Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 135

mmi iUEM Jim the Jock Hits Big Time Miami Beach It was the first shot at the big time He had pitched for the' Yankees and he had gone on to television sportscasting and there had been a couple of books including but that was all bush compared to this Up hoe it was a brand-new ball game and he was finding out they play hard and they play for keeps Nothing in Jim brightly checkered past had prepared him for this for big-time politics for being a delegate to the 1972 Democratic Convention Of course these things happen overnight The long political trail stretches back to the late 1950s when Bouton was atill in school all the way back to the time when campus radicals were the ones who scheduled panty raids and swallowed goldfish idea of a big Jim recalls when we got veal three nights in a row and so we refused to eat our jello That was a big radical thing to do in But perhaps Jim is being too modest Even when most of his classmates went ahead and ate their jello all the way up in many cases the first one to do without the man behind first jello boycott was Jim Bouton Yes even then he knew Nonetheless it is a considerable distance from a bowl of jello to a vast arena filled with Democrats screaming for blood and there were other stops along the way tell you what really radicalized Bouton says "It was Ralph Houk arguing with me about my contract That tended to turn me against all And there was that one other incident during the Olympics in Mexico Many athletes were asked to sign a statement supporting those who were boycotting the Olympics because of South apartheid policies Bouton certain that other athletes would sign added his name without hesitation As it turned out he waa one of a very few to do so they asked me to come down and speak at their press he says "I was their token This was young Jim first serious political effort and he was not entirely prepared for what was to come Casual political observers are not always aware of the brutal infighting the viciousness that has contributed so profoundly to lasting popularity "The chairman of the Olympic Committee called me a Bouton recalls "Later I saw him in Mexico and I tried to hand him a leaflet He set the world indoor record for 50 yards across a carpeted hotel Last year Bouton began speaking on behalf of George McGovern And in April of this year he attended a Democratic oau-cus in Hackensack NJ where he was one of 60 people to try for 13 delegate fepots "I felt guilty about running When I saw some of those other people who weren't going to make it I thought to myself who am I to be coming here? Who am I Jim the Jock to be a goddamned delegate over some guy been working in the local precinct for a good he is told "Who are you Jim the Jock to be a goddamned delegate over some guy "I have to answer my own he says After six weeks of campaigning the young lefty he talks votes and campaigns from a left-of -center position was elected as a delegate then elected by the other delegates to be co-chairman of the New Jersey delegation At this point he felt ready ready for the big time But nothing had prepared him for oh the big homosexual vote Let me rephrase that: vote on a homosexual-rights plank This is a plank that most liberals would endorse without hesitation It is also a plank that no good party man wants to see on the platform because like a promarijuana plank or a po-abortion plank it can become a source of great embarrassment to the candidate the kind of thing that Spiro would use for a fast giggle at some of those upcoming $100-a-plato affairs At this level the game can get fairly complicated It begins shortly before the vote on the homosexual plank with a small man in a dark suit who has been speaking to the brain trust in the McGovern trailer and he comes over to Jim Bouton "Vote your conscience an this he says "Vote our Bouton says The rookie is thinking: What the hell goes on here? Of course he would vote his conscience Who conscience would he vote? the small man repeats "tell everyone to vote their The New Jersey delegation does just that And the votes start to come in and be counted and the small man in toe dark suit is writing down the numbers and he has started to perspire Something has gone wrong South and this is Wallace country is voting for homosexual rights Why woulld they do that? Unless a plot to embarrass McGovern "We gotta pull toe small man screams at Bouton "We gotta pull back 20 votes Who can give us 20 "What is Bouton says "You said we should vote our waa before "You want us to pull Bouton says you tell your people to get them somewhere else not getting any from So how the game is played Bouton stops that first night of the convention and starts to put it together in his mind: "I begin to see what your means It means vote your conscience as long as it affect the outcome then so much conscience ease off on toe At every session of toe convention toe scene is repeated It happens with the proabortion plank With toe plank calling for a $6500 minimum wage With the vote to -oust Mayor Daley In most instances and even with toe vote for a vice-presidential nominee Bouton along with a good share of his delegation avoids voting the recommended way "Let me tell you