A Roundup Of The Sports Information Of The Week

BASKETBALL—NBA: The game was nearly subordinated to bomb scares, brawls, bad crowds and babies. San Francisco, a real bomb with a 0-4 record, encountered a fake bomb at Baltimore, The scare emptied the Civic Center for 15 minutes, and the bad week cost the Warriors almost any hope of a playoff berth. The defeat in Baltimore was inflicted by Chicago 121-111. A night earlier the Warriors lost 111-102 to Detroit—the team they had been trying to edge out of third place—but not without getting involved in a slug-of-war with the Pistons. When Detroit beat the Warriors again later, 131-123, that western race looked over. Chicago had its own bomb to deal with—financial trouble—and deal the Zephyrs did by considering a franchise shift to Baltimore that has an even chance of materializing. This week the Zephyrs won all three games, beating St. Louis 116-93, San Francisco 121-111 and Boston 110-109, which may indicate either determination to stay in Chicago or joy at the chance of leaving. New York's Richie Guerin had a Night, during which one of his presents was a toy automobile representing the car he will receive. His baby daughter, Kerry, sat down on the Madison Square Garden floor to play with it, provoking mirth in the stands. There was little other laughter as the Knicks were beaten by sizzling Syracuse 131-121. The Nats weren't losing to anybody, as they capped an eight-game winning streak by beating San Francisco 163-148. Los Angeles, which has lost 13 of 21 since Jerry West was injured Feb. 3, broke a five-game losing string, 106-97, against Cincy before dropping two more. That one victory was enough, however, to clinch the Western Division title when second-place St. Louis won three and lost one. Boston, winning in the East, kept rolling along, beating Detroit (115-104) and Cincinnati (149-117), while losing only one, to Chicago 110-109.

BILLIARDS—EDWARD LEE, of the New York Athletic Club, won his 18th national three-cushion billiard championship in 20 tries at the Illinois Athletic Club in Chicago. Lee, who gave up long-distance swimming to switch to billiards, had a perfect 10-0 record, the tournament's high run (eight), the best game and the highest average (.719).

CURLING—MIKE SLYZIUK, Detroit service station operator, skippered his own rink to the national curling championship in Duluth, winning the right to represent the U.S. in world cup competition.

FIELD TRIALS—KILSYTH SPARKY, a white-and-liver pointer, defeated 52 other entries to win the National Amateur Quail Championship on the 33,000-acre Dixie Plantation at Quitman, Ga. Both plantation and Sparky are owned by Mrs. G. M. Livingston.

GOLF—ARNOLD PALMER, hitting his irons as well as he has in a year, shot a final round 67 to overcome a four-stroke lead held by little-known Harold Kneece and win the $25,000 Pensacola Open. Kneece tied for second with Gary Player (see page 22), the top money winner on the tour this year.

HOCKEY—NHL: The closer the hockey season came to being over, the closer the standings got. Slumping Chicago, unable to hold the first-place lead it had maintained for weeks, found itself tied with Toronto and confronting the Maple Leafs stick-to-stick. The result was a memorable battle through two and a half scoreless periods and 12 penalties. Then Chicago's Ken Wharram rammed in a pass to put the home team ahead, only to have the Leafs come back three minutes later to tie it 1-1 on a power play. That's how it ended: tic game, tie league, and everything as close as crossed fingers with only two weeks to go. What's more, Montreal was moving up. In spite of Bernie Geoffrion's five-game suspension, which came after he threw his stick and gloves at a referee, the Canadiens edged Detroit 4-3, then blasted Boston (8-0) and New York (5-1) to get within three points of the leaders. Detroit, meanwhile, had a 1-2-0 week to remain entrenched in fourth.

HORSE RACING—PARDAO ($21.40), sold the day before to Col. N. E. Frieze of London, returned $70,600 of his reported $75,000 purchase price almost at once as he won the $115,600 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita.

MOTOR SPORTS—KEN MILES, of Hollywood, Calif., driving a Porsche Spyder, won the first big sports car race ever held on anybody's baseball stadium parking lot as he averaged 65.6 mph for 15 laps around a twisting 1.3-mile course at the Dodgers' Chavez Ravine.

RACQUETS—DAVID NORMAN of New York defeated McDonald Bailey of Montreal 15-12, 14-17, 15-4, 15-3 for the national singles racquets title.

SKIING—OLYMPIC TEAM JUMPING TRYOUTS at Ishpeming, Mich. uncovered three new teen-age prospects. Established star John Balfanz left no doubt of his right to first place as he outdistanced 30 contestants, scoring 468.8 points to runner-up Ansten Samuelstuen's 434, but Jay Martin, 18, (429.9); Dave Hicks, 17, (427.8); and Jerry Goyen, 16, (427.5) all made strong bids for the team. THE ALPINE OLYMPIC REGIONAL TRYOUTS at Stowe, Vt. were more routine. Past Olympian Gordon Eaton missed a sweep of all three events only when he whizzed past one of the last gates in the giant slalom, as cofavorite Rip McManus took that race. Marsha Fletcher of Rutland won both the women's slalom and giant slalom.