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It%u2019s a Giant SurgeThe football picture for New York fans is a good news, bad news situation after last weekend. First, the good news: John McKay%u2019s ..............................%u2014 %u25a0%u2014Giants, who beat the 49ers 27-10 Sunday, seem to be over the rebuilding hump and almost ready to assume the role of legitimateGARY HOENIG%u2019SBottomLineWhy is there something so peculiarly disturbing about a young athlete dying? A life, after all, is a life, and though it somehow seems more tragic when a young person dies, we matter-of-factly sent 50,000 young men to senseless deaths in Vietnam not so long ago. So it%u2019s not as if every premature death moves us all to retrospection and reevaluation.But many people seem to share a sense of genuine regret when the news of Lyman Bostock%u2019s death became public. Bostock, a 27-year-old outfielder for the California Angels, was senselessly murdered Saturday night because he inadvertently was trapped in the middle of what police reporters always call a domestic quarrel. Some quarrel. A man emptied a shotgun into a carfull of people. Quarrel somehow seems an inadequate way to describe that kind of rage.Bostock was not the best known player in the world, though he was among the best paid. After a couple of spectacular seasons with the Twins, Bostock signed with the Angels for a reported $2.7 million over six years. He was a bluntly honest man, a trait not always appreciated by baseball management, especially in black players. Some people liked him, some disliked him. Bostock was best known for his offer, after a disastrous early season start, to return his first month%u2019s salary to the Angels. Though the Angels declined, he eventually donated much of that sum to charity. He was a good man,and a talented man, but he was no superhero. Not yet, anyway.So its not so much the individual that moves us so. Even to baseball fans, Lyman Bostock was mostly a bunch of numbers:.336, or 25 HR%u2019s, or 110 R.B.l.s. In the face of his death, those numbers seem irrelevant. But in a peculiar way, this identity-by-the-numbers that is so integral to baseball explains in part the sense of loss that some people feel. In Bostock%u2019s case, the fan has a measure of what has been lost, a specific reference, however United to achievement, past and potential. There is the strong sense of what Bostock could have accomplished if he had lived. His potential was not intangible, or possible, but real and measurable, a statistical likelihood. The game may have lost an Aaron or a Rose, and the baseball fan, locked in the continuum of almost 100 years of reverence to the game%u2019s records, recognizes instantly what such a loss of a human being.To the rest of us, the meaningof such a death is less specific but just as significant. The men and women who perform for us on the court or the stadium floor represent the fantasy of childhood-that-lasts-forever, of a life that so many of us dreamed of when we were growing up. Those of us less taken with such romantic imagery envy the big-money and fast life style of young atheletes, however disapproving we may be of such material indulgences. They are the young, they are beautiful, are graceful and talented, and when those we identify with are successful, a little bit of the sheen of immortality becomes a part of our lives. When an athlete is peevish or throws a temper tantrum,* he may be acting badly but he is, after all, only human. But the fan is angered by such a show of vulnerability from someone he has invested such emotional faith in.So when someone like Lyman Bostock dies, a little piece of that fantasy dies with him. He, too, was young, and beautiful, and graceful and talented. He had more money than most of us can dream of having. But, in the final analysis, when that tormented man went on the rampage in Gary, Indiana, last Saturday, Bostock was as vulnerable as any other black person out on the ghetto streets after dark on Saturday night. His money, his talent, his piece of the great American Fantasy, weren%u2019t enough to save him froma n n t h p r m a n 's a n o n r I ilcp Rrvv C a m r v a n p lla 's a c r id p n t lik e t h edeath of football sensation Ernie Davis from Leukemia several years ago, Bostock%u2019s death is a reminder of how vulnerable, how human, all of us are.For many people, the sports world represents an ever-available opportunity to escape from a real life that is too difficult to confront. When murder and death intrude on that escape, that reality suddenly seems pervasive, and the harshness of life sefems inescapable.And the game doesn%u2019t seem like much fun any more.ALittle PieceOfFantasyDies, Tooplayoff contenders, if not this year, then next.Now, the bad news: In the midst of a humiliating 23-3 loss to the Redskins, the Jets lost Richard Todd to a broken collarbone, which should effectively negate him for the rest of the season, though he may return for the final three or four games.Todd%u2019s injury was the final result of a total breakdown by the young Jets. First, they repeated last week%u2019 s pattern o f drawing an incredible number of penalties. Then their defensive weakness against the short passing game allowed Joe Theisman to pick them apart, as Jim Zorn of Seattle had last Sunday.And finally, Todd%u2019s prediliection for medium and long-range passing, and the increasingly aggressive Redskin defensive line, resulted in a breakdown on the young offensive line, which allowed several sacks, including the two-in-a-row which led to Todd%u2019s injury.The Jets have not played well since their big victory over Miami in the season opener, Sunday%u2019s game against the undefeated Steelers will test their ability to withstand the demoralization of injuries and