The Sheboygan Press from Sheboygan, Wisconsin • Page 34

34 Shefeovgow PrM, Wednesday, October 14. 1M7 Uecker first Packer player to cross picket line GREEN BAY. Wis. (AP) The first member of the Green Bay Packers active roster crossed the picket line today, saying he needed help from the team's trainers to keep his career afloat. Coach Forrest Gregg announced.

Offensive tackle Keith Uecker was scheduled to join the Packers replacement team in practice this afternoon. Several other regular players had joined the team earlier, but they were on injured reserve and required assistance from the Packers' medical staff. "Keith made it clear to me when we talked Tuesday that his primary "I can't see a majority of those players staying out another five weeks," he said. "That's my opinion." Meanwhile, defensive end Jeff Drost, a standout in two replacement games, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday. Trainer Domenic Gentile said he thought Drost's injury was minor.

Two other defensive ends, Tony Leiker (sprained knee ligament) and Carl Sullivan (sprained arch), should be available this week when the Green Bay replacements meet the Eagles replacements, Gentile said. Inside linebacker Ron Monaco (neck) and free safety Anthony Harrison (neck) also should play, he said. Harrison was removed by stretcher in the fourth quarter against Detroit Sunday, but X-rays were negative. Coach Forrest Gregg said guard Perry Hartnett would miss the Eagles game with a hamstring injury. Another guard, John McGarry, has continuing knee cartilage problems.

Fullback Freddie Parker has a bad hamstring, but Gentile expects him to play this week. The Packers also signed nose tackle Dave Logan. strikers back to work. Management refused to accept binding arbitration if differences are not worked out in six weeks. The NFLPA then said it would not send its members, 91 percent of whom have not crossed picket lines, back to the teams.

Cannon said management's rejection means that, "as far as bargaining goes, you're back to square one." The situation indicated free safety Anthony Harrison and other members of Green Bay's strike-replacement team may spend more time in Packers uniforms than they had expected when first crossed the picket lines three weeks ago. "When I got here, I was looking at it as a day-to-day thing," Harrison said. "Then it became more like a week-to-week thing. Right now, I'm looking to play Philadelphia on Sunday." If club owners "are willing to bargain and get the deal done, great," Cannon said. "Otherwise, we're still out." "We're willing to sit out the rest of the year.

We're trying to work up support for those players who might need it," he said. Only five Packers all on injured reserve who need the club's therapy facilities have crossed the picket line. "We want to keep the team together," Cannon said. "That's probably our priority right now." "All the players are concerned. They want to make their year's salary.

But there's a lot of resolve," he said. "We have a good core of older veterans who went through the '82 strike, and they understand how the process works. We have a great core of young guys who don't understand all the issues, but they're 100 percent behind the team," he said. Packers vice president Tom Braatz said he received telephone calls Monday from agents representing some regulars. "They wondered what the team's philosophy is as far as part of the team coming back," Braatz said.

"I told them, 'We have to keep the door It just sounded like some of the players are getting restless to play." "Whether they want to play football, or they miss their paycheck, or whether it's the 160. 170 players who have gone in, I don't know," Braatz said. He said he expected some regulars to return if strike replacement games go another two weeks. reason for reporting was concern that staying out any longer might seriously jeopardize or end his career." Gregg said. Uecker spent spent the last half of the 1983 season and all of the 1986 season on injured reserve, and he experienced rehabilitation problems during the preseason; Gregg said.

Uecker started the Packers first two games this season before the National Football League Players Association went on strike. Gregg said Uecker "feared that his career might be over if he didn't come in now so he can be under the Care of our trainers and medical staff and also regain optimum physical condition through daily practice." "As a former player, I understand his concern," Gregg said. "As a coach I respect his decision, and I welcome him back." Meanwhile, player representative Mark Cannon said he expected regular players to show solidarity during the strike even though some aren't behind the union's position. "We have some guys who maybe don't support the union as a union, but because we're so team-oriented they've given us support," Cannon said. Owners rejected Tuesday a portion of a union proposal to send the Patriots acquire Flutie, he'll play Jeffrey Leonard Showered in St.

Louis Bush Continued from page 33 bat and not acting paricularly contrite about it. So they yelled at Leonard from the time he came to bat in the first inning, using derisive chants of "Jeff-rey, Jeff-rey," to taunt him. When Leonard, who had hit four home runs and was batting .412, struck out, the chants got louder. Obviously, the fans figured, the strikeout and the chanting were connected. And when he struck out again in his next swing against John Tudor, the fans were convinced they were on to something here.

