Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 87

Philadelphia Dally New Wednesday. Sept. 26. 1984 87 7 wins uuucj 1U uu Joiner's Efficiency Yields High Mileage kAN DIEGO The Chargers pass if I SH 4J if in' iiiBITt 'jftMii -WiiMmI- rr in -ii inn urn in mi i-fliaiiiiMiniiifiiiiin'i'KiimiiinrtrwrT "Big names," Trumpy says. Besides, Joiner's done all this as a role player.

"A guy to take the pressure off Kellen and Wes," Joiner says. "I'm there to make them better." It's an adjustment that Jefferson, for one, hasn't quite mastered at Green Bay. For one thing, it requires going into the Mekong Delta of the defense, the treacherous middle, where linebackers get their shots carte blanche. "You've got to read their drops," Joiner says casually, "and figure out which way they're coming from, and then turn the right way. I haven't been hurt much, but I've been lucky." Trumpy: "I used to run down the middle with Charlie and hear a loud whop, and I'd say, 'Oh, bleep, Charlie, get He always did.

We'd play the Steelers and get beat up pretty bad, but you'd never get Charlie out of there. He'd give you that quiet stuff. But he's the most mentally tough player I've ever seen." Joiner stays in shape by running up "this little hill, actually an incline" near his Houston home four times a week during the offseason. He also plays racquetball with Curley Culp, the old 280-pound nose guard. If Joiner hasn't gotten hurt doing that, he never will.

That, along with his enthusiasm "I don't know, I just enjoy the competition" keeps Joiner involved long past the Lynn Swanns and the Drew Pearsons. Yet he is not just hanging on for an ovation and a souvenir football. He's still good enough that, in his last four full NFL seasons, he has caught 72, 71, 70 and 65 balls. As Fouts often has said, "I know what Charlie will do, where he will be, and that he'll catch the ball, and what else is there?" It goes back to precision, the triumph of the uncluttered locker. "What I don't want to do is make the quarterback look bad," Joiner says.

He runs every route as painstakingly as a draftsman. If Winslow or Chandler are unavailable or misdirected, Fouts knows where to find Joiner a safety valve, except that he's IS yards downficld. "We called him Chuck," Trumpy says, "and we noticed he used to sing songs to himself as he went down-field. Then, when he beat a guy, you'd hear a laugh 'Haaaaahf Joiner, of course, should never have left Houston. Midway through his fourth season, Cincinnati got him in a trade for RB Paul Robinson.

The Bengals had Ken Anderson throwing and Bill Walsh coaching the passing game, and Joiner had a 37-catch, five-TD year in 197S. Then he was traded to San Diego for Coy Bacon. Trumpy says, "Couldn't believe it Coy had 26 sacks for us, but there was strictly a one-year warranty on that guy he was in Washington the next year. Somebody said at the time that we traded a pair of hands for a mouth. They were so right." But San Diego didn't have all its weapons yet (Fouts was there, but Don Coryell wasn't), and Joiner, for once, was the main man.

"And I had two bad knees," he says. "I thought about retiring then. I didn't like having to do it all myself, anyway." Win-slow arrived in 1979, and Joiner's catches jumped from 33 to 71. He was comfortable again. That was the cue for Joiner to skip camp, hire Howard Slushcr and demand a trade.

Fouts, Winslow, Jefferson and Fred Dean all have used one or all of those strategies to protest the padlocked wallet of cx-owncr Gene Klein. Joiner? Oh, he's in the last year of his contract now, too. A one-year contract, which he signed with no hassle. "The way I look at contract talks," Joiner says, "you sit down and talk about a figure. You can't agree, well, you talk about another figure the next week." There's a new, more benevolent owner, Alex Spanos, but he might not get a chance to talk money with Joiner, whose two daughters are 9 and 7 now.

The moving from San Diego to Houston is getting old. "And my wife IDianncl is talking about opening up her own travel agency, and I'd want to be involved in that," says Charlie Joiner, the man with the just-so locker, the receiver who does it by the numbers. "You know, I just want to make sure this isn't just some fancy on her part." oy Charlie Joiner locker and laugh helplessly; it looks like the first inspection for a scared-stiff private. Helmet here, socks there, everything just so. "Yeah, they get on me about being neat," Joiner says.

"But I'm that way with my own kids. They clean their room every day. Stuff on the floor? Noway." Joiner is wearing a white hat, a white T-shirt with "Mr. incongruously scrawled on it, and blue shorts. He looks dignified anyway.

