2-3-2 Formation Works for Oilers

In 1984, the National Hockey League adopted baseball’s 2-3-2 World Series format for its championship series, and the Edmonton Oilers, after splitting the first two games with the New York Islanders, swept the next three at Edmonton.

This year, the Oilers split the first two at Philadelphia, then again won three straight at home.

The NBA, in an effort to cut down on travel, switched to the same format this season. So far, the Lakers aren’t complaining.

Add new format: Celtic President Red Auerbach said: “I think it’s terrible. It’s just too long to be away. The other team is just a fat cat, sitting and waiting. I think it’s an advantage to the team playing three in a row at home. They get to stay at their homes for eight days.

“Meanwhile, we get bored, sitting around the hotel and doing nothing. You play a game and sit around three days. It’s not good.”

Larry Bird: “I never did like it from the start. What you’ve got to do is win the first two games at home, then you don’t have to worry about it.”

Kevin McHale: “I wish it was the old format. There’s no use crying in your soup, but we’re at a disadvantage.”

Last add new format: Laker owner Jerry Buss: “I’m glad they’re looking for excuses.”

Bob McAdoo on the Lakers’ aggressive play: “The misconception about this team is that we run up and down the floor and don’t play physical. You don’t get to the finals four straight years without being a physical team. We’re tired of being called the patsy team from the West.”

Most golfers can play thousands of rounds and never shoot a hole in one. But Keith Whitten, 20, of Norton, Ohio, got one in his first round. It happened on the 203-yard No. 17 at a country club in Barberton, Ohio, according to John Seaburn of the Akron Beacon Journal.

Whitten, who borrowed his grandfather’s clubs, hit a 5-wood. “I thought the ball went over the green,” he said. “While two of us looked for it, the other two were on the green to putt. One of ‘em yelled out, ‘Hey, Keith, your ball went into the cup. Even now, I don’t believe it happened.”

The College Football Assn. Sunday recommended that college football players be paid $600 a year for their services.

Chuck Neinas, former commissioner of the Big Eight and now executive director of the CFA, first proposed the idea of paying football players back in 1978.

“I was hooted off the floor, “ Neinas said.

Now the issue is expected to be brought up again at the next full NCAA convention in January.

Baylor Coach Grant Teaff, the president of the American Football Coaches Assn., said: “I was once opposed to such an idea. I have now changed my stance. I feel we can cut out a lot of the penny-ante stuff that’s going on now.”

Add payments: No one in the coaching ranks is saying that colleges should go as far as Nebraska State Sen. Ernest Chambers has suggested in legislation he introduced recently in Lincoln. Chambers wants to pay Nebraska players as state employees.

Chambers admits his bill stands no chance. Its purpose, he said, was to get the attention of the NCAA. “It shows if the NCAA doesn’t listen, the government will step in to rectify the injustice.”

Quotebook

New York Yankee Manager Billy Martin, after watching a tirade by Seattle Mariner Manager Chuck Cottier Sunday: “He has to learn how to control himself.”