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Giants, Jets Hard To Recognize In Winner%u2019s CircleBY GAKYHOEN1GW ho are these people in New York uniform s?That question, asked in the past, usually im plied sarcastically that New York football team s were so inept that there were inevitably scores o f new faces playing for them each year. But if they can continue to play as they have in the pre-season, the Jets and Giants may prompt that question from surprised coaches and players on opposing team s.Facing the toughest schedule in the N.F.L. this season, the Jets have made the most progress thus far. After com ing from behind to beat the Giants last week, the Jets won an impressive victory against the San D iego Chargers Saturday night, 23-10. The Chargers have pretensions to contending in the tough A .F .C . West (Denver, Oakland), and Coach Tommy Prothro said this same was his team %u2019s tune-up for the regular season opener. He played first-stringers virtually all the way. Walt M ichaelsliberally sprinkled rookies throughout his two units, making victory more significant.The Jets front office gambled du rin g last y e a r %u2019 s d raft that linem en make the running attack, not the runner. The team was criticized for not drafting a quality back. But first-round pick Chris W ard has been aw esom e at left tackle (despite a m ediocre game Saturday) and last year%u2019s first pick, Marvin Powell, is as strong at right tackle.The offensive line pounded away at the Chargers defensive line, one o f the strongest in football, for nearly 200 yards on the ground, and nearly all the Jets backs, including such household names as Darnell Powell and Scott Dierking, were finding the holes and bursting th rou g h fo r b ig g a in e rs . The gam ble looks like it is paying off.Matt Robinson proved a cool if conservative back-up quarterback to Richard Todd, who played only a quarter. W hile eluding the Charger rush, Robinson threw a 39-yardpass on the run to rookie Derrick G affney, who outfought the Charg e r d e fe n d e rs fo r th e s e co n d - quarter score. Gaffney got the starting job after the Jets traded Richard Caster last week, and the catch seem ed to vindicate another M ichaels decision. Also im pressive was the form er Columbia speedster, Bruce Stephens, who looked like a perfect companion for Bruce H a rp er on retu rn s, and also grabbed a couple o f tough passes in the com bat zone.On defense, the Jets bent like a young tree in a hurricane, but did not break. Chargers%u2019 quarterback Dan Fouts boasted som e fancy passing stats, but the Chargers m anaged only a field goal on offense (their lone touchdown cam e on a twisting 80-yard punt return b y Joe W ashington) and could not sustain any running attack. The Jets still have related problem s in the pass rush and the secondary, but the defense m anaged to force five Charger turnovers (two interceptions and three fum bles).Rookie cornerback Bobby Jackson had a tough tim e handing the Chargers' John Jefferson, but he did grab a key fum ble. He will play better when Burgess Owens returns to free safety from the injured list^ L in eback er M ark M e rrill, another key draft choice, played well and will get his first start next week against Philadelphia. The overall assessm ent: The team is deeper than first thought, and while still a long way from being a real co n te n d e r, cou ld su rp rise som e playoff hopefuls during the regular season.The Giants have more cause for overall optimism, though their 13-6 victory against the Steelers exposed som e problem s.The Giants are more established than the Jets, and have one o f the easiest schedules in the N.F.L. Against the Steelers, Jerry Golsteyn connected on a 78-yard bom b to Johnny Perkins on the second play o f the gam e. But Golsteyn was not nearly as im pressive otherwise as he had been against the Jets.Dodgers Show StrainIn Race For Flag, ButMets Lose Again AnywayThe M ets are getting a voyeur%u2019 s glimpse o f what being in a pennant race is like. And while the M ets have been doing their choking on the field, at least one pennant contender they%u2019ve played against is showing signs o f the strain as well.Before Sunday%u2019s M ets-Dodgers game, two of the Dodgers%u2019 Hollywood hype-types got into a brawl. Don Sutton and Steve Garvey wrestled around the locker room over an interview in a Washington paper in which Sutton suggested Garvey was more concerned with his personal image than with the team%u2019s welfare. That was not the first time such a suggestion has been offered about Garvey by a teammate, but never so publicly and never by attribution. Garvey tries a little too hard with his All-America image and his goshisn't-baseball-great rap, and more than a few players on either side of the field have professed dislike for him.Garvey and Sutton also represent two factions on the Dodger team, the LaSorda faction and the Alston faction. Alston m anaged the Dodgers for 20 years; LaSorda currently holds the job. LaSorda, who tends to loud and sanctim onious paeans about baseball that are liberally sprinkled with Hollywood nam e-dropping, likes to pretend he is papa to a happy Dodger brood, but the fact is that only younger Dodgers like Garvey, who were managed by LaSorda in the minor leagues, can stomach his BigDodger-In-The-Sky routine. The team sounds a lot like the Yankees, and they are just as talented, which is why they have a good chance o f being back in the series whether Sutton and Garvey ever kiss and make up, which they probably won%u2019t.Garvey bandaged up his face and went out and got two hits against the M ets Sunday, who reached newi%u2014 ! %u2014 r ; %u201e j ; ____ ______A Am-igma in milling nivpt v%u00bb a j o u,lose ball games. They loaded the bases in three different innings and managed two whole runs. They wound up leaving 12 men on base. But none o f that was as bad as their ninth inning performance.With Craig Swan ahead 4-2 and pitching well, the Dodgers werealready looking at the scoreboard to see what the Reds and