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The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, June 17, 1981-Page 15
Baseball talks start again
By TheAssociaedPress .headed a delegation which included six players: baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Ameria
first negotiations since the major league shortstop Mark Belanger of Baltimore, first baseman League President Lee MacPhail.
s strike began produced no progress yester- Rusty Staub of the New York Mets, catcher Bob "We had a nice discussion," said MacPh6il as he
while three club owners met with baseball Boone of Philadelphia and pitchers Steve Rogers of arrived for the negotiations at the Doral Inn.""There
issioner Bowie Kuhn to try to gain a more ac- Montreal, Tom Seaver of Cincinnati and Jon Matlack were no proposals made. We always have imput from
oal in ending the sport's first midseason of Texas. owners. This is nothing new."
ut. Also missing were several owners who apparently Ray Grebey, the chief negotiator for management
ent again was Marvin Miller, the Players have been trying to get intolhe talks. who apparently has been the target of some com-
ation's executive director who took himself out Edward Bennett Williams of Baltimore, George plaints by Williams, Steinbrenner and Chiles, said of
negotiations when the strike began. Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees and Eddie their meeting with Kuhn: "I'm always in contact
4ALD FEHA, the Player Association's counsel, Chiles of Texas met instead yesterday morning with with all the owners."
THE SPORTING VIEWS
Borg and Evert-Lloyd
supremacy cuts fan interest
By RON POLLACK
Daily Sports Writer
TMAGINE HAVING'to eat the same type of meal every day over the course
of many years. It would be boring and lose its appeal. Such is the plight of
tennis fans today. There is no variety in this sport. The follower of tennis has
been fed a steady diet of Chris Evert -Lloyd and Bjorn Borg as tournament
champions for so long, that the tennis boom of a few years ago is quickly
being reduced to nothing more than a memory.
These two players have dominated men's and women's tennis to the ex-
tent that much of the excitement of the game has been eliminated. It seems
that it would be more appropriate to ask whether anyone can last five sets
with Borg thanto contemplate whether or not he can be beat. His domination
of the upcoming Wimbledon tennis championships has been so complete,
that it only seems necessary to break up his monopoly with an anti-trust suit.
Thus, there would be two tournaments. The first would be Borg-ledon in
which Bjorn is the only player. The other tournament taking place at the
same time in London would be for the rest of the players so that they might
find out what it is like to win at Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Evert-Lloyd has pretty much had things her own way in the
world rankings. Except for brief periods of time she has been ranked num-
ber one in the world. One of the biggest changes in the number one ranking,
took place when Evert-Lloyd got married and added a hyphen to her name,
and therefore the top spot.
So what is the tennis fan to do? Borg and Evert-Lloyd are certainly not
going to start losing matches intentionally for the good of the game.
But they may not have to. Some of the newer names among the top seeds
in the world may soon give them all they can handle in the way of com-
petition.
In the recent French Open, this was quite apparent. In the women's
tourney Evert-Lloyd was upset by the up-and-coming Hana Mandlikova in
the semi-finals 7-5, 6-4. Evert-Lloyd's loss to Mandlikova, the tournament's
eventual champion, ended her clay court victory streak at 64. It was also her
first loss on the clay courts of Roland Garros since 1973 when, at the age of
18, she lost to Margaret Court in the French Open final.
Mandlikova's play at the French Open propelled her to the number two
seed for Wimbledon, which starts June 22, behind Evert-Lloyd. Although
Mandlikova was upset yesterday by Kim Sands in the BMW grass courts
women's tennis tournament, the fact remains that she is a player who may
someday bring Evert-Lloyd's reign as the world's top women's tennis player
to a halt.
Mandlikova is not the only threat to Every-Lloyd's domination of the
sport, as child prodigies Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger have quickly
become players of championship calibre. Austin is only 18 years old, but her
7-6 career record against Evert-Lloyd belies her young age. Austin is seeded
third at Wimbledon while the 15-year-old Jaeger is the tournament's fifth
seed.
Martina Navratilova, the veteran of the "Stop Chris" movement, sur-
passed Evert-Lloyd in the world rankings at one time, but proceeded to
surrender this rating back to Evert-Lloyd. Since that time, Navratilova has
slipped a bit. In fact, she does not even hold the distinction of being Evert-
Lloyd's most dangeroussadversary at Wimbledon as she is seeded fourth.
Nonetheless her talents cannot he overlooked.
At the present time, Borg's status as the world's best player does not ap-
pear to be in as much danger as Evert-Lloyd's, although the French Open
finals might have foreshadowed what is yet to come. Borg had little problem
in the preceding rounds as he defeated his foes with relative ease. However,
in the finals he came up against a determined and talented Ivan Lendl. Borg
eventually disposed of his Czechoslovakian adversary 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 to
win his sixth French Open but afterwards he would call it his toughest final
he had ever played at the Open.
John McEnroe may still yet surpass Borg as the world's best men's
player, but to do so he will have to show more patience on the courts if he is to
overtake the consistent Borg.'
Sparring partners
WBA Welterweight Champion Thomas Hearns playfully lifts four-year-old
Mark Johnson of Houston into the air after the youngster punched him in the
nose.
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