The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 48

Eos Anjjelw Sftmea ports Luther Passes a Test Despite 17-14 Loss Charger Rookie Plays Second Half, Completes 13 of 21 Against 49ers SAN DIEGO COUNTY -J- CC PART III SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 1980 By DAVE DISTEL Tlmoi Staff Wrttor JIM MURRAY Set to Go Halfway first half with his No. 1 receiver, John Jefferson, who caught eight of his passes for 122 yards. "It was all right," Jefferson shrugged, "but I have to admit San Francisco had most of its starters out. It wasn't that great." It was in the first half when opportunity knocked and the Chargers failed to answer. They drove to the 49er 31 on their first possession before John Cappel-letti fumbled the ball away to the 49ers' Bobby Leopold.

Given the ball, the 49ers marched back down the field and got a 30-yard field goal from Ray Wersching. Chargers Stopped at Goal Line Later in the half, Fouts completed two passes to Jefferson for 30 yards and one to Artie Owens for 26 yards and ultimately moved the Chargers to a second down at the 49er 2. Hank Bauer and then Cap-pelletti and then Bauer again were stopped. "We've been stopped at the goal line two weeks in a row." Gibbs said. "If we're going to win, we're going to have to get in from there.

We've got to be strong enough and men enough to push it in. If you can't get it in, you don't deserve it. We shouldn't need to resort to tricks." Please Turn to Page 11, Col. 1 I iSS'V' SAN DIEGO-Dan Fouts, a bit player in the Chargers' first two productions of the preseason, played all of a half Saturday night and completed 12 of 18 passes for 177 yards. But statistics like that are to be expected of Dan Fouts.

For the second straight week, another quarterback made an impressive showing in the battle of the backups. Ed Luther, who guided the Chargers 91 yards in the last 2V4 minutes for a touchdown last week in Minnesota, continued to vindicate the Chargers' confidence in making him their first pick in the college draft. In spite of the fact that the passing attack produced a 300-yard-plus game, the Chargers remained winless in the preseason. They lost 17-14, to the San Francisco 49ers before a sellout crowd of 48,846. "So far," offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs said, "we've been unop-portunistic." Luther 13 of 21 As a team, the Chargers have been unopportunistic but Luther has certainly taken advantage of the opportunities he has been given.

He played all of the second half Saturday night and completed 13 of 21 passes for 124 yards. He threw a 14-yard scoring pass to another rookie, Harry Wilson, to narrow the 49ers' lead to 17-14 early in the fourth period. "The kid's got poise," said Gibbs. "He threw that touchdown pass to a secondary receiver. And he picked up the safety blitz on the play.

I'll tell you, the kid's got something extra." The rookie from San Jose State could not produce a miracle at the finish, however. He moved the Chargers from their own 30 to the 49er 40 in the last minute and a half, but a last second pass was intercepted in the end zone. "That was a tough situation," Gibbs said. "The defense didn't have to deal with any threat of a run." Fouts put on a bit of a show in the INSIDE: Yanks and Perry Beat Orioles, 4-7 Story on Page 2 is Blyleven's 2-Hitter Halts Expos, 5-0 Story on Page 3 is Cadle Shot Ahead at Westchester Story on Page 9 IMMlfclHf lt II BM 'it I tMntm. a i m- 63,283 WATCH RAMS STAY 0 FOR ANAHEIM Cowboys Win, 19-16, Holding Off Los Angeles After Haden Leads a March to the Dallas One By TED GREEN WRAPPED UP Chargers' John Jefferson catches 17-yard pass from Dan Fouts against the 49ers.

Times photo by Melanle Kaestner Tlmot Staff Wrttor Bench Takes a Gamble and Dodgers Lose, 3-2 By SCOTT OSTLER Tlnwt Staff Wrttor When Rams center Rich Saul announced that henceforth he would play only half a game for the Super Bowl heroes, a lot of people were reminded of the story of the old pensioner who was put to guarding a Civil War cannon in the park just to give him something to do. One day, he came home all out of sorts, kicked the dog, hollered at the kids, refused to eat his supper, talked back to the TV and, when someone asked him what was wrong, he answered, "Tough day at the cannon." I mean, what's so tough about center? Centers last longer than Civil War cannons. True, you have to handle the ball more than anyone on the field. But you only have to hand it to somebody like a loaf of bread. You don't have to hit a moving target 50 yards downfield with it with Mean Joe Greene trying to unscrew your head.