Leonard, though, shrugged it off. "I got suspended one time in grade school for raising hell," he said later. "My mother and father yelled longer and louder at me for that than they (the crowd) did tonight." If the yelling wouldn't get Leonard's attention, well maybe something more tangible would. How about packets of sugar and salt? How about frozen hot dogs and batteries? Ho about money? "Oh, they threw lots of money." he said, recalling the coins the charitable citizens in left field tossed his way. "I mean there was lots of money out there.

They must have thought I was going to do a tap dance." Leonard left most of the cash on the field, choosing to pick up only a lonely quarter which he casually flipped in the air on his way to the dugout after one inning. Then there were the cowbells, St. Louis' response to a cowtown crack that came out of the Giants' clubhouse earlier in the series and was attributed to Leonard. The sea of red-clad fans rang cowbells all over the ballpark Tuesday night and just to make sure Leonard got the connection, they tossed two of them at him. "One bell landed maybe five yards away," Leonard said.

"It was the closest anything came." That is. until the sixth inning. Then, when Terry Pendleton hit a foul drive down the left field line, Leonard pursued the ball into the corner. One fan, deciding he looked thirsty, dumped a container of beer on him. The house brew, no doubt.

"I think," Leonard said matter-6f-factly, "it was Lite." At that point, the umpires marched toward left field to try to restore some order. "We were going to take the club off the field and see what happened," Giants Manager Roger Craig said. "Bob Engel, the home plate umpire, talked about that with us." It never came to that, but no thanks to the friendly folks in left field. They continued to heap abuse, if not refuse, at Leonard, who had a single and walk in his last two plate appearances as the Giants lost 1-0, forcing the series to a decisive seventh game tonight, "It was a reception I expected," Leonard "Nothing happened tonight that I didn't expect, except we didn't win. I'm sure they thought they got to me when I struck out, but they didn't." Did it make him angry? "I want to win," he said.

"I'll be fired up Wednesday night, but I'd be fired up anyway. If you can't get fired up for the seventh game of a playoff, you've got a problem." More of a problem than rowdy fans can create. jK'-'? LL 1 In I draft choice Jim Harbaugh. Chicago Coach Mike Ditka has indicated he will keep replacement quarterback Mike Hohensee, and Flutie said Jim McMahon, who is on injured reserve, is recovering. Despite indications that he wasn't fully accepted by his Chicago teammates, Flutie said, "I had a very good working relationship with guys out there." He said he agonized over his decision after the Patriots contacted him Monday night.

"I hesitated a few times. I wasn't sure because of the nature of the situation," Flutie said. "I firmly believe in the union and the things that they stand for, but I saw this as an opportunity to get to New England, a place that I wanted to be, and an opportunity that probably wouldn't be there down the "I 'don't think it's right" to play during a strike, he said. "But in my situation, I think it was a move I had to make." North jayvees win Taking firsts in six of nine individual events and winning both relays, the North girls jayvee swimming team beat South by a 102-67 score Tuesday. The meet's only double winner was South's Michelle Wolf, who took the 200 and 100 freestyle events.

By HOWARD ULMAN FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) Doug Flutie wanted to come home. Raymond Berry wanted to win. So the quarterback and the coach got together. Berry, New England's coach, plans to start Flutie against the Houston Oilers on Sunday, just five days after the Patriots obtained the former Boston College star from the Chicago Bears.

Barring an end to the NFL players' strike, Sunday's games will mark the third week of action with replacement players. Dissatisfaction with quarterbacks Bob Bleier and Todd Whitten prompted Tuesday's trade of an undisclosed draft choice for Flutie. "These games count and we have two very young, inexperienced quarterbacks," Berry said. "The strike seems like it's going to be a long one and we can't sit around on our rear ends. We got to get something done." New England is in a four-way tie for first place in the AFC East with a 2-2 record.

It is 1-1 in replacement games but has scored just 24 points. Bleier went all the way at quarterback in both games. Flutie, a long-time resident of Natick, brightened the Patriots' prospects after deciding that his future was dim in Chicago. "I wasn't going to get back on the playing field anytime soon," he said. Mike Tomczak is the starting quarterback for the regular Bears, who also have rookie first-round Flutie returns home Former Boston College standout quarterback Doug Flutie was traded to the New England Patriots by the Chicago Bears.

