The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 19

The Pittsburgh Press Section Saturday, May 18, 1985 Metro woos WVU despite Atlantic 10 vote til We would welcome an oppor tunity to go into the Metro Conference if we should choose." West Virginia's Fred Schaus By Curt Holbreich The Pittsburgh Press MORGANTOWN, W.Va. West Virginia University moved closer to staying in the Atlantic 10 Conference after the university Board of Advisers voted 10-0 yesterday to remain in the league while "aggressively pursuing other conference affiliations." The non-binding vote by the lay board did not specify a length of time for remaining in the 9-year-old conference, and Athletic. Director Fred Schaus said a final determination by university President E. Gordon Gee regarding conference affiliation is not expected until early next week. Schaus also disclosed the university has received an offer from the Metro Conference to replace Tu-lane, which was forced to leave the conference after it dropped basketball in the wake of a point-shaving scandal.

"We would welcome an opportunity to go into the Metro Conference if we should choose," Schaus said. But he said the problems at Tu-lane, combined with published reports of a grand jury investigating gambling in Memphis, has shifted public sentiment away from joining the Metro Conference. "It would be disappointing, a personal disappointment as well, if they don't join the league," Metro Conference Commissioner Steve Hat-chell said from his Atlanta office. "In the last three or four weeks things have escalated as far as the Memphis State thing. I can read between the lines that is a concern.

"Short of an actual vote (by the joint comittee), we would definitely like to get them in the league." The Metro Conference begins its meeting tomorrow at the Wild Dunes resort near Charleston, S.C., and the joint committee meets Tuesday. Syracuse and Temple remains the best alternative. Gee agreed but said discussions in that regard over the past few years have been difficult. "It's very much like Jello," Gee said. "You get right after it and it falls apart." Atlantic 10 Commissioner Charlie Theokas said the West Virginia vote reflected his long-held view that the conference remains West Virginia's best choice.

"It would seem the sentiment is with us," Theokas said from his Rutherford, N.J., office. "This vote certainly appears to be a good barometer." Theokas, who has said before he is eager for West Virginia to make a decision, said he is willing to wait until early next week. "But anything after that will cause a problem. We've got the schedules set; we're ready to go." Schaus began the discussion by presenting several alternatives to the board. He ruled out an Eastern seaboard conference that also would include Florida State, Miami Penn State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Temple, Virginia Tech, saying it had "little or no chance to be formed." He spoke against the possibility of becoming an independent for basketball and non-revenue sports because of scheduling difficulties.

West Virginia fans have grown discontented with the Atlantic 10 because the league lacks a television contract and does not enjoy the exposure of other major conferences, such as the Big East. The league also does not offer football, a sport that would be a cornerstone of the much-discussed Eastern conference. Schaus said the university's long-range goals would be best served by an Eastern all-sports affiliation. "We have to do what is best for West Virginia University," Schaus said. "Not just for 1985-86, but five years, 10 years down the road." Schaus said he did not expect an Associated Press report that Gee had been offered the presidency of the University of Colorado to delay the Atlantic 10 Conference decision.

Gee has said he will not comment on the Colorado position until after commencement tomorrow. "We must make a decision quickly," Schaus said, "for our situation as well as for the other nine teams in the conference." The vote by the board comprised of alumni, faculty, staff, students and the general public was in contrast to a 9-0 vote by the WVU Athletic Council April 27 to leave the Atlantic 10. The Athletic Council made no specific recommendation for the future. "The vote (yesterday) reflects what I've been hearing from around the state," Schaus said. "There's no question that there's been a switch (in public opinion).

