Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

i Who will win the NCAA basketball tournament? Your vote will be counted. See Sound Off, Page 2D. Sports Phone, 1-976-1313 PREPS HORSE RACING -3 1 1 "Start quick, kid." Mets pinch-hitter Rusty Staub's advice to new Yankees manager Yogi Berra 5 COMICS 6-7 LJ DETROIT FREE PRESS i Call with sports news: 222-6660 era 0 0 1 i if i i it The Isiah FJiiio -(jDounoy 1995 1 hrough Rice warms up to writers, but Sox don't look so hot 1st pSaco battle Terry Tyler has seen the rough times like a 16-win season in 1979-80 so he's enjoying the good times for the Pistons this season. Tyler, nicknamed Mr. leads a group of Piston reserves called the A (for Assault)-Team to Milwaukee for a game Tuesday.

The 8:30 p.m. game features the two teams battling for first place in the NBA Central Division. Story on Page 5D. WINTER HAVEN, Fla. Something's really weird at the camp of the Boston Red Sox.

No Yaz? No, that's not it. No Mark (the Bird) Fidrych, making one of his hundreds of comebacks? No, that's not it. Well, what, then? Can't be the manager it's still Ralph Houk. Can't be the ballpark it's still Chain 0' Lakes. Can't be the uniforms the road suits still say BOS on one side of the buttons and TON on the other.

But something's wrong. Something's strange. Ah, there it is. Jim Rice is sitting around with some sports writers talking to them. Like they were real people.

He says he's tired of his cold, aloof image and just wants to be thought of as a regular old nice guy. Well, that's it, boss. Comin' home tomorrow. Seen everything now. Be going to Happy Hour with George Hendrick in St.

Petersburg this afternoon, then picking up Steve Carlton in Clearwater and spending the rest of the day at Disney World. Straight home after that. Nothing else left at spring training to do. Can Sox pull themselves up? Went to Winter Haven to see if there's any reason to expect the Red Sox to be in the running with the Orioles, Tigers, Brewers, Yankees and Blue Jays. Rice says, "Absolutely.

We still have the makings of a contending ball club." Houk says, "If I didn't think we had a chance this season, I wouldn't be here." By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Sports Writer The Pistons took the step Monday they hope will ensure their place among the NBA's powers for the next decade signing Isiah Thomas to a contract that will earn him about $12 million over the next 11 years. "Isiah Thomas is bound to the Detroit Pistons and us to him for life that is, his professional basketball life," Pistons owner Bill Davidson said in announcing the extension of Thomas' original four-year contract. "It is the longest contract, for the highest compensation, ever extended by the club." The contract, which was signed early Monday afternoon, runs through the 1994-95 season. DAVIDSON WOULDN'T reveal financial terms, but Charles Tucker, who represented Thomas in the talks, said, "He's the highest-paid point guard in the league you can say it's for a million or more a year." That would place Thomas' salary among the top eight in the league. Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ralph Sampson and Jack Sikma all make $1 million-plus and Otis Birdsong and Kevin McHale each make $1 million.

Magic Johnson, another client of Tucker and Chicago attorney George Andrews, reportedly makes $461,000 now, but his 25-year, $25-million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers begins next season. Though Thomas' original contract was to run through the 1984-85 season, the new one takes effect immediately. Thomas' salary will increase steadily through the life of the contract, which includes only a few incentives, such as a bonus if the Pistons win the NBA championship. The contract is also believed to contain a clause requiring Thomas' approval of any trade and stipulations that would protect him if the club were sold. "THE NEW CONTRACT begins today," said Thomas, "but it won't change the way I live.

Oh, I might go out and buy a couple more suits but the main thing I was i 1 i I I I. A fy 1 iff -iA II i I Lvj concerned with was 1 wanted to be here and I wanted to be secure. "Detroit has been a very good city for me when I first came here Will (Robinson, assistant to the general manager) told me, 'You'll love no city better than this The way the fans appreciated me has given me the best feeling you can have. It's just a warm feeling." Thomas, the youngest son in a family of nine, raised by his mother, Mary, in a Chicago ghetto, added, "I never thought I could say I didn't care about the money I've really been blesssed." Oscar Feldman, the Pistons' legal counsel and the man who helped resolve the contract details, said, "Normally you would conclude you wouldn't want to enter into a lifetime contract, especially with a point guard. But there was no question with Isiah, that he is the man this team is going to be built around for a long time." Feldman also declined to be specific on terms of the contract, but he noted, "All I can say is Isiah has the same agent as Magic Thomas, who would be rookie this season had he completed his eligibility at Indiana University, averaged 17 points his first year and 22.9 last season.

