The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 45

San Francisco Examiner May 3, 1977 Page 45 SportaBudTOM Raider surprise pic Wells Twombly 49ers first choice: A wide receiver By Frank Blat kman After waiting impatiently for seven hours until their turn to draft in the third round finally came, the San Francisco 49ers reached into the grab bag and selected Elmo Boyd, a wide receiver from the University of Houston. Boyd was the 65th player chosen, the 49ers having obtained the pick from Houston in the Vic Washington deal. A 5-11 191 pound receiver, Boyd had 48 catches for 660 yards and five tds last year. He reportedly runs 40 yards in 4.5. At the same time general manager Joe Thomas personally announced the selection of Boyd, he disclosed that the club had made two other moves.

The.49ers dealt away their own third round pick (the 72nd man to be chosen) to the New York Jets for compensation to be named later. Thomas said he expected that 'later' might be within the next day or two. Thomas also dealt away defensive tackle Bill Sandifer to Seattle for middle linebacker Ed Bradley. In his fourth year in the league, Bradley was a starter last year for the Seahawks. By Frank Cooney Four hours and 34 players after the National Football League player draft began today, the Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders finally spoke up to select Colorado defensive back Mike Davis.

"It was a total shock to me," said Davis. "To be drafted by the Raiders is a big surprise but a happy one. "Funny thing is I am from Los Angeles and last January I went to the Super Bowl with a close friend. When I saw how impressively they won that game I told my friend, 'Wow, wouldn't it be great to play for a team like A 6-foot 2-inch, 200-pounder, Davis can play either corner or safety. He was timed for 40 yards consistently at 4.5 seconds and is strong enough to bench press 300 pounds.

He intercepted one pass last season but was especially impressive as a sure tackier. Another surprise pick in the second round was running back Ted McKnight of the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The 6-1, 203-pound tailback led NCAA division 2 schools in rushing and scoring, averaging 148 yards a game and scoring 24 touchdowns. Davis played two years on the state championship East Los Angeles Junior College team. As a junior at Colorado he started all year as a corner back but as a senior was moved to safety to take advantage of his speed, range and hitting ability.

It came as a surprise to some Colorado fans that Davis was drafted ahead of teammate Mike Spivey, a corner back noted for his vicious hitting. But, as always, the Raiders didn't make this move without doing their homework. Former Raider defensive back Kent McCloughan, who now lives in Colorado, carefully scrutinized Colorado's game and practice films and no doubt made the recommendation. Asked what he thought about breaking into Oakland's defensive backfield the realistic Daivs said, "First of all, I just have to worry about making the team." Tampa takes Bell; Dallas Gets Dorsett i kit il UPI Photo USC's Ricky Bell speaks to newsmen after No. 1 draft pick by Tampa Bell: Like winning Heisman Charlie 0.

is no fool The television camera flashed its one baleful, bloodshot eye on the playing field and there was the voice of one elubowner's most obedient employee, bringing you all the action in live, garish color. It seemed to be a softball match between the police and the hippies or something similar, because that is how they were dressed both teams, in fact. The new fashions are a step forward, but only a hesitant one. Somehow they don't come across on the tube all that well. The traditionalists are disgusted and the liberals are turned off because the tunics don't quite go with the pants and all that kind of nonsense.

Trouble is that it remains a simple fact that the Oakland Athletics did set a trend and it's been copied. Why, even that team that left the now-defunct Polo Grounds so long ago has dropped its turn-of-the-century ornate lettering on the front of its shirts, has gone away from dignified black shoes and started using orange shirts and different caps. All of which proves that Charles 0. Finley may be eccentric, but he isn't crazy. There is a vast difference in those two degrees of human behavior.

There are times when Charles 0. Finley may drive you crazy, but that is another story entirely, several books, in fact. Truth is that Charlie is about as irrational as J. Pierpont Morgan or John D. Rockefeller, although it would be tough to convince some of his former employees.

It is true that Finley started out by assaulting the establishment whenever possible and a number of his stunts have been bewilderingly bizarre. But when it came to settling this incredible labor dispute, he has shown a business sense if not a wisdom that goes far past his reputation as a mad, mad, mad pitchman. At this point in time, the Athletics are not a desperate ballclub. They play well enough to keep you entertained, even when Monte Mouse does the narration from the road. Having lost all those people who put Finley into the World Series because Charlie was the man they loved to hate, he went out and hired some others.

It may have been one of his finest maneuvers, because some of those parts were wearing down and Finley never had much of a love for those people, anymore than they loved him. If you work for the A's, you are working for Finley because that is always been his main desire. Making himself bigger than the ball club is almost an obsession with Charlie, and you had better not forget it unless you happen to be Monte Mouse, who can survive any crisis on sheer talent alone, perhaps. Still, the man knows how to defeat the system, either management or labor or government, with a guile that makes him unique in the history of the game. Every time he dials a telephone number of some other baseball team, he starts putting the Athletics back together again.