Had the Athletic Council had the same facts as the Board of Advisers, the vote would been the same." Schaus repeated his belief that an all-sports conference that would include the other six Eastern major college football teams Boston College, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Dark clouds erg? L3 4 A' i CD o'V- AM-m-. a Steelers threatened to move, Fein says By Jon Schmitz The Pittsburgh Press The Steelers repeatedly have used the threat of moving as a bargaining chip in lease negotiations with the city, Deputy Solicitor Marvin Fein has charged. Fein said a statement Thursday by Steelers President Dan Rooney that the team never has threatened to move is "absolutely untrue." Fein said Rooney in 1982 told city officials the Steelers would leave Three Rivers Stadium and build a stadium in the suburbs unless the city met the team's demands for an improved lease. The Steelers ultimately agreed to a revised lease that runs to 2011. More recently, Rooney has asked that the Steelers be given the right to renegotiate the lease every four years, with the city required to match the best offers made by other cities, Fein said.

Fein said the request carries an implied threat. 'To make that renegotiation mean anything, you've got to threaten to move the team." Joe Gordon, Steelers publicity director, yesterday said the team never has used such threats as a bargaining ploy and never intends to. "Everybody in this community knows what the Steelers' intent has been." Gordon also repeated Rooney's comment that the Caliguiri administration "has misinterpreted our position from Day One." The dispute between the city and Steelers stems from the team's lawsuit against the city. The Steelers have asked Common Pleas Court to void their lease at Three Rivers. The Steelers sued after the city granted a four-year lease to the Maulers, the now-defunct United States Football League team.

The Steelers claim the lease violated their exclusive right to exhibit professional football at Three Rivers. Fein charged that the Steelers are using the Maulers' lease as an excuse to wiggle out of their long-term stadium contract With other cities offering substantial inducements to keep their teams or attract franchises, Rooney realizes his franchise would be worth more if he bad a shorter-term lease, Fein said. "That's exactly what he's looking for in this suit" Gordon said the Steelers agreed to a long-term lease with the under-, standing it would give them exclusive rights to pro football at Three Rivers. When the Maulers lease was announced, the Steelers said they would accept the same terms as the USFL team, he said. Rooney on Thursday said: "If you'll look at the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers, we have never used the threat of moving in our dealings with the city.

"We bad an exclusivity clause guaranteeing us that we would be the only professional football team to use the stadium and the city chose to ignore that "Who knows what's going to happen down the road? There's already talk of another new football league starting up." Fein said the city would welcome a court test of the Steelers' exclusivity rights. The current suit "goes far beyond that," he said. The city believes the exclusivity clause is illegal under federal antitrust laws, Fein said, and that refusal to grant a lease to the Maulers could have left thek city liable for damages, possibly tas great as $30 million. Marlene KarasThe Pittsburgh Press The Cooper family of Mars, Eric, father Larry; Lisa, 5, and grandfather Verne wait out rain delay Rain falls, but Pirates play to avoid first rainout By Bob Hertzel Cincinnati lead, a lead that was to grow when Rod Scurry came on in the seventh. By that time, Johnny Ray had singled home a Pirates run but any rally was nipped when Bill Madlock grounded into a double play, dropping his batting average with runners in scoring position to .115.

Scurry came on to face Rose, who had not had a hit right-handed all season. Rose doubled. Parker then hit a long home run into the right-field seats and took a circuituous route around the bases, almost running into the Pirates' dugout. That made it 6-1. For Parker, it was the continuation of a nearly month-long hot streak.

He has 23 RBI in his past 14 games, a nine-game hitting streak and has 36 hits in his past 24 games. The Pirates scored two runs in the seventh as they drove Stuper from the game, but Ted Power came in to end the Pirates' final hope by getting George Hen-drick to line into a rally-ending double play. Please see Pirates, C5 The right-hander, who has lost all six decisions this year and 15 of his past 16 (he has won one of his past 21 starts), continued to find himself a far more difficult opponent than the opposition. In the fourth inning DeLeon walked three, including pitcher John Stuper with' the bases loaded to force home a run. "I have never been this wild before," said DeLeon, who has walked 31 in 51 innings, four times walking six.

