Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar, Number 134, 1 February 1984 — Hollie \tkin*on Sports Editor [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hollie \tkin*on Sports Editor

Enough of this legal jumblelese and other mumbo jumbo, already. Bring the Raiders home and "Play ball!" Coming from the East Coast as I do of recent arrival, I don't know all that much about the glory days of the black-and-silvcr bandits of the NFL, But a person would have to be as blind as Pete Rozelle's dead grandfather not to see where The Raiders real home is. Oakland. That's spelled O-A-K-L A-N-D. Got if Pete? Did you hear Rozelle at the Super Bowl? During halftime he was interviewed on CBS radio and asked about expansion. I think the NFL will expand but not until we clear up the West Coast court case," is what he said. Did you hear that? That and a few other answers he volunteered clearly left the door open for an NFL football team in Oakland in the near future. If not the Raiders, then the new and improved Bandits or some other NFL expansion franchise. Rozelle seemed to be offereing a compromise over the airwaves to City of Oakland officials to accept another team in the future and quit bugging the NFL in the courts. I say, "Hang in there Oakland. The Raiders are yours and nobody elses," Los Angeles can keep—and deserves—the Anaheim Rams. The Raiders were born and bred along the docks and foothills of Oakland. Tooz, The Stork and Lester the Molester all came into being from the Monday morning tales cabbies, Teamsters and East Bay bar buddies spread far and wide, Down in L.A. home of plastic palms, tinsel sunsets and restaurants shaped like things you can't eat —football fans don't know how to appreciate the mean and nasty Raiders. Witness only 8,000 Los Angeleans turning out for last week's "Raiders' Day" parade. And fewer actually greeted their conquering heroes at the L.A. Airport the night after the 38-9 stomping of the Skins. (Compare that with the 100,000 fans who welcomed home the second-best Redskins in the bitter cold winds of the Potomac River.) Hell, more fans turned out in a freelance parade of lowriders and pickem up trucks in Oakland last Monday than big L.A. could muster. Shame on the City of Angels. But, then the Oakland Raiders were never really angels, were they? And, maybe the players and organization were never as foul-tempered and wicked as immortalized, but they must have done a few things a long the way to earn such a reputation. The ongoing bitter fued between A 1 Davis and Rozelle has certainly fueled the Raiders' myth. And the great rag-tag parade of seedy, knarly veterans like Hendricks, Malusek, Alzado, Plunkett, Banaszak and Chester created the black-and-silver image to live up to the eye-patched swashbuckler on the Raider helmet. The City of Oakland is "bound and determined to get our Raiders back 'as Mayor Lionel Wilson said last week. More than just pursuing the emminent domain case in U.S. Courts, Oakland is also further along on building a new large football stadium than possibly San Francisco will ever be. The Chronicle's Glenn Dickey last week put forth an idea to settle the Candlestick dilemma. He called for both the 49ers and Raiders to play at Candlestick and the Giants and A s to use the Oakland Coliseum where the Bay weather is much better than at Candlestick. Dickey said football crowds expect cold weather, so Candlestick is all right. , He went on to say if another sports stadium is to be built on the San Francisco Bay, it should be built on Oakland's side. And, afterall, the lack of a bigger stadium is why Davis took his team south in the first place, isn't it? . . ... , . The proof is everywhere that the Raiders still belong in Oakland. . • When it came time to have a testimonial dinner tor retiring Raider Raymond Chester where did all his old teammates choose to congregate? Right, O-A-K-L-A-N- -• When the new 1984 schedule was drawn up for Oakland Coliseum guess who has rights to seven Sundays in September, October and November. You got it, R-A-l-D-E-R-S. „ • Where does A 1 Davis own a hilltop home? Hint, it s not Los Angeles. • And which Californian team continues to call Sonoma County it's spring training headquarters No, it's not the Rams, Chargers or 49ers. It's those other guys the World Champion OAKLAND RAIDERS. The jury and all the legal demurers and depositions may still be out, but the Players said it when they disembarked. The Bay Area fans still feel it in their heart and L.A. pretend fans know it, too. Afterall, why do you think so many sports announcers and other still insist on mistaking the Raiders as the Oakland Raiders and not the LA. Raiders? Because the team and place are two of a kind.

Bring the RAIDERS home now!