The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 25

iSSIIIiif An improved serve finds Jimmy Connors playing top-notch tennis as he anticipates a semifinal Wimbledon match against Bjorn Borg, Page C-3. section Monday, June 29, 1981 1 44 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER E2E3 Nothing Remains For Pryor To Prove As Junior Welter a a J' I i Ji If jj- Vx i "w' I I if fil- l.N i 41 AP Laserphoto King moved down The Strip (Las Vegas Blvd.) to the Hacienda. THE MATADOR SPORTS Arena at the Hacienda is not a large room, yet it was not filled for the fight, despite the fact that ABC had blacked out Las Vegas for the bout. Aaron Pryor and Lennox Blackmoore Just wasn't an easy sell, even in Las Vegas. ABC, which sent Howard Cosell to the Hacienda to talk his way through the fight, put up the $300,000 purse, of which $225,000 went to Pryor.

But ABC wound up with very little title fight as Pryor smacked Blackmoore all over the ring and walked away with the money while hardly raising a sweat. Mismatches are never good for prime time, and certainly not a title defense. Pryor commented after the fight that he expected to fight perhaps three more years, retiring from the ring before he's 30. He should be able to do Just that, If he takes the right fights and watches his money. He Is a talented, ferocious fighter who has the potential to be very successful.

That King latched on to him is graphic evidence of Pryor's marketability. But he'd be a better sell as a lightweight or a welterweight. LAS VEGAS No one, including Aaron Pryor, knew In advance Just how much of a mismatch would be telecast from the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday afternoon. Pryor was certain he would retain his World Boxing Association junior welterweight title, but even he couldn't have suspected how easy the fight would be. Pryor remained undefeated as a professional by making his opponent, Guyana's Lennox Blackmoore, look like a youngster right out of the amateur ranks rather than the WBA's No.

1-ranked contender for Pryor's crown. After the fight all four minutes of it as Pryor dropped Blackmoore three times and took a second-round TKO Pryor, surrounded by his cronies in the dressing room at the Hacienda, talked of perhaps leaving the junior welterweight ranks and either moving up to welterweight or down to his more natural division as a lightweight. He talked about fighting Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, the best of the welterweights. He also mentioned the possibility of going back where he started his pro career, as a lightweight, where he still carries the No. 4 ranking.

Maybe Pryor should, indeed, abandon the catch-all category of Junior welterweight and go back to being a lightweight. IF LENNOX BLACKMOORE Is the best the junior welterweight division has to offer, Pryor has nothing left to prove at that weight. The only other fight at 140 pounds that makes any sense is against World Boxing Council king Saoul Mamby, and scarcely anyone who knows anything about boxing with the possible exception of Mamby has any doubts that Pryor has the ability to overcome Mamby almost as easily as he beat Blackmoore. Actually, the lightweight division could offer Pryor two excellent fights, capable of commanding high-dollar purses from the TV networks. Alexis Arguello, who just defeated Scotland's Jim Watt for the WBC lightweight title, is an exciting fighter much like Pryor.

Many boxing observors feel a Pryor-Arguello bout would be a classic. The WBA has Sean O'Grady of Oklahoma City, who recently beat Hilmer Kenty to take the title. O'Grady is a tough, popular fighter who could slug it out with Pryor. Again, the selling potential of that bout is great. Junior welterweight fights are a glut on the market right now.

Pryor's promoter, the one and only Don King, reportedly wanted to hold the Pryor-Blackmoore title fight at Caesar's Palace, the site of several King extravaganzas. But Caesar's Palace apparently wasn't Interested in the fight and ONE THING which drew comment from several long-time boxing af icianados attending the fight was Pryor's apparent lack of staying power, even in such a short fight. Although he certainly wasn't winded after the brief encounter, Pryor seemed to become arm weary late in the first round after he had fired dozens of punches at Blackmoore. His timing appeared off compared to earlier fights, and had Blackmoore not been such an easy mark, the fight might have had a different outcome. Perhaps Pryor didn't attain the excellent shape his new trainer, Dave Jacobs, believed him to be in.

