Glasnost Is a Winner--You Can Bet on It

Nowhere, it seems, has glasnost been more successful than in sports.

Soviet athletes now play professional hockey, basketball and tennis. And although he hadn’t raced in two months and is a bit out of shape, four-time Moscow Derby winner Alexander Chuguevets is off to a fast start in his tour of American race tracks with three other Soviet jockeys.

At Detroit Race Course in Livonia, Mich., Sunday night, Chuguevets rode Phantom Fair to victory in the third race, beating countryman Vladimir Iakolev, who finished second aboard Tax Deferral. Chuguevets also rode Mad About the Boy to a third-place finish in the first race.

“It was very interesting to race here for the first time,” Chuguevets, 35, said through an interpreter. “But it was difficult because in Moscow our season finished two months ago.”

Chuguevets and Iakolev are joined on the tour by Marat Kodgomdgarov and Michael Petriakov. The four also will ride at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.; Sunland Park in New Mexico, and the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

Trivia time: Who is the only player to have hit two home runs in one game twice in the same World Series?

Unhappy campers: How is morale among the 4-3 Washington Redskins, who play the Raiders at the Coliseum Sunday? Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post quotes Redskin veteran Russ Grimm on a players-only meeting held Wednesday:

“Some comments were not what the whole meeting was all about. They kind of made the coaching staff look bad . . . They kind of made the organization look bad. It seemed like 45 guys were abandoning the staff . . . kind of players going on their own, a mutiny of ship.”

Going got tough: Helene Elliott of Newsday quotes General Manager Jack Ferreira on the Minnesota North Stars’ turnaround after a miserable exhibition season: “At one time we were 1-8-1, and I called Gordon (Gund, one of the team’s owners) and said, ‘Now I know why I have a job.’ There are moments when you second-guess yourself, but I wanted to be in this position. The biggest adjustment was realizing the amount of work you have to do and the number of people who pull on you--agents, players, coaches, everybody.”

Blowing off steam: The New York Jets are 1-6, and quarterback Ken O’Brien appears to be Coach Joe Walton’s nominee for scapegoat. Said O’Brien after being benched: “Blaming me for what’s happened to the Jets is like blaming a glass blower in Miami for Hurricane Hugo.”

Trivia answer: Willie Mays Aikens of the Kansas City Royals, against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.

Quotebook: Buddy Baron, discussing Jose Canseco’s telephone hot line, on KSAN-FM in Oakland: “Jose thought ‘Debbie Does Dallas’ was a baseball movie. Why are we paying $5 a minute to hear this guy’s thoughts?”