The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 51

51 The Boston Globe Wednesday, September 24, 1975 Player reps turn down latest NFL owners' proposal the Players Association) has reached an agreement on a recommendation, but we won't say what that is at this time. All the players will vote on Thursday. We hope to have the results and make them public on Oct. 2," said Kermit Alexander of the Players Association. It has been learned, however, that the executive committee's recommendation will be for rejection, and it comes about after the players were frustrated by the action of the NFL Management Council (bargaining arm of the owners) during the past two days of negotiating in the eyes of the players, have not been resolved are: The controversial Rozelle Rule.

Impartial arbitration of grievances. Pre-season pay. Player representation on the pension board. Squad size. An agency shop.

Bargaining changes in the constitution and by-laws. Monday morning, all 26 player representatives and leaders of their association, plus delegations for By Will McDonough Globe Staff FOXBORO National Football League owners have offered their unhappy Players Association a contract package the owners claim will cost them $30 million. But the players who sat in on the two-day bargaining sessions in Chicago won't give you a dime for its chances. "My gut reaction is that it will be rejected," says quarterback Bobby Douglass, player representative of the Chicago Bears. Yesterday afternoon in Chicago the talks between the players and owners, geared to bring about a new collective bargaining agreement, collapsed.

As a result, the dues-paying players from all over the country tomorrow will vote individually on whether to accpet or reject the new proposal. They will do so knowing that the 26 player representatives, in a secret meeting Monday night, voted unanimously to reject the offer. "The executive committee (of "We'd make a proposal and they'd go out of the room for a few minutes and then come back and reject it," said Dick Anderson, Dolphins' player rep. Sargent Karch, executive director of the Management Council, and the top negotiator on the owners' team, said the players are still bugged by the same items. "There are seven points keeping us apart," said Karch.

"And they are the same ones as before. We've given them our best shot. I don't see how the players can turn it down." The seven key points which, in Rain doing Red Sox a favor various teams (the Patriots sent 15 players), assembled in Chicago to study the new offer. Later that day, all went back into session with the Management Council, which includes five owners. During this meeting the players got the feeling that the owners' offer was in brief, "take it or leave it," and not one to be negotiated as promised the week before.

When the meeting with the owners concluded, the players caucused on their own and took a poll. Every player representative, including all of those considered pacifists and representing teams that voted not to strike last week, said they favored rejecting the offer. Yesterday, the player reps and the Management Council met again, and although the owners seemed to be giving ground on a few points, the meeting aborted with the players in attendance still firmly in favor of rejection. "We made our own proposal for a modification of the Rozelle rule and it was rejected," said Ed Gar-vey, executive director of the Players Association. "We made another proposal that it be submitted binding arbitration.

This was rejected. We made a proposal to have the commissioner (Pete Rozelle) brought into the negotiations and this was rejected. (Under the Rozelle Rule, when a player of one team plays out his contract and signs with another cluh, the first team must be compensated by an amount agreed upon by the two clubs. If no agreement can be' reached, Rozelle determines the compensation.) So where does the NFL go from here? Tomorrow the players will vote on and reject the proposal, unless there is a silent majority sitting in those locker rooms that no one is aware of. Many of the player reps felt that the current proposal wasn't very different from the ones the players voted dawn two weeks ago, and that was defeated soundly, 746-6.

What happens after the rejection? "It will be up to the individual teams," says Kermit Alexander, one of the Players Association leaders. "We'll be waiting to hear from them." Patriots Notebook, Page 52 Hunter, even though the Sox have beaten him three times. Then there is the likelihood that Deron Johnson will be around to play against lefthanded pitching and to help out Carl Yastrzemski in spots. "I wouldn't hesitate to use that man against a lefty," said Darrell Johnson. "He's been playing for six weeks and looks great." The question still stands as to whether Deron will be available for the playoffs.

Chances are he will. He probably won't be permitted to play in the World Series, since he was not a member of the Red Sox on Aug. 31. But the World Series is another step. On the Yankees' side, Sparky Lyle said yesterday he'll play without a contract next year if he isn't traded.

"All season long I've been pitching with 10-11 days rest," he said. "I just can't pitch that way. I thought that would change when Billy Martin became manager. It didn't." land on Friday, Dick Pole on Saturday and Rick Wise on Sunday. And if we have to come back here on Monday for a doubleheader, then I will have Roger Moret ready, and he does very well with the Yankees." If this doubleheader is rained out today, the Yankees have a day off and play a doubleheader with the Orioles Friday.

New York was due to pitch Catfish Hunter against the Red Sox yesterday, so he would be in the first game against the Orioles on Friday. That would mean that Hunter (and also Doc Medich, who is due to pitch in the doubleheader against the Orioles) won't be available against the Red Sox, unless for an inning or two of relief. That sounds very nice, but who can tell? Not too long ago the Red Sox were beaten by Fernando Arroyo of the Tigers and it was Fer-nando's first big league start. But it would be nice to duck By Clif Keane Globe Staff NEW YORK Not too many city folk like the sight of rain, but it had the Red Sox thinking around the lobby here yesterday, and nobody thought the day's torrent wasn't going to help the ball club. The game with the Yankees had to be called off the field was an absolute mess early in the afternoon.

A twi-night doubleheader is scheduled today (5:30 p.m., Ch. 38). But the rain is due to continue through today, which would mean that the two rained out games would have to be played next Monday back here, if necessary. "I've been thinking about it since I first looked out the window," said Darrell Johnson. "Let's say that we don't play tomorrow either, and we go home to play the Indians on Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"I will be able to pitch Luis Tiant on Thursday, Reggie Cleve 4 Orioles off; play 2 today Associated Press BALTIMORE Heavy rain forced the postponement of last night's Orioles-Tigers game, and the National Weather Service was predicting the rain would continue until 7 p.m. tonight. A twi-night doubleheader has been tentatively scheduled for 5::30 p.m. today, but If conditions prevent a start before 7:30 p.m., only one game will be played. That would force a doubleheader tomorrow to complete the three-game home stand.