about toe McGovern Bouton says hate that staff I met any of them I like Hie only way I can clear this in ray mind is that convinced Sen McGovern is in a room someplace by himself and that these other bastards are doing things and making phone calls that not quite aware The veteran observer will of course realize that this is all part of the game one thing to get this far in politics and quite another to survive big test here oomes with a telephone call from a Washington Post reporter he says understand that there has been a report of pot smoking in the New Jersey Bouton almost drops toe phone This is toe kind of challenge that even an old pro can fumble Even if you say the right words the headline is bound to oome out reading something like this: "Bouton Denies Smoking Pot at let me tell you Bouton finally replies there was pot smoking in the New Jersey delegation I waa not aware of it got to stick together as delegates and if one guy has got pot then we should all have pot One smoke all smoke supposed to share everything and I want to know the name of that guy who has been smoking Not all the challenges at a political convention call for such a rapid reaction Sometimes simply a matter of just getting through the reading material the policy statements toe planks toe amendments the speeches and so forth 'There was an Bouton says "We were ODing cm literature none of us were used to getting reading matter in such doses trying to bring some of the delegates out of it gradually making some of them cut down to a letter or a circular every few hours just a maintenance dose Others will have to go to dimes maybe just stop in once a day and read a postcard or two until they come out of not always easy for an athlete to put into words the feeling he has for the game but Bouton had had more experience with words than most "Fall asleep? I was wide awake through this whole thing only had a few hours sleep this whole week and never been so wide awake always wanted to have some influence on how decisions are made a totally different feeling than baseball where you have no influence over events I mean I even influence Considering this one might well expect Bouton to try a political comeback in the near future There is nothing like a victory the first time out to whet toe appetite for future tilts Quite possibly he will want to run for office himself "I don't know why say he says "I dory any personal political ambition And if just wait a minute going to have one erf my aides get you my position paper on that very Ncwaday Photo by Stan Wotfioa It's a totally different feeling than baseball where you have no over events I mean I couldn't even influence hitters1 Jim Bouton CHESS RACING ning to move for position trotted up into second plaoe and parked behind the leader Hie pair stayed that way racing 1-2 for toe rest of toe race In toe drive through the stretch Fresh Yankee pulled to the outside and with toe record crowd roaring and shouting she tried but failed to make up enough ground on Speedy Crown And that essentially was the race Hie pace with mast of it carved out by Speedy Crown was prudently slow with the first quarter raced in 31 seconds toe half-mile in 1:03 and toe three quarters in 1:342 seconds That slow pace is what Beissinger saving his horse to hold off Freeh Yankee wanted and that is what he got But Beissinger mid that he had not intended to go to the front race go like I said Beissinger in the paddock after toe race "I thought Fresh Yankee would go to toe front but rfie Joe (Fresh driver Joe took a hold of Hmt surprised Beissinger because the 9-year-old mare and winner of the International in 1970 was generally regarded as the one who would set the pace Beissinger once he found himself in front knew that he was cutting out a series of slow fractions but he was in no hurry not last night "I thought I had the heist chance to win that mid Beissinger "The race is won at toe Fra' him and Speedy Crown it was The winner of last Hambletonian and the reigning trotting champion in America last year HARNESS International To Speedy Crown By Bill Nack Westbury Speedy Crown became toe first American horse to win the $125000 International Trot at Roosevelt Raceway since his father Speedy Soot raced to victory in 1964 when he took the lead in -the first quarter-mile last night and stayed there throughout the trip Hie crowd at 35000 made toe 4-year-old American trotting champion die favorite in the aix-horee field And he made the running of the International almost as he pleased winning by three-quarters of a length With Howard Beissinger driving Speedy Crown sped toe 1V4 miles -in a slow 2:351 seconds well below the trade record of 2:313 set by Ambro Flight of Canada in 1966 The bay oolt paid $420 to win tar a $2 ticket $240 to place and $210 to diow The second choice among toe crowd Fresh Yankee paid $240 to place and $210 to show -Flower Child also of the US paid $220 to show Beissinger and Speedy Crown took toe lead as the field shot down the stretch for the first time with the Belgium hone Fideel behind him and Fresh Yankee third As the horses trotted down the backside for the first time Speedy Crown was by himself in front and Fresh Yankee begin had sufficient oxygen left to hold off Fresh