Scorecard

Unheeded Hurricane Warnings

The Warren Sapp saga that played out on the eve of the NFL draft (SI, May 1), during which reports surfaced that the University of Miami defensive tackle had tested positive for drugs seven times in college, raised a lot of questions. With the publication of a story in last Sunday's Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, a few answers seem to be coming clear. But the answers the newspaper provides beget more questions still: Is it most alarming that former Hurricane coach Dennis Erickson allegedly suppressed two positive tests on the eve of last January's Orange Bowl? Or that athletic director Paul Dee, using legal concerns about testing as his pretext, over a two-year period gradually jettisoned standard procedures in what seems to have once been a strict and effective program? Or that Hurricane head trainer Andy Clary was apparently forced out in part because he objected to the erosion of the program's safeguards and Erickson's failure to enforce a one-game suspension of a "prominent player" in 1993? Or that Miami president Edward Foote has entrusted an investigation of the entire mess to Dee, the very man who scaled back the program?

The Hurricanes are already reeling from criminal charges for Pell Grant fraud, pay-for-play allegations and the surreal threat by rap star Luther Campbell that he will air even more dirty laundry if the school fails to start his choice at quarterback next fall. The last thing Miami needs is to run afoul of the NCAA rule that requires a school with a drug policy to abide by it. Meanwhile what appears to have been a gross lapse in institutional control becomes even more unsettling in light of Erickson's own substance-abuse problem. The new Seattle Seahawk coach was arrested for drunk driving on April 15 (page 34), and he's under court order to attend AA meetings and refrain from drinking for two years. One can only hope that Erickson will benefit from the punishment and treatment he reportedly denied others.

Don't Get Your Irish Up
Yes, Notre Dame has added Miami to its football schedule for 1997, but don't take the CATHOLICS vs. CONVICTS T-shirts out of mothballs just yet. The Miami in question is Miami of Ohio.

Short-Order Shortstop

Baseball has produced its share of chowhounds whose careers have been undone by epicurean excess. So imagine the trepidation with which Sonoma State baseball coach John Goelz recruited standout junior college shortstop Dale Brewer Jr. last spring. During their first meeting Brewer casually mentioned that while Sonoma's three Northern California Athletic Conference titles during the 1990s was impressive, what truly interested him was the proximity of the nearest McDonald's to campus. For the past two years, Brewer explained, he had derived positive mojo from stuffing at least one McDonald's cheeseburger into his left back pocket during games, often nibbling on the burger between pitches. Goelz is now a believer. "If I'd gone on to hit .200, this might've been a problem," says Brewer, who's hitting .326 in his first season with the Cossacks after transferring from Skyline Junior College. "I mean, wouldn't you expect a coach to be suspicious of a ballplayer who says he has to have a cheeseburger between pitches?"

Having skipped dinner before a 1992 summer league game in his hometown of Millbrae, Calif., Brewer dispatched his mother, Shay, to a local McDonald's. Upon her return she tossed a cheeseburger over the fence to her famished son in the on-deck circle. Quickly polishing off half of it, cartoon-style, and tucking the rest into his left back pocket as he stepped to the plate, Brewer doubled to break an 0-for-20 slump.

Except for one burgerless road trip in March, Brewer has played every game since that fateful one in Millbrae with his ground-beef talisman. "Is his story true?" asks Chico State coach Lindsay Meggs, who recruited Brewer heavily. "It has to be. Why would anyone in their right mind make up something like that?"

McKain Unable
The stars have not been as neatly aligned for Landon McKain, a senior first baseman at Harrison High in suburban Cincinnati. In Harrison's 20-1 win over Woodward High last week, McKain, who entered the game with a .404 average, made all three outs during the Wildcats' 16-run fourth inning, in which 22 batters came to the plate. McKain should have been spared the ignominy when the previous batter, Chris Welling, struck out. But the third strike got past the Woodward catcher, allowing Welling to reach safely and ensure McKain's third at bat.

Record Albom