The Michigan Daily-Saturday, August 15, 1981-Page T
Sox might throw games
CHICAGO (AP)- Major league baseball, already
rocked by a players' strike that erased the middle of
the season, was confronted yesterday by the
possibility that some teams might intentionally lose
late-season games to keep their World Series chances
alive.
In a copyright story, the Chicago Tribune reported
Friday that more than 10 Chicago White Sox
ballplayers conceded they would throw any or all of a
four-gameseries against the Oakland A's in late Sep-
tember if losing those games provided their only
remaining route to the post-season playoffs.
ALTHOUGH THE players said that they would
throw games in order to make the playoffs, team
manager Tony LaRussa did not share such sentimen-
ts. Laussa said that while he would be willing to for-
feit the series against the A's, he would not have his
players throw the series.
"Under no circumstances would the Chicago White
Sox take the field and do anything not to win a
baseball game," said LaRussa.
Because of the 50-day players strike, major league
owners decided a week ago to split the season and
grant the first-half leaders in each division berths in
the playoffs. Should a team win both halves, the
owners voted to force a playoff by requiring that
team to meet a division contender with the next-best
record over the entire season.
UNDER THAT formula, Oakland captured the first
half of the American League West race, leaving the
White Sox and a handful of teams in the position
where they could lose the second half and still gain
the playoffs on the strength of total wins.
For instance, if Kansas City, which trailed the
second-place White Sox by 91/2 games after the first
half, winds up in a close battle with the A's for the
second-half championship, the White Sox could en-
sure their playoff spot by allowing Oakland to sweep
next month's four-game series and take first place
again.
According to the Tribune, one player said: "I'd
lose, no doubt in my mind. My heart wouldn't be in it
to go for it. Shoot, no! I wouldn't be swinging the bat
as hard as ever."
Eddie Einhorn, president of the White Sox, having
talked to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn about the, mat-
ter, said yesterday: "Bowie assured us that there
would be administrative action if the
situation-however remote-should come up."
JUROR 'BIASED'AG AINST OAKLAND
Raiders-NFL case ruled mistrial
LOS ANGELES (AP)- Jurors in the
trial of the Oakland Raiders suit again-
st the National Football League blamed
a "biased" holdout juror for a mistrial
after three months of proceedings.
U.S. District Judge Harry Pregerson
declared a mistrial late Thursday after
the jury deadlocked 8-2 in favor of the
Raiders, and jurors said Thomas
Gelker, a cousin of a one-time
professional football team owner, was
the principal holdout.
"TOM GELKER was biased against
Raiders' managing general partner Al
Davis," jury forewoman Carole Slaten
told the Los Angeles Times after Thur-
sday night's mistrial.
Ms. Slaten, a U.S. Forest Service
worker from Big Bear, said the other
holdout, Billie Hayes, was swayed by.
Gelker and she "did not fully under-
stand the instructions from Preger-
son."
Juror Omar White was quoted by the
Times as saying Gelker displayed.
"prejudice and bias and preconceived
ideas."
"HE WOULDN'T even look at the
evidence," White told the Los Angeles
Herald Examiner.
"I spent three months and to have it
end up like this is depressing," White
said. "It's sad."
"We could have done it if we hadn't
had someone so prejudiced, biased and
set in his ways," another juror, Sandy
Wagman, a registered nurse from West
Los Angeles, told the Herald Examiner.
THE JURY heard 55 days of
testimony about how and why the
league blocked the Raiders' planned
move to Los Angeles in early 1980. The
ASU grider,
trackster has
sur ery to
extract tumor
Raiders had sued the NFL, charging
anti-trust violations.
The panel of seven women and three
men deliberated for 13 days before
Pregerson decided they could not reach
a verdict.
NFL Attorney Pat Lynch said the
trial, which began May 11, had cost
'We didn't win this time,
but there'll be another time.
Our attorney, Joe Alioto, said
this game is going into over-
time, so we're going to win it
in overtime.'
-Al Davis, Oakland Raiders
managing general partner
millions of dollars.
"THE COST of this lawsuit to the
league is enormous," he said. "It's
outrageous that it has to be tried
again."
Raiders' attorney Joseph Alioto said
he will ask the U.S. Justice Depar-
tment to investigate Gelker's role in the
mistrial.
Several jurors were quoted in yester-
day's papers as saying they believed
Gelker's attitude was a problem even
before deliberations began.
"I PERSONALLY believe he was
biased," Ms. Slaten told the Times. "I
believe he brought that bias into the
courtroom and it was nurtured outside
be another time," Davis said at a
packed news conference at the hotel
where he stayed during the three-
month trial. "Our attorney, Joe Alioto,
said this game is going into overtime,
so we're going to win it in overtime."
DAVIS SAID there were a number of
irregularities in the trial that, if Alioto
or Los Angeles Coliseum ,attorney
Maxwell Blecher had pursued them,
could have caused a mistrial earlier.
"We didn't want that," he said. "We
wanted to win."
Davis alleged that juror Thomas
Gelker, one of the two holdouts, was
"planted by the NFL, but did not
disclose how he thought it was done.
DURING deliberations this week, it
was discovered that Gelker is a cousin
of Bruce Gelker, founder of the Por-
tland Storm of the now-defunct World
Football League. Gelker said yesterday
his cousin never crossed his mind when
Pregerson asked during jury selection
whether any of the panelists had such
relationships to professional football.
Pregerson decided the relationship
had no bearing on the case, Gelker told
the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
"They apparently investigated me
pretty thoroughly and the judge told me
they found nothing to impinge on my
honesty or character," Gelker told the
newspaper. "He requested I stay on the
jury."
Gelker said he had asked to be taken
off, noting that there was "vindic-
tiveness" on the part of the other
jurors, who disagreed with him.
Several of the jurors told the Herald
Examiner and Los Angeles Times that
Gelker was "biased" in favor of the
NFL, even before the trial began.
the courtroom."
Al Davis, Oakland Radiers managing
general partner, said yesterday he had
expected his court battle with the
National Football League to be conduc-
ted by "the law of the jungle" and con-
firmed his determination to pursue the
fight no matter how long it takes.
"We didn't win this time, but there'll
By RON POLLACK
Daily sports writer
Michigan State will have to do without the
sevices of football and track performer Tony
Gilbert next season following surgery to
remove the 21-year-old's abdominal tumor
last week. The 6-2, 180-pounder is set to begin
chemotherapy treatments.
"There is a possibility of further surgery,"
said Michigan State Assistant Sports Infor-
mation Director Mike Pearson. "So he ob-
viously won't play next year, and we hope
he'll return in a couple of years. The surgery
was termed a success, but it was a large
tumor. They hope they got it all, but that's
what further surgery would be for-to see if
they got it all and it didn't spread."
GILBERT TRANSFERED to Michigan
State last year after attending Santa Barbara
City College in California. He caught 10
passes last season for 200 yards and two
touchdowns. He had been battling Otis Grant
for the starting flanker spot on this year's
Spartan squad.
Accordingto Pearson, the loss of Gilbert is
one that can be overcome. "We are amply
staffed at wide receiver, with Ted Jones (40
receptions for 568 yards last year) and Otis
Grant (13 receptions for 291 yards) returning,
and the possibility of getting Sampson Howard
to regain his academic eligibility," he said.
"But we would have been evenbetter of with
Tony."
Gilbert won Big Ten track titles in the 55-
meter hurdles (07.40) and in the triple jump
(51-41%2) last year. In the outdoor conference
meet, he placed second in the 110-meter high
hurdles (:14.01) and sixth in the, triple jump
(47-81/2).
SGilbert.'
... future uncertain