OK, wise guy, time to hear the real story

Forty years ago in September, Billie Jean King struck a significant blow in women’s fight for equality, and she did so with her weapon of choice: a tennis racket.

In a ridiculously hyped match, Bobby Riggs, a 55-year-old former tennis champion and outspoken “male chauvinist,” challenged King, then 29 and coming off a victory at Wimbledon, to a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match in the Houston Astrodome. The winner would get $100,000, and the winner’s entire gender would get bragging rights for years.

Earlier that year, Riggs had beaten Margaret Court, the world No. 1, and a thrashing of King, then ranked No. 2, seemed all but certain. Odds makers favored Riggs in an overwhelming tide.

“King money is scarce,” said another product of the era, gambling expert Jimmy the Greek.

“It’s hard to find a bet on the girl.”

Anybody who did bet on “the girl” would have seen a huge and unexpected payday, as King thrashed Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Everyone from announcer Howard Cosell on down could see that King was the superior player, running a clearly winded Riggs all over the court and forcing him into error after error.

The story, according to ESPN’s Don Van Natta, is painfully straightforward: The fix was in, and the Mafia was in on it all.

Hal Shaw, an assistant golf pro at Tampa’s Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club, recently told ESPN’s Outside the Lines that he heard several notable Mafia figures, including Santo Trafficante Jr. and Carlos Marcello, discussing how Riggs would throw the match in order to pay off more than $100,000 in gambling debts.

According to Shaw, the Mafiosi determined that Riggs would decisively win the first match, against Court, in order to generate action on the second, against King … which he would then throw.

Shaw kept his silence for 40 years, fearing reprisal, and a Mafia expert whom Van Natta consulted said Shaw’s story has the feel of truth, but now Shaw has decided to come forward.

“It’s been 40 years, OK, and I’ve carried this with me for 40 years,” he said. “The fear is gone. … And I wanted to make sure, if possible, I could set the record straight - let the world know that this was not what it seemed to be.”

Riggs appeared listless and slow from the start, but King maintains that she doesn’t believe he threw the match.

“Bobby Riggs wanted to win that match,” she told ESPN. “I saw it in his eyes. I saw it when we changed ends, and there is no question. I have played matches where players have tanked, and I know what it feels like and I know what it looks like, and he did not.

He just was feeling the pressure.”

Surrender

The Buffalo Bills are set to sign quarterback Matt Leinart after injures to E.J. Manuel and Kevin Kolb.

“It was either sign Leinart or wave a white flag on the season,” wrote Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind., “and the Bills apparently felt waving the white flag wasn’t definitive enough.”

Color bind

Urban Meyer has forbidden anyone watching Ohio State football practices - fans, media, even NFL scouts - from wearing blue since blue is a Michigan color.

Wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “Really, I’d have thought Meyer would worry more about people upsetting the team by wearing orange - the color of prison jumpsuits.”

Quote of the day

“I can’t ask for a better job to inherit.” Charleston Coach Greg Kendrick, who takes over a team that is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A after going 9-3 last season and advancing to the quarterfinals of the playoffs

Sports, Pages 20 on 08/28/2013