Scorecard

" Montauk is a very unusual place in that it's near deep-water and oceanic fish, and the area off Montauk lies within the nursery ground of the white shark. There are enough 60- to 200-pound white sharks around to say that. The area in which they're generally found this time of year is from Cape Hatteras north to the Gulf of Maine out to 100 fathoms. In both the Atlantic and the Pacific, white sharks tend to occur in temperate waters rather than tropical.

"The smaller white sharks eat a variety of fish, while the large whites seem to eat more mammals, such as seals and porpoises. The white shark has eaten man on occasion, but man is certainly not regular food, because otherwise there would have been more attacks. I wouldn't hesitate to go body-surfing at Montauk during the day, but I wouldn't want to be offshore in a wet suit at night—to name the worst set of circumstances—because I'd look just like a seal.

"White sharks are not a very successful species because if they were, there would be more of them. They probably have few young, and they seem to be slow-growing. The 14-footer I caught was an immature female. The 33 rings on the vertebrae suggested she was 33 years old, but we have no way of knowing for sure.

"When I first heard the report that the shark had been harpooned, I thought that at least if it were caught I could examine it for science and we could learn more. When I heard it got away, I was kind of happy, although I hope it isn't off dying somewhere. I have great feeling for large predators. There are really very few of them, and their size makes them so ecologically vulnerable. But they make the world so much more interesting."

BUTE SUIT

The family of Robert Pineda, the jockey killed in the pileup at Pimlico (SI, May 22), has filed suit against the Maryland Jockey Club, Pimlico General Manager Chick Lang, Trainer Tom Caviness and owner Thomas Pappagallo for $10 million under the Maryland Wrongful Death Act. The suit charges that Easy Edith, the horse that caused the pileup, had been given a large dose of Butazolidin, an anti-inflammatory drug, before the race, and that "when administered in the fashion which it was in this instance, it causes horses' legs to be so numbed that the horse is unable to feel pain from injuries which she may have had prior to the race."

Some authorities say that Bute, which is legal in Maryland, is not a painkiller, that it is not misused and that it is an important aid for trainers in getting horses with so-called minor aches and pains to the starting gate. Others counter that Bute is not only a painkiller but also helps mask the use of other more powerful painkillers that are difficult to detect, and that trainers misuse Bute because racing economics compel them to run unsound horses.

Expert testimony in the suit could go a long way toward settling conflicting claims about the drug.

GOD HELP US

Gerry Craft, the 27-year-old manager of the Boise Buckskins of the Class A Northwest League, who was born again last year, says God is helping him run the team. The club owner, Lanny Moss, a young woman who served as general manager of the Portland Mavericks two seasons ago, says, "Why shouldn't God like baseball?"