The NHL / Julie Cart : Age Is No Excuse for Boorish Behavior of Maple Leafs’ Ballard

Irascible Harold Ballard has done it again.

Ballard, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is widely known in Canada as the grand curmudgeon of hockey. He is thought of, in more kindly terms, as an eccentric and powerful man whose erratic behavior and sometimes violent outbursts are tolerated because of his age, 83, and his stature as the dean of Canadian sports managers.

What Ballard is, really, is a throwback to the wild days of sports ownership, and his behavior and attitudes are beginning to catch up with him.

His latest escapade involved his long-standing feud with reporters, particularly those who are women. Ballard has said that female reporters are welcome in the Toronto locker room if they agree to take off their clothes while conducting interviews.

To keep women out of the Toronto locker room, Ballard allows no reporters--male or female--into the locker room after games. His is the only team in the NHL without an open locker room and one of the few in professional sports.

This is in keeping with the letter of league’s policy regarding equal access. Equal denial of access to the players is fair, he says. Last week, in spite of the ban, reporters in Toronto entered the Leafs’ locker room after a game with the Kings. About 30 writers went in and began to interview players.

The players were cooperative. There were no women reporters in the room.

Minutes later, Ballard arrived and proceeded to shout obscenities and demanded that security guards, “Grab ‘em by the (bleep) and throw them out!”

Ballard chased the television, radio and print reporters out and into the hall, where he continued his tirade in full view of fans waiting for players’ autographs.

Ballard also slapped at the camera of a photographer for the Toronto Globe and Mail and repeatedly called reporters, “four-eyed bastards.”

That hardly seems like professional conduct for an executive.

It’s long past time to stop humoring Ballard and accepting his rude behavior.

If John Brophy were coach of the NHL All-Star team set to play the Soviets this week at Rendez-Vous, something on the order of an international incident would likely follow.

The fiery coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs said he would put together the toughest lines the NHL could muster and run them at the Soviets.

Brophy suggested a front line of such tough guys as Dave Semenko of Hartford and Rick Tocchet and Dave Brown of Philadelphia.

More of the same on defense.

“We’d see how many of those guys (Soviets) would be standing after the first minute,” Brophy said. “I’d have those guys, then two lines of quality players and (Philadelphia’s) Ron Hextall in goal, because he’s pretty dirty. I’d have a darn good chance of winning.”

Brophy’s comments were prompted by a brawl last month between Canadian and Soviet junior hockey players at the world tournament.

He was one of the few people in the sport who was not critical of the bench-clearing melee that led to the expulsion of both teams from the tournament.

Fighting, Brophy said, is what people come to see.

“They draw 19,000 in Detroit. Do you think they’re there to watch Petr Klima skate circles?”

Speaking of Klima, rumors continue that he is soon to be a former Red Wing.

Detroit Coach Jacques Demers is dissatisfied with the Czech forward, who scored just six goals in a 34-game stretch.

“He is paid to produce,” Demers said. “If he doesn’t produce, he has got a problem. There comes a time when time runs out. We’re not stupid here. We had a good talk with Petr about his style of play. Petr chose to come to North America. It is very different hockey here and he has got to adjust to that. He’s got to be more of a give-and-go type of player.

“He is a big boy. He is making plenty of money and all we’re asking is that he pays us back. We’re providing him with great things and he has got to earn them.”

NHL Notes Perry Turnbull of the Winnipeg Jets got a sour taste of the Big Apple recently. As the Jets were checking into the Sheraton in New York, Turnbull was approached by a man in the lobby, offering to give him a good deal on a video cassette recorder. Turnbull, no fool, declined the first offer of $250 and bargained the man down to $150. When Turnbull got to his room and opened the box, he found only a rather heavy rock. . . . Toronto’s Borje Salming has had a rough go of it. He sat out the early part of the season because of a drug suspension. After that, Salming suffered severe cuts on his face when he was accidentally kicked by a skate. Now, it’s an infection in his elbow that troubles him. The infection grew worse, traveled up his arm and soon he had to be hospitalized and given huge quantities of antibiotics. Salming has just been released from the hospital.