The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 17

i mi i "i A jernethy is Lakers' newest hero Red Smith Rookie gets 18 off bench Dionne's 3 goals pace Kings, 5-1; NHL roundup, B-9 pflMHt in LA. win By BOB PADECKY Sun-Telegram Sports Writer ms ANCET.ES When the Los B-5 The Sun-Telegram, San Bernardino, Calif. Angeles Lakers began their training Monday, Feb. 28, 1977 camp last summer, 10m ADerneuiy didn't even know if he would make the team. "I didn't have any confidence, he said.

wmmmmM Snnriav nieht. Abernethv not only "vs had confidence, he had 18 points and, coming off the bench, the Laker rookie led Los Angeles to a convincing 106-101 victory over Houston at the torum in ironi 13.397. The Lakers have been winning lately with people on the fringe. Frirtav niffht. it was low-scoring Don Chaney who beat Philadelphia in the last 30 seconds.

Sunday, was Abernethy, a guy who is supposea 10 Kuhn cant play with Finley's cash NEW YORK Bowie Kuhn is the most solicitous commissioner baseball ever had. Many pressing matters keep him occupied reviewing Nielsen ratings, promising to put a team in Washington, getting his thermal underwear laundered in time for night games in the World Series yet he still finds time to worry about how Charlie Finley spends his income. When Finley sold Paul Lindblad, dean of the Oakland bullpen, to Texas for $400,000, Kuhn said oops, hold the phone. He said that before approving the transaction he would have to know what Charlie planned to do with the money. He said he wasn't going to stand by and see Finley liquidate the Oakland franchise (if, indeed, there still is such a thing as an Oakland franchise).

Although Lindblad signed a two-year contract with the Rangers, Kuhn instructed him not to report to training camp until further notice, and set up a meeting with Finley for next Wednesday in Dallas. If Finley tells him he's going to spend the $400,000 on gin and blondes, the commissioner is expected to declare Lindblad's Texas contract null and void, cancel the sale and send the pitcher back to work for whatever Charlie is willing to pay him. Inasmuch as Finley has told Lindblad he can't afford the kind of money the Rangers are prepared to pay, the pitcher could sue Kuhn for damages. So could Finley, again. No other commissioner ever exhibited such concern for an owner or a franchise.

When Clark Griffith of Washington sold his own son-in-law, who happened also to be his shortstop, for $250,000, Kenesaw be slow. "Rut he's one of the most lnteui- ppnt nlavers I've ever seen," said Laker coach Jerry West after Abernethy scored 18 points, nis nign for his voune NBA career. "He's only a rookie so you got to figure vffi MW--. a 'J y. it Mountain Landis didn't ask what Griffith was going to do with the money, although in 1934 a quarter- what he 11 be like in the tuture.

How intelligent is the 6-foot-7 graduate from Indiana's 1976 NCAA champs? "He's so intelligent that he tells the older players when something is open," West said. The real shock is 'they listen to him," according to West. "People talk about rookies and Tom has contributed as much to this team as any rookie has to any other," West continued. "He won't be noticed usually in the stats. But he does the little things.

He knows how to move without the ball. I don't know if Bobby (Knight, Indiana coach) helped him," West said. "But somebody did. And I'm glad." With Kermit Washington out for the season with a knee injury, West has become increasingly dependent on the rest of his bench for support. Against the Rockets, West needed Abernethy.

"We haven't completely recovered from losing Kermit," West said. "We could always leave the basket because we had Kareem (Abdul-Jabbarl and Kermit under." Once again, the Lakers were outrebounded without strongman Washington. Houston, with Moses Malone grabbing 19, took the boards, 5547. But it was a six-minute stretch in the middle of the fourth quarter that provided the Lakers with enough cushion for the victory. From 10:21 in the fourth quarter to 4:26 remaining, Los Angeles scored 15 unanswered points.

The Lakers, padding their Pacific Division lead to two games over idle Portland, lost much of their 961 lead, but held on (Continued on B-7, Col. 1) million was the equivalent of a mil lion or two today. When Harry Frazee, proprietor of the Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth for 1 JZi $100,000 plus a personal loan of $350,000 from the Yankees' Col. Jake Ruppert, nobody had to ask what S. S.

1 "11 11 4 Frazee would do with the money. Frazee was a shoestring theatrical Staff photos by Jtbb Harrl II producer who had gone into the bucket backing a couple of turkeys, Perfect balance and when he poured the money he got for Ruth into show business, he was only beginning. After the Red Sox won the pen nant and World Series in 1918, Frazee sold off Ernie Shore, Dutch Laurie Lang of Newport Beach (above) and Dawn Melcher of Los Alamitos (right) did all right for themselves Sunday in the SoCal Class II Gymnastics Championships at Redlands High. Lang finished first in the senior beam and vault competition, and second in all-around. Melcher was second in senior floor exercise.

Complete results in Scoreboard, B-6. Leonard, Carl Mays, Waite Hoyt, Bullet Joe Bush, Sam Jones. Herb Pennock, Harry Harper and George Pogras, pitchers; Wally Schang, 4mm catcher; Duffy Lewis and Ruth, out fielders; Mike McNally, Deacon Scott and Jumping Joe Dugan, infielders. Next to the Boston fans, Ban John son, president of the American Wins $35,000 American Airlines tennis title Gottfried starts slow, finishes fast again and had his service broken handily in the second game of set No. 2 to put Gottfried out front, 2-0.

Now Vilas found himself on the ropes. He lost his service the next two times, and just as suddenly was down 1-5. In the last game of that set. Gottfried riddled his opponent with his serve and Vilas walked off the court without attempting to (Continued on B-7, Col. 1) games.