Perhaps Pryor shouldn't stay away from the ring for over seven months and perhaps he should put himself entirely into training for his next fight. Certainly his fans deserve no less. AARON PRYOR connects a left to the head of Lennox Blackmoore during his successful WBA junior welterweight title defense in Las Vegas Saturday. Pate Title Drought Baseball Will Miss Lucrative Holiday Ends With Splash cn the insiie slUe oay 10 I i Nancy Lopez-Melton wins for the third straight year in Rochester, N.Y. Page C-3.

BY HAL BOCK AP Sports Writer The longest strike In baseball history stretched through a 17th day Sunday with 14 more canceled games pushing the total since the walkout began to 211. No negotiations are scheduled In the stalemate and, barring a highly unlikely Immediate settlement, it seems the country Is certain to be without baseball for the July 4th weekend, traditionally one of the biggest gate attractions of the season. Players have said they will require two to 2W days of workouts for every week they are on strike before resuming play. With the walkout more than two weeks old already, that means about five days of practice time. The holiday weekend begins Friday, July 3.

Also endangered Is the All-Star Game scheduled for Cleveland's Municipal Stadium Tuesday night, July 14. The computer card balloting for the game has continued at minor league parks Thore, who needed to win $1,931 in this tournament to retain his PGA tour playing rights, had a 71 under the intense pressure of fighting for his playing life and collected the biggest check of his life, $10,425. "I'm glad it's over," said Thore, whose eyes leaked tears when the big gallery surrounding the 18th hole gave him a standing ovation for his closing birdie. "It was a tough week. I just hope I can keep this momentum going and have some more and better weeks." Pate, whose last previous victory was in the 1978 Southern Open, started the warm, sunny final day with a one-shot lead.

BUT HE surrendered sole control of the top spot with a double bogey on the sixth, where he left one in a bunker. He took the lead alone again on the 10th with a birdie and held It the rest of the way. The key, however, was a scrambling par on the 17th. Kite and Lietzke were a single shot back at that point. Kite put It and retail outlets and the votes are being tallied, according to Bob Wirz, a spokesman for Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

WIRZ DENIED a report that unless the voting reaches six millionroughly half the total attained in each of the last several MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)-Joyous Jerry Pate took a happy dive into a lake Sunday after breaking a three-year victory drought with a two-stroke victory in the Danny Thomas-Memphis Classic. "It had been a long dry spell," Pate explained later. "I hadn't won In so long I wanted to be sure this one soaked in. "I Just wanted to be sure to remind myself how much fun winning really is.

"I Just feel that I should win more tournaments than I do. This was very Important to me." Pate, a former U.S. Open champion, also achieved two important goals: he locked up a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team and became, at 27, the youngest player ever to win $1 million in career earnings. He dominated the par-5 holes, making birdie on all of them and hit a 9-iron second shot to one of them, on the way to his closing, 3-under-par 69.

THE KEY, however, was a 20-25 foot putt he made to save par on the 17th hole, Just when it seemed the tournament was going to turn around. "That's probably the best putt I've made in two years," he said. "I knew I had to make it. I was determined to make it." But the biggest kick for the gallery came with his impromptu leap fully clothed into the lake on the 18th immediately after dropping the last putt. He finished his 274 total, 14 strokes under par on the Colonial Country Club course with a birdie on the last hole, grinned broadly, handed his putter and sun-visor to his caddy, shook hands with playing partner Tom Kite and ran immediately for the water.

Pate collected $54,000 from the total purse of $300,000. He now has $191,434 for the season and $1,035,620 for a pro career that began in 1976, the year he won the U.S. Open. Kite and Bruce Lietzke, who dueled Pate for the lead throughout the last round, tied for second at 276. Lietzke, who is Pate's brother-in-law, was seeking his fourth title of the year.

He had a closing 67 and lost his chance for a playoff when he drove into the lake on the 18th. Kite had a 68. Denis Watson, a South African rookie playing in his first event as a member of the American tour, and Peter Jacobsen were next at 281. Watson had a closing 68, Jacobsen 75. DEFENDING CHAMPION Lee Trevino and David Thore, the career struggler who became a local favorite, followed at 282.