You're the only guy on the team who can't jump offside or go in motion. Nothing happens till you start it. You don't even have to know the language. "Hut, hut!" are the only sounds you have to recognize. It's like being a railroad crossing guard for two trains a week.

Handing a 15-ounce bladder full of air to a guy six inches away isn't exactly digging coal. Training camp experts were surprised for another reason: It's not normal for a veteran to want to cut down on his playing time. Most see this as a threat, a nudge toward the door. They fear the arrival of some young buck with the moves of a leopard and the strength of a steer who may take their job. Richard Robert Saul's attitudes have never been "normal." No sooner did he make the Rams in 1970 (one of only two rookies to do it that year, the other being Jack Reynolds) than he demanded to be traded.

He wanted to play for Washington with his twin brother, Ron. It may be that the thought occurred to Rich that, on the Washington Redskins, the Sauls being twins might have gotten away with playing only half a game apiece with no one being the wiser. But the Rams suspected the fine Italian hand of Coach George Allen in the caper. George had been a coach of the Rams when Saul was drafted. And George was coach of the Redskins when Rich made his request.

Allen had also made Rich a center. "I told him, 'You gotta be kidding, I don't even know what a center Actually, Rich played so many positions for the Rams, he had to keep three sets of jerseys. In the NFL, centers are in numbers beginning with 5, usually, while offensive guards wear numbers beginning with 6 and tight ends wear 8s. Since Rich played all three positions, for the protection of the defense he had to switch jerseys on the sidelines to fit the position of the moment. At subzero, this was about as much fun as falling overboard into the North Atlantic.

Rich Saul succeeded a center, Ken Iman, who had played for 14 years, man and boy. Centers have the athletic career spans of redwood trees. You can tell them by the rings. Some of them seem to have been playing since the original Christmas. Some people think centers last so long because nobody knows what they do.

Saul disagrees. Centers last long because the position is so complicated no one wants to take the trouble to learn it. It isn't an afternoon polishing the cannon. "In today's sophisticated 3-4, odd-man defenses," Saul explains, "you get the nose guard right over you and he's usually their best specimen. So Please Turn to Page 6, Col.

1 Spectacular Bid Is Given a Run for His $158,160 Pram Tlnwt wire Sorvkoa OCEANPORT, N.J.-Spectacular Bid, thoroughbred racing's all-time money winner, came from seventh place at the clubhouse turn to defeat Glorious Song by 1 lengths Saturday in winning the $263,600 Amory L. Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park. Ridden by all-time money winning jockey Bill Shoemaker, Bid ran the lV6th miles in 1:48 to defeat seven rivals and pick up $158,160, which increased his earnings to almost $3 million. In three years, the four-year-old colt has won Spectacular Bid conceded 15 to 22 pounds to his rivals and carried 132 pounds to 117 for Glorious Song. A crowd of 27,843, largest at Monmouth in six years, went heavily for Spectacular Bid and created a minus pool of $81,625.65, meaning the track had to pay out that much more than it collected.

A total of $533,617, excluding ex-Please Turn to Page 16, Col. 1 ANAHEIM The Rams lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 19-16, Saturday night in an exhibition game that proved at lease three things. First, whether you call it a controversy, a debate or merely competition, the Rams have a heckuva quarterback question. Namely, who is or, rather, who should be No. 1, Pat Haden or Vince Ferragamo? Second, the Cowboys apparently have found a successor to the retired Roger Staubach in Danny White, who looked very good against the Rams.

Third, the Rams' defense is clearly not the same without Jack Youngblood, Larry Brooks and Jim Youngblood, who are holding out along with another Pro Bowl performer, guard Dennis Harrah. 2 TDs for Butch Johnson If it's evidence you want, the Cowboys totaled 396 yards and 21 first downs and White did almost as he pleased against a younger Ram secondary, completing 12 of 19 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns, both caught in the first half by Butch Johnson. From the Rams' standpoint, the story of this practice game was the story of every practice game this summer: Haden vs. Ferragamo. Before a crowd of 63,283, largest in Anaheim Stadium's 14 years, Ferragamo got his first summer start and played the first half with these results: 9 for 19, 151 yards, including a spectacular 43-yard touchdown pass to Drew Hill.

Ferragamo threw the ball 60 and Hill took it six yards deep in the end zone. The game's most spectacular play climaxed a 95-yard drive and gave the Rams their only lead of the night, 7-3 in the second quarter. Late in the game Haden drove the Rams to a first down on the one-yard line, but they got no farther. Dallas' front-line defense returned and stopped two running plays and two passes, Too Tall Jones batting away the last one. White 10 for 16 in First Half Ram management is playing a waiting game with the holdouts, who are obviously doing some waiting of their own.

