The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 41

SPORTS San Diego County Thursday, October 1, 1981 Cos Attflelea Slimes CCtPart III Tom Bradley's Switch Is Only the Latest Strange Twist Jim Murray the Coliseum Commission, he packed up both his franchises, basketball and hockey, and built his own arena in Inglewood. This left the Sports Arena dark and indebted, and placed the burden of supporting its bond payments on the neighboring Coliseum. The Coliseum Commission vowed not to make that mistake again. It didn't. It made other ones.

Dan Reeves died and Carroll Rosenbloom bought the Coliseum -tenant Rams. Like all carpetbaggers, Rosenbloom came in with his hat in his hand and wiping his feet and tugging his forelock. But, like all carpetbaggers, it wasn't long before he was hot-dogs would be sold. And Tom Bradley would give the savior, Al Davis, managing general partner of the Raiders, the keys to the city, right? I mean, he's given them to people who have done a lot less for L.A., hasn't he? The league wouldn't let the Raiders come to L.A. Outraged, the Coliseum Commission and the Raiders sued.

I mean, who ever heard of a landlord being restrained from renting his vacant building by a conspiracy of owners of rival businesses? The antitrust trial ended with a hung jury. The American jurisprudence system is weighted like Please tee MURRAY, Page 13 attract his audience from that city. This was a bit of audacity for a man who was, like Cooke, effectively withdrawing money from the treasury of L.A. taxpayers. Like any landlord with an abandoned building, the Coliseum Commission set out to find a tenant.

It found one: The Oakland Raiders. At that time, Tom Bradley was mayor of Los Angeles. He was a symbolic, if not titular, head of the Coliseum Commission, some of whom were his appointees. Naturally, having the Oakland Raiders would mean a financial bonanza for the City of the Angels. Cabs would roll, hotel rooms would be full, rents would accrue, In the winter of 1965-66, the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, the governing body that runs the two principal municipal sports facilities in L.A., made a serious mistake.

It bet its wad on a dear, old customer, Dan Reeves, to get the National Hockey League franchise in this city. In the process, it made an enemy of another of its tenants, Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the basketball franchise here. The commissioners didn't even hedge the bet. They lost it all. Jack Kent Cooke had been a Canadian, and the NHL is as Canadian as saying "oot" for "out." Cooke got the franchise and, feeling harassed by complaining about the silverware and the noise his hosts made eating.

This time, when their tenant threatened to move to the suburbs, the commissioners didn't laugh. But, neither could they come up with what he wanted multimillion-dollar improvements, including luxury boxes around the rim of the stadium. Rosenbloom moved to the suburbs and, like Cooke, he continued to identify his team as "Los Angeles" to As the Chargers Turn' At Least Chandler Likes His Contract By CHRIS COBBSJimes Staff Writer SAN DIEGO-Wes Chandler may restore the lightning to the Chargers offense, but he isn't likely to be confused with John Jefferson. There are some obvious differences. Chandler doesn't wear goggles, wave towels or sell running shoes.

More importantly, Chandler doesn't want to have his contract reworked. He has three years remaining on a deal worth an estimated $200,000 annually. "After he's been there a year, we might ask for an extension, but we're not out to skin anybody," said Chandler's agent, Bud Asher. "We don't have any get-rich schemes in mind." Chandler, the fourth-year pro obtained Wednesday in a trade with New Orleans, is a conservative guy in the mold of Jefferson. He doesn't JO AL DIAZ Photo for The Time 'M WM The Crewcut Survives Witt" I wStttiE: csSSri aln -r-j- drive a flashy car or wear expensive clothes.

It took him three years to get around to buying a house in New Orleans, which he was about to move into. As a rookie in 1978 he was drafted ahead of bought himself a floor length satin robe. But he was kidded about it at the Saints' training camp, and he In Latest Episode, They Get Chandler but They Lose Dean By DAVE DISTEL, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO Wes Chandler was one of three premier wide receivers who came out of the 1978 draft, and now he was on his way to San Diego to replace one of the others. That would have been the departed John Jefferson. And Kellen Winslow was asked if the deal would abate some of the bad feelings among the Charger players over the handling of Jefferson.

"Very little," Winslow said. "We'll accept Wes Chandler as Wes Chandler. We won't compare him with John Jefferson. It's hard to say whether it'll calm the storm around here." The storm? "Let's just say," Winslow continued, "there's a lot of grumbling." Alas, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, the Chargers announced that they had obtained Chandler, 25, from the New Orleans Saints in exchange for Aundra (What Town Am I In Now?) Thompson and first and third choices in the 1982 draft.

