May 21, 2007 | Volume 106, Issue 21

Go, Adrian! Adrian Peterson has been hit many times, physically and emotionally, and he is still standing (Full Speed Ahead, April 30). His strength of character is something that the NFL has been...

An NCAA champion at Duke, the second Alaskan player to make the NBA, the guy who left Cleveland wanting (the Cavs say he bolted as a free agent in 2004 after verbally agreeing to stay), Utah Jazz...

WHO'S Hot

Who is the friendliest player in baseball?

Split happens: Now Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmom must plot their next moves

SPEAKING ON AIR to the wife of struggling slugger Jay Gibbons about an anti--domestic violence campaign, Orioles color man Rick Dempsey (left) suggested that she rough up her husband to get him on...

IN HIS 25-year career as an outfielder, Rickey Henderson caught thousands of baseballs. As a fan, though, he had never caught one—until last week, when he snagged one at a Giants game. He then...

Not So Jolly Roger SINCE ROGER FEDERER became the world's No. 1 tennis player in 2004, the only time he could be accused of slumping was when he walked sheepishly, self-deprecatingly to the net...

Braves manager Bobby Cox, 66, has been tossed 128 times in his 26 years as a major league manager. He needs just four more ejections to break the record set by Hall of Famer John McGraw. How close...

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, IBF and IBO heavyweight champ, on his place in the division: "I'm not as top as I'd like to be, but I'm topper than the others."

5 Home runs journeyman Jack Cust, who played for four teams between 2001 and '06, hit in 144 major league at bats before this season.

A German sex-toy company was ordered to pay $67,000 in damages to two of the country's soccer stars for using their names on vibrators.

Oscar's tops, but elite fighters have always lived in Fat City

Floyd Landis goes on the offensive as the hearing that will decide his future begins

Every player has his own theory of mitt management

MIDDLEWEIGHT BOXER

Two pitchers share a condo, a dream—and a snake

The actor, 29, plays Peter Petrelli in the NBC series Heroes

A composer honors baseball's black pioneers in a new piece

ANYONE WHO'S ever watched a Red Sox game on NESN knows that it doesn't take much for play-by-play man Don Orsillo and color commentator Jerry Remy to give themselves a wicked case of the giggles....

ON JUNE 19, 1984, several teams set themselves up for years of success, while others made haunting blunders, at the richest draft in NBA history. The haul included Akeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley,...

What to watch and watch for

Aaron Sunday PETOSKEY, MICH. > Tennis Sunday, a senior at St. Norbert's College, became the first player in Midwest Conference history to win four straight singles titles in the No. 1 flight. He...

Written off at the start of the playoffs (along with the rest of the Eastern Conference), the Detroit Pistons are showing signs that they're even better than the 2004 team, which won it all

With a change in instructors and a retooled swing, Phil Mickelson is striking the ball better than ever, as evidenced by his impressive victory against the strongest field in the game at the Players

He's just the third Steelers coach in the past 38 years. And he's only 35. But as Pittsburgh's players have already learned, Mike Tomlin is a no-nonsense motivator in the mold of his two...

Jilted Steelers assistants Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm find happiness in the desert

With long-range goals rare in today's game, the conference finals may be decided by the work of fearless net pests like Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom

The national perception is that San Francisco is solidly behind Barry Bonds in his chase for the home run record. Like most things in this city, it's not that simple

Baseball The talent-packed NL West is no longer a joke • Travis Hafner might test the free-agent market • The impact of the interleague schedule

High Five

According to executives from other clubs, Indians ace C.C. Sabathia and DH Travis Hafner will most likely test the free-agent market after 2008. Sabathia and Hafner (right) have publicly stated...

With interleague play moving away from matchups in which all teams in a division play essentially the same clubs from the other league (with a few exceptions for natural rivalries), the schedule...

Tim Is Money In a classic display of low-post proficiency against Suns forward Kurt Thomas, forward Tim Duncan scored 33 points and pulled down 19 rebounds in a 108--101 Spurs victory in Game 3 of...

A Step Back

Provided an NCAA oversight panel approves the change on May 25, the men's three-point line will move back one foot in 2008--09—which means that on many courts there will be multiple arcs.

THERE ARE statements you hear in sports all the time. We take 'em one game at a time. You hear them so often you want to stick your head in a blender. I'll tell you what—he's just special. You...

When all was said and done, the new and mostly improved Players Championship could be described as a qualified success

Rory Sabbatini persists in saying what everyone may be thinking, regardless of the consequences

The real scorecard from the revamped Players Championship

WHO: Phil Mickelson

Now a senior, Seve hopes to recapture the magic in America

A crunch-time mistake by a nervous young pro? That hardly describes what happened to 24-year-old Sean O'Hair