Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

f-f It's Pi est vs. Laada: Today's telsvislsa highlights: Sunday, Oct 21, IC34 51 fl II fl llPl The drivers' championship will be determined CBS 1:00 p.m. Football: Detroit at Minnesota LIONS PREVIEW 3 rT CJ JLUJ IjCL in today's Portugese Grand Prix. The story is NBC 1:00 p.m. Football: Miami at New England COLLEGE FOOTBALL 6-8 LTdetroit free press in the roundup, Page 2D.

NBC 4:00 p.m. Football: Raiders at San Diego INSIDE OF SPORTS 9 I (J I Sport Phone, 1-976-1313 ABC 9:45 p.m. Football: New Orleans at Dallas c.n with 222-6660 I 6 a TIH Till wie sou laiKin Tigers, Doivnoy Athletes' faces mean i A Hernandez to demand a trade by Oct. 29 if he is not happy with the contract offered by; Detroit. Hernandez said he is looking for a multi-year deal worth more than $1 million a year.

If he demanded a trade, the Tigers would have to comply by March 15 or he would; become a free agent. Lajoie said Saturday that; Hernandez hasn't said anything to him about demanding a trade. If Hernandez demanded a trade, the Tigers would have until the March 15 trade deadline I to continue negotiations. Many baseball peo pie Lajoie included don't think it would be in Hernandez's best interest to demand a trade. If the Tigers did trade him after such a request, he would lose his right to become a free agent for five years and give up the right to demand another trade for three years.

By GENE GUIDI Free Prew Sports Writer The Tigers on Saturday denied a report that they have reached a contract agreement with star relief pitcher Willie Hernandez, but general manager Bill Lajoie indicated he's optimistic Hernandez will remain a Tiger next year. "I think our talks are going well now; I think we've finally reached a negotiating stage," said Lajoie. But, he said, "we're still negotiating." Lajoie was responding to a column by syndicated baseball writer Peter Gammons that said the Tigers and Hernandez are in accord on an agreement that would keep Hernandez in Detroit through 1989. Gammons' column appears in the Free Press, which carried the Hernandez report in its late editions Saturday. Gammons said he had learned from an unidentified but reliable source of a verbal agreement reached Thursday between Hernandez and the Tigers.

"I don't know where a writer would come up with something like that a verbal agreement," said Lajoie. "There's no such thing as a verbal agreement. We're still talking with Willie. Thursday's meeting was the third one we've had in the last week. He left for his home in Puerto Rico afterward and said he'd be back in about 10 days to two weeks to talk some more." HERNANDEZ IS SIGNED through the 1985 season.

But negotiations with the Tigers take on an immediacy because of an obscure clause in his current contract, signed while he was with the Chicago Cubs. The clause allows Hernandez if the color's light enough CHICAGO It is certainly true that athletes many athletes, anyway seek fame to further their own commercial gain. Even the most unpleasant personality, someone who is loath to mingle with public or press, can be convinced to play huckster for some sort of commercial product if the price is right. Or did Philadelphia society fail to appreciate Steve Carlton's advertisement for milk? I think of this as decent exposure. It is no crime to try to make an extra buck.

For as long as endorsements and sports have gone hand in hand, there have been baseball players who recommended Chesterfield cigarets for "a real good smoke," and later shaving lather, and later Aqua Velva. Even the most notoriously misbehaved athlete can be employed to sell, say, disposable razors. I asked a superior not long ago if he thought it proper to hire professional athletes to plug the newspaper. He told me this seemed a flagrant conflict of interest. Within days, I found myself at Yankee Stadium, where the outfield scoreboard is now used, as it is in several other stadiums, for filmed advertisements.

The first commercial of the day was Dave Winfield speaking for "the best sports section in town," the New York Daily Ashford's one of the great ones While in Chicago on other business, I had a chance Friday to spend some time with one of the planet's great athletes, Evelyn Ashford. In case anyone has forgotten exposure being what it is these days Ashford is the fastest woman on earth. She won the 100-meter dash at the Summer Olympics, and the only reason she didn't win the MSU blows chance for tie Iowa stifles U-M, 26-0 200 meters was that she wasn't in it. An injury at the Olympic trials prevented her from dou- fpJ bling- cj I While the trials were going on, Mary Decker already had become America's sweetheart. She was successful, ap By TOMMY GEORGE Free Press Sports Writer IOWA CITY, IOWA Kinnick Stadium held 66,025 fans Saturday, and nearly all were standing and cheering and savoring the final sweet moments of Iowa's 26-0 victory over Michigan.

