The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 23

SAN DIEGO COUNTY EDITION Cos Articles (Smcs CCtPARTHI SEPTEMBER 1989 Chargers Wonder What's Going On After 40-14 Loss By BRIAN HEWITT Timet Staff Writer fa RELATED STORKS Steve Beuerlein pilots Air Raider. Mike Downey, Page 13. Holdout didn't seem to hurt Marcus Allen. Story, Page 14. Jim McMahon delivers expected controversy.

Story, Page 14 A. Sunday was the day the Chargers were supposed to open the regular season. They instead opened Pandora's Box. Their offense was soft Their defense was flat Their special teams were thoroughly askew. And their post-game explanations were crooked after the Raiders stabbed the heart of a franchise full of hope with a 40-14 victory at the Coliseum.

The Chargers punctured their own credibility when their coach, Dan Henning, and their starting quarterback, Jim McMahon, couldn't agree on why Henning removed McMahon from the game in the third period and whether or not McMahon was hurt In shorthand form, the depositions went something like this: Yes, McMahon said, he bruised his ribs late in the third quarter one play before Marion Butts' one-yard touchdown run cut the Raider lead to 28-14. No, he said, he didn't ask to leave the game before the Chargers' next possession. Yes, he said, he was told he would be leaving. No, backup quarterback David Archer said, McMahon requested to come out Yes, Henning said, "He McMahon indicated to me he could go back in the ballgame." No, Henning said, the doctors did not tell him McMahon couldn't return. Yes, several Chargers said, we knew McMahon was hurt No, several others said, we had no idea.

Sounded like a Barnaby Jones rerun. But the Raiders were the ones who weren't supposed to have a clue. They had lost all four of their exhibitions and four of their final five regular-season games last year. Their starting quarterback, Jay Schroeder, suffered a separated left shoulder on the first offen- Please see CHARGERS, Page 14 PATRICK DOWNS Los Angeles Times San Diego's Victor Floyd (27) can't get past Mike Wise (90) and Greg Townsend (93) Sunday. Raiders won season opener in Coliseum, 40-14.

No Pitcher Is Safe as Padres Lose Falcons Have Sound but the Rams Generate Fury in 31-21 Victory ALL THAT GUTTERS Deion Sanders takes the Atlanta crowd by storm. Gene Wojcie-chowski's story, Page 11. By BOB NIGHTENGALE Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO The door to Manager Jack McKeon's office was closed Sunday after the Padres' 14-8 thrashing by the Dodgers. Reporters were kept out. Teammates wondered who was inside.

Finally, after about five minutes, the door opened. Dennis Rasmus-sen, the afternoon's starting pitcher, stepped out, not pausing to stop as he walked through the clubhouse, through the tunnel, and into By CHRIS DUFRESNE Times Staff Writer ATLANTA Dcion Sanders looked skyward for his first professional punt return and dropped the ball. Frcon Sanders? You wish. Before he was finished, he had supercharged Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with one stunning 68-yard flash dance for a touchdown, leaving trinkets and tacklers (James Washington, Anthony Newman and Robert Dclpino) in his wake. Sanders shook his fists, the rafters, the crowd of 38,708.

Deion shook the football world. Just ask him. (Ic also seemed to shake up the Rams, who were going through the motions before Sanders zapped them back to reality with his first-quarter punt-return. So inspired, the Rams rallied Say what you want about Sanders, the first-round pick who ended his holdout Thursday, left the New York Yankees in mid-game and headed south for Atlanta. Everyone else does.

"Deion hasn't done nothing," Ram defensive end Shawn Miller said. "He returned a punt. The final thing's up on the scoreboard. He can jump up and down all he wants." Guard Tom Newberry: "I think Brian Bosworth started this whole thing. It made him so much money.

I think all the agents out there say, 'Hey, if you get a draft pick pretty high, you can do this and that and JusUookatjL FIRST OF MANY Sandy Alomar's first hit in the majors almost certainly won't be his last Page 2. x2 per YV" the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium parking lot Even though he had been taken out of the game more than two ri iiiiliir hours before its brutal conclusionr as a production. I don't give a ROBERT LACHMAN Los Angeles Times with some flash of their own and gained a 31-21 season -opening victory over the Atlanta Falcons. what he does. Please see RAMS, Page 12 Ram quarterback Jim Everett charges past Atlanta Falcon safety Robert Moore for third-period touchdown.

U.S. OPEN TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS "S-is-tr Becker Serves a Deutsch Treat West German Drops Lend, in Four-Set Final Rasmussen's temper still was burning. Actually, he wasn't sure what angered him more: that McKeon pulled him out of a 2-2 game with one out in the third or the explanation he received for the move. "He told me he's tired of watching me pitch behind in the count and not challenging people," said Rasmussen, who had been taken out of the game earlier just once in his previous 29 starts this season. Did he believe that? "Hell no," he said.

"I don't buy it" Why then was he taken out? "I don't know why, I really don't" Did he think it was a panic move, particularly considering what happened after the departure? "You can go ask No. 15 why, and if he felt it was a panic move." No. 15 is McKeon, and he reiterated exactly what he had told Rasmussen to his face minutes earlier. "I didn't think he was throwing the ball good at all," McKeon said. "I wasn't going to take any more chances.

(Mark Grant and Greg Please tee PADRES, Page 2 By THOMAS BONK Times Staff Writer believing in yourself." Two points away from his second Grand Slam title in two months, Becker sent two high-speed serves at Ivan Ixndl, who glared hollow-eyed across the net. Becker's first was an ace. He needed one more. So as his second serve blew down the middle and bounced aimlessly off Lcndl's racket, Boris Becker made believers out of everybody once again. Becker completed a rare double-slam Sunday as the Wimbledon champion also became the U.S.

Open champion when he defeated Please see OPEN, Page 18 NEW YORK In the fourth sot, in the final tiebreaker, on the last day of the U.S. Open, Boris Becker stood at the service line and did something odd. He smiled. Here was the sort of pressure that could unnerve the strongest of psyches and Becker decided to smile, of all things, as if he had a secret on the world. "It's something you can't explain," said Becker of West Germany.

"It's something coming tip inside of you. What it is is Agcncc-Francc Prase Boris Becker is grounded only briefly during his 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 victory. I Phoenix 16 Detroit 13 Please see Page 10 Moming Briefing Page 2 Racing at DeJ Mar 3 SanDtegoCounty 14A-B Baseball Roundups AngebWininl4th I7 The Day In Sports 19-21 Buffalo 27 Miami 24 Please see Page 9 New England 27 New York Jets ....24 Please see Page 9 Tampa Bay 23 Green Bay 21 Please see Pag 9 Cleveland 51 Pittsburgh 0 Please see Page 10 Philadelphia 31 Seattle 7 Please see Page 8 Denver 34 Kansas City 20 Please see Page 8 Chicago 17 Cincinnati 14 Please see Page 6 Minnesota 38 Houston 7 Please see Page 6 New Orleans 28 Dallas 0 PIh.ish son Piiye 4 San Francisco 30 Indianapolis 24 PIlNISCl SIM) Pil( 5 Standings, Summaries Please see Page 20.