He is averaging 21.9 going into Wednesday's game with the Bucks in Milwaukee. I' Free Press Photo bv MANNY CRISOSTOMO Isiah Thomas joins Piston owner Bill Davidson on the rostrum at Monday's announcement of Thomas' 1 1-year, $12 million contract. Both agree, though, that it won't be easy. This is roughly akin to saying that it won't be easy for Alan Cranston to be. elected president.

There are very few differences between last year's Red Sox and this year's Red Sox, which probably means there will be very little distance between this year's Red Sox and this year's Cleveland Indians. And the Indians have better pitching. mind trade ft Wockenfuss wouldn Jim Rice Philadelphia newspaper reported Monday that the Tigers recently were turned down by the Phillies when they asked for left-handed reliever Willie Hernandez, 9-4 with eight saves last season. Another Phillie mentioned is left-handed reliever Don Carman, who spent most of last season in the minors at Reading where he was 8-5 and had 23 saves, second in the Eastern League. He pitched an inning Monday against the Tigers but was removed after he was hit by a iine drive by Barbara Garbey.

Tiger general manager Bill Lajoie declined to discuss specific players, but acknowledged he has talked trade with Philadelphia and numerous other teams. Wockenfuss started the exhibition game Monday as catcher. His two-run homer off Steve Carlton accounted for Detroit's runs in a 7-2 loss. See TIGERS, Page 2D seven game-winning RBIs. "If it (a trade) happens, I won't be disappointed," Wockenfuss said.

"I'll be happy. If it's Philly, great. I could live at home and see my family more. (He lives a 50-minute drive from Veterans Stadium.) They're a class organization." Wockenfuss has a self-negotiated contract through next season that pays him, he says, about $63,000 less than the team average of $263,000. He says that when he signed, the Tigers told him they had no more money available.

"As soon as I signed, they started giving these clowns $800,000. I took them for their word. They turned around and (dumped) on me. "All they say is, 'we don't have the "A guy (Tom Monaghan) just buys the club for $50 million and he's worth $150 million. Please." WOCKENFUSS' NAME has been mentioned in trade rumors since spring training began.

The Phillies are looking for someone versatile and a By BILL McGRAW Free Press Sports Writer CLEARWATER, Fla. Maybe it was the political atmosphere surrounding the Florida primary. Maybe it was those juicy trade rumors oozing out of the Philadelphia Phillies camp. Whatever, John Wockenfuss, the Tigers' jack-of-all-trades, stood outside the Tiger clubhouse Monday and did a great impression of a politician on the stump. Wockenfuss didn't identify himself as a Democrat or a Republican, but he did make his position perfectly clear: He wouldn't mind being traded.

If the Phillies are interested, so much the better with Wockenfuss. His chief beef is that he thinks the Tigers refuse to pay him adequately for his talents, which include designated hitter, pinch hitter, catcher, outfielder, third baseman and first baseman. Last season, his 10th in the majors, he had John Wockenfuss: "If it (a trade) happens, I won't be disappointed. I'll be happy. If it's Philly, great.

I could live at home and see my family more. They're a class some HCflfl postseason loser Wings will favor fans who bought tickets for season NCAA tournament By JOHN CASTINE Free Press Sports Writer ye. 4 -1 No, off-hand, the Red Sox do not appear to have a chance of winning the American League East, unless maybe they're playing Strat-O-Matic. Optimists and Bostonians may call these appearances deceiving. Look at Toronto, they say.

"Who expected the Blue Jays to be so good last spring?" Houk wants to know. Point taken. Just the same, we tend to believe that the only reason the Red Sox won't finish seventh this season is that there is no eighth. What's that? You say Rice and Tony Armas hit 75 home runs last season? Swell. They also placed 1-2 in the league in hitting into double plays.

You say Boston hit 142 homers as a team? Wonderful. Only six American League teams hit more. Yes, but you say Wade Boggs won the AL batting title with an average of .36 Great. That made the team average .270, five points higher than Cleveland's. You say Bob Stanley saved 33 games in relief? Far out.

The whole staff had 42. And dangerous Dwight Evans hit .238. And spring phenom Oil Can Boyd won four games. And staff ace Dennis Eckersley's ERA was a nifty 5.61. And Boston's three catchers combined for a Herculean eight home runs in 566 at-bats.

