that averted a
strike which threatened unprecedented
interruption of the major league
season.
While the full terms of the agreement
were not announced, The Associated
Press learned yesterday that the set-
tlement gave owners essentially what
they wanted on the free agency issue
that had been the main stumbling block
since talks opened six months ago.
Baseball sources told the AP that the
free agent system, which has created
baseball's million dollar salaries, will
remain the'same for the rest of this
year.
BUT OVER the next three years a
new system is to be worked out. During
that time, the players will have the
right to strike only over the question of
free agency.
But the owners will have the right to
invoke what is known as the 15-18
system that sets up a sliding scale of
compensation based on the caliber of
the player picked in the free agent
draft.
Under the present system, a player
who has had more than six years in the
majors and whose contract has expired
can declare himself a free agent. The
club p.eking up the player has to
surrender a selection in the amateur
draft to the player's former club.
But under the system that will be in
effect after this season, the team that
selected the free agent would be able to
protect from 15 to 18 players on its
roster and the team that lost a
"premium" free agent would select a
compensation player from the remain-
der.
THAT SYSTEM would remain in ef-
fect until the study committee devises a
new system, or the contract runs out.
Marvin Miller, executive director of
the union, and Ray Grebey, chief
negotiator for the 26 owners, struggled,
through a marathon day and night of
negotiations, finally hammering out an
agreement in a seven-hour wrapup
session that ended early yesterday.
Under the terms of the contract,
neither Miller nor Grebey would serve
on the panel representing owners and
players, that is to devise the new free
agent system.
The settlement must be presented to
the Player Association's Executive
Board and membership for ratification.
crash
1977-78 and part of the 1978-79 season.
He reportedly was in Cleveland to at-
tend a party for former teammate
Foots Walker.
Police are testing a powdery white
substance found in Furlow's pocket,
said Linndale Police Chief Robert
Xousek. Fousek also said police are
testing the contents of a cigarette found
in the car.
Neither party would comment on the
final disposition of the difficult free
agent question.
BOB BOONE of the Philadelphia
Phillies, the National League player
representative, said by telephone that
there was an understanding on the free-
agency issue but that it wouldn't hap-
pen this year.
Boone also said he was surprised by
the agreement. "Last week I lost in-
terest in the whole thing," he said. "I
saw no way of reaching an agreement.
Actually Thursday morning I was
relaxed, just sitting around and waiting
for the inevitable.
Miller said the owners' proposed
compensation system does not go into
effect unless three things happen - the
committee fails to come up with any
recommendation; the parties fail to
reach agreement in the next 30 days;
the owners do not announce on Feb. 1
what they intend to do about the free
agent draft the following November.
Should agreement on a new compen-
sation"agreement not be reached by
next Feb. 1, the players may also chaos
to strike at that time, but if they don't,
there can be no strike over compen-
sation during the remaining three years
of the Basic Agreement, the player
relations committeestated.
HOWEVER, THE players' union may
offer, before March 1, 1981, to waive
their right to strike with a request that
clubs permit a substitute strike in 1982,
not later than June 1, Grebey said, ad-
ding the clubs are not obligated to ac-
cept such a request.
MSU AL L-AMERICAN WAS TROUBLED:
Furlow dies In
OCLEVELAND (AP) - Terry Furlow, Furlow was pronounced dead at about
a Utah Jazz basketball player known as 3:30 a.m.
an outstanding shooter and described "It's really a tragedy," Jazz Coach
by his coach as "troubled," was killed Tom Nissalke said when contacted by
Friday in a car crash. telephone at his Houston home Friday.
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound athlete was "Terry was very obviously troubled."
No. 2 all-time scorer for Michigan Nissalke said the team knew Furlow
State. In 1976, he was a first-round draft had a history of (problems when he
pick of the Philadelphia 76ers and was joined. "But he played so well-his first
traded to Cleveland on Oct. 3,1977. two months we were very encouraged
Furlow was then traded to the Atlan- he may have found the right situation,"
ta Hawks in January 1979 for Butch Lee he said.
and later to Utah, where he played in 55 After the National Basketball
games as guard. League's All-Star break, during which
Furlow, 25, died instantly after the his contract was not re-negotiated,
car he was driving veered off Interstate Furlow suffered a lower back injury,
71 in suburban Linndale and crashed missed team meetings and was late
head-on into a steel utility pole, police several times for practice.
said. There were neither skid marks on "But he was going to figure in our
the road nor any sign the driver tried to plans this year," the coach added. "We
brake, said police. had put him on the protected list for the
It tools members of the Cleveland fire Dallas draft May 28."
department 35 minutes to extricate the Furlow played both forward and
body from the luxury foreign car. guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers in
Indy restrictions backfire:
Unleash the machines
STANLEY CUP SERIES 3-2
Islanders 'seared'
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)-A few years,
ago, when qualifying speedy in the In-
dianapolis 500 hit 200 miles an hour, the
reigning powers of the U.S. Auto Club
said, "Enough!"
