December 28, 1998 | Volume 89, Issue 26

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...and he's got a nasty four-seam fastball. David Wells's perfect game was among the bountiful gifts delivered to sports fans this year by the champions...

Secure your safety goggles, take two steps back and get ready for the first Chuckie Awards, in which we take the people in sports who suffered the most serious cases of cranial-rectal inversion in...

College basketball has one shining moment. The NBA has one whining moment after another.—JOE WABICK, Winnipeg

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer. They may be mailed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, New York,...

DON'T MISSMonday 1/4Fiesta Bowl•ABC 8 PMMiami miscued here in 1987. Florida fell in '96. Now Florida State (11-1) becomes the third Sunshine State school to take aim at a national title in Sun...

10.9Rating in cable homes for the Dec. 13 Dolphins-Jets game. Seen by an average of 8.2 million households, it was the third most-watched telecast in ESPN's 19-year history and the...

View Year's resolutions: Me—Make requisite Barbara Feldon reference ASAP (there, done). Keith Olbermann—Don't rent, buy. Daniella Deutscher (sweet shooter on NBC's Saturday-morning hoops comedy...

TV sports' puzzling injustices and cruel ironies invite despair—but leave a glimmer of hope

Ryan Brewer, Troy, OhioFootballRyan, a senior running back at Troy High, was named Ohio's Mr. Football after setting a state single-season rushing record of 2,856 yards despite playing all 10...

All the Fans

•That bowl names like Micron PC and Insight.com byte the dust.

117,647Cost to Kevin Greene, in dollars, of his one-game suspension for attacking Panthers linebackers coach Kevin Steele.

Sunnyside UpdraftWhen two paragliders soared off into the sunset above Castellucio, a region of central Italy near Rome that's a hot spot for the sport, they raised a pair of eyebrows.

Fans fed up with baseball—whose postseason seems to have become the exclusive preserve of big-spending clubs like the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees—can take solace...

PITA ELISARA

The Asian Games, marred by poor planning, crumbling facilities and plagues of insects in Bangkok, came to an end amid charges of an attempted fix in the table tennis finals.

MALIK ROSESpurs forward, claiming the lockout has forced him to move back into his mother's house and share a room with his eight-year-old brother: "This is it. I sleep on Rugrats pillowcases."

The essays George Sheehan published 20 years ago still inform and inspire

You wouldn't know it from the rhetoric emanating from the NBA lockout, but this is the season of giving. So while cruising the net between holiday parties and bowl games, check in with those in...

Player of the year Misty May led Long Beach State to an NCAA title that capped a perfect season

Charles Hayward's leukemia is in remission, and he's playing the game he loves

The Minutemen's new coach scripted a Division I-AA title that was pure Hollywood

There is no worse fate than having your lenses fog up when you're barreling down a busy ski run, except maybe dropping your eyewear while trying to clean it on the lift. The Smith Turbo Constant...

By getting off to one of his hottest starts, Eric Lindros has responded to a growing legion of doubters-including Flyers management-who wonder if he's capable of leading a team to the Stanley Cup

Departments

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and CNN team up on the Internet to offer the latest sports news. Revisit the top stories of 1998 in our blowout year-in-review package at www.cnnsi.com. Check out the best and...

Jamal Anderson, the Falcons' workhorse running back, racks up yardage (huge) and makes gestures (grand) to match his ego (jumbo)

Their Sunday Best

Neyland (above, center, at the 1940 Rose Bowl) guided the '39 Volunteers to the last unscored-upon regular season. Remarkably, the year before, Duke also didn't give up a point in going 9-0 before...

The national title game promises to be an epic battle between Tennessee's relentless running game and Florida State's no-name D

PRO FOOTBALL

Spirit of GivingThis season will be remembered for its lack of a dominating defense

Here are the potential free agents who are expected to hit the biggest jackpots in the off-season. Even if some of them re-sign with their teams before they can test the market beginning on Feb....

Here's how several NFL issues and personnel decisions could play out in the off-season...and beyond.

Sign of the times: The Vikings' machine, with a chance to break the NFL scoring record, dominates the offense of my annual All-Pro team. Quarterback Randall Cunningham (below), enjoying a career...

The most interesting action on the final weekend of the regular season involves the race for the last NFC wild-card spot, only because it's so freaky. Three teams, all with shaky foundations and...

Not-So-Lame DuckInspired by its soon-to-be-ousted coach, Iowa is off to a surprisingly fast start

Dick Vitale is a very nice man, let us say that right up front. And let us give him the benefit of the doubt by saying that his geniality is the reason he does such a disservice to his viewers by...

Show BusinessThe game wasn't the only thing for the 16 stars at The Game

The Hawks are said to be the front-runners to sign free-agent small forward Rick Fox, who played for the Lakers last season for $1 million but will get a richer, multiyear deal this time....