Scorecard

HOT WALKER

Four years ago this spring, the baseball team at Patapsco High School outside Baltimore had a pinch hitter who specialized in drawing walks. He was Ron Franklin, now the rider of Spectacular Bid. "Ronnie was only about 4'7" and 72 pounds," says Rich Bartos, who coached the team. "When we got him into a crouched batting stance, it was almost impossible to pitch to him. The one year he played, he came to bat 17 times and walked nine.

"Ronnie was small, but he was tough. In fact, he got into several fights because of his size. I thought baseball would be good for him because he was having an identity problem in school. He became one of the more popular kids once he started playing. In fact, that spring was probably his best semester."

A uniform had to be made for the pintsized player. "Our other uniforms cost $30, but Ronnie's specially made one cost $60," says Bartos. The other players had low numbers on their uniforms, but Franklin wore No. 44, the same as Henry Aaron. Alas, the one time Franklin was allowed to swing away, he struck out.

FALLEN STAR

There's a juicy story behind Dutch soccer star Johan Cruyff's decision to talk contract with the Cosmos and the L.A. Aztecs. Only last year, after he retired from Barcelona, for which he starred for five years, Cruyff rejected a $4 million, two-year contract with the New York/New Jersey club. The onetime Amsterdam street kid, who amassed a fortune estimated at $10 to $14 million, wanted to prove that he could play the role of star business tycoon.

Such was not to be the case. All signs are that Cruyff's business empire is in financial jeopardy as the result of wheeling-dealing by a business partner, Michel George Basilevic, whom he met shortly after signing with Barcelona. According to sources close to Cruyff, Basilevic enrolled his children in the same private school the Cruyffs used, and when they were invited to a birthday party at the Cruyff residence, Basilevic sent along expensive presents, including a fashionable coat for Cruyff's wife, Danny. Basilevic impressed the Cruyffs further by treating them to cruises on a chartered yacht he palmed off as his own.

The ploys worked, Cruyff's friends say. Falling for Basilevic's charm, Danny introduced him to friends as "the most gorgeous man in Spain." Basilevic soon convinced Cruyff that the managerial methods of his father-in-law, Cor Coster, an Amsterdam businessman, were too old-fashioned, and he got Cruyff to invest a large part of his fortune in a number of ventures, including a pig-breeding farm and a garden nursery that was to raise tropical plants for export to Saudi Arabia and other desert states. Cruyff gave Basilevic power of attorney and paid little attention to his partner's huge short-term bank loans calling for interest rates of 10% to 20%.

Six weeks ago, several Spanish banks sounded the alarm. One banker phoned father-in-law Coster in Amsterdam, and he jumped on the first plane to Barcelona to investigate. "Cruyff is ruined," he told the press. "He will have to go back to the soccer field to make money." Coster also accused Basilevic of mismanagement, blackmail and theft.

Basilevic struck back. He said Cruyff and Coster had taken a $250,000 bribe from the president of the Barcelona club and that the two had illegally transferred millions of Spanish pesetas to an account (No. 200518) in the Union de Banque Suisse in Berne. "I kept 30 to 40 photocopies of various shadowy deals," Basilevic added. "I need 10 days to sort them out, but it will mean 10 years in jail for Johan and his father-in-law."