And Boston's speedy baserunners stole 30 bases. And Mark Clear got a dazzling four saves in his 48 apperances. And Boggs only made 27 errors, earning a nomination for baseball's prestigious Iron Glove award. Come back, Carl Yastrzemski, come back! Watch for an Indian uprising "I'm not saying we don't have question areas," Houk concedes, "but with the strong nucleus of veterans we have, there's no reason why we couldn't put together a very surprising season." As for Rice, he says, "I'm just hoping for a very relaxed, injury-free year, with no big problems." Sounds reasonable. All the Red Sox need is better pitching, better hitting and better fielding, and fifth place will be right there within their reach.

For all the fans in BOS as well as TON, we certainly hope so. We can't help wishing, though, that everything falls into place for the Bosox this season 'and they fall into seventh, right where they belong. Nothing personal. This would merely be a service to most of us who are tired of everybody stepping on the poor old Cleveland Indians. Cleveland, you see, is about to become the Toronto of Tomorrow.

Come September mark this down the Indians will be right up there with the big boys, challenging for the AL East pennant. It'll be more amazin' than the Mets. Cleveland will become America's Team. Tom Selleck will start wearing an Indians cap. After the World Series, the entire team will be invited to meet President-Elect Hart.

And Boston will finish 40 games out of first. poor Rice won't be so nice. YT- If the Red Wings make the playoffs for the first time in six years, chances of non-season ticket holders getting seats Bill Frieder Gene Sullivan Jud Heathcote The case for an open NCAA 4 laclf Sayloi mi ccllcgs basketball to a post-season game will be slim. Wing officials announced playoff ticket plans Monday. They confirmed that each of the more than 7,000 season ticket holders will be entitled to two seats for each playoff game for every seat they own.

Officials would not release the prices, which were established over the weekend. Letters were mailed Monday to season ticket holders informing them of prices and the number of seats each can purchase if the Wings finish among the top four in the Norris Division. No ticket are being sold yet, and probably won't be until the Wings wrap up a playoff spot. If they are sold, Red Wings' season ticket holders could buy up between 80 and 90 percent of the playoff seats 14,000 to 15,000 of Joe Louis Arena's 19,275 seats. WING NOTES: The players went about the business of trying to get the team into playoffs, gearing up for Wednesday's battle at Joe Louis Arena with the Boston Bruins.

Coach Nick Polano called Monday's practice spirited and said the game Wednesday will be hard-nosed. "It will take an unbelievable effort on every guy from our team to beat Boston," Polano said. "The Bruins are in a fight for first in their division with Buffalo. They want this game badly, too." Injured John Ogrodnick was skating in practice, playing the role of linesman and dropping the puck for faceoffs in scrimmages. It has been two weeks and two days since he broke his left wrist in Chicago.

Now wearing a removable fiberglass cast, he said, "It's definitely going to be at least four weeks before I can do any strenuous skating. We'll test Much verbal abuse was heaped upon the NCAA a year ago when it announced that college basketball's annual post-season championship entry list would be hiked from 53 to 64 next season. Ah, bleated the critics more teams equals more games equals more money from the endless trough of television. Greed, greed, greed. Call it the If there was ever a mandate for a bump to 64 teams, it came this season.

There is much snarling in various sections of the country because somebody's favorite team was omitted by the NCAA selection committee. New Mexico won 24 games and was left out. Montana, Jud Heathcote's old team, won 23 no call. Lamar is uninvited despite 25 victories. just unbelievable," said Lamar coach Pat Foster.

"You have people in prison who have not violated their own conscience and acted as irresponsibly as these guys," referring to the nine-member selection committee.) Eight Division I teams with at least 20 victories were left out of the NCAA. MICHIGAN WON 18 games and felt it was worthy. Loyola of Chicago is fuming. The Ramblers were 20-9 and were snubbed by both the NCAA and National Invitation Tournament. "I was disappointed, but not surprised by the NCAA decision," Loyola coach Gene Sullivan said.

"But I'm shocked at being left out by the NIT. It is obviously political. It's history repeating itself." The history goes back only one year. Loyola finished first in the Midwestern City Conference regular season, lost the NCAA spot in the post-season playoff, but had a 19-10 record. The NIT nixed Loyola for teams with poorer records, but bigger gyms.

Sullivan, perhaps unfortunately, had a rebuttal. "I'd trust a sadistic rapist more than I would the NIT committee," he said at the time. Now his team is penalized. "I didn't make too many friends with that one," he said. "I'm being quiet this year," See TOURNAMENT, it then and take it from there.

If fdo play, it will be with a cast or some sort of brace on the arm..