Trevino, a three-time winner here, had a final round 69. years that a panel of managers and baseball executives would be used to select the starting teams. "No final decision has been when there will be another round of negotiations. "I'm going to have to keep working on it," Moffett said from his Maryland home Sunday. "Getting together is easy," he added.

"Having something to talk about is another matter." Mark Belanger of the Baltimore Orioles who has been on the players' bargaining team since the strike began, and Bob Lurle, owner of the San Francisco Giants and a member of baseball's powerful Executive Council, discussed the walkout with Jerry Izenberg, host of NBC radio's "Sports at Large," Saturday night and revealed a basic misunderstanding between the two sides. Lurie said the players' pool proposal for free agent compensation "doesn't address itself to fair compensation. If the Giants want nothing to do with the free agent draft next year, we will still have to put up a player to be taken away from us." BELANGER EXPLAINED that the pool idea in which teams would contribute players to be used as free agent compensation would involve only those clubs participating in the re-entry draft. "If you don't draft, then you don't put a player In the pool," he said. Lurie seemed surprised that all 26 teams would not be required to contribute to the pool.

"Is that a recent change I missed?" he asked. "We changed when your side made a valid argument," said Belanger. "The problem In the past has been misinterpretation along these lines." Lurie ended the discussion, saying, "Everything should be considered." IN PHILADELPHIA, the Major League Umpires Association will go back to court today, seeking to reverse U.S. District Judge Donald Van Artsdalen's ruling to withhold an injunction which would have blocked management's collection of its $50 million strike insurance policy. They claim the $100,000 per canceled game payoff reduces management's incentive to end the strike.

The umpires, represented by attorney Richie Phillips had won a temporary restraining order from Common Pleas Judge Stanley Greenberg earlier In the week. Now Phillips wants the matter returned to Judge Greenberg's court, contending that it belongs there. Judge Van Artsdalen was to hear that plea today. made," he said. "We have had to consider a variety of alternatives because we could not predict the number of votes we would get.

We have weighed various alternatives that could be used depend ing on whether we get a fair turnout of votes." The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, meanwhile, said that a memo circulating through an his second shot on the green and Lietzke was playing the par-5 18th, a potential birdie hole for the long-hitter. Pate, hitting his second fron the rough, missed the green down a slope to the right. A turnaround seemed inevitable. Pate chipped some 25 feet beyond the cup and needed thai for par. And he made it, while Kite stared in disbelief.

"That was the golf tournament," Kite said. About the same time, Lietzke drove into the lake and thus ended his chance of getting a tie. On the final hole, Kite hit his second into a bunker and eventually made par. Pate laid up in two, hit his third stiff to the pin, tapped in the winner and then took his victory swim. advertising agency representing several striking players has advised against committing them to any engagements after July 7.

The memo also said that the All-Star Game would be delayed, the newspaper said in its Satur day editions. Neither the ad agency nor the source of the Herald Examiner's Information were identified. CLUB EXECUTIVES, player representatives and others close to the baseball negotiations could not verify that any timetable for ending the strike existed, the newspaper said. index AP Laserphoto Sports Editor JOHN GIBSON Tel. 369-1917 (After 4 p.m.) Scores 369-1005, 369-1006 24 hours) Representatives of the strik ing players last week said they felt the owners had a schedule for ending the strike.

Negotiators for the owners, however, denied that any such schedule existed. JERRY PATE emerges smiling from the lake next to the 18th hole at the Colonial Country Club after winning the Memphis Classic Sunday. Pate dove into the water and took a victory lap after his first tournament victory in over three years. "It had been a long dry spell," Pate explained later. "I hadn't won in so long I wanted to be sure this one soaked in.

I just wanted to be sure to remind myself how much fun winning really is." GOLF C-3 HORSE RACING C-5 SCOREBOARD C-2 SPORTS BRIEFS C-4 WIMBLEDON C-3 Not even Kenneth E. Moirett, the federal mediator, knows i in n. i rin.