Sports
Page 12. Wednesday, July 8, 1981. The Michigan Daily
BASEBALL STRIKE CONTINUES
. U.Sin
Kuhn testifies at hearing{.:.ai
NEW YORK (AP) - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn testified bargaining. Management's position is that there is no s
yesterday that estimates by the certified public accountant problem and none ever has been claimed across the
company Ernst and Whinney saying the $320,000 average bargaining table.
salaries for major league baseball players in 1983 may be Kuhn's testimony occupied most of the afternoon and the
low. commissioner attempted to paint himself as a spokesman for C up
Appearing at a National Labor Relations Board hearing on the baseball industry rather than just the 26 owners.
an unfair labor practice charge against tle 26 major league "I KEEP ABREAST of what goes on in collective
owners, Kuhn was asked if he believed the projections which bargaining," he said. "Consulted would be the wrong word to S rie s
he cited in a December 1980 speech regarding baseball use. I speak to them, yes, my views are sometimes adopted
economics were accurate. and sometimes not."
"I THINK THEY are low," the Commissioner said. "I Kuhn conceded that he is not consulted by the players' NEW YORK (AP) - John McEnroe,
think the salary rate has gone up faster than their union, but said, "I don't think the clubs view the com- his triumphs and woes of Wimbledon
estimates." missioner as one of them." behind him, and Jimmy Connors will
The speech which the Commissioner made before the an- Kuhn added that he had urged the Player Relations Com- spearhead the United States team for
nual winter basebal meetings has been an integral part of mittee, bargaining arm of the owners, "to adopt a flexible this weekend's Davis Cup tennis series
the case presented by the NLRB and the striking Major position. The last thing in the world I wanted to see is a against defending champion
League Players Association in their attempt to force manage strike." Czechoslovakia.
ment to open its books. KUHN TESTIFIED that he believed free agent compen- "It's pretty hard to switch gears"
Also cited have been a number of quotes and interviews sation as proposed by management would help the game. from the grass courts at Wimbledon to
from various owners, discussing baseball's financial con- "The commissioner's got the courage to speak up for what the hard courts at the National Tennis
dition. he believes in," he said. Center, where the Davis Cup match will
IN A MORNING session before chief administrative law Under examination by Players' Association attorney be played Friday, Saturday and Sun-
judge Melvin Welles, Calvin Griffity, president of the Min- Donald Fehr, Kuhn was asked about various Congressional day, McEnroe said yesterday. "But I'm
nesota Twins, Ruly Carpenter, president of the Philadelphia testimony. Several times the attorney cited testimony in sure I'll be ready."
Phillies, and Jerry Reinsdorf, part owner of the Chicago which the Qommissioner said, "I'm here today representing McEnroe and Connors will play the
White Sox, testified along with player agent Tom Reich. the 26 clubs of major league baseball." singles, while Stan Smith and Bob Lutz
The thrust of the testimony throughout the day was con- In response to that, Kuhn said, "I don't represent the will team up for the doubles on Satur-
firmation of the various quotes which have appeared in print Player's Association, but I do feel that I represent the in- day. Two singles matches will be
over the past four years. The players claim that if baseball is dustry before Congress." played Friday, with McEnroe and Con-
suffering financial problems, then the books should be Listening to the proceedings were a half-dozen players in nors switching opponents for Sunday.
opened so that the union can alter its demands in collective town for last night's meeting of their executive board.
THE SPORTING VIEWS The travails ofa track star". ..
. .. and a human being
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By JOHN FITZPATRICK
Daily sports writer
H E STRODE GRACEFULLY past the times
and the admiring throng, leading the field
around the track into the last lap of the mile run.
"Go Henry," a few onlookers yelled, in an almost
hesitant way. Most just stared.
Henry Rono was not listening. He was urging on
a tall, blonde-haired runner who was desperately
trying to pass Rono. "C'mon," he said. "You can
do it. C'mon." With a half a lap left to run, the two
were even, and stayed that way as they crossed
the finish line. "Four twenty-nine!" yelled the
timer.