He is chewing tobacco and spitting it into a cup, but, first, he asks you if you mind. He is almost 37 years old, and looks it, with eyes set back and wary. When he quits football, which might be next year, he will become an accountant. And by then, Charlie Joiner will have quietly, immaculately become the leading pass receiver in NFL history. All-time.

Forever. How'dhedothat? No CPA certificate is required to -figure that Joiner, with eight catches in his first two Charger games, has 604 in his 16 years. Charley Taylor is the leader with 649, with Don Maynard at 633 and Raymond Berry at Joiner also has 10,089 yards, fourth behind Maynard Harold Jackson (10,372) and Lance Alworth Monday night, Joiner didn't catch a ball against the Raiders, the first time that has happened in 86 games. But he still has SI career touchdowns. And he's still the apple of Dan Fouts's passing eye, even though Joiner is the oldest receiver in the league and the second oldest in NFL history (Jackie Smith of the Cardinals and Cowboys played at 39).

Beyond that, Joiner doesn't mind that all of those numbers are pretty much his little secret No one in pro sports today has done so much with so little attention or respect. the busiest hands in football have been traded as many times (two) as -they've made the Pro Bowl. "I sound like I'm discussing a relative when you get me started on Charlie," says NBC's Bob Trumpy, Joiner's teammate once upon a time in Cincinnati. "But if you wrote Unifax Charlie Joiner (right) is among down everything he did, you'd have the blueprint for the ideal football player. v.

"You know why he's caught all those balls? Because he's busted his tail in every practice, on every play in practice. Whatever quarterback he's been with has known that Char-. lie will be there, every time. He trusts Charlie. As a receiver, that's the only way you see that many foot-1 balls." There will be those asterisk-hangers who point out that Joiner has thrived in the shadow of such fellow family again." Ozark said.

"But I wanted to keep occupied off the field, so I'll do some scouting and help the club wherever I can." Ozark was in his second year as the Giants' third base coach when the club asked him to take over as manager. He previously managed the Phillies (1973-794 and was a coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1980-82). Tom Haller; the Giants' executive vice president, said changes will be made the club's coaching staff next year. Said third base coach Jim Dav-enpdrt'afed Tom" McCraw have been invited to sign the NFL's most anonymous stars travelers as Isaac Curtis in Cincinnati and John Jefferson, Wes Chandler and Kellen Winslow in San Diego. Hence, little or no double-coverage.

However, Joiner got a later start on history than most people, having broken his arm each of his first two years at Houston, a team perceptive enough to play him at defensive back initially. "I covered Maynard once," Joiner says. "Fast and shifty. I didn't even play cornerback in college. -Houston had a lot of receivers already.

Jim Beirne, Mac Haik v. NATIONAL. new one-year contracts. Bullpen coach John Van Ornum has been offered the position of advance ma-" jor league scout on the West Coast -Davenport's assignment before his -v return as third base coach last -t Haller said he advised pitching coach Hcrm Starrette and first base coach Don Buford. that the- new manager will determine their said het will name the newr, 'bullpen coach within two weeks.

No" date was given for naming a new airk Won't Rstoirira manager. In National League action last night: Pirates 7, Cubs 1: At Pitts-' burgh, Jose DeLeon pitched a four-hitter and Jim Morrison and Doug Frobel hit two-run homers to lead the Pirates. Cardinals 6, Expos 4: At Montreal, pinch-hitter Steve Braun tripled in two runs during a four-run fifth inning to power the Cardinals. Braves 4, Reds 2: At Cincinnati, Brad Komminsk's inside-the-park called on account of rain with one but in the top of the ninth. Cincinnati player-manager Pete Rose had two singles to give him 4,092 career hits, 99 behind Cdbh's 4,191.

Rose has 102 hits this season. Giants 4, Padre 3: At San Francisco, Fran Mullins's two-run homer in the sixth inning led the Giants. Astro 12, Dodger 6: At Los Angeles, Jose Cruz homered to start a five-run second inning and Craig Reynolds drove in two runs to high- Daily News Wire Services Danny Ozark appears tired of life in the San Francisco Giants' dugout. The Giants announced yesterday that1 Ozark, the interim manager, does not want to be considered for the job next year. The Giants said the former.

Phillies manager will be a special assignment scout and consultant Ozark, 60, was named interim manager Aug. 5 to replace Frank Robinson, who was fired. He said after 40 years in professional ball he is ready to "slow down." "I'd like td getT)ack ttoVeroCeacn, Fla.l and spend some time with my homef In the seventh Inning riftedlight a four-run outburst rn the third-' Atlanta over the Reds in a game and lead Houston..