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.