The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 78

D-2 Pittsburgh Press, April 17, 1983 Ferguson Affair Clouds Seth's Coaching Future fell "fsi iT), I f'YC -111 i By BOB SMIZIK The thing about Seth Greenberg that first caught Roy Chipman's eye was his enthusiasm. He was a young man willing to work. Chipman was at Lafayette, a coach on the way up. Greenberg was at Columbia, an assistant just getting started. They engaged in some recruiting battles.

Greenberg left his mark on Chipman. "When I got the job at Pitt, Seth was the first person I thought of," said Chipman. "I knew he would work hard, that he was aggressive and willing to put in a lot of hours. That's what you're looking for in an assistant coach." Greenberg brought many other qualities to Pitt. Recruiting was his passion.

He set up a major college recruiting program the likes of which Pitt had never seen. He was outgoing too outgoing for some presented a good appearance and had a nice way with the players. "He's a real student of the game," said Chipman. "He's very sound fundamentally. He's close to the players and the players are close to him.

He's a real student of the game. "The game is his life." And today that life is tumbling apart. Seth Greenberg, who has wanted' to be a basketball coach almost all his life, has to be wondering if he'll ever coach again. Greenberg's life is in turmoil because of an unsubstantiated charge of recruiting infractions made by another coach. Whether Seth Greenberg violated an NCAA recruiting rule and gave Marlon Ferguson, a 6-8 all-state forward from Center High, a ride in his automobile on the night of March 24 seems of little concern today.

Ferguson has denied it and so has Greenberg. The NCAA has indicated that even if Ferguson did take a ride in Greenberg's car, it's not likely Pitt would be punished for such a minor infraction. What concerns Roy Chipman is Seth Greenberg's future. Chipman feels that Greenberg was badly burned by the local media and by two coaches Center's Doug Masciola and Fairfield University's Terry O'Connor, who leveled the charges of recruiting violations. The Beaver'County Times ran O'Connor's charges on Thursday and The Press and the Post-Gazette carried them next day.

All three newspapers gave Pitt ample opportunity to deny the story. The Press also carried denials from Ferguson and his mother, who strongly backs Greenberg's recruiting approach. But Chipman still feels his program and Greenberg were burned by the media. "There's no question that the media was unfair to Seth," said Chipman. "In my mind the media has almost destroyed this kid's life.

"The kid and Pitt have been put in a very difficult situation over what, if it's true, is a Mickey Mouse situation. We're written up in the papers like we're Nevada-Las Vegas all over again. "People chose to believe a guy from Fairfield without checking the source. He (O'Connor) took the word of the high school coach (Masciola). The guy (O'Connor) never actually saw any of the things he said were going on.

"He was told those things by the high school coach." Two of the three charges O'Connor leveled against Greenberg and Pitt have been denied. He said that Pitt bought football season tickets for Ferguson's father, a point that was denied by Mrs. Ferguson. She said that her husband and his brother had been buying the tickets for years. O'Connor also said that Greenberg would go to the house of Lew Showrank, a player on the Center team, and have Showrank call Ferguson and tell him to come over.

The indication was that Greenberg would do this to illegally recruit Ferguson. Jim Showrank, Lew's father, said that sueh an incident never occurred. The only charge still standing and it is no longer standing so tall is the ride given to Ferguson. Chipman telephoned O'Connor Friday to confront him. "The coach from Fairfield feels he's been duped and used because Masciola knew that he didn't like Seth in the first place," Chipman said.

Prese photo by Jim Fetters Here, Pitt aide Seth Greenberg stands behind Coach Roy Chipman; now it's the other way around. "Unlike some coaches, I appreciate the fact that he works hard and didn't hold it against him. "He's not well. He's shaken. He's worked his tail off for three years to try and build a program and in two days his work goes down the tube.

I talked to his mother and she's very upset. She's very concerned for him. "As far as I'm concerned he has a future at Pitt. But I don't know if he has a future in Pittsburgh." That is one of Seth Greenberg's problems. A lot of coaches don't like him.