Giants were doing. W hen Swan yielded the leadoff hitter, his first walk o f the gam e, the hook seem ed inevitable. Joe Torre strolled out and thought about his bullpen. He wished Swan luck and w alked b a ck to the d u g ou t. W h en G a rvey sin g led , Torre sighed and cam e back out. In came Skip Lockwood, the regular master o f cerem onies for the Mets daily giveaway. Lockwood gave up a base hit which Steve Henderson hobbled, allowing a run to score and the tying run to m ove to third. A long fly ball tied the score.Joe Ferguson then hit a wicked liner to left that should have been the third out. Henderson, who would have trouble making a Sunday softball team if fielding were the criteria, m oved in, stopped, leaped, and then chased the ball to the wall. Ron Cey scored from first with the winner.The Mets now get a crack at the fading San Francisco Giants, who have been losing o f late but are still second to the Dodgers and only two games behind. Vida Blue, who has won more gam es than any Naitonal League pitcher since getting Charley Finley o ff his back, pitched last night again st J erry K oosm an .- G . H. many to give theUrinated t^_FaSP#ftfS BRIKFStlM IKE FLANAGAN of the New England\the most valuable player In the North American Soccer Leaguein a Sporting News Poll. Flanagan finished second In scoring tothe Cosmos%u2019 Giorgio Chinaglia. The Teamen were picked byLaffit Pincay, the jockey who replaced Steve Cauthen aboard Affirm ed for the Travers Stakes Saturday, has been suspended for seven days for his ride in that race. Affirm ed defeated archrival Alydar in the Travers, but w as dropped to second because the stewards ruled Pincay had steered the big colt into Alydar%u2019s path, causing Jorge V elasquez to pull Alydar up to avoid aserious cuiiiaiuii. A iyu ai u iup peu tolast but cam e with a hard charge that was only a length and a half short.Tennis, have been fined S500 each for their behavior during a recent match in Seattle. The doubles partners got into a shouting match over com m ents made by the Seattle scorekeeper. Ruffels later went after the scorekeeper with hisSaturday%u2019s gam e at San D iego. M ike Hughes, another defensive tackle, was traded to W ashington for a tenth-round draft choice in 1979.racket an dhadrestrained.m e nowto be physically Jack Scott, w ho represents Bill W alton, told reporters that the fracture suffered by W alton in the 1978 N .B.A. playoffs was not the1U 1& j c i a g u t l u c i iroster down to 57 yesterday. Tank Marshall, a defensive tackle and third-round draft choice in 1977, who suffered minor knee surgery last year and never lived up to prom ise, was cut, as was free agent Nick Lowery, a place-kicker who missed a chippie field goalliias. u a c t i i i c lie n a u a u i i i i i u n l i i i cplaying with painkillers for the Portland Trailblazers. Scott intimated there was still a chance that W alton m ight n ev er play again, and added that if he couldn%u2019t play again, a medical malpractice suit would be brought on W alton%u2019s behalf.perhaps the quality o f the opposition determ ined that.Gary Jeter had a standout game for the Giants, his best performance yet. The secondary, riddled by the Jets Richard T odd, last week, played much better this week. The offensive line did well against the Steelers fabled front four, and defensive tackle John Mendenhall had a field day against form er tea m m a te J oh n H ick s. Larry Csonka, however, was ineffective in his first gam e o f the year, and there are rum ors he may be one o f ten Giants cut today. The overall picture: last year%u2019 s already strong defensive unit looks stronger, but there are still question marks at quarterback and on the offensive line.T he ch a n ce s fo r a su bw ay superbowl in the near future are still rem ote, but it seem s likely that victory-starved local fans can count on com petitive perform ances from these two team s during the com ing season. And, given recent history, that%u2019s saying a lot.YanksDoomedIn theDome?The Yankees weekend losses in the Seattle K ingdom e w ere two o f the team %u2019 s most crucial losses this season. Playing against baseball%u2019 s worst team , and one o f the few teams in all team sports with a losing record at hom e, the Yankees managed only one victory in three gam es while the Red Sox took two out o f three from the tougher Oakland A %u2019 s.The Yankees%u2019 inability to beat Seattle is puzzling. Only three team s, including Seattle, have losing records at the Kingdome, and the Yankees are one. Sunday night they had everything going%u2014 Ron Guidry and an early lead%u2014 and still cou ld n %u2019t win. Guidry was protecting a 3-2 lead in the sixth when he left with a stomach ailment. But Rich Gossage couldn%u2019t save it and the Yanks dropped to 8V2 games back. It%u2019s August, but time is running short, and the Red Sox are no longer obligingly losing.W hat%u2019s worse, the Yanks next stop is Anaheim , where the Angels are em broiled in a hot pennant race o f their own. The A ngels trail the first-place Kansas City Royals by one percentage point in the w estern division race. The Angels toughed out two one-run victories over the Orioles on the weekend. This may be the year that Gene Autry, the G eorge Steinbrenner o f the W est, gets his m on ey%u2019s worth out of- the cast o f free agents he purchased for the club.Lyman Bostock, w ho cost Autry a cool couple o f million but started so badly this season that he offered to return a month%u2019 s pay to him, has raised his average to .300, ninth best in the league. Don Baylor is among the league leaders in hom e runs. The Angels will be tough. M eanwhile, the Red Sox get an opportunity to feast on the normally placid Mariners at the K ingdom e.Dnp A n w l V anV toc uiill h ohappy n o H o see is Nolan Ryan. The M e ts %u2019 s e c o n d -b e s t fo rm e r pitcher had to leave Sunday%u2019s gam e with the Orioles, eventually won by the A ngels 1-0, with a rib separation in his left side. He will probably miss at least one turn.%u2014 G.E