April 06, 1987 | Volume 66, Issue 14

You would think Kevin Mitchell would be a happy man. Not only is he about to play in his hometown, San Diego, but he's set for just one position, third base, instead of the six he manned for the...

Remember that old Milwaukee infield—Cooper, Gantner, Yount, Molitor? Why, it was as stable as Swiss currency. Now it's beginning to look like Swiss cheese. Cecil Cooper won't be back at first...

The difference between playing in Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Chicago's Wrigley Field, Andre Dawson said after signing with the Cubs, "is like night and day."

The Hawk is gone, and even if the White Sox don't miss Ken Harrelson's swagger and multitude of coaches, they should at least be grateful for the pitching staff he left them. Chicago was third in...

The last remaining 1979 World Series ring in the Pirate clubhouse is permanently exhibited on the right hand of reliever Don Robinson. He's what's left of the Fam-a-lee. "Yeah," Robby says with a...

The Expos have finally raised the roof in Olympic Stadium. Unfortunately, they didn't get it done in time to prevent most of the talent from flying away. "All the Expos have left is Hubie Brooks...

Braves manager Chuck Tanner is becoming the patron saint of lousy baseball teams. For all of his optimism and good intentions, he has had three last-place clinkers in a row—two in Pittsburgh, one...

It didn't take Dick Williams long after becoming the Seattle manager last May 9 to decide that the prevailing and often frustrating tactic, "the three-run homer," wasn't working. "We'll try...

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOODRoger Craig has been hired as a consultant for the film version of the John R. Tunis book The Kid from Tomkinsville. Craig had another brush with the movies in 1973, when he...

While Roger Clemens takes a stand not far from the Alamo, we give you 10 of baseball history's best holdouts:

A year after the rookie cornucopia of Jose Canseco, Wally Joyner, Pete Incaviglia, Cory Snyder, Ruben Sierra and Todd Worrell, the talent keeps coming:

It was time for a new season, but the question under discussion was from the old: Do you send Don Baylor up to bat for Bill Buckner?

In 1975, when I was a junior, the physical education department of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., fired the men's basketball coach and introduced a new sport, t'ai chi. While...

The Lady Vols were the belles of the NCAA ball

Sandy Lyle won the rain-plagued TPC on a defenseless course

Tony Hrkac led North Dakota to the NCAA title

Lee Chilton specializes in rebuilding baseball gloves

ARCHERY—At the world target championships in Adelaide, Australia, WEST GERMANY won the men's team final 891-878 over the runner-up U.S., while the SOVIET UNION placed first in the women's...

CARRIE GARRITSONFULLERTON, CALIF.Carrie, 10, a fifth-grade runner, set a U.S. age-group record of 35:23 for the 10K while winning the women's division of a Los Angeles road race. The previous...

This fan likes his thrills without poetic frills

Just about anyone who has played baseball, especially in cold weather, has experienced the painful, stinging sensation that follows hitting an inside pitch off the handle of the bat. Your hands...

AGENTS OF VIOLENCE?

•Chi Chi Rodriguez, golf pro, questioning the oft-cited need to keep one's eye on the ball: "The USGA has a machine that can hit a ball 300 yards every time, and it has never seen a golf ball."

Twenty-five years ago, Ted Williams, retired a year, and Mike Roarke, then a Detroit Tiger catcher and now the pitching coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, were discussing the strike zone. They...

Batters come in all shapes and sizes, but some in baseball maintain that the umpires don't take into account how big a hitter is when they call balls and strikes. "Umpires have a box mentality,"...

THE AL'S BEST

This is the third straight preview in which SI has ranked the 26 major league teams from top to bottom, regardless of league or division. We may be the only publication doing it this way, but...

PONYGATECan