He's been described as obnoxious. Ohio University Coach Danny Nee, who recruited against Greenberg in going after Ferguson, said, "I think Seth rubs a lot of people the wrong way." Chipman, who sent his assistant home to New York on Friday, sees it otherwise. From Playgrounds To NBA Back To Playgrounds For Bates 1 A UJi.1,11,1 IIIJJMUWJHI illlllJUJ III lJ JIJ.iMUIIJUl IJJ1IIIIII I if, a i Rockets, but was cut midway through training camp after holding out for a guaranteed contract. He drifted to the Maine Lumberjacks of the Continental League, where he drew the attention of Leventhal, a Philadelphia basketball junkie and, at the time, the league's public relations director. In the summer of 1979, Leventhal, personnel director for the team sponsored by Vic Snyder plumbing in the Philadelphia Baker League, was recruiting players when he remembered Bates.

"We had been putting out a really nice PR book on the Baker League, and I had one left I thought I'd send down to Billy in Mississippi," Leventhal recalled. "I never for one minute thought he would (Pi I come 1 had never even met tne man. i Jack McMahon, the Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach, was present on a night when Bates threw in 38 points, "Si 0 1 4 Press photo by Marlene Karas grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked live shots. The Sixers signed Bates and paid him a $50,000 bonus. "I figured he was a lock," said Leventhal.

"But after they signed Billy, on the day of the NBA draft, they picked Jim Spanarkel out of Duke, another big guard. When he got to camp, Billy shot well, but he had trouble picking up the plays. The Sixers had just gotten rid of some undisciplined players like Lloyd Free and Joe Bryant, and I guess they figured they didn't want another one." Bates was cut, voiding his two-year contract. The next year, he made it with the Trail Blazers, who were in transition from the golden championship years of Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas and Lionel Hollins. A spokesman for Portland said Bates was released because he wasn't doing the job anymore and because his undisciplined style of play did not fit into the team's concept.

"Billy simply partied himself out of the league," disagreed Leventhal. Leventhal said Bates's problems with booze began during the 1980-81 season. Portland drafted Jimmy Paxson from Dayton and awarded the starting guard spot to him. "Billy really deserved to start, based Manager Chuck Tanner, coaches will help Lee Mazzilli disarm outfielder's critics. Mazzilli Arm Deficiencies Throw Tanner For A Loss By MIKE MISSANELLI JENKINTOWN, Pa.

The rules of etiquette for pickup basketball were waived when Billy Ray Bates showed up at Jenkintown High on Sunday afternoons. The former National Basketball Association star, whose career seemed over because of an alcohol problem, would get a spot in the next game as soon as he shed his warm-up suit no leaning against the bleachers for an hour, standing in line to play the winners. In this hardwood world in Jenkintown, Bates was king. Here, it seemed, he could do no wrong. His subjects would watch in awe as Bates defied gravity for a slam-bam dunk that inspired shrieks of "Go 'head, Bates," and "Do it, Billy Ray, tomahawk style." When the gym closed, Bates would get into his royal blue BMW and drive to Casey's Tavern.

The guys from the gym would stand in line for the privilege of buying him a beer, Bates amused them with stories of life in the big time. After a couple of hours, Bates would slide back into his car and glide away, trying mightily to skirt a world that had led to his downfall. In that world, there is the darkness of night and the bars, the women, the all-night parties, the "friends." Billy Ray Bates was not in control there. "In the daytime, I'm Billy Ray," he said. "During the nighttime Man, during the nighttime, something strange comes over me; I turn into a monster.

If I could only lick it." Billy Ray Bates, 26, was signed to a contract by the world champion Lakers last week after an injury to Los Angeles forward James Worthy, but after playing four games, he was released yesterday. The Lakers signed veteran forward Steve Mix and returned Bob McAdoo to the active roster from the injured list. To make room for Mix and McAdoo, the Lakers released Bates and placed Eddie Jordan on the injured list with a bruised toe. Bates, signed to a 10-day contract on Tuesday, averaged 1.3 points and made just two of 16 field goals in his four games with the Lakers. On the playgrounds one day, back in the NBA the next.