His usually-faithful serve all but deserted him and he was broken three times in a row, without winning a point. If there had been a telephone handy, he would have been tempted to dial "Help." But with his luck, he would have gotten a wrong number. Fortunately for Gottfried, it was Vilas who left the door open. The strong Argentine southpaw seemed to grow careless after an easy start do about it. In the semifinals Saturday night I lost the first set to Bill Scanlon by the same 6-2 score.

I'll have to learn to cope with it somehow," said Gottfried. So bad was his start Sunday, that the sellout crowd of 7,000 became more interested in getting a suntan than watching an apparent mismatch. Gottfried won only 10 points during the first set and finished on the short end of five love did it again for the second day in a row. He fought back from a horrendous first-set performance to beat Guillermo Vilas in the American Airlines Tennis Games championship. 2-6, 6-1.

63, Sunday. After collecting his $35,000 first-place paycheck, Gottfried said he still hasn't found a solution for his problem. "I'm a late starter and it gets me in a jam. I really don't know what to By GORDON COY Sun-Telegram Sporti Writer PALM SPRINGS Brian Gottfried dug a great big hole for himself and almost fell in. For him, it looked worse than sink or swim.

If it were water polo instead of tennis, he would have been going down for the third time. In his case, only a guy's mother wouldn't give up hope. But the scrambler from Florida League, was loudest in condemnation of these transactions, but Frazee was just as loud in defiance. In fact. Frazee tried to get Johnson fired, even as Finley with Kuhn.

In dismantling a championship team, Frazee was only following the example of Connie Mack, alias St. Cornelius, Patron of Baseball. On his way to immortality in the Hall of Fame, Connie had paused long enough to sell off the team that had won pennants in 1910-1 1 13-14, and he would do the same with his champions of 1929-30-31. Not once through all those years was the voice of a commissioner raised to ask what Harry or Connie or Griff meant to do with all that money or to fret about the liquidation of a franchise. Not Judge Land-is' voice, not Happy Chandler's, not Ford Frick's, not Spike Eckert's.

Only Bowie Kuhn's. Last spring when Finley sold Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to Boston for $1 million each and Vida Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million, Kuhn canceled the deals on two grounds: because they were, in his opinion, bad for baseball in general and because they were, he felt, bad for baseball in Oakland. The fact that they might be good for Finley did not concern him, yet they would have been. Instead of collecting $3.5 million. Finley paid upward of $200,000 in wages to the three players last year, then lost two of them along with six others and got nothing in return.

The value of the players whom he lost as free agents was established by the clubs that hired them. Thus, (Continued on B-7, Col. 1) SV V. i Nicklaus outplays Player for easy Inverrary victory 15th hole. He got an eagle three with a 30-foot putt to move four shots ahead and said, "I figured I could just walk home from there.

"I played the hole with two eagles, a birdie and one lousy par." said Nicklaus, who finished at 13-under 275 for 72 holes at Inverrary Golf and Country Club. Player ended at eight-under 280 to claim $28,500. Nicklaus credits rotund comedian (Continued on B-7, Col. 1) "I really don't think I'm a great rontrunner," said Nicklaus, who entered the day a shot ahead of Gil Morgan and two up on Player. "Once I got one shot behind (with consecutive bogeys on Nos.

7 and 8. I just made up my mind and played more aggressive. I played better being behind at that point," said Nicklaus, who had a closing two-under 70. Where Nicklaus really won the tournament was on the 532-yard FORT LAUDERDALE. Fla.

(AP) sort of steamrolled ahead," was the way Jack Nicklaus explained his 61st PGA tournament title, in the $250,000 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic. The Rame's 37-year-old master fell one shot behind playing partner Gary Player on the eighth hole Sunday, then outshot Player by seven shots on the next nine holes and finished five shots ahead of the South African to claim $50,000. It's home, sweet home for county teams Ollie Butler that the lMay layoff since the Jackrabbits finished Golden League play ill hurt his team. But he doesn't see it that way. "I look at it as a chance to review things," Butler said.

"We've had some really good practices and a rugged scrimmage Friday to take the place of the game. "At first, I looked at the layoff as a curse because I was afraid the town would lose interest in the team." Butler added. "But the town is really ready for the game. They'll pack the gym." Though the Jackrabbits haven't faced the Rajahs of Indio, champions of the (Continued on B-7, Col. 1) contest.

Because of their records and home-court advantage, Victor Valley and Alta Loma rate as clear favorites, while Kennedy is a solid upset possibility against the No. 1 rated team in Class AA. The Needles-Lutheran game seems too close to call. While they are technically second-round games, Victor Valley and Moreno Valley will both be playing their first playoff games after drawing first-round byes. Victor Valley gets a home game because Indio was the host in its game last Friday with Yucaipa.

Moreno Valley travels to Kennedy because the Spartans were on the road In an overtime victory at Central of El Centre Some have warned Victor Valley Coach By PAUL OBERJL'ERGE Sun-Telegram Sporti Writer For county teams in the second round of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs, it's strictly old home At least it Is Tuesday, when all four county teams still alive in the basketball playoffs have the distinct advantage of playing their second-round games In their own gyms. In Class AA. top-seeded Victor Valley (25-1) entertains Indio (20-3), Kennedy Is home against second-seeded Moreno Valley (22-3) and Alta Loma hosts El Monte (17-9), all at 8 p.m. In Class Needles stays at home against L.A. Lutheran (23-2) In a 7:30 p.m.

AP wtrephoto Jack Nicklaus blasts out of trouble on the second hole at Inverrary Sunday.