Only 31 seconds were left in Bo Schembechler's worst loss at Michigan. Only then though Iowa had strangled Michigan the entire afternoon did the stadium turn into a sea of fans slapping each other on the back and dancing in the aisles. All afternoon, Michigan had been knocking on a door that had been triple locked with the key tossed aside. Backup quarterback Chris Zurbrugg and the Michigan offense were saddled with fourth-and-11 at the Iowa 17. Hoping to avoid the shutout, Zurbrugg desperately threw into a crowded end See U-M, Page 7D pealing and seemed to have more endorsements than John Houseman and Arnold Palmer com Evelyn Ashford By JACK SAYLOR Free Press Sports Writer EAST LANSING Ohio State moved a small but a most important step closer to the Big Ten championship Saturday.

No thanks to their friends at Michigan State. George Perles turned loose an inspired, gung-ho band of underdog Spartans and they fought the vaunted Buckeyes to the final gun before falling, 23-20. A crowd of 75,133 fans in Spartan Stadium got touched with electricity as State scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns in only 22 seconds of 1 possession. MSU, which had trailed 16-0 at the start of the third quarter, pulled within three points, then launched what could have been a game-winning drive. The Spartans were at the Ohio State 39 with three minutes left the sweet smell of a gigantic upset wafting through the air.

Suddenly, it all evaporated. The touchdown drive lost its steam at the 23, then on fourth-and-13 from the Ohio State 26 and three seconds left, Ralf Mojsiejenko hooked his 43-yard field goal attempt for a tie, wide right. The excitement collapsed into sighs of dismay and Mojsiejenko was a crestfallen figure. "It's tough on a kicker," Perles said. "'It's always there for a big win, a big tie or a loss it's tough.

"Our team deserved a little better than it got. They played their hearts out. I just asked them to play tough and that's what they did. It's a tough loss, AP Photo OSU's Keith Byars (41) plows over the MSU line to the one in the first quarter Saturday. But the Spartans' defense held and later took possession.

the best of the rest but it's over and it's important we regroup." THE SPARTANS saw their record slip to 3-4 (2-3 in the Big Ten) and Perles' bid for his first three-game winning streak dashed. Ohio State moved its record to 6-1 and maintained its share of first place in the conference at 4-1. Iowa, which shut out Michigan, 26-0, also is 4-1. But the Buckeyes have the upper hand, because they already have beaten the Hawkeyes. "That was one more step to the See MSU, Page 8D NUMBERS: College scores, Page 6D.

MAC and Big Ten standings, Page ELSEWHERE IN MICHIGAN Wayne State, led by quarterback Rich Popp, defeated Ferris State, 23-7; AND THE AREA Ball State needed a last second touchdown to turn back Western Michigan. MAC roundup, Page 8D. ONE UPSET: No. 6 Southern Methodist was upended by Houston, 29-20. NO OTHER SURPRISES: None of the other Top 20 teams was upset.

Miami beat Pittsburgh, 27-7; Oklahoma State beat Kansas, 47-10; Auburn beat Georgia Tech, 48-34; Georgia beat Vander-bilt, 62-35; Florida beat Cincinnati, 48-17, LONGHORNS BULLY ARKANSAS: Third-ranked Texas took advantage of four interceptions and stopped the Razorbacks at the Texas 3 to win, 24-18. IRISH FALL AGAIN: Eleventh-ranked South Carolina is unbeaten and off to its best start with a 36-32 victory over struggling Notre Dame. Top 20 report, Pages 6-7D. bined. It was said that Mary Decker was making upward of a million dollars a year, most of which, for amateurism's sake, went into a trust fund for safekeeping.