And now back to the playgrounds. The Ardsley Community Center is a converted old elementary school in the middle of short blocks, stop signs and rowhouses. The green tile floor in the dilapidated gymnasium has not been waxed for some time. Four fluorescent lights hang from the drop ceiling; one, directly above the east basket, is burned out has been since last year. That did not bother Bates.

He showed up five minutes before tipoff and scored 40 points in the game, most on jump shots from midcourt, against the defending champs of the Casey's Tavern Rec League. Casey's, along with sponsoring the league, sponsors the team of Billy Ray, and it won big. "Embarrassed?" says Bates, repeat-ng a question. "The only time I get embarrassed is if I lose. I have respect or everyone on a basketball court, 'hese young guys I play against are etermined; they want to go to college, ome want to make the NBA.

They are different than me. Maybe they can 3arn something from me." Don Leventhal, Bates's longtime riend and part-time agent who lives in lenkintown, said: "I see him playing in hat Ardsley league, and it saddens me. I help but think, as I'm watching him )ury a crop of young kids, that just a short time ago, Billy Ray was one of the st players in the NBA." In the 1979-80 season, his first with the Portland Trail Blazers, Bates almost single-handedly carried them into ST MAY BE a bum rap on Lee Mazzilli, but early conclusions about the throwing arm on the Pirates' new center fielder indicate to some fans that it might better serve a quarterback in the United States Football League. While Mazzilli certain- Scoreboard on his performance the year before, and ly isn't to be faulted individually for the two losses the Pirates have suffered since coming home, the reaction of the fans is that Mazzilli's suspect arm will cost the Pirates more ball games than his power-stuffed bat will win for them. These conclusions are based, of course, on a series of throws by Maz BILLY RAY BATES Always attracts the wrong crowd.

exile tn Maine ot the Continental Basketball League. During the 1980-1981 season, Bates set Blazer playoff records that still stand: best average, 28.3 points per game; most field goals, 16. Last year, Bates was the powder keg who sat on Coach Jack Ramsay's bench in Portland, waiting for a chance to detonate. When he got the call, Bates lit up the Portland Coliseum like a Fourth of July celebration. Then, Bates was on the streets.

Portland waived him before the 1982-83 season, and he failed in a 12-game stint with the Washington Bullets, who had signed him as a free agent. Bates returned to Philadelphia, where he had had a 1980 NBA tryout, in February, after spending eight weeks in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. In recent weeks, he had been living with a friend in Blackwood, N.J. Before that, he stayed with Leventhal in Jenkintown, near Philadelphia. For the last three months, he worked out twice a day, four days a week, trying to keep his 6-4, 225-pound body ready for a return to the NBA.

Most of his free time was spent scouting gyms and playgrounds; most nights, he played basketball sharpening his skills for the NBA. Billy Ray Bates was one of nine children born to sharecroppers in Goodman, a tiny village. He grew up in a shack with neither electricity nor running water. His mother, Ellen, helped clean the house of the farm owner when she wasn't picking cotton. Billy Ray picked cotton and did odd jobs to make money for his family.

As David Halberstam wrote in his "The Breaks of the Game," Bates recalled that his father, Shack, "was neither a good worker nor a happy man. He was hot-tempered and began to work less and fight more. He would spend the day drinking, returning to his family late in the day when he was drunk. "Soon, Ellen Bates had to protect her children from their own father. Later, Billy Bates came to understand why his father had come apart, and why he had begun to drink.

For a black man in Mississippi, life was nothing but farming and not even farming for yourself, but farming for the owner." Shack died when Billy was 7. Billy was determined that his legs, which sent him soaring above basketball rims, would also lift him out of the life of rural Mississippi. "I was born to play basketball," Bates said. He was recruited by a slew of big-time colleges, ending up at tiny Kentucky State in 1974, a predominantly black school, where he racked up scoring record after scoring record in four years. He was drafted into the NBA in 1978, i in the fourth round by the Houston By Pat Livingston Sports Uilot things we think have to be done.