It may be true, as he said, that losing Sal Bando and Bert Campanaris hurt the teams that signed them more than it hurt him. It its also blatantly certain that Reggie Jackson will never become the new Babe Ruth, because those 47 home runs he hit one year were not typical, so the man knows what he's doing at times and you have to grant him that. Finley is meeting the current crisis by simply unloading players who won't sign until he gives them $9.2 million for the next dozen years. This is a fine point and in this case, he is absolutely correct. There is no reason why a truly fine baseball player shouldn't make, oh, say, $200,000 a year.

Now that is for the super ones, considering that mill hands and truck drivers who buy tickets make considerably less and there has to be some business at the gate before these rascals can make $1.2 million for two years' work. Consider how much Gene Autry spent for Joe Rudi, Don Baylor and Bobby Grich. You could feed all the poor in Mississippi for what they got. If the word disgusting comes to mind, that's your business. The distressing part is that the California Angels aren't any better entertainment than they were before Autry decided to hock his gold records.

If the New York Yankees can survive having such brilliant outfielders as Reggie Jackson, Mickey Rivers and Roy White, three gentlemen who could not capture a grizzly in a men's room, let alone play decent defense, then it is possible that Jackson's salary (estimated at $3.2 million by one source and $2.6 million by another) might be worth it. Sadly, Reggie has turned out to be an interesting human being, filled with curlicues and latticework, but he has not been all everyone expected him to be. This is a better than average baseball player and not much more. Neither is Bando. What the major league owners don't know and Charlie Finley does is that the talent is so remarkably reduced in quality that somebody who can nail you a .261 average and 18 home runs is considered a fantastic property.

Consider then the cases of Ernie Lombardi, who led the National League in hitting twice even though he may have been the slowest man to ever play the sport, and of Hack Wilson, who holds the home run record in the same league with 56. They both have remarkable achievements next to their names in the record books, but you don't see their profiles nailed to the wall at the holy shrine in Cooperstown, N.Y. It seems just possible that Finley understands the market. If the stands aren't exactly over staffed at the Oakland Coliseum, does it really make much difference if Wayne Gross is playing third base or Sal Bando and where the hell have the Pittsburgh Pirates been hiding Mitchell Page all these years? It's true that Dick Allen has some mileage and some bad reports, some deserved and some not. But he is a name.

What Charlie has done is clearly expose what has happened to baseball. Next time somebody plays out his option and wants more than the front office can afford, he'll get a softball uniform and a bus ticket to Allentown. One way, of course. NEW YORK (UPI) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened today's national football league draft by selecting Ricky Bell, the power running tailback from Southern California, and the Dallas Cowboys, looking for the missing ingredient they hope will carry them to the Super Bowl, traded four draft choices for Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh. The Buccanfers later announced that Bell had signed a series of five one-year contracts.

Bell's name had just been anounced at the Hotel Roosevelt when NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle stood up and announced that the Cowboys had traded their No. 1 pick, the 14th choiqe in the first round, and three second round selections to the Seahawks. Dallas then immediately grabbed Dorsett. Bell, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound tailback from Houston, is the first running back to be made the top pick in the draft since O.J. Simpson, another Southern California star, was selected by Buffalo in 1969.

The tireless Bell, who carried 51 times for 347 yards against Washington State last season, finished fourth nationally in rushing with 276 carries for 1,417 yards. He averaged 141.7 yards and his 14 touchdowns ranked him 10th nationally. A successor to such stars as Simpson, Mike Garrett and Anthony Davis in the USC tailback slot, Bell led the nation in rushing as a junior with 1,957 yards, then the second highest total in NCAA history. He was slowed by injuries as a senior but still managed to perform well enough to finish second in the jace for the Heisman Trophy. Dorsett, who led the panthers to the national title last season, set 13 NCAA rushing records in his four-year career.

A 5-10, 195-pounder from Aliquippa, Dorsett led the nation in rushing and scoring last year. He carried 338 times for 1,948 yards and 22 touchdowns, averaging 5.8 yards per carry and 177.1 yards per game. He finished his career as the leading rusher in college football history with 6,082 yards, the first collegian ever to surpass the mark, and his 1,948 yards was also a single season record. He broke Glenn Davis' record for most points in a career with 356 and tied the former West Point star's career touchdown record by scoring 59. Cincinnati General Manager Paul Brown then led the assault on what he calls "the trenches" the linemen.

The Bengals, with three first round choices, Turn to Page 49, Col. 3 Albrecht happy: Going to Chicago By Frank Cooney When the Chicago Bears selected California's Ted Albrecht in the first round of today's National Football League draft it was literally a dream come true that left the emotional offensive lineman in tears. "Hey, I'm going home, that's where I was born," said an obviously choked-up Albrecht in a phone interview from the Berkeley Marriott. "I lived in Harvey, about 20 miles south of Chicago, for the first four years of my life and most of my family still lives around there. "I'm a little overwhelmed.