When Decker went sprawling at the Olympics, failing to finish her only event, it was a blow to her off-the-track opportunities. By then, however, Madison Avenue had latched onto another sweetheart, a human cabbage-patch doll named Mary Lou Retton. Although Retton did not win a gold medal in anything that followed the all-around gymnastics competition, she already had tumbled her way into America's heart. Hours after returning to her home in West Virginia, she was flown back across the country to volley with Joan Rivers on late-night TV. Days later, Wheaties was on the line and milk was on Mary Lou's chin.

Evelyn Ashford did not get any such calls, even though she had shattered a world record. Neither did Valerie Brisco-Hooks, who took three gold medals. Neither did Carl Lewis, who took four gold medals. So far as I can tell, the only product endorsement Carl Lewis has done since the Olympic Games has been for a soft drink in Japan. He has done David Letterman, but not Johnny Carson.

As for cereal, Bob Richards did Wheaties, Bruce Jenner did Wheaties, Mary Lou Retton did Wheaties, but Carl Lewis has not gotten so much as a spoon. I cannot help but recall that long before Ford and the Colonel's chicken called, Larry Holmes was the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, but was sitting home watching Norelco commercials starring Gerry Cooney, the champion of nothing. Racism rears its head It does not require a genius to read between these lines. It also does not take a bleeding-heart liberal to detect racism when it rears its head. Were it more subtle, it might go unnoticed, but representatives of certain athletes tell me that they are being told, right to their faces, that something could be done for their clients by way of endorsements if only those clients' faces were white.

Evelyn Ashford deserves better. She is 27, articulate, attractive and a champion. She was setting world records when Mary Lou Retton was getting into movies for half-price. Where were Raf er Johnson's TV commercials? Where were Wilma Rudolph's? What about Edwin Moses, for heaven's sake? They tell me Joan Benoit, the women's marathon gold medalist, gets more offers for endorsements than Moses does. He is only one of the great runners in history.

I rode to O'Hare airport with Evelyn Ashford. She and her husband, Ray Washington, a junior-college basketball coach who played at Pershing High in Detroit, were off to Grand Rapids for a personal appearance. I asked Ashford what she had to do. "Shake hands and smile," she said. "I think I can handle that" Can it really be? 1 Pistons of '84-851 are contenders i By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Sports Writer The first impulse is to be cautious, to remember all the ways the Pistons have found to spoil a good thing and a good time, to pinch yourself and say there's no real chance of this happening.

Then you ask Jack McCloskey, the man who has (with; owner Bill Davidson's dollars) put together the team that will open the 1984-85 NBA season Friday night in the Silverdome against the Boston Celtics. "I think we have an excellent chance to win our division," he says, a smile creasing his craggy face. "And, if we can plaj against San Diego's pitching staff, we can win the champion ship." There it is! City of Champions! This is the Year! Bless You Boys! The Roar of '84, No Jive in '85! A look at thoIIDA, 1904-05 Baseball season just ended that means the NBA is ready to begin. On the Inside of Sports (Page 9D) is a look at the teams and the season, such as: Pistons capsules: A look at the 1984-85 Pistons. Beasts of the East: The Eastern Conference is the home of the defending champion Celtics and '83 champion 76ers.

That still leaves the Bulls, with rookie Michael Jordan, and the rough-and-tough Bullets. Other Eastern teams: The Bucks, the defending Midwest Conference champion; the Nets, who eliminated the 76ers in last season's playoffs; and the Knicks, who ousted the Pistons. The West: A look at the Western Conference. The West has Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the Lakers and now, Marques Johnson with the LA Clippers. What others say: What they think about the Pistons' chances.

THE DETROIT PISTONS haven't proven a thing yet, but in the heart of the man who brought them together beats the belief they can fulfill the franchise's 27-year quest for an NBA championship. "The chance is there," says McCloskey, the general manag-' er. "This is a good basketball team. But there isn't any team Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington, nobody who; can afford to lose a key player." And the key to this club is a man who has never played a full 82-game season. The Pistons hope Dan Roundfield is the last-elusive piece in the puzzle they've been working on more more 3 See PISTONS.Vage 5D The Pistons' Isiah Thomas is ready for another winning year as Detroit open its NBA season..