We do this all the time." But Tanner gave no indication that Mazzilli would receive other than routine help for rusty ballplayers. He did concede, however, that Mazzilli's arm isn't all it should be. "Lee's throwing is off and it's up to me and my coaches to find what's causing it. He can throw; he wouldn't be here if he couldn't. But something's wrong, obviously a hitch that won't allow him to throw as he normally does.

He could be throwing off a stiff leg or not following through. We'll find out what it is. "Sooner or later, this happens. The best golfers have to take time out on the tour to restructure their swing. Baseball isn't like that; if a baseball player's not doing well, he can't take himself out of a game.

"You grin and bear it, work on it, until you get it right. You can't walk off. We learn to take the wins with the losses, the bitter with the sweet." Mazzilli's arm is unique. When he signed with the New York Mets 10 years ago, a $50,000 bonus prospect from Brooklyn, he was an ambidextrous thrower and a switch-hitter. Before he was traded, a right-handed thrower now, Mazzilli was fielding adequately.

If he had a weakness in his arm, it wasn't apparent to Tanner. "I'm sure it's in his technique," said Tanner, rising from his desk to demonstrate the mechanics of throwing. "We'll study what he's doing and once we have the answer to that, he'll be throwing again. Omar Moreno-didn't have the best arm in the world when we got him, but we made a great defensive player out of him. Maybe we can do the same thing for Lee." As Tanner finished discussing his outfielder's arm, somebody else came up to be filled in.

"Do you think," he asked Tanner, "that Mazzilli was praying the homer (George) Hendrick hit would go over the fence?" "Why would he want that?" "In his frame of mind, so they couldn't test his arm on a run-scoring sacrifice from second." Tanner didn't think that was funny. Not one bit. in camp be outplayed raxson. I hen, when the season began, Ramsay would' jerk him after one small mistake. Billy became a frustrated individual, and he'd go out and get drunk.

"From that point, everything snowballed. Because he was drunk all the time, he started coming late to practices, and even missing some. "The leeches and parasites on the outside started to get him. The thing about Billy is that he can go into a room with five people, four of them model citizens and one a bad egg, and come out with the bad one. He got into the wrong crowd." In a last-ditch effort last year, Port-' land checked Bates into a hospital where he received psychological counseling.

That lasted two weeks. By September, the Blazers had run out of patience. After Bates's release from Washington in October, Leventhal and Bates's agent, Steve Kauffman, got him admitted to the Meadows, the Phoenix, drug and alcohol rehabilitation center that has had such clients as Bob Welch and Ken Landreaux of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Darrell Porter of the St. Louis Cardinals. Bates spent eight weeks at the Meadows, and according to Leventhal, the results were satisfactory.

"He still goes out for a few beers, which isn't a healthy situation, but he has made great progress," said Leventhal, who offered his tiny Jenkintown apartment as refuge to Bates after his release from the Meadows. "Steve and I feel he's on the right road back. The best thing that could happen to him now is if he finds a nice lady and settles down." zilli from center field as the Pirates dropped home games to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3, in 10 innings on Opening Day and that galling, embarrassment, 9-1, a day later. The rap against Mazzilli on Tuesday was that two of his throws from the outfield failed to hold Keith Hernandez at second base and later at third.

Hernandez scored the winning run in the 10th when Mazzilli's rubbery throw hit 10 feet up the third-base line, drawing catcher Tony Pena out of his crouch in front of the plate. The following day! Wednesday, Mazzilli failed again to throw out a runner at the plate, making one wonder if the Cards were testing his arm or trying to embarrass him. Then, with the game wrapped up in the ninth, Hernandez went from first to second on a fly ball that nestled into Mazzilli's glove considerably short of the warning track. Manager Chuck Tanner was asked if he was concerned about Mazzilli's arm, as he was performing his usual locker-room office post-game autopsy on what had transpired on the field. "I'm concerned about a lot of things," said Tanner, falling short of publicly criticizing the man for whom the Pirates gave up four minor-league prospects after Omar Moreno defected to Houston.

Tanner said he will sit down with his coaches and discuss "those- playoffs after ht was rescued from an Knlght-New-Tribune Service i -f i "i.