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Portland Observer Thursday, August 17, 1978
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Sport Talk
PEGGY JOSEPH
by Ron Sykes
Sports Editor
It’s all over and let’s allow him to
rest. For sure he’ll need it over the
next seven or eight months to come.
Perhaps he (Bill Walton) will Find the
views better from the Golden State
bench. With his record of injuries it’s
almost certain that the young man
will spend considerable time there.
So much has been written and said
that perhaps it's better to end it here.
Finis.
It seems that the sports world is
forever faced with lawsuits these
days. Athletes are suing owners,
agents suing players, players launch
ing countersuits against agents, and
players suing players.
One of the saddest has to be the
suit of the parents of a boy who they
said learned he had terminal cancer
while watching a Chicago Cubs
baseball game. They filed a SI
million suit against the team and
ABC
Dwight and Mary Crull, parents of
the boy, claim that they still suffer
“ extreme emotional distress”
because ABC sportscaster Keith
Jackson announced last August 8th
that their twelve year old son Scott,
of Calumet City, Illinois, was dying
of bone cancer.
The problem is. that the Crull’s
never told Scott (who died two weeks
after hearing Jackson) the nature of
his illness or that he was dying.
The incident occurred last year
when a friend of the Crulls’ called
the Cub Office and asked if Bobby
Murcer could call young Scott to
cheer him up.
Bobby Murcer, Cub outfielder,
called the young man from Pitts
burgh and told him he would try
and hit a homer that night for him,
the teams front office staff told
Jackson of Murcer’s talk with Scott
in a note that also mentioned the boy
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was dying.
Jackson, then reported the entire
incident over the air. Upon hearing
of his fate, through Jackson, the
young kid reportedly suffered great
mental anguish, shock a n t
depression and had to be given
sedatives to go to sleep.
Most law suits are disturbing and
this one particularly so. Keith
Jackson has long been recognized as
one of the best in his profession and
it’s particularly sad to see this hap
pen to such an esteemed person. I’m
sure Keith has been hurt as much by
this unfortunate incident as the boys’
parents.
San Francisco’s Giants are for
real. If you don’t believe it ask the
Dodgers. After two consecutive
weekends of batting between the two
clubs the Giants are still leading their
division with a 69-49 win-loss record.
The acquisition of Vida Blue, 16-
5, and the timely hitting of out
fielder Jack Clark has catapulted the
lowly Giants to their lofty perch atop
the National League’s west division.
Blue, the flame throwing south
paw who gained his experience
toiling for Oakland's Charlie Finley,
has regained his old exuberance and
enthusiasm for the game and as he
says, “ I’m really enjoying the game
this year. We don't have the big
names and we’re not getting the
publicity as some teams. We’re like a
little scooter, we just keep rolling
along.”
The Giants are my pick for the
Cinderella team of the year and have
an excellent chance of winning the
National League west.
Dear Mr. Sykes,
My congratulations on your ob
servations of August 10th on the
Walton affair.
Your thoughts are among the most
accurate I’ve read on this sorry
situation.
Particularly, your references to
Walton being unable to Find a more
com plim entary player situation
anywhere else in the league.
Unfortunately for Bill, the real
world has never intruded very far in
to his consciousness. He was coddled
and protected at UCLA, awarded
enough money to have security for
life when he graduated and has had
“ advisers” thinking and speaking
for him ever since.
Bill Walton is a towering symbol
of immaturity, apparently destined
to be a thumb-sucker for life. What a
waste . . . but I think we’U see that
1977 was the peak of his career and
Portland is a better than ever choice
to stay in the winning circles of the
NBA.
Soon Walton and his parasite pals
will realize what they’ve left behind.
Thanks for your insight.
Sincerely,
Fred L. Delkin, Jr.
Executive Vice President
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a K l a * C ity
Walton looking for money?
by Bill Schaefer
What 1 don’t understand amidst
all the furor surrounding Bill
Walton’s declaraction that he wants
to be traded is why so many people
don’t understand what’s going on.
Listen. Walton is in the option
year of his contract with the Port
land Trailblazers. He wants more
money, much more than the Blazers
have the resources to offer him. The
Golden State Warriors apparently
have the money. That’s why he’ll
sign a long-term contract with that
team.
All this talk about his disenchant
ment with the Blazers’ management
while there may be some validity in it
it is a smokescreen for Walton’s in
sistence upon more money. This is
why he is being represented by his
opportunist agents, Jack Scott and
John Bassett.
Walton may be a non-conformist
in the way he lives, including the kind
of diets he prefers (could his being a
vegetarian have something to do with
his having brittle bones?) but he can
add. If it is true that the Blazers
knew he had a broken bone in his
foot and kept the truth from him,
Walton would certainly have grounds
for a negligence suit. But these cases
sometimes take years to wind their
way through the courts. The easier
and most sensible solution is a trade.
Walton gets the money he wants and
the Blazers escape legal problems.
Walton doesn’t care about money,
you say? He’s got “ principles” that
supercede materialism, you’ve read?
Sure he does. That’s why he’s got
Scott and Bassett shilling for him.
Scott, especially, has a large stake in
Walton’s future. After all, Walton is
Scott’s goose that is laying the
golden egg. Scott knows that ten per
cent of a long-term multi-million
dollar contract is something to shoot
for. Ten percent of an iffy law suit
isn’t nearly as attractive.
What is amusing in all this is the
attitude of many of the Blazer fans.
They have been taken in by Walton’s
expressions of concern for the
welfare of the teams he has been
dealing with, not to mention his oft-
repeated statements of affection for
the City of Portland and its fans.
Walton really doesn’t give a twit
about the other teams and his
arrogant refusal to hold any press
conferences bespeaks poorly of his
feelings toward the fans for whom he
professes so much admiration.
Walton, of course, is not the first
athlete or sports figure to seek rather
devious ways of getting more money
nor will he be the last. As a matter
of fact Willis Reed, the New York
Knicks coach, is in the process of
doing basically the same thing. What
else can one read into his statement
that if his team didn’t land either
Walton or Seattle’s Marvin Webster
he would resign.
With the self-serving public
statem ents of Scott and Bassett
flying hither and yon, it’s hard not to
sympathize with the Blazer
management which, because of an
agreement with the Walton advisers,
has remained silent. I would have felt
more com fortable
defending
management if it hadn't pulled that
grandstand play of offering refunds
to season ticket holders because of
Walton’s decision to leave. There are
only several thousand fans waiting to
grab them. So the Blazers had
nothing to lose. A more appropriate
and welcome gesture would have
been for the Blazers to rescind their
recent indefensible increase in the
cost of tickets for the coming season.
Anyhow, it’s only a matter of time
before the Blazers and W arriors
reach a final agreement on Walton’s
services. It will be interesting to see
how the introverted Walton and the
fickle Bay Area fans get along. In
most places in the United States,
poor people who do the things Walton
does are called “ jerks’ while rich
people are called “ eccentrics.” But
Big Bill may Find that Californians
particularly the sports writers there,
will differentiate between the two,
and that rich or poor, once a jerk
always a jerk.
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Facts of Importance
VOLUME III
AUGUST 1978
SERIES I
Exodus completed its first certificate training course
for its counselors on July 21, 1978. This training
provides additional counseling skills to its staff, in
order to serve its clientele more consistently.
A similar course will be scheduled for the com
munity at large during the month of October. The
course will center around communication linkages
between substance abusers, spouse of substance
abusers, children who are substance abusers, and
parents of children who are substance abusers. This
course will be taught at the grass-roots level.
Registration for this course will be published in our
September column of the Portland Observer.
Our clients thank you for your continued support.