Rono was breathing hard, but was not
exhausted. This runaround the Ann Arbor Huron
High School track had not been a race for him. A
run, yes, but not a race. Rono had run without the
self-imposed onus of pressure with which a runner
competes. For Henry Rono, it was announced last
spring, had retired from competition-retired
from competition for good. ,
The four world records he set in 1978 will not be
forgotten. Nor will the acclaim he enjoyed-or en-
dured-as "the world's greatest distance runner,"
a "sure bet for Olympic gold," and "the fabulous
Henry Rono." Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, and
Abebe Bikilia have been forgotten by many, but
they too will be remembered by, at the very least,
a few.
Oh, those world records-and that year.-Have so
many buried it in the attic of their minds already?
An unlooked-for 13:08.4 5,000-meters at Berkley in
April. It was called "impossible." It broke Dick
Quax's world record by over four seconds. Then he
ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase in Seattle the
next month. The result was another im-
possibility-an 8:05.4 performance that smashed
the world best of 8:08. "Smashed" is, perhaps,
exaggeration, but it is easy to exaggerate when
reflecting on what Rono did in '78.
After the second record, even those who knew
nothing of track had heard about "that African
guy." In June came two more records-a 27.22.4
10,000-meter in Vienna (an eight-second im-
provement on the old standard) and, two weeks
later, a 7:32.1 3,000-meters in Oslo, bettering the
old mark by over three seconds.
It's a long way from Oslo, Norway to Ann Arbor,
and the three years which have elapsed since
Rono broke the tape in his last world record race
have seen his life change in many ways. The
summer of '78 saw more Rono victories on the
European track circuit, as the Continent was
thrilled time and again by the apparent ease with
which the Kenyan would defeat world-class run-
ners.
An anti-climax was inevitable, and came on a
cool September evening in London. Rono would
run the two mile, and Steve Ovett, the Englishman
who was the top-ranked miler in the world that
year, would face him. Rono led for most of the
race, then Ovett, summoning his miler's kick,
raced by him around the final turn to win with a
new world best of 8:13.512 Rono was less than a
second behind. "It's been a long season," said
Rono. "I'm tired."
It is a cliche to say "things were never the
same" after that race, but it is a cliche which must
be used. Things were never the same. He finished
almost last in NCAA cross-country race that fall, a
race which he had easily won as a Washington
State runner the previous year. The rumors came.
Rono was fat, out of shape. Rono had parted with
his coach. Rono was tired of running.
Rono did not run well in 1979, but the hope of
1980-an Olympic year-remained.
The Olympics were enough to goad Rono into ac-
tion-enough to have him train with the fury he
had had in '78, and it showed when he ran 27:31 for
10,000 meters in New Zealand in January of 1980.
"Rono is back," it was said. "He will win in the
Olymics."
But the Olympic year of 1980 was not to be for
athletes from the United States, from Germany,
from Japan, and from Kenya. 1980 was the year of
Afghanistan, of a fruitless boycott. What could
have been the year-of Henry Rono was to be the
year of Henry Rono's disappointment.
Kenya announced it would boycott soon after
Rono's New Zealand run. Rono gave up. He ap-
peared at a road race in New Jersey in May,
overweight and recently married. He finished well
back in the pack.
Rono tried a brief comeback during the past
winter, and a 14:02 5,000-meters in March showed
promise. But a 14:02 was not what Henry Rono
competed for-a sublime degree of excellence,
yes, but not a 14:02 5,000-meters.
Rono has since graduated from Washington
State, and was in the area to check into Michigan's
and Eastern Michigan's graduate schools. A local
running shop learned of his impending visit, and
soon the papers had small notices mentioning that
he would be at a fun run on June 23 at Huron High
School. The onlookers mentioned previously were
drawn to Huron High by the urge to gawk. So was
I.
"Do they really appreciate and know of the
things this man has done?" I thought to myself as
Rono jogged a cool-down lap after his mile. "Do
they really care?"
But it was an irrelevant question. Henry Rono
was a great athlete, and has chosen to be so no
more. What he has done cannot be erased from
history. And as I saw Rono handling the gawkers,
the naive questions, and the never-ending han-
dshakes with a dignified, but good-natured
tolerance, it occurred to me that Henry Rono, the
man, was far more significant than Henry Rono,
the athlete.
Whether the spectators at Huron High were
aware of the great things Rono had done or not,
the admiration which they had for the man was far
more important.
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