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 dru 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 Is it twice the pizza or halthe .. i p ice? 1321 S. University HAPPY HOUR 769-1744 Mon.-Sat. 4-6 _ _ p.m.-Ia.m. Daily 11:30-2 a.m. res an ba 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.