Bird
goes to
court
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) - For-
ward Larry -ird of the Boston Celtics
spent 45 minutes yesterday giving a
sworn statement in a $175,000 damage
suit filed by a San Antonio Spurs fan.
Johnny A. Merla contends in the
lawsuit he filed last year that Bird spat
on him and knocked him to the ground
with a tote bag after a game in January
1980.
STATE DISTRICT judge Rose Spector
issued a subpoena earlier this week
requiring Bird to appear at the office of
attorney Veasar Molina and give a
deposition.
Merla contends he suffered injuries
and embarrassment in the alleged in-
cident outside Hemis Fair Arena after
the Spurs had beaten Boston.
At the time, Boston players com-
plained that they were harassed and
spat upon by a group of angry San An-
* tonio fans as they left the arena.
NAMED DEFENDANTS IN Merla's
suit were Bird, former ACeltics center
Dave Cowens and the Boston team.
Bird would not comment on the suit
but his attorney, Robert Summers,
termed the allegations "completely un-
founded."
Summers said it was "a very sad
situation" that National Basketball
Association players could not travel to
and from games without being
harassed.
"I think Bird was fairly well abused
that night," the lawyer said.
The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 30, 1981'* Page 15
SPORTS OF THE DAILY
Chargers' boss stricken
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The trial of
the antitrust suit between the Oakland
Raiders and the National Football
League resumed business as usual
yesterday with jurors being shielded
from news that a key witness suffered a
major heart attack after leaving the
stand.
Attorneys met in the judge's cham-
bers before yesterday's session got un-
der way and apparently decided thatx
the jury would be told nothing about the
illness of Eugene V. Klein, president
and principal owner of the San Diego
Chargers. Jurors have been told
repeatedly by Judge Harry Pregerson
not to read newspaper accounts of the
trial.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL League
Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who was
on the stand when court was abruptly
recessed Thursday, returned to the
witness box and was expected to con-
clude his testimony later in the day.
Klein was stricken afte he left the
courtroom following four strenuous
hours on the witness stand Thursday. A
spokeswoman at Queen of the Angels
Hospital said late yesterday morning
that the 60-year-old former movie
theater tycoon was in stable condition
in the hospital's intensive care unit af-
ter a restful night.
Klein was rushed to the hospital after
complaining of chest pains and nearly
collapsing in the hallway of the federal
courthouse here. When informed of
Klein's seizure, Rozelle went to the
hospital immediately along with Los
Angeles owner Georgia Frontiere and
her husband, Dominic, who also were in
the courthouse when Klein was
stricken.
Allison improves
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Injured
race driver Donnie Allison continued to
show improvement yesterday at
Charlotte Memorial Hospital, accor-
ding to a hospital spokesman.
Allison, now in satisfactory condition,
suffered a concussion, bruised lung,
broken ribs and a broken knee in the
World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
last Sunday.
The spokesman said tentative plans
are to fly Allison, 41, to a Birmingham
hospital Monday. He will undergo
surgery there sometime next week for
his knee injuries.
Allison was injured during the race
when his car scraped the wall in turn
four, rolled across the track and into
the path of a car driven by Dick Brooks,
Brooks suffered a dislocated shoulder
in the accident and was treated at a
Concord hospital and released.
Vols stun UCLA
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Tennessee's
800-meter medley relay team stunned
heavily favored UCLA in collegiate
record time last night behind Delisa
Walton's blistering anchor leg and
Nebraska's Merlene Ottey shattered
the collegiate 100-meter record to
highlight the second day of the AIAW
Track and Field Championships.
It was a day of unsets in the rain-
Ria Stalman upsetting collegiate
champion Meg Ritchie of Arizona in the
discus and North Texas State's Donna
Thomas surprising Wisconsin's Pat
Johnson and Florida State's Esmeralda
Garcia in the long jump.'
The Bruins also suffered another
shocker when Tonya Alston, who was
leading the seven-event Heptathlon
pulled up lame and did not finish the
200-meter dash.
The Lady Vols, who had been expec-
ted to push the Bruins for the team title,
unreeled a time of 1:36.70 in the 800-
meter medley relay, which eclipsed the
old mark of 1:37.29 by Cal State-Los
Angeles in 1978. It also would have been
an American record except that
Jamaican Cathy Rattray, a freshman,
ran thesecond leg.
More Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A fan who
attended this year's Indianapolis 500
auto race filed a class-action' suit in
federal court yesterday, asking that
ticket holders be 'refunded because the
race was not completed in their presen-
ce.
The suit, filed by Joan P. Grubbs of
Indianapolis, says those who attended
the race deserve a refund because
Mario Andretti was named the winner
several hours after fans "'had left
defendants' premises and returned to
Delay of strike irks
players and owners
Major .league players trod basepaths
instead of picket lines yesterday, but
the Philadelphia Phillies' Bob Boone
had a warning for those who felt the
season was safe from the threat of a
strike.
"The issue is not going to go away,"
said Boone, the National League player
representative.
YESTERDAY WAS to have been the
first day of a strike by the Major
League Players Association over the
compensation issue, but a last-minute
deal averted baseball's third walkout in
nine years for at least a week.
The delay produced some degree of
annoyance among players and owners
alike.
"Let's get it solved," said Kansas
City pitcher Larry Gura, the Royals'
alternate player representative.
"I'LL BE GLAD when the whole
thing is over," said Tim Blackwell, the
Chicago Cubs' player rep.
"I guess it's better for us," added Pit-
tsburgh third baseman Bill Madiock,
"but in a month, we'll probably have to
go through this again and then again in
two years when the basic agreement
comes up again. If that happens, it'll
take two more years for the fans to
recuperate. I don't know how much
more they'll put up with."
CALVIN GRIFFITY, president of the
Minnesota Twins, said he was relieved
that a strike had been averted but
wished the issue had been settled.
"This free-agent compensation issue
should have been settled last year,"
Griffith said. "I wish the air could be
cleared and we could concentrate on
baseball."
Like Madlock, the Twins' owner was
m concerned about possible fan backlash.
"FANS ARE still somewhat in doubt,
as I am, about what's going to happen
over this strike issue, and that doesn't
lead to buying many tickets in advan-
ce," he said.
The harshest reaction, however,
came from John McMullen, chairman
of the Houston Astros.
"I'm sure the Players Association
believes it has scored a great victory,"
McMullen said, "but I believe they'll
find out otherwise in the long run.
They've opened a new wound, a wound
that can only fester in the future."
MCMULLEN SAID the free-agent
issue "should have been settled last
year and instead we had a year's
delay ... It's just going to drag on and
on and can only harm baseball."
Action on the matter is scheduled on
two fronts early next week.
On Monday, negotiations are to
resume in New York between the Major
League Players Association and the
Player Relations Committee, the
bargaining arm of the club owners,
federal mediator Kenneth Moffett an-
nounced yesterday.
AP Photo
Wind blown
John Cook falls over, aided by the breeze, after missing a putt on the fifth
green during second-round play of the Kemper Open yesterday at the
Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. Danny Edwards leads the field
with a score of 134.
TONIGHT THRU SUNDAY
.SCORES
SECOND CHANCE
American League PREsENTS
Baltimore 6, Detroit 5
Toronto 6, Oaklanda3MARINER
Milwaukee5, stntaE
New Yorks5, Cleveland 251 . bry9455