Yankee down toe lane and take down the first prize of $62500 But this 14th running of the International was not toe race that everyone had hoped for It last its most prestigious star and much of its lustre when toe 1969 and 1971 winner of the race Une De Mai was scratched as expected from the event The 8-year-old mare who has earned $1545740 in her career a world record for a harness horse has been suffering from a severe tightening of the muscles since her arrival here from France Tuesday It prevented the mare from working out Roosevelt Raceway officials hours before toe race said they would allow Une De Mai to race but that she would be excluded from the betting thereby giving her the opportunity to earn part of the gram purse and to protect her championship title in the International But later in the evening the New York Harness Racing Commission refused to allow the mare to participate even as a nonbetting interest So in a statement released prior to the International the track stated: regret to announce that the New York State Harness Racing Commission has ordered Une De Mai not to race in the International because of questions raised as to the As it turned out she had no chance of retaining the crown and now it is worn tty Speedy Crown "It may sound absurd but I believe there are precedents in other major chess said deputy judge Gudmundur Ar-blaugsson He said the spectators who have paid $5 for a ticket would be able to follow the game on the closed-circuit television screens if Fischer allowed cameras in the backstage room "but they would of course miss the excitement of watching the players in There was no immediate reaction from Spassky or Fischer to toe proposal but chess officials said Spassky cannot go against a request by Fischer to move the game behind closed doors The Icelandic Chess Federation which stands to lose shout $100000 or more if toe $250000 match is called off said it was prepared to discuss the complete removal of all cameras if no other solution was possible The two players get 30 per cent of the TV income and they would lose this money if the cameras were removed or if they moved into a closed room without cameras Monetary considerations aside Fischer appears to have lost whatever friends he may have had in Iceland where chess is taken seriously In contrast champion Spassky has never before been more popular with the 210000 chess-mad inhabitants Icelanders are beginning to ask themselves why they bothered to bid for the "chess match of the as the Fischer-Spassky match has been billed we had known Bobby Fischer well enough we might have thought twice before bidding for the said one official of the Icelandic Chess Federation behavior has turned the Icelanders hostile When the American failed to show up for toe second game Thursday and the judge announced from the Btage that Fischer had forfeited the game toe spectators rose and applauded five daily newspapers which were gearing up to cover their biggest story in years have also turned on toe 29-year-old American chess scandal of the said toe Timinn one of toe leading newspapers Another newspaper printed a picture of locked hotel door with Disturb under the headline: "Come Out and Fight Bobby Fischer Or Are You a Spassky-Fischer: In Private Next? Reykjavik (UPI) In a final attempt to get Bobby Fischer to return to the chess board the world championship match committee proposed yesterday that game in hia contest with Boris Spassky be played privately with only the players and judges present In that way the American challenger would escape the TV cameras in the chess hall He refused to play the second game Thursday because the organizers would not remove the cameras which he said distracted him But arbiter Lothar Schmid of West Germany and other chess officials said they were still pessimistic about the possibility of mntnuing toe match in which Spassky leads 2-0 after beating the temperamental American in toe first game and winning the second by default They said Fischer probably would refuse to show up for the third game today because the match committee had rejected his protest against decision to give the second game to the Russian world champion when Fischer refused to play At a closed meeting yesterday lawyers proposed to toe match committee that game be designated the second game while the American Chess Federation appeals toe decision to give game to Spassky The appeal will be made to the International Chess Federation Congress at Skopje Yugoslavia Depending on toe decision that game could be replayed or decided at the end of the 24-game world title series lawyers said The match committee rejected toe proposal chess sources said and reiterated that toe clock will be started at 5 PM (1 FM EDT) today for toe third game regardless of whether Fischer turns up 1 Schmid said toe match rules allow him to move the match least temporarily to give Fischer a chance to calm from the 3000-seat chess hall to a closed backstage room The rules say that a player can request such a move if he is distracted by noise and has more than 20 minutes of his original two-and-a playing time left on the clock Sunday July 1 6 1 972 Speedy Crown trots to a comfortable victory over Fresh Yankee in Roosevelt International Sports 3.