The first half Saturday night proved that if the Rams are to be the team to beat in the NFC, as most people believe, both sides had better not wait too much longer. The Rams' traditionally tough defense, starting only four players (Fred Dryer, Mike Fanning, Rod Perry and Nolan Cromwell) from their Super Bowl defense, didn't stop the run too well and did even worse against the pass. White's 10-for-16 performance in the half included those touchdown passes to Butch Johnson, who appeared to beat Dwayne O'Steen Please Turn to Page 12, Col. 1 Johnny Bench has won enough games over the last 14 baseball seasons that he won't have any trouble moving into the Hall of Fame sometime later in this decade. His bat and catcher's mitt are already tagged and marked for shipment to Coop-erstown.

But Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the Reds should have bronzed his shoes, or his brain. A smart bit of baserunning by Bench in the ninth inning allowed the Reds to break a 2-2 tie, beat the Dodgers, 3-2, and move within .001 of Houston at the top of the National League West. Today the Dodgers close out a home stand in which they have already lost four of five games. Saturday they went peacefully, once' their first two batsmen of the game had scored. Through the last eight innings, Reds starter Paul Moskau (who went six innings) and reliever Tom Hume faced a total of 26 batters and didn't allow a Dodger to second base.

Meanwhile, Bench had a two-out homer in the fourth off Don Sutton, George Foster had a two-out RBI single in the eighth off Steve Howe, and then Bench the Baserunner took over in the ninth. He led off the ninth with a weak pop fly to shallow center, and the ball plopped quietly onto the grass among the lunging gloves of center fielder Pete Guerrero, shortstop Bill Russell and second baseman Davey Lopes. Bench was on first. He moved to second on Dave Concepcion's sacrifice bunt, the second key sacrifice bunt in two innings for the Reds. They didn't get to first place by forgetting the fundamentals.

Ron Oester was at bat, and he hit a weak, blooping fly ball to short left-center. Left fielder Dusty Baker, who had made an outstanding shoestring catch of Oester's blooper in the seventh inning, came rushing in, Guerrero came rushing in, Russell came rushing out, and the ball dropped in. Bench took off long before the ball landed and scored the winning run. Conventional wisdom calls for the runner to hold until he's sure the ball will drop, especially with a Please Turn to Page 16, Col. 2 1 IF HE WANTS TO, GENE RICHARDS TALKS A GOOD GAME And He Also Plays One, but Enigmatic Left Fielder of Padres Would Rather Be in a Place Where His Ability Speaks for Itself 8 By MIKE GRANBERRT Timot Staff Wrttor SAN DIEGO-First of all, Gene Richards wants to be traded.

Spend a few hours listening to this quiet, sensitive man, and you can tell he's tired of being known as the Padre who doesn't talk. He is, in fact, quite articulate and tired of not being noticed. It's no secret the Padres are the last-place team in the National League West; they apparently don't have enough players to be better. Richards is one of the exceptions. At 26, in his fourth year with the team, he is batting .298, is fourth in the league in stolen bases with 45 and is in the top 10 in hits and runs scored.

Manager Jerry Coleman, who can't imagine trading Richards, says the left fielder has reached "a plateau of major league stardom." the cameras cheese," as he puts it), and he shuns other traits that typify the modern athlete's instinct for fan and media popularity. He is not what is called an "easy interview," and some reporters have been put off by his blunt-spoken manner. "I want to be judged solely for my performance on the field," Richards said, "and not for the way I smile. Right now, California hasn't treated me well or I haven't treated California well. I don't feel accepted here, and therefore, I always go home to South Carolina when the season ends.

In South Carolina (where Rich-Please Turn to Page 7, Col. 1 Yet, amid all this, Richards remains an enigma to many of his teammates and to the press. He has an image as an uncommunicative player who doesn't care for his fellow Padres, and he feels that the image is unfair, that he is not appreciated in San Diego for his baseball ability and that he has been made into a "local fall guy." "If I were traded tomorrow, it wouldn't bother me at all," he said. "If I had to stay in San Diego, I'd endure, do the best that I could. But my position here is by no means as solid as an Ozzie Smith or even a Dave Win-field, because I'm not popular in San Diego." Richards does not go out of his way to enhance his popularity.

He does not smile for I.