After being presented with his new jersey by Patriot president William Sullivan, Flutie said he will cross the picket line. (AP Laserphoto) Expenses drop during strike, club owners increase profits Start over on Monday and hope Owners of the National BEFORE THE STRIKE EXPENSES Players salaries $854,000" Other costs 200,000 Total. $1,054,000 PROFIT $800,000 REVENUE Television $973,000 Stadium gate 526,000 Luxury box 255,000 Concessions 60,000 Radio 40,000 Total $1,854,000 DURING THE STRIKE Football League teams are showing greater profits during the strike games than they showed before the strike, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Before the strike, owners made a profit of $800,000 per game. Since they were struck by the NFL Players Association, they are making a profit of $921,000 per game.

The reason for the difference is that the major source of revenue, television, has remained the same, ehile the major sourse of expenses, players salaries and associated costs, has been reduced by over $600,000. The lower expenses are a strong indication that the owners have not been hurt drastically by the drop in attendance at the games, de- EXPENSES Players' salaries $230,000 Other costs 200,000 Total $430,000 PROFIT they insist upon entering the ring every week. Perhaps, in this case, hard work will pay off. One would like to remind fans that North's jayvees are doing very well and that North's varsity is predominantly a junior team. But not much will be made of that here, for that, like hard work, is no guarantee of success.

All North can do is start over on Monday and step back into the ring on the weekend. All we can do is hope that those gritty Raiders will experience the indefinable elation of winning as the Redmen have. REVENUE Television $973,000 Stadium Luxury box seats 200,000 Concessions 1 2, 000 Tadio. 40,000 Total $1,351,000 spite the average drop of some $400,000 in gate receipts and even more in luxury box and concessions accounts. Television ratings have dropped 24 percent during the strike, but the networks presenting television are still outdrawing competitive programming.

The replacement team games "aren't a disaster at all," a CBS spokesman said. By DENNY MOYER Press Sports Editor As I watched the Redmen of South High School hang on at the end and emerge with a big Fox River Valley Conference football victory over Fond du Lac in their last outing, I have to admit that my thoughts turned to the football Raiders of North High School. When the referee waved his arms in the air and picked up the ball, all of South High School football from head coach to assistant water hauler went up in the air as if one. They were sharing victory, jubilant, hard-earned, satisfying, unforgettable victory. And my heart went out to the Raiders of North.

Coach Jim Brookins was beaming and all of his assistants had a special gleam in their eyes, the gleam that broadcasts in unmistakable tones the feeling of victory. They were unabashedly displaying the smiles and laughs that accompany that gleam, and prattling on about nice going, and attaboy and I told you so. And while I wanted to share all those emotions with them I couldn't erase from my mind the image of the eyes of the North coaching staff after their game of a week hence. There were no tones of victory in those eyes. The only tones in those eyes were the clear and piercing ones of defeat.

Those eyes, those faces, those men understand defeat and they know the hurt of it. There is no post-game prattle on the field after a loss, no attaboy, no nice going. There is only Tommy Fritsch staring down at the chopped up lawn beneath him, and Dewey Stevens saying in a hushed voice to Don Kollath, "We'll just have to start over on Monday." North football goes back to work every Monday. It works hard, too, as hard as any football. The difference is that North has learned to live with a difficult lesson of life: hard work doesn't guarantee success.

Nobody ever said this life business was going to be fair, either. That South has tasted success in three Fox River Valley outings this year, and North has been denied that taste is neither fair, nor unfair, it just is. South has a better football program, that's all. South has better football players and more good athletes on its squad. If there is anything unfair about all this, the latter is probably it.

It is a shame that success is always measured in victories. It is a shame that you don't get points for perseverance, for accepting challenges, for the courage to step into the ring against overwhelming odds. There are a number of fine athletes at North High School who have elected, for whatever reason, not to play football. That is their option. There is nothing that says good athletes have to play football, and certainly they are not to be condemned if they opt not to play.

Every year North has a number of good football players. They are tough kids who pay the price and hold their own with the rest of the Valley's players. That number is just not high enough. There is the problem and that, maybe, is where the term unfairness may sneak into the picture. While the good athlete who does not participate in a sport cannot be condemned for it, he cannot avoid the accusation that he has let down those who do.

The good athletes should be encouraged to participate. They are short-changing themselves, their schools and their friends if they don't. The purpose of all this is to suggest to you that players and the coaches of North High School football deserve more than to be remembered for being listed second every week when scores are printed. Being listed second tells the world that you are a loser. Perhaps, instead of noting the losses, city football fans ought to remind themselves of just how hard these outnumbered, but gutsy Raiders are working, how determined and perseverant they are and that October 18V.

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