Scorecard

SOME YEAR

Seattle Slew, named Horse of the Year, has had a crazy year. After concluding his sweep of the Triple Crown at Belmont on June 11, Slew raced only once. That was on July 3, when he lost the first race of his career to J. O. Tobin at Hollywood Park.

Then Slew was out of action for a month while Dr. Jim Hill, one of his owners, was under suspension for his "hidden ownership" of the colt. Slew next suffered a coughing spell, and by the time he got better there were no important races left on the calendar.

In recent workouts at Belmont, Slew has looked great. He will return to racing at Hialeah on Jan. 16, but he will do so without his trainer, Billy Turner. Last Sunday morning just before Slew was shipped to Hialeah, his owners, Jim and Sally Hill and Mickey and Karen Taylor, fired Turner. "Our goals were different," says Sally Hill. Turner will be replaced by a virtual unknown, Doug Peterson.

SIGN OF THE TIMES
In addition to noting a player's birth date, height, weight, college and marital status, the 1978 New York Yankee press guide will list the name of his agent.

CONFERENCE CALL

Bob Harmon of the Harmon Football Forecast in Middletown, N.Y. does more than pick the top 20 college teams, he also rates the top 20 conferences based on what he calls a "power quotient average," which is derived from his ratings of all the teams in every conference. Here in order, with power quotient averages, are his top 20 conferences for 1977: 1) Big Eight, 94.4; 2) Southeastern. 92.9; 3) Pacific Eight, 90.1; 4) Southwest, 89.3; 5) Big Ten, 87.9; 6) Atlantic Coast, 87.2; 7) Western Athletic, 79.0; 8) Pacific Coast Athletic, 73.4; 9) Mid-American, 70.6; 10) Southland, 68.8; 11) Ivy League, 63.8; 12) Southern, 63.4; 13) Missouri Valley, 62.7; 14) Gulf South, 61.3; Big Sky, 59.2; 16) Yankee, 56.0; 17) Ohio Valley, 55.7; 18) Lone Star, 55.2; 19) Southwest Athletic, 54.6; and 20) North Central, 52.8.

Yell at Harmon, not us.

THE OTHER FOOTBALL

Hamilton Fish Sr., Harvard '10 and the only surviving member of Walter Camp's All-Time All-America football team, celebrated his 89th birthday last week ("Dec. 7th, Pearl Harbor Day"). He still follows football. "I went to the Harvard-Yale game this year, and I go to West Point games because I live nearby," says Fish, who resides in Balmville, in New York's Orange County. "And of course I will listen to the Notre Dame-Texas game.