True, the pitches called balls by plate umpire Randy Marsh were close. "No way the fourth ball to Stuper was not a strike," DeLeon said. "I thought I was going to get tossed out of the game," Tanner said. "I couldn't believe the calls." In the next inning, after Pete Rose's single, DeLeon beat Dave Parker to the bag while covering first base on a ground ball, only to miss the base, looking as though he were doing a Mexican hat dance as he tried to stab for the bag. That led to three more runs and a 4-0 city the same one in which the baseball team is losing, for sale and the center of a drug storm, where the pro football team is suing the city and the hockey and indoor soccer teams are threatening to move could allow itself to become baseball's first rainout of 1985.

That would bring bad publicity and the Pirates have all the bad publicity they need. A record 416 games had been played without a rainout and this one was going to be played, too, if it took all night. It almost did. The Pirates are not last in the National League in everything. They lead the league in Zamboni machines and all three were soaking up the water from the artificial turf for most of the evening.

During the delay, Reds radio broadcaster Marty Brennaman summed up the night when he said, "It's a really bad night We have a long rain delay in Pittsburgh and in 45 minutes Bobby Ewing goes for the gas on Dallas." Ewing made his Da Was exit a permanent one by dying, as did the Pirates and Jose DeLeon again. The Pittsburgh Press Pirates Manager Chuck Tanner sat in his office an hour before game time and talked "about a dark cloud hanging over Pittsburgh." He was talking about a federal grand jury investigating drugs, but he could have been talking about the dark cloud over Three Rivers Stadium. Baseball might be threatened by the snow called cocaine but Mother Nature's moisture is providing a threat, too, as no team wants to be the first to have its game rained out. Games such as the Pirates' 6-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last night are played in conditions where players, are susceptible to injury. The game did not start until it should have been over.

It rained long enough for Noah to have built half an ark. The delay was two hours and 15 minutes but in baseball, 1985, the show must go on. There was no way our nation's most livable Turk's agent to reopen contract talks with Steelers By Ron Cook top Bassett's offer. If they did not, Turk then would sign a final contract with Bassett "There were certain provisions that had to be met before the deal was final," Steiner said. "They were put in to protect the player and to let me know that Bassett was serious.

I can't elaborate beyond that except to say the provisions weren't financial." Steiner said he is "back to square one with the Bandits and the Steelers. We'll continue to negotiate, with both teams." have him, they would have complied with the provisions in our original deal and the thing would be done. But they chose not to do so. It's hard for me to be optimistic that it will get done." Turk, the Steelers' No. 4 draft pick, appeared to be signed, sealed and delivered to the Bandits Wednesday.

That was before Bassett voided the provisional 'agreement he had reached with Turk, allowing the Steelers back in the picture. The original rfpal rallprl fnra when asked if Turk were protected from Bassett's pullout by financial guarantees. But Steiner and Boston said Turk's dealings with Bassett would not have a negative effect on'. Steelers negotiations. "We had an opportunity that we had to try and take advantage of," Steiner said.

"The Steelers didn't agree with it, but they understood." "We'll proceed with Turk the way we do with all negotiations," Boston said. "It's like nothing ever happened." Steiner said Turk probaily won't receive the kind of money Bassett was offering in the original deal. It is believed to have included a bonus of more than $400,000. "Obviously, Dan saw a tremendous amount of money pass before his nose," Steiner said. It was like we had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and then, all of a sudden, there was a turnover.

Now, the defense is back on the field, trying to get the ball back. "We still might get that kind of money from Bassett, but we won't get it from the Steelers. If Bassett puts his offer back on the table and we take it to the Steelers, they'll tell us goodbye and goodlluck. They would r.ever be able to top it." The Pittsburgh Press The Steelers have inched ahead of Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett in the race for Wisconsin center Dan Turk. Turk's agent, Jim Steiner, will reopen contract talks with Steelers business manager Jim Boston next week.

"If I were a betting man, I'd now gay that Turk probably will play for tie Steelers," Steiner said. "If Bas-sett's people were that anxious to 0 May 15 deadline for the Steelers to Steiner declined to comment.