Thrifty Rams Discover Price of Bargain Shopping

Reading between the datelines . . .

ANAHEIM The Rams, desperately seeking a wide receiver fast enough to chase down Jim Everett’s overthrows, trade two draft choices in three days for speedsters Sam Graddy and Ernie Jones. A Raider reject and a reject the Raiders somehow missed--not quite the names Everett (“How about Jerry Rice? Andre Reed? Sterling Sharpe?”) had at the top of his wish list.

Graddy, a silver medalist in the 100 meters at the 1984 Olympic Games, added the Purple Heart to his collection with the Raiders. War wounds: Hamstring (1987), wrenched back (1988), broken leg (1989), broken arm (1992). Career high in pass receptions: 10 (1992). Just what the Rams need--Aaron Cox II.

Jones once caught 61 passes for nearly 1,000 yards in a season with the Phoenix Cardinals, but he’s lost a step, what with the baggage he carries to Anaheim. Only by agreeing to enter a diversion program did Jones avoid prosecution for felony charges of crack cocaine and marijuana possession in February. If Jones stays clean for an entire year, he will stay a Ram. If not, well, the Rams worked out ex-Giant Stephen Baker Thursday, just before claiming ex-Chief Tony Hargain on waivers.

Suffice it to say, Sean LaChapelle has seen better weeks.

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INGLEWOOD--Wayne Gretzky, having toyed with Bruce McNall’s mental and emotional stability long enough, tells his agent, “Alert the media, I shall return,” and then slips back into summer seclusion.

After the Stanley Cup finals, Gretzky gave McNall his list of demands: Re-sign assistant coach Cap Raeder, forward Warren Rychel and defenseman Marty McSorley or I’m gone. “Uh, Wayne, do you think you can live with two out of three?” Having seen the outlandish offer sheet St. Louis tendered McSorley--five years, $10 million for a 30-year-old enforcer--even Gretzky had to concede: This cause is all but lost.

Gretzky loves McSorley like a brother--wouldn’t have been to the finals without him--but for $2 million a year, McNall can buy Gretzky an army of bodyguards, not just one.

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ANAHEIM--Before becoming the first team in professional hockey to employ on-ice cheerleaders, skating figure eights in between periods for our viewing pleasure, the Mighty Ducks may be bumped from Anaheim Arena for a few days during training camp due to a conflict with the filming of the “Mighty Ducks” movie sequel.

Show Biz Before Hockey. In case there was any doubt.

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OTTAWA--The National Hockey League is investigating published reports that the Ottawa Senators, at the suggestion of the club’s former president, considered tanking their final game of the 1992-93 season in order to clinch the worst record in the league and the right to draft potential superstar Alexandre Daigle.

And nasty reports they are. Bruce Firestone, the Senators’ majority owner until resigning last week, is alleged to have guaranteed four players roster spots next season if they could assure a season-ending defeat to Boston and planned to order Coach Rick Bowness to pull his goalie against the Bruins if necessary.

Who says professional hockey is a lawless, back-water sport run by amateur hacks who can’t understand why mainstream America has yet to take the game seriously?

If the charges prove accurate, Firestone immediately assumes the lead in our race for 1993 Sports Idiot of the Year. The Senators needed no enticements or crooked mirrors to lose that game to Boston. All they needed was a bus ride to the rink.

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SAN FRANCISCO--The San Francisco Giants’ insurmountable lead in the National League West was looking strangely surmountable the Atlanta Braves swept a three-game series in Candlestick Park.

It has taken almost five months, but the cream has risen. The Braves, at last awakening to the fact that best talent in the National League rents condos in Atlanta, have climbed to within 4 1/2 games and the Giants, at last awakening to the fear that they were flying well above their assigned altitude, have been shaken, and then some. First, Bud Black goes on the disabled list, then Trevor Wilson, and now, Will Clark, putting the Giants at a serious disadvantage at first base in this race.

Todd Benzinger, you’re no Fred McGriff.

Oddly, Dennis Martinez was offered a choice seat on the bandwagon Thursday but declined, vetoing a trade from Montreal to Atlanta. First Martinez agreed to go, then backed out at the last minute when the Braves refused to guarantee him a spot in the starting rotation.

In Atlanta, they’re shrugging it off as payback for Bobby Cremins.

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ANAHEIM--The Anaheim Bullfrogs defeat Connecticut, 15-8, in the opening round of the Roller Hockey International playoffs before a disappointing home crowd of 5,493, down from the 11,780 they drew in their in their regular season finale.

You know Bullfrog fans. Always so blase in the first and second rounds. Can’t be bothered before the ticker-tape parade.