Page 11
SPORTS
Wednesday, August 7, 1985 The Michigan Daily
Sandy Sanders League benefits all
By DAN COVEN Fred Cofield was gone before the Fairleigh Dickinson and Villanova
For the last five weeks, the Sandy season was even over. The league's will not haunt them forever.
Sanders Summer Basketball League top star had to abandon his team AND FOR THE rest of the players,
has filled otherwise dull nights with during the semifinals so that he could like Leslie Rockymore, Percy Cooper
first-rate basketball action. attend the New York Knicks and Dean Hopson who have finished
Now it's over. The season is as short minicamp. Although Cofield was only their college eligibility and will not
as it is sweet. drafted in the sixth round, he has a play professionally, the league was
SO WHERE do the 110-odd players their swan song - their last hurrah.
go from here? For some the league In the end, though, all of them are
was more or less an opportunity to glad they played and are thankful to
keep, in shape between seasons. Sandy Sanders for the chance to play.
They'll be playing again in the fall For Mr. Sanders, or Sandy as he
The incoming freshmen and high likes to be called, Saturday night was
school seniors will be playing the culmination of the most successful
organized ball come November too. summer league ever. In its four-year
For them the league was a learning history, the league hs grown from four
experience - their first taste of to eight teams and has moved from
Division I ball. the dark Pioneer High School gym to
High school seniors Jackie Jones the better equipped Concordia
and Derrick Williams showed that College. The league now has the par
they will be the top seniors in Detroit's ., ticipation of the entire Michigan
Public School League. Michigan basketball team which provides the
freshman Loy Vought showed that he league's foundation. It is already the
was a lot better than the seventh- . best quality summer league between
ranked senior in the state in 1985. For Chicago and the East Coast.
MSU-bound junior college recruit "This year we had a higher caliber
Vernon Carr it was a proving ground. of play than ever before," said San-
He has erased any doubts about his ' ders.
talent. He is a Big Ten caliber guard Johnson Many people are surprised to learn
with quickness and leaping ability that Sanders is not making profit on
that will put him in Jud Heathcote's ...off to Europe the league - or on the basketball
line-up right away. camp he runs for youths between nine
Former Michigan players Johnny good shot at making the team. and 17. In fact, some of the costs are
Johnson and Ike Person will once Everybody associated with the league covered from Sanders' own pockets.
again return to England and Sweden is pulling for him. Sanders does not do this because he's
to play ball. For Robert Henderson, Butch Wade trying to make a buck. He runs the
THIS YEAR'S champs Franklin and the rest of the returning Michigan league and the camp because he en-
Wright will play in a tournament this squad, the league provided them a joys the sport and the opportunity to
week at St. Cecilia's gym - Detroit's last chance to hone and polish their provide young people with a chance to
reknown basketball haven. After the skills before embarking upon another play.
tournament, Ray and Herb Brooks campaign whose destination is And for the fans, the NCAA basket-
will try to make the CBA's Detroit Reunion Arena in Dallas. It was a ball referee and Phys. Ed. instructor
Spirits' squad. chance to improve, so that names like at Willow Run schools, has brought
them some of the best summer
basketball in the Midwest - for no
cost, of course.
Players,
By MIKE TULLY
UPI National Baseball Writer
NEW YORK - When the baseball
negotiators left for their respective
dinners last night, they probably
avoided pie.
After all, union head Don Fehr and
owners' rep Lee MacPhail had just
tried vainly for 30 hours to divide a pie
worth more than a billion dollars.
AS A RESULT of that failure,
players went on strike last night for
the second time in the last five years.
Their walkout demonstrated anew
baseball's inability to deal with
history and prosperity.
The dispute appears to be without
precedent or parallel. On the one side
stand the owners, who among their
assets can count a $1.2 billion
television package. On the other are
gathered the players, who make an
average annual salary of $363,000.
This all has left baseball fans rather
Associated Press puzzled. They fail to understand how
so much money could leave so many
Batboy Ricky Gill sits in an empty locker in the Atlanta Braves' people so unhappy.
clubhouse yesterday. IN ESSENCE, players and owners'
Doaily Photo by KATE O'LEARY
Stein & Goetz center Roy Tarpley drives to the hole for two over Herb
Brooks of league champion Franklin Wright.
owners fight for pie
Today, a player can make as much money in
one game as Ty Cobb did in one season.
However, he'll have to fight for it as hard as
Cobb did.
have neglected to solve an issue that and ensure economic health.
has plagued them since the beginning Through all the arguments, the
of the century. The issue is 'a free financial stakes have grown. Today, a
market. It has gone by different player can make as much money in
names. Near the beginning of the cen- one game as Ty Cobb made in one
tury, it involved the reserve clause. In season. However, he'll have to fight
1975, it was called free agency. By for it as hard as Cobb did.
1980 and '81, people referred to it as Eventually, the players and owners
the compensation issue. will settle the strike. They always
This time, the quarrel involves the have. Whether they solve the "free
arbitration procedure. market" issue is another matter.
In all these cases, players argue for
a mechanism to sell their services on On second thought, Fehr and Mac-
the open market. Owners claim they Phail should probably help them-
need restrictions to provide stability selves to some pie. Humble pie.