One hour later, at another press conference, defensive end Fred Dean announced that he was quitting the team because of his stalemated negotiations. Sklei Are Turbulent Air Coryell simply cannot seem to find skies clear of turbulence in this 1981 season. The offense gets a Jef-fersonian excuse the expression, Kellen wide receiver, and the defense loses an All-Pro performer. All in another one of those days that are becoming typical hereabouts. Eugene V.

Klein obviously went through a day of mixed emotions. He was rightfully elated with the acquisition of Chandler, and fed up with the Dean scenario. After the Chargers' press conference to announce the trade for Chandler, Klein said: "We're looking forward to him being a part of Air Coryell. I think Coach Coryell's system and Wes Chandler will mesh very, very beautifully." Later in the day, after Dean's conference, Klein was revisited. "I'm tired of all this yo-yoing with Fred Dean," he said.

"We've worked with him on one problem after another after another. If he wants to retire, he can retire. I've had enough." After a five-day period, Klein said, Dean will be put on the Reserve-Left Squad list. Such a move would make the 29-year-old lineman ineligible for the remainder of the 1981 season. The Chargers have less than a five-day period to prepare Chandler for his San Diego debut.

He will have two days to get ready for Sunday's game here against Seattle. Please see CHARGERS, Page 6 MMHHMMHIr Wes Chandler Anoclated Pren Roger Maris (top photo, left) was the champion of (The 6 1st is shown in a photo sequence). Today, Maris baseball in 1961 when he hit a record 61 home runs. (above right) is a beer distributor in Gainesville, Fla. The Asterisk Is 20 Years Old Today ByEARLGUSTKEY, Times Staff Writer 'Maris Has No Right to Break Ruth's Record Hornsby Said, but Maris Broke It Anyway Twenty years ago today, a worker's son from North Da Hank Greenberg Jimmy Foxx (58), (56), and Ralph (58), Hack Wilson soon got rid of the robe.

Chandler also bought a gold chain with a Kruggerand (a gold coin from South Africa) dangling from it, and a diamond ring as well. But he said they were strictly for investment purposes and he held onto them. Chandler also holds onto the football. He caught 65 passes each of the past two seasons. His pro career started slowly when Coach Dick Nolan benched him for running sloppy pass patterns as a rookie.

But he has run them precisely as diagrammed ever since. Although Chandler liked the Saints' new coach, Bum Phillips, he wasn't particularly happy with the team's performance. "Wes didn't ask to be traded, but he was dour at times," a New Orleans executive said. "He's such a competitor, and we haven't been winning too many games, you know." No one blamed Chandler when Saints' fans dubbed the players the Aints and took to wearing paper bags over their heads. But Chandler did become the latest target in a list of deals that stripped the team's offense of such talents as Chuck Muncie, Tony Galbreath and Henry Childs.

Chandler said he was pleased with the trade. "I spoke to Bum and he thought it was the best move for me and the club," Chandler said. "I think it's a good opportunity for me, and I hope the Saints are staisfied with what happens out there (in San Diego). "I feel good San Diego wanted to give all that they did to have me out there. I'm gonna go out there and try to deliver." Chandler, who caught 17 passes in four games Please see CHANDLER, Page 4 kota broke baseball's most hallowed record.

In case you've forgotten, it was a very big story when Roger Eugene Maris socked his 61st home run of '61 in Yankee Stadium. How big was it? It was so big that a month later, The Times ran a two-column story revealing that the fan who caught Maris' historic home run, Sal Durante (that's a 100-point baseball trivia question), had become engaged. It was so big it split the baseball world over the issue of whether or not Maris' record should carry an asterisk, since he hit 61 in 162 games, compared to Babe Ruth's 60 in a 154-game season. During the 1961 season, Maris found that many Americans didn't like the idea of losing baseball's proudest record. Ruth's 60 had withstood 34 years of assaults from such musclemen as sneer? Snarled Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, after Maris hit his 55th: "Maris has no right to break Ruth's record!" Wrote Jim Murray, in 1967: "All Roger Maris did was break Babe Ruth's record.