I expected to go to Green Bay. Cincinnati or New Orleans, but this is just great. The Windy City. Man, I can't toll you how super it is there. After all that hard work The 6-3, 255-pound All-American put down the phone for awhile and took a deep breath to regain his composure.

"Damn, I'm still going to be a wild grizzly Bear. Can -Turn to Page 49, Col. NEW YORK (AP) "This is like winning the Heisman Trophy," said Ricky Bell, the No. 1 selection today in the National Football League college draft. Bell was picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of Heisman winner Tony Dorsett, who was the No.

2 selection the Dallas Cowboys' first-round pick after getting the choice from the Seattle Mariners. "Getting all this attention, I can see how Dorsett must have felt when he won the Heisman," Bell said. Bell said he had been waiting Bell said he felt physically strong after being troubled somewhat by injuries last season. "I hurt my left ankle last year, but right now, it's stronger than my right," he said. At Tampa Bay, Bell will be reunited with another ex-USC running star, Anthony Davis, who spent two years in the Canadian Football League before signing with the Buccaneers last winter.

"That'll be nice. I think it will work out well, running with A.D.," Bell said. for 10 years for the day he would be drafted into professional football. "There's no question in my mind that can make it and be a respectable running back," he said. "I want to perform well and hope I can contribute to the team and help Nthem win." Bell played his first two years at Southern California under Coach John McKay, who coached Tampa Bay last year.

"As a coach, he's a philosopher," Bell said. "Give him time and he'll win. He's making some wise decisions like drafting me." Warrior-Laker TV confusion By Stephanie Salter Leave it to Richard Nixon to come out of hiding and screw up the NBA playoffs in the process. Actually, the only group of persons who will be deprived of watching the Warriors-Lakers seventh game of the Western Conference semifinals, is the United States of America minus the Bay Area. And, at that, they can see the second half if they choose.

Through the cooperation of normal television confusion and the Nixon-David Frost interviews, the broadcast of tomorrow night's game in Los Angeles was in such a state of flux as late as yesterday evening, that any or all of the following were being considered: The starting time would be changed from 8 p.m. to 8:30 to accommodate CBS and send L.A. tickethold-ers up the wall. Everybody, including the Bay Area would join the game at halftime so nary a moment of the former president and the former fiance of Diahann Carroll would be lost. Two different stations would broadcast the game along with KNBR for all-time overkill.

Frost would cut a half hour of questions and Nixon would sing the National Anthem before tipoff. Okay. The last one is a joke and about as funny as the mess the Lakers and Warriors had to straighten out yesterday. Yet, it may be reported there is a happy ending and, for once, the public has not been damned. Channel 2 will broadcast the entire game live, beginning at 8 p.m., as will KNBR (680) radio.

When Nixon has finished, national audiences and Bay Area folks may watch the second half on CBS (Channel 5), at 9 p.m. Now if only it were that easy for the Warriors to beat L.A. on its home court. The Forum hex has never looked so inviting to remove. If Golden State does not win there, the season is over.

Or, as Coach Al Attles said, "Somebody is going on vacation Thursday." With the Lakers' season record, particularly their four paltry losses at home, the Warriors would appear to be the ones in need of a travel agent. But you never know. -Turn to Page 46, Col. 3 ful team around. The negative aspect of Terzi-an's proposal is that there's little likelihood it will take place.

"I don't see resectioning in the immediate future unless San Francisco, Oakland and neighboring sections work along those lines," said William Russell of Santa Barbara, commissioner of the California Interscholastic Federation, which controls high school sports in the state. "There has been more than talk," he said. "There have been a number of studies in the last four ganization takes place. In that event, said Armen Terzian of the San Francisco Unified School District, there would be created a Bay Area-wide grouping of Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and the chance in all sports to determine true regional champions. That would put an end to frustratingly unresolved dilemmas, such as the current prep baseball question of whether Redwood High of Marin or El Camino of the North Peninsula League is the most powr- A hard look Pluses, minuses of prep realignment By Merv Harris San Francisco's chief administrator for high school sports is willing to relinquish The City's unique status as one of the smallest of the state's athletic sections but only if a complete California reor or five years.

The sections wont vote on a revision. The Southern Section is very happy with the way things are now." That's the dilemma. The Southern Section, covering Orange, Riverside, Ventura. San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties exclusive of the Los Angeles City school system numbers more than 400 schools about 40 per cent of the 1,000 or so California high schools. Los Angeles.

San Diego. Oakland and San Francisco each are organized as separate sections and -Turn to Page 48. Col. 1.