Games remaining for Red Sox, Orioles Pet. GB TP BOSTON 93 63 .596 6 Baltimore 88 66 .571 4 BOSTON BALTIMORE 24 at New York (2) Detroit (2) 25 Cleveland Detroit 26 Cleveland ot New York (2) 27 Cleveland at New York 28 Cleveland at New York Rained out game Sept. 1, vs. Chicago has been rescheduled for Monday, Sept. 29 at Baltimore, If necessary.

is the Red Sox' magic number Any combination of Boston wins antf Baltimore losses totaling 4 means that the Red Sox have clinched the East Division championship of the American League. If you were lining MP to oppose Waltham High this is what you might see: guard, and linebacker JVIike Reynolds (6 feet, 190). on the other side of your helmet looking ready to hit. (Stan Grossfeld photo) BOB RYAN Why is Yaz still batting No. IMPORTED CANADIAN WHISKY A BLEND 86 PROOF CALVERT DIST.

N.Y.C. Fully aware that the road to hell is said to be paved with t'he best of good intentions, I nonetheless plunge into a local topic that is as complex as the Dallas Cowboys' play book and as controversial as Phase Two. The subject: Carl Yastrzemski, The Man We Call Yaz. More specifically, the question is of Carl Yastrzem-ski's place in the scheme of things as the Red Sox go about the business of clinching the pennant and preparing for the playoffs. Yaz, after all, is no ordinary athletic figure in this town.

Forever to be blessed or maybe cursed by the memory of that storied summer of 1967, when he gave us a baseball season that could easily have served as an instruction manual, Yastrzemski can never be viewed in the same light as everybody else, even though he wants to be. I i any cost; that we know. But just because Yaz wants to play, does that mean that Dick Williams, Eddie Kasko, Darrell Johnson or anybody else has to play him? Is a 70 percent 1975 Yaz that valuable to the Red Sox that he must be in there batting third every day, no matter who is pitching? The answer is pretty clear to me. What exactly is going on over there at 24 Jersey Street? If this is starting to sound like one of those "Is-Yaz-Running-The-Ball-Club?" pieces that used to abound in this town, I'm sorry. It isn't supposed to be.

I have absolutely no idea what went on between Yaz and Johnny Pesky, or whether people on the ball club resented his famous early 70s beat-the-traffic exits from ball games, or whether he has a clause in his contract stipulating first base as his only position for the rest of his career, and I'm not sure that anybody else in this town does, either. The real issue is what happens on the field, and that is still a fascinating saga. American League pitchers continue to respect Yastrzemski. Lynn and Rice notwithstanding, Yaz is still pitched around. His walks, runs scored and the RBI totals of the amazing rookies are a clear reflection of that.

Pitchers throw to human beings, and not to press clippings. If they thought Yaz was still an easy out, they'd pitch to him, wouldn't they? His performance this year is difficult to assess. He started off badly, but he was a hot man in June and July, raising his batting average over 100 points and driving in the bulk of his runs. He injured the shoulder in Milwaukee during the first week in August, and that quite clearly turned his season around. He has never complained about his misfortune, just as he has never said much about the frequent boos which have been the result of his "failure" to win the triple crown every year since 1967.

In mfcny ways, 1967 was a mistake for Yaz, just as 1961 was the undoing of Roger Maris. Like Maris, Yastrzemski was unable to live up to his new image on the field, and, in addition, he was a poor candidate for deification. To all but his closest friends, Yaz is introverted and withdrawn. He is indifferent to personal publicity. Like Garbo, he vants to be left alone.

But it can never be. What he did, and what he represents to those who marveled at him during that golden summer, is something very special, and it has made him permanent public property. He was quite possibly the best player in the American League for five seasons. Don't forget that. But those days are gone, and he should not be judged by those standards, either by the manager or by the fans.

It would help if Darrell Johnson would put Yastrzemski in proper context. People who hit .200 for a two-month period belong batting sixth or seventh, not third. Yastrzemski never asked to be idolized, just respected. Right now, he is eyen losing that, which, to my way of thinking, is sad, because I'll never forget 1967, when Carl invented baseball. Bud Collins is on vacation.

You just can't get lost in the crowd when you ere a sort of civic monument. I mean, Yaz is every bit as much a Boston institution as Old Ironsides, the Esplanade concerts or Saturday morning at Haymarket Square. You drive into Boston every morning and you see the Prudential Building, right? You go to Fenway Park and you see Yastrzemski batting third and playing first base. Same thing. That's the way it is and, seemingly the YASTRZEMSKI way it always has been.

But should it be? Should a 36-year-old ballplayer with a bad shoulder and little power be batting third on this Red Sox team? How can the Red Sox justify a third hitter with just 60 RBIs? Is it possible, remotely possible, that against certain lefthanders he should be batting as low as sixth or seventh if he should be playing at all? This is not 1967, or even 1970, and things have changed for Carl Yastrzemski, as it has for all of us. The one great thing to say about YastrzemBki is that he wants to play. The man has come to the ball park every day for 15 years and has gone out there and tried to do the job. There have been many great talents in that same span who have found the sheer repetitive-ness of the game overwhelming, but Yaz has demonstrated remarkable powers of concentration. Even now, he is playing with a damaged left shoulder that would keep many others out of the lineup.

11 (Call that last statement incredibly trite, if you will, but it's a simple statement of fact.) Yaz will play at Lord Calvert Canadian, a beautiful experience for you and your lad)S.