Citing safety factors, they clamped
down hard on the million-dollar or-
pedoes which boom around the In-
dianapolis Motor Speedway each May.
The cut down sharply on the per-
missible horsepower in 1979 and again
this year, even though there hadn't
been a fatal accident since 1973 nor a
serious one since 1975.
But far from cutting back on the
threat of an accident, USAC is actually
courting danger at the gate and on the
track, say several of Indy's premier
drivers.
"They've set racing back about 10
years and I don't think the people want
to see that," says A. J. Foyt, the only
four-time Indy winner. "These cars are
very capable of running over 200 miles
an hour. These are real exotic cars,and
what made Indy famous was speed....
We're talking about 20 or 25 miles' an
hour different. It's more dangerous now
than when we ran over 200."
Without the restrictions; cars used to
hit the 220s in the straighaways, then
the drivers would downshift to.perhaps
180 in the corners. "What's happening
now is that we're running the same
speedy about 190 in the straights and
the turns," Foyt said. "Now you hve to
flatfoot it trying to make up in the turns
what we lose on the straightaways."
That 20 or 30 mph difference, Foyt
said, "is where you used to separate the
men from the boys, who had the talent
and who didn't. Now with the restric-
tions just about anybody is a race
driver ... Driving one of these cars is
like sitting on the freeway, taking your-
family to dinner. I hope they throw all
these rules away next year and let us
just go racing like we used to."
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)-In their
two previous playoff series, the New
York Islanders pulled within a victory
of eliminating an opponent-only to lose
at least once before finishing the job.
Now, against the Philadelphia Flyers,
they have continued the pattern.
Their lead cut to 3-2 in the best-of-
seven Stanley Cup final, the Islanders
go for the kill again today at the Nassau
Coliseum-where they have lost only
one of their last 17 National Hockey
League games against Philadelphia.
- "WE'RE SCARED," said New York.
left wing Bob Bourne. "I was afraid
before Thursday night's game and I'm
still afraid about today. But if we play
like we did in Game Five, just do a little.
better jobof stopping them, we're going
to come away with it."
Understand the Islanders have been
talking about being "afraid" almost
since their playoff journey began April
8. The fear they express is not as much
as being afraid as it is hating to lose.
Certainly, it is not fear about a record
of playoff failure that includes a seven-
th-game defeat by the Toronto Maple
Leafs in the 1978 quarter-finals and a
six-game loss to the New York Rangers
in last year's semi-final. It is that record
to which Phildelphia Coach Pat Quinn
referred after a 6-3 Flyers triumph
pulledlhis team within 3-2.
"Thiismight have tightened them up
a little," he said. "They might think
about that bugaboo in their past. They
might think aboutthat for awhile."
WHAT MADE MORE of a differen-
ce was the Flyers, for the first time in
the series, playing up to the level that
carried them to a 35-game unbeaten
streak and the regular season-title.
They got two goals from Rick
MacLeish, strong goaltending from
Pete Peeters and fine performances
from two injured regulars-defen-
seman Jim Watson (shoulder) and
right wing Paul Holmgren (wrenched
knee).
"We played like that so often during
the year, it was really puzzling as to
why we didn't achieve that type of pitch
in the first couple of games," said
Quinn. "I'll probably spend all summer
trying to put my finger on exactly why.
"I believe, whatever it was, we might
have crossed over that bridge and I
really believe we'll have that type of ef-
fort of the last two games. If we don't
get that .type of effort, then there
probably won't be two more games.
THAT WOULD suit the Islanders.
Certinly it would fit thepattern: They
won the first three .games against
Boston in the quarterfinals, then lost
one before wrapping it up. In the
semifinals, they took the first three
games against Buffalo before moving
into the final round.