Pae 4- rid oyJne 19981-theMithigdn Daily
SPOR TS OF THE DAILY
4
Umps
NEW YORK (AP)-Richie Phillips,
counsel for the Major League Baseball
Umpires Association, said yesterday
that umpires considered striking in
protest of American League President
Lee MacPhail's edict that Terry
Cooney couldn't umpire a game in-
volving the Oakland A's.
But Phillips said the potential
walkout was made unnecessary by the
players' strike that began last Friday
and the umpires' decision to disobey
MacPhail's order that three crews on
the West Coast switch assignments last
Thursday so Cooney would avoid the
Oakland series.
MACPHAIL SAID yesterday that he
took Cooney off the Oakland assign-
ment because of fears for his safety af-
ter the umpires joined Cooney in filing
criminal assault charges against Billy
Martin, manager of the A's. Martin was.
suspended one week and fined $1,000 by
MacPhail for bumping Cooney during
an argument May 29 in a game in
Toronto against the Blue Jays.
Martin, who has appealed Mac-
Phail's ruling, said that Cooney should
not work any games involving Oakland
or other teams in the AL West.
Phillips, speaking by telephone from
his home near Philadelphia, said Mac-
Phail's action would encourage other
managers and players to abuse um-
pires with whom they were having
problems. "MacPhail is buckling under
pressure from Billy Martin," Phillips
said. "The reassignment is a
declaration of open season on um-
pires."
Mason case outlined
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)-With juror and
considered walkout
alternates selection completed, op-
posing attorneys outlined their respec-
tive cases yesterday in the trial of for-
mer University of Arizona football
Coach Tony Mason on charges he
misused university athletic funds.
Mason is charged with 15 felony coun-
ts, including fraud, conspiracy and
theft in connection with allegations that
he accepted reimbursement from the
university for trips he didn't take and
that he gave money illegally to at least
nine football players.
SIX OF MASON'S former assistant
coaches face separate trial later on
similar charges.
Earlier yesterday, Dr. John P.
Schaefer, the university's president
whose administration has been marred
by the Mason controversy, but whose
contract already had been renewed for
his 10th year, announced his
resignation effective next June to
become president of a New York City
research foundation.
Schaefer made no reference to the
Mason indictment in his announ-
cement. Mason later praised his former
chief as being outstanding, saying
Schaefer "knew more about academic
standards and its relation to athletics
than any man in the country."
MASON AND his six former assistan-
ts were indicted last year by a state
grand jury which charged they
received more than $13,000 fraudulen-
tly. Mason's attorney has contended
that the figure involving Mason is only
about $2,100.
A former American Airlines ticket
agent who also was indicted in connec-
tion with the alleged misuse of funds,
Michael E. Hoffman, pleaded guilty
earlier to reduced charges in exchange
for becoming a prosecution witness.
Hold your breath
SEATTLE (AP) - The American
League may add a rule against blowing
a baseball into foul territory as a result
of an incident in which the Seattle
Mariners' Lenny Randle purportedly
pushed a slow roller across the third
base line by the force of his breath.
Randle claims he merely talked the
ball into rolling foul.
IN TIDE SIXTH inning of the
Mariners' May 27 game against Kansas
City in the Kingdome, the Royals' Amos
Otis tapped a hit lightly toward third
base.
Three Mariners converged on the
baseball, hoping it would roll foul,
realizing they could not throw out Otis.
The baseball, though near the chalk
line, gave no indication it would deviate
from its course.
RANDLE GOT down on all fours and
appeared to be blowing on the baseball.
It rolled foul.
Larry McCoy, plate umpire, gave the
foul sign. But Kansas City Manager
Jim Frey protested Randle was huffing
and puffing. After a huddle among the
umpires, Otis was credited with a hit.
The ruling, according to McCoy, was
that you can't alter the course of a
baseball. That is in the rule book, but it
doesnt mention blowing on the ball.
RANDLE INSISTED he had not
blown on the ball, that he merely
pleaded with it.
"I said please go foul, go foul," Ran-
dIe said. "I did not blow on it. I just used
the power of suggestion. How could
they call ita hit? It was a foul ball."
The Mariners lost to the Royals, 8-5,
but the foul ball question has not blown
over.
The American League office is
probing the details of the situation. The
rule book may get a new entry, which
would render such efforts illegal.
Austin advances
to semifials
EASTBOURNE, England (AP)-Tracy Austin missed her high school
graduation yesterday but celebrated with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Anne Smith for a
place in the semi-finals of the $125,000 BMW grass courts tennis championship.
Austin, 18, was to be graduated from Rolling Hills High in California, but admit-
ted, "Although I would have loved to be there, given the choice, I had to choose
tennis."
THE PONY-TAILED American has not dropped a set in four rounds of this
major pre-Wimbledon event on grass for women. She had missed five months of
competitive play with a back injury.
"I feel it has all come together again," said Austin, the defending champion and
top seed.
"I'm forgetting all about my injury and I feel like I'm playing really well. I've
worked hard, and I'm eager for success," she said.
AUSTIN'S THUMPING victory over Smith, from Dallas, Texas, gave her a
semifinal date against 11th-seeded Barbara Potter, whom she has beaten in all five
of their previous meetings.
Potter, from Woodbury, Conn., upset fifth-seeded Wendy Turnbull of Australia,
6-4,7-6.
Second-seeded Martina Navratilova and third-seeded Andrea Jaeger completed
the semifinals lineup, with play beginning today.
TWO-TAME WIMBLEDON champion Navratilova downed 17-year-old West Ger-
man Claudia Kohde, 7-6, 6-1, after surviving two set points in the first set.
Jaeger swamped another 17-year-old, American Pam Casale, 6-1, 6-1.
Jaeger, 16, and 24-year-old Czech-born Navratilova never have met on grass
before. But Navratilova has a 3-1 record in their meetings this year.
NAVRATILOVA, WHO had lost her last match against Kohde, appeared
motivated by that when the tall, athletic German held a 5-4 lead in the first set.
"Thinking back to our previous match in San Francisco gave me all the
motivation I needed," said Navratilova, who played too tentatively early on.
"I had to get myself to hit out and not be chicken," she said.
Jaeger had no trouble with the unseeded Casale..
"I just forced the issue and didn't let her control anything," said the Lincoln-
shire, Ill., schoolgirl.aIjust moved herarund and that was enough,"
AP P
TRACY AUSTIN, HAMPERED by back troubles throughout 1981, appears
to have recovered just in time for Wimbledon. She has advanced to today's
semifinals of the BMW Women's International Tournament, in which she
will,d V1 fsrbar Potter. Yesterday she whipped Anne Smith, 6-2, 6-0, in a
quarterfinal match.