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SPORTS:Bottom LineJust Kicks?BY GARY HOEN1GThey played something called Soccer Bowl at Giants Stadium on Sunday, and despite the fact that American pro soccer is still about 95 percent promotion artifice and spending blitz, there were 75,000 people there to see it. That's a Super Bowl quality crowd, and a bigger crowd than the one last June that screamed for Argentina during the World Cup Soccer finals. While the champion Cosmos prepare for a series of exhibition matches, it seems appropriate to consider whether soccer has finally arrived as an American sport.It is tempting to direct an answer to that question to pro soccer%u2019s promoters who are betting heavily that soccer has arrived. Tempting particularly because the answer, as far as pro soccer is concerned, is still a decided no. There were 75,000 people at Giants Stadium, all right, but the television audience added to a big zero. The game was nowhere to be found on the tube, and big-time sports depends on television dollars for survival in America. Professional hockey is a perfect example. Without a national television contract and its guaranteed income, hockey franchises are hurting, and the status of the game as a major sport is open to serious question.Soccer has not successfully found a niche on network television because it is far from suited to television%u2019s own needs. There are no natural interruptions in soccer for commercials. There are no massive collisions between enormous bodies revved up on speed and pain-killers. There are no barrages of scoring, no opportunities for fantastic displays of individual virtuosity at the expense of team play. What%u2019s worse, there are no native heroes eager to be exploited by beer companies and tire manufacturers. The game is played by guys named Franz and Giorgio and Carlos, stars, to be sure, but from a different universe.What's more, the big crowds at Cosmos games represent a skewed sample of the real pro soccer popularity picture. The Cosmos epitomize the checkbookconglomerate school of sports franchise building, but in the case of a growing sport like soccer, the strategy seems a good one on some levels. Despite its collection of big soccer names, the Cosmos are hardly a great soccer team by world standards, but like the barnstorming winter baseball teams of old, they give fans a chance to see the world%u2019s best players. Even Pele, whose wide-eyed innocence masks the shrewd promotional genius of the world%u2019s richest athlete, admits to surprise at the Cosmos%u2019 success in drawing big crowds. But other N.A.S.L. teams struggle along with empty seats and a lot of red ink. Only an occasional game with the Cosmos keeps many of them from bankruptcy. That%u2019s an unhealthy situation for a professional league, and one that not even Warner Communications can bankroll away.But soccer is winning a much more important war, and that in the end may determine its ultimate fate in America. Out in the hinterlands, in New England, in Ohio, out on Long Island, in California, the kids are starting to play soccer.Oh, it hasn%u2019t replaced the slam-dunk as the big-time ghetto playground showdown, nor is it likely to supplant Little League and Sunday softball as the place to act out fantasies for adults and kids alike.But soccer is stealing young players from American football. It provides an ideal sports alternative to kids who don%u2019t stand 6%u20198%u201d or weigh 250 lbs., or to kids and parents who don%u2019t like broken bones, tom muscles, or the whole idea of group annihilation as a sport.More and more communities are dropping Pop Warner football leagues and forming junior soccer leagues. In some Ohio towns, public officials have had to drop their soccer programs for fear that continued interest in thesport would threaten a huge public investment in football facilities and equipment. And football in Ohio is a recognized religion.That kind of grass-roots interest means more to soccer than the signing of a dozen declining Latin and European stars. It means that in a decade and a half, guys named Walton and Simpson and Rose will be playing sweeper and striker instead of second base or quarterback. It means the interest in high school and college soccer will multiply, as the quality of the game goes up and as more attention is focused on local players. It means that thousands of first and second generation immigrants will teach their sons and daughters how to play the game, instead of dragging them out to Giants Stadium to see the way they used to play it in the old country.And, as pro soccer%u2019s promoters will no doubt discover, you can take that to the bank.Jets (7-9) Scraping Up a Few Good ScaresFootball%u2019s exhibition season is over, and the usual number of quality players have been rendered temporarily useless by crippling injuries in these meaningless games. Among them are quarterbacks Ken Anderson of Cincinnati, Bert Jones of Baltimore, Bob Griese of Miami, all of whom are essential to the Super Bowl pretensions of their respective teams. The news will be greeted with the usual litany of injuries-are-part-ofthe-game, but they are a much bigger part of this game than they are in other professional sports.There are several factors that contribute to the high-injury rate. As pointed out in an excellent series in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, the current nature of the game promotes unnecessary violence. The