Scorecard

Fine Dining

A food fight during the French Open last week cost British golfers Mark Roe and Russell Claydon $150 apiece. The pair were at a pizzeria in Saint Quentin en Yvelines when Claydon, in his best Animal House manner, squeezed lemon juice on Roe, who retaliated by dumping a bowl of pasta on Claydon's head. It was all too much for the golf tournament's chief referee, John Paramor, who fined the players for "behaving like schoolboys in public." Said Roe, "That's the most expensive bowl of pasta I've ever had."

Adios, Diego?

How to measure the stature of Diego Maradona? By the genius he has exhibited on the soccer field? Or by his myriad police-blotter appearances, the lawsuits filed against him, the 15-month suspension from the Italian League following a positive cocaine test and the way in which he squandered not only millions of dollars but the adoration of the soccer-loving world as well?

Untangling the 32-year-old Maradona's legacy became an issue last week when he was cut by Seville, the Spanish League team that signed him to a $4 million deal last summer. In declining to renew the contract, Seville announced that it would withhold $1.1 million still owed under the agreement because of Maradona's "erratic private life." Among other things, the team alleged that the married Maradona—once lauded by Pope John Paul II as "not only a great football player but a good Christian"—had made regular forays into the city's red-light district. He reportedly once hired an entire brothel for the night. Club officials said that if challenged by Maradona in court, they would unveil videos and a 100-page report, with photos, on his activities compiled by detectives hired by the team.

In response, Maradona returned to his native Buenos Aires and said he might retire, though reportedly he already is receiving multimillion-dollar offers from clubs in Japan, England and Italy. While Maradona has threatened retirement before, he seemed serious this time. "I am tired of what surrounds soccer, not of playing it," he said. "With the ball, I will continue being the same as always. Without the other part, the soccer of high-level competition, I'm not going to die."

Mislabeled

Eighteen-year-old Sherron Wilkerson, who was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball for 1993, has lately had some less complimentary epithets tossed his way by outraged Hoosier hoops fans—"quitter" being among the nicest. Wilkerson, a 6'4" guard from stale-champion Jeffersonville High School who has signed a letter of intent to play for Bob Knight at Indiana University, scored a team-high 14 points in the first game of the annual Indiana-Kentucky high school all-star series last week in Louisville. Then, miffed at playing just 19 minutes, he turned in his number 1 jersey and refused to play in the second game, held last Saturday in Indianapolis.

"I didn't really want to play in the all-star game in the first place," Wilkerson said. "Mr. Basketball is just a label to me. Honestly, I could care less."

Wilkerson, who was subsequently stripped of his title, further endeared himself to his teammates and his state by declaring that the Indiana all-stars, who lost that first game 107-91, were badly outmatched by the Kentucky players. (Without Mr. Basketball, Indiana won the second game 107-89.) Said a disgusted Jim Hammel, coach of the Indiana team, "That kid had better grow up. When Coach Knight takes him out of a game next year, is he going to come over and put his arm around him and say, We're really sorry about taking you out?"