He would have been better off wallpapering over the Sistine Chapel ceiling, taking a hammer to Michelangelo's best statue, talking out loud during a Rachmaninoff concert or drawing whiskers on the Mona Lisa." Recalls Times sports staffer Dan Hafner, who covered the Los Angeles Angels then and saw three of Maris' 61 homers: "Early that season, Maris was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. But by late August, it was like interviewing a tiger. After he'd been asked, 'Do you think you'll break Ruth's for the thousandth time, he'd gotten kind of sullen." Please tee MARIS, Page 8 Kiner (54). Now, suddenly, a not-very-colorful crewcut fellow from North Dakota was entering September with 51 home runs. At 27, he was quiet, frugal, didn't drink much, watched a lot of TV on the road trips and watched his diet.

He didn't even gamble. He seemed to be everything Ruth wasn't Ruth laughed loud, drank a lot, smoked cigars, partied all night when he could, was a big tipper and overate routinely. They once had to put him in the hospital because he had too many hot dogs. In short, Ruth was extraordinary. Maris was pretty much an ordinary guy.

And besides, didn't some of the press 'reports indicate Maris was a touch surly? Come to think of it, look at Maris' smile in the photos wasn't that a Former (JSC Star Is a Starter for Now Charles White Still Trying to Find Role on Browns Dodgers and Padres Can't Get Started By MIKE LITTWIN, Times Staff Writer It took the Dodgers and San Diego Padres a good part of the night to begin their game Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. And when they finally got it started over two hours late neither team seemed in a hurry to do anything. After five innings, there was no score as Burt Hooton and Padre rookie Steve Fireovid matched zeroes. The Dodgers did, at least, avert what would have been their lOth-ever home rainout They weren't having quite as much luck getting runners home, however, leaving the bases loaded in the second and third innings and a runner on third in the fifth. The game may not have meant much, but the Dodgers were determined to play it for the 19,467 who braved the weather to watch it Play didn't begin until 9:44, perhaps the latest the Dodgers have ever started a home game.

Most of the fans, obviously students of history, chose to stay. They must have known there hadn't been a rainout at Dodger Stadium since Sept 5, 1978, and figured there wasn't going to be one on this night either. Please see DODGERS-PADRES, Page 3 By ALAN GREENBERG, Times Staff Writer CLEVELAND The rookies and free agents were winding up their second day at the Browns' minicamp last spring when some of the newly arrived veterans, fresh from lifting weights, walked in. Blood-engorged muscles swelling under sweat-coated skin, they strutted about the locker room like old grizzlies staking out a favorite cave, seemingly oblivious of the newcomers. But one veteran, seeing the new recruits, went round to each one, introduced himself, made small talk and told them to come see him if he could help in any way.

Never mind that the rookies would have had to go to college in Albania not to know who he was. Never mind that the other veterans were still playing king of the jungle, remaining aloof. This veteran, a second-year halfback, had decided to reach out It seems both so recent, and yet so long ago and far away, that thousands reached out for him. His teammates, for his talent and leadership. Football fans, for his body, often in vain.

The media, for his views. first two games both losses White replaced Greg Pruitt at halfback for the season's third game at Cincinnati. That was after Coach Sam Rutigliano, who has called running the ball "boring," realized that during the offseason, opponents had doped out the Browns' strategy. In an attempt to keep defenses honest and take a load off Sipe, the Browns installed White alongside fullback Mike Pruitt. So far, it's worked.

Even though White gained only 12 yards in six rushes against the Bengals, the Browns got nearly 100 yards apiece rushing from Mike Pruitt and Cleo Miller. What's more. White caught seven passes for 73 yards in a 20-17 Cleveland victory. Last when the Browns evened their record by beating the undefeated Falcons, White did even better. He rushed 17 times for 72 yards and caught four passes for 32 more.

He also doubles as a kick returner, which caused a Cleveland reporter to ask Rutigliano at his weekly press conference if wasn't it risky to use the 5- Please see WHITE, Page 12 The friendly veteran was Charles White, formerly of USC, who joined the Browns last season as a No. 1 draft choice and the Heisman Trophy winner. He is humbler now. Oh, except for wearing "25" instead of "12," he'll probably look like the Charles White people remember from USC when he and the Browns take on the Rams Sunday in Anaheim. He'll still treat every tackle as a personal insult, dragging clutching opponents like a honeymooners' car does cowbells.

He'll still pass-block like he's protecting his mother instead of Brian Sipe. He'll still be trying to slash through the line and then cut back against the grain. But only on the field. Off it, White finally is learning to go with the flow, even if it leaves others, and not him, with the glory. It's not that White has, in the past, not been a team player.

It's just that the team, whether in grammar school, high school, or college, has always been him. How many movies do you think Sylvester Stallone would make if the director told him he couldn't play the lead? After seeing limited action in the pass-happy Browns'.