Scorecard

The events are a mixed bag of native contests, with an occasional grudging nod to the outside world. This year the Nome dance team introduced a step called the Iceberg Bump, a disco version of a dance performed by Eskimos for centuries. Also on the schedule were the greased-pole walk; the blanket toss; seal skinning (the seal must be skinned as quickly as possible, with points being deducted for holes and thin spots; the record is 57 seconds, held by Rhoda Nageak of northwest Alaska); finger pulling; fish cutting; sewing; the one-and two-foot high kick; and the knuckle hop. In this last event contestants assume a pushup position on their knuckles and toes and then "hop" as far as they can; this year Gordon Kilbear hopped 75 feet to break the record—and possibly several of his fingers.

Perhaps the most intriguing event of all is the ear-weight competition, where a string with a weight suspended is looped around a contestant's ear and he walks as far as he can with it. Donald Ahsoak of Barrow set a record for the event by carrying 16 pounds 1,542'3", then was taken away to be fitted for a new set of stretch earmuffs.

DAY OF WHINE AND ROSE

When his illustrious hitting streak finally ended at 44 games in Atlanta last week, Pete Rose reacted not with disappointment or resignation but with an uncharacteristic fit of pique. Rose felt Atlanta reliever Gene Garber had pitched him very cute, and had cost Rose a fair shot at Joe DiMaggio's 56-game record by striking him out in the ninth inning on a 2-and-2 changeup. " Garber was pitching like it was the seventh game of the World Series," Rose said. "I had one pitch to swing at that was a strike. Most pitchers in baseball just challenge a guy in that situation. If Phil Niekro had been pitching and I got five pitches, I guarantee you three would have been fastballs. I wouldn't have seen the knuckleball, his best pitch."

Well, since when does Pete Rose expect favors from pitchers? And what sort of achievement would it have been had Rose beaten DiMaggio's record on a diet of nothing but fastballs and whatever other pitches Rose deemed a suitable challenge?

Gene Garber is paid by the Atlanta Braves and supported by Atlanta fans for getting hitters like Rose out the best way he can, and the best way Garber can is by throwing his best pitch, the change.

Few players have pursued the crystallization of excellence more doggedly than Rose. He should recognize that pursuit when he sees it in others.

ONE, TWO, THREE

Ruzek to Shoemaker to Kaage? It doesn't exactly have the rhythm of Tinker to Evers to Chance. How about Drake to Shoemaker to Kaage? Still doesn't sing? Two weeks ago the above-mentioned no-names from the Lodi Dodgers of the California League made history by completing two triple plays in one game. The only other double triple play in all of recorded professional baseball—it has never happened in the majors—was executed in 1904 by Kansas City of the old American Association.

Oh, yes, Lodi won, 11-6 over Fresno. No one seems to remember what Kansas City did.