coaches%u2019 virtues of hard-hitting and gang tackling are simply euphemisms for late hits and physical intimidation. Add to that the indiscriminate use of amphetamines, steroids and pain killers, and you get an unpretty picture of dope-crazed guinea pigs being egged on by coaches to maim one another.The Jets finished the exhibition season with a 2-2 record, after a disappointing 14-0 loss to the Eagles Friday. The game didn%u2019t mean much, since the Jets played everybody and the Eagles played starters most of the way, but it did dim some of the enthusiasm surrounding the team. Still, this is a young, talented team thatpromises more competitiveness than Jet teams of recent memory. The youngest team in the League, the Jets are comprised almost completely of draftees from the last three years%u2019 selections.OFFENSE: The offensive is excellent, with good depth and first-rate starters. Chris Ward and Randy Rasmussen should be devastating on the left side, a perfect blend of age and raw talent. Joe Fields is steady at center, and Marvin Powell at right tackle seems intent on priving he can be as good as Ward. The right guard spot, where second-year man Dan Alexander is battling disappointing incumbent Gary Puetz for theThe DaysIt%u2019s almost September, getserious time for baseball%u2019s pennant contenders. Most teams have a little more than 30 games left to play, and a surprising number still entertain at least the glimmer of fantasy that they will be shivering their way through the World Series come mid-October. Baseball has been blessed with more close races this season than at any time since the inception of the four-division setup.AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST:This race is the weakest of the bunch, with Boston maintaining a steady IVi game lead over the Yankee despite the Yankees playstarting job, is the only weak link.Richard Todd is potentially as good a young quarterback as there is in football, and receivers Jerome Barkum, Wesley Walker and rookie Derrick Gaffney offer superior targets. The backs are only adequate, with Clark Gaines, small and slow but steady, the only proven quantity. Still, the big line and that scary arm of Todd%u2019s should make the offense more than adequate. The kicking game, with Pat Leahy on field goals and Chuck Ramsey punting, is only adequate.DEFENSE: A lot of question marks, and little depth. Last season%u2019s weak pass rush looks improved, perhaps because of theing .670 baseball over the last 30' games. Boston swept a series from a western contender, California, over the weekend, so the Yankees%u2019 simultaneous sweep of Oakland earned them nothing.The Yankees are banking on a revived pitching staff and seven September games with the Red Sox to give them a shot. The Brewers, tSVi OacK, and ihc srurpiiaiiig Tigers, 9%u2018/a back, are also hoping for a miracle. Don%u2019t bet the mortgage money.AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST: California and Kansas City are separated by one percentage point and both seem determined to letimplementation of the 3-4 and rover defenses. Joe Klecko has blossomed into a ferocious passrusher, and Abdul Salaam and Lawrence Pillers are both intelligent linemen. John Henessey sometimes looks confused as the swing man in the 3-4 defense.Comer line-backers Greg Buttle and Bob Martin have all-pro potential, but Mike Hennigan will never be more than adequate in the middle, and rookie Mark Merrill does not appear ready to take over. The secondary is the team %u2019s weakest area.Burgess Owens and Shafer Suggs are mainstays at the safety positions, but must stay healthy.the other team win. These teams have lost so often recently that Texas, a team loaded with talented free-agents that was written off as a contender two weeks ago, has climbed to within four games of the top.NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST:The Phillies have been pretending it%u2019s 1964 again, and time to blow the pennant. Before bouncing b%u00bbcV to beat the Dodgers twice over the weekend, the Rallies had squandered a six-game lead, and the Cubs, who usually fold in August themselves, had climbed back to within 2Vi games of the top. Right behind Chicago are the Pirates,Ed Taylor is a steady comerback who has kept his sanity despite playing opposite a dozen other cornerbacks in the last three seasons. Rookie comerback Bobby Jackson will make or break this unit.OVERALL ASSESSMENT: Still alack of quality backups at most positions. Too many ifs on defense, despite a starting unit that yielded only 13 first-half points in the four pre-season games. Worst schedule in the league. The Jets will scare alot of teams, and still lost a lot of games. Look for a 7-9 season at best.THURSDAY: The Giants, and a look at the rest of the N.F.L. - G,.H.who won three consecutive doubleheaders from Houston a week ago to build a ten-game winning streak and move to within 4Vt games of the Phillies.NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST: The Dodgers lead the Giants by !/2 -game, which is the kind of race it has been in this division since the beginning of the season. The Reds have faded tn five games back, and age and anemic pitching is likely to keep them there. Tom Seaver has been an enormous disappointment to Cincinnati, having lost 9 of 12 since pitching a no-hitter earlier in the season._____________________ %u2014G .H .Dwindle Down for ContendersP%u201c2* 20. TH E PHOENIX, August 29,1978