The Michigan Daily-Saturday, June 12, 1982-Page 15
THE SPORTING VIEWS Playing th
. .
By JIM DWORMAN
G AMBLING AND sport do not mix. Not when
the gambling is on the professional level, any-
way. When people try to make a living by
wagering on sporting events, the opportunity and
incentive to "fix" the events become too great.
The recent\ point-shaving scandal,-at Boston
College is proof.
But gambling for sport, for mere entertainment,
is another matter. Recreational wagering, the of-
fice football pool, is among America's favorite
pastimes. It gives one the opportunity to cheer for
the home team and then, if it wins, have a few ex-
tra dollars to spend in celebration. And the stakes
are low enough so that there is no threat of a "fix."
But most gambling, recreational or
professional, is illegal in the State of Michigan.
It still proliferates and is, for the most part, an ac-
cepted practice of society.
Unfortunately, the fact remains. Private gam-
bling is a criminal act.
Michigan does, however, offer an alternative.
Wagering on horse races is legal and sanctioned at
five different tracks within the state. Currently,
Hazel Park Race Track hosts a thoroughbred
meet, while harness races run nightly at the
Detroit Race Course (DRC), Jackson and Saginaw
Valley Downs. Northville Downs will host a har-
ness meet this winter.
For those of us who enjoy betting on football car-
ds, horse racing provides an exciting, legal alter-
native. And for the student at Michigan, it readily
is accessible.
Free student admission
DRC, home of the Wolverine Harness Raceway,
is located in Livonia, only 25 minutes from Ann
Arbor. Until July 10, the best harness racing in the
state happens at the one mile-oval and on Tuesday
nights in Jupe, Wolverine offers free student ad-
mission. For the price of a program, $1,.the
opportunity to bet on a horse and cheer for victory
exists. It is available on any other night of the
week for the last four races of the program.
Wolverine runs 10 races Monday through Thur-
sday and 11 on Friday and Saturday. Post time is
7:30 p.m. every night.
Last Tuesday, I tried my luck.
Arriving at the track at 9:30, I was in time to bet
on the seventh race. The Number Two horse, Im-
pressive Fella seemed to be the logical choice to
win. Its times in its last two races were better
than the rest of the field and the driver, Dan John-
son, had a good reputation. But the odds on Fella
were only 1.30:1, hardly a good payoff. So I bet a
perfecta, picking Impressive Fella to win and
Shiaway Apache, a strong finisher, second.
I got the top half of the combination correct.
Impressive Fella won easily, but Shiaway Apache
did not finish strong enough. It placed third, one
length out of second.
horses ...
.fun, legal gambling
I threw my $2 ticket into the wind and watched
my money blow away. In fact, I did the same for
another $6 worth of tickets in the eighth and ninth
races.
But it all came blowing back my way in the
10th.
After careful scrutiny of the program, I
narrowed the nine-horse field to two, Bret's Red
Baron and Dave Lang. Bret's Red Baron had a
faster time in its last race, but Dave Lang finished
much stronger. For all practical purposes, it was
a toss-up.
Cheap entertainment
I eventPually decided on Dave Lang, mainly
because the horse was owned, trained and driven
by the same man, Steve Martz. I figured he would
drive the better race, since the $3,500 purse would
go straight into his pocket with a victory. John
Moody, Bret's Red Baron's driver, would earn
only a percentage of the purse with a victory.
So I put my $4 in the hands of Martz and the
hoofs of his horse. I was not disappointed.
Dave Lang led from start to finish, besting its
nearest competitor by two lenths. Bret's Red
Baron lost ground in the stretch and finished four-
th.
My winning ticket paid $11.60, and I walked out
ef DRC with only 40 cents less than!I came.
It was an inexpensive night's entertainment and
satiated my urge to gamble. Legally.
kne
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NEWARK, N.J. (AP)- The National Football League
knew that nine top collegiate prospects had been found to
have traces of cocaine or other illegal drugs in their blood-
N Lstreams but took no action, a spokesman said yesterday. All
nine were later drafted by NFL teams, one on the firstround.
Urinalysis tests administered to 150 prospects at a tryout
camp were disclosed earlier yesterday by the Orlando Sen-
tinel. The report was published in the wake of former player
W 0 Don Reese's claims ina copyright story in this week's Sports
Illustrated magazine that cocaine use is rampant in
professional football.
REESE, meanwhile, expressed alarm yesterday at a Dade
g u se County, Fla., judge's comments that the former defensive
lineman's admitted continued use of cocaine could constitute
a violation of probation set when he and another former
nlave" Randy Crowder, were released from jail in 1978.
Reese served a one-year sentence for selling cocaine to un-
dercover policemen.
League officials and players have dismissed Reese's ac-
count as exaggerated and have denied his accusation that the
league turns its back on the problem.
However, Jim Heffernan, director of public relations for
the NFL, confirmed that the league received a report with
the urinalysis results and the players' names after the
January tryout camp, which was conducted by the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers under the auspices of the 16-team United
Scouting Combine.
"We kept abreast of it," Heffernan said in a telephone from
NFL headquarters in New York. "Physicals have been going
on for years. I don't know if they were looking for drugs."
The tryout camp included football drills, speed tests and
exhaustive physical examinations.
0
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New York Yankee pitcher Mike Morgan hangs his head and kicks dirt in
disgust after giving up a three-run homer to Gary Roenicke of the Baltimore
Orioles last night in Baltimore. See story, Page 14.