4 Sorts rL-- A A! -L! _: 1.. Page 12 Wednesday, July 29, 1981 The Michigan Daily THREE-YEAR RAMS DEAL Owens inks pact From wire and staff reports FULLERTON, Calif.-Linebacker Mel Owens of Michigan, the No. 1 draft pick of the LosAngeles Rams, signed a contract yesterday and reported to the National Football League team's training camp 10days later than other rookies. Owens signed a series of three one-year contracts with an option year, Rams Publicity Director Jerry Wilcox said. No terms were disclosed. OWEN$ AND HIS agent, Phil Closius, flew to California Tuesday and agreed to terms in a meeting with Rams' Vice President and General Manager Don Klosterman at the Rams' offices in Anaheim. He will engage in his first practices with the team today. Asked about his holdout, Owens pointed to Closius and Klosterman and said: "These are the two guys who did the talking, I'm just glad to be here." He said he kept in good'shape working out at the University of Michigan and was ready to par- ticipate in the rigorous twice daily drills of the training camp. OWENS, 6-FOOT-2 and 230 pounds, will be tried at outside linebacker behind George Andrews, a third-year player from Nebraska. Andrews took over at mid- season in 1980 when Bob Brudzinski left the Rams, claiming that he had fulfilled contract obligations of his option year by playing half the games. Brudzinski was traded to Miami in 1981. Although he will be behind other rookies in learning the Rams system, Owens did attend one offseason mini-camp. "WE WERE OUT there for mini-camp and they gave us a play book with one- fourth of the plays," said Owens. "And they basically use the same system as Michigan does. You can only do so many things in football. But the terminology is different." Owens says that being a first-round draft choice eases his mind since it is very ,unlikely that he will be eut, but adds that there are also disadvantages. "More eyes are on you,'',he said. "If you do something bad, they'll notice it right away. But if you do something outstanding they expect it." "Obviously, in the negotiations there was some compromising," Klosterman said. The signing was the last for Ram veterans and top draft choices in a summer of relative contentment among the players. A year ago four Ram starters were holdouts in efforts totenegotiate contracts. I 4 Doily Photo FORMER MICHIGAN linebacker Mel Owens (inset) follows flow of action during Kansas game in 1979. Owens just signed a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Rams. Owens was the Rams' first-round draft choice. Miller meets with teams Marvin Miller, chief negotiator for striking major league players, plans to embark on a series of regional meetings to repair what he called "a terrible information gap" that caused some cracks in the union's solid stand against club owners. The series of meetings will begin today in Los Angeles, and Miller apparently will attend other briefings around the country. No other meetings had been scheduled by late last night. NEGOTIATIONS BROKE off last Thursday and no new bargaining sessions have been set. Meanwhile, the 26 club owners and their Player Relations Committee also scheduled a meeting for today, on theop- posite coast in New York. Miller, executive director of the Major League Players Association, apparently eased the minds of many players during a five-hour meeting of the union's 30-member executive board in Chicago Monday night. The briefing for the board also attracted some 30 other players anxious to know the status of the strike after four days of negotiations in Washington under a news blackout last week. "HALF OF THEM didn't have the facts," Miller said. "A news blackout is a catastrophe for an organization like ours. There was a terrible information gap for four days. Those were important days." The support for Miller and his negotiating team, some of whom had come under criticism for being Miller's pawns, appeared to be across-the-board after the meeting. "I'm behind the negotiating committee 100 percent," said Bill Buckner of the Chicago Cubs. "I was feeling uncomfor- table about not playing. Now I can sit out the season. I still feel badly about not playing but I'm now informed of the negotiations." "I feel a lot better now that I'm informed," said Rick Reuschel of the New York Yankees, who was traded by the Cubs the day before the strike began June 12. "No matter how good the media coverage is, it is not as good as attending a meeting." I 4 SPOR TS OF THE DAILY Weaver finishes 7th at Festival By JOHN FITZPATRICk Melaine Weaver, Michigan's top female distance runner, continued to turn in one impressive performance af- ter another this summer, as the Wolverine junior sped to an outstanding seventh place finish in the 3,000 meter run at the National Sports Festival being held at Syracuse, New York this week. Weaver's time of 9:30.48 (which equates to about a 10:09.2 mile) was impressive enough, but her placing, in a race featuring some of the best women runners'in the country, was more so. The race was won by Kim Gallagher of Upper Darby, Pen- nsylvaniawho broke the tape in 9:19. AT THE TRACK Athletics Congress national championship meet, held in Sacramento, California last June, Weaver also finished seventh, this time in the 10,000 meter run. Her time of 34:58.4 was remarkable considering the stifling heat and humidity which beset the meet, as the thermometer topped 100 degrees regularly. Weaver's best time in the 10,000 this year - 34:38.40 - rates her in the top twenty performers in the country. With the world of women's track becoming increasingly competitive with each year, Weaver's string of notable times bodes well for her athletic future. With a reputation as one of the best harriers in the Big Ten already established, she should be tough to beat this fall with this, her best competitive summer to date, behind her. The other Blue cross-country runners should form the strongest group ever here. Lisa Larsen, a consistent sub-five minute miler, will be returning, as will 2:07 800-meter runner Sue Frederick and a number of others with much potential for improvement. Sue player's union? DETROIT (AP) - Eighteen hourly paid members of the ground crew at Tiger Stadium are threatening to sue the striking Major League Players Association for "interference of a business relations." The workers are not part of the Detroit Tigers' regular salaried work force; their jobs are based on games which are played. THEY DON'T qualify for unem- ployment compensation under Michigan law because of a statute which prohibits payment "if total or partial unemployment is due tb a labor dispute which was; or is, in progress in a department or unit, or group of workers in the same establishment." "We have some misgivings because it's one union against another," John Day, steward for Local 79 Service Em- ployees' International Union said yesterday. 4 4