mistakes. A big loss could point the way to another humiliating season.The Giants, by comparison, have looked good every game out, and never as good as last Sunday. Once again, they took an early lead and never eased up. In fact, with the Giants 24 points ahead late in the game, Joe Pisarcik was still bombing away, and an angered San Francisco defense nearly tore the gutty Giant quarterback apart for his chutzpah. Pisarcik%u2019s statistics are never as flashy as you expect them to be, but he is an inventive and dominant figure on the field. %u201c What Joe has done for us, some of the so-called top quarterbacks in the league couldn%u2019t d o ,%u2019 %u2019 said Coach John McVay after Sunday%u2019s game.This years draft has turned up a couple of real surprise finds: Cornerback Terry Jackson, a fifthrounder, has now picked off a pass in every game this season, and had a second interception nullified by a penalty on Sunday. Fullback Billy Taylor, a sixth-rounder from TexasA C TIN G O FFEN SIVELY: Bobby Hammond [number 33, above] and other Giant runners have benefited fromthe Improved play of the offensive line. [Jim Cummins,photo]Tech, is an exciting runner, a slasher who is quick off the ball and, along with Bobby Hammond, who was spectacular Sunday, he provides the Giants with their first outside running game in several years.The defense suffered the loss of starters Brad Van Pelt and Troy Archer with no reducation in efficiency. The offensive line has started to jell, and should be credited with much of the Giants 200-plus yardage on the ground Sunday. The Giants play the Falcons in Atlanta Sunday, one of the tougher games in an otherwise soft schedule. But the Falcons are coming off a disappointing loss to Tampa Bay, and have managed only one win thus far this season. Another Giant victory, and the playoff talk will begin.Meanwhile, the conference races are panning opt pretty much as expected. The 4-0 Redskins have been a surprise, and will play Dallas for the N.F.C. East lead on Monday night in Washington. The Bears lead in the N.F.C. Central,with the big surprise being Green Bay, which, like Chicago, sports a 3-1 record.In the N.F.C. West, the Rams are, as expected, undefeated and unchallenged. In the A.F.C. East, the Patriots did much for their title chances when they turned around what seemed like a certain onesided loss to defeat the erratic Oakland Raiders in football%u2019s first Sunday night game last weekend. Miami, New England and the Jets now have identical 2-2 record.In the Central, the Steelers, aided by a controversial overtime victory over the surprising Browns, are undefeated, and lead the 3-1 Browns by a game. In the West, Oakland and Denver have both been spotty, but Denver has managed a 3-1 record while the raiders are only 2-2. San Diego coach Tommy Prothro, whose Chargers figured to be a contender this season, has resigned after his team suffered a 24-3 loss to the Packers Sunday, the team%u2019s third loss in four games.--G.H.For Yankees, Six DaysDoes a Season MakeThere%u2019s only this-week left to the baseball season, and three of the four pennant reaces are virtually decided. Despite several surprisingly strong showings by some unexpected teams, the perennials will be returning to the playoffs. The Dodgers, Phillies and Royals are all virtually assured of playoff spots, and the Yanks, should they nang on to their tenuous lead over the Red Sox, would make this year's playoff a perfect four-forfour duplication of last year%u2019 s playoffs.The Yankee-Red Sox battle is proving more complicated than it seemed a week ago. When the Red Sox left New York after salvagingretrospect, that game won by the Sox at the Stadium may prove crucial, since a Yankee win could have effectively buried Boston in second, 4Vi games out with 13 to play.Significantly, the Red Sox came back from a 6-4, ninth inning deficit against Toronto to win in 14 innings Sunday. That victory offset another Ron Guidry gem, a 4-0 two-hitter, his ninth shutout of the year, over the usually awful Cleveland Indians who had already beaten the Yankees twice last weekend.Guidry's strong performance offset worries about him prompted by his rapid exit from a game against Toronto last week, in which her %u00bb o m a cwith the Yankees, they seemed a demoralized, fractious bunch, dazed by the suddenness of their fall from grace. The Yanks by contrast were loose and confident.But the Yankees struggled through a 4-4 week, while the Red Sox won five of seven, chopping the Yanks%u2019 margin to one game. InA u rr\\fp f c K p ltin o n f f%u00bbiccareer. But Guidry figures to get only one more start during the regular season, so some other Yankee pictures will have to finish the job if the Yanks are to win their third straight Eastern flag.Kansas City%u2019s triumph in the A.L. West was overshadowed by the shooting death o f LymanBostock, California%u2019s outstanding young outfielder. Bostock was shot to death Saturday by a man plagued to insanity by marital problems, and who was trying to get to his estranged wife. Though few of his teammates said anything quotable about Bostock%u2019s death, the look of shock and genuine loss on the young Angel faces during a moment of silence in Bostock%u2019s memory spoke profoundly of the sudden vulnerability of all of us in the face of unexpected and tragic death.In the National League, a late resurgence by the Phillies, including a three-game sweep of the Mets at Shea last weekend, suec f u lly n f f t h p flflrd -p h A fO -ing Pirates, while the Dodgers, who have been red-hot since the well-publicized fight between Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, clinched their second straight western t:tle with Sunday%u2019s victory over the San Diego Padres.--G.H.Page 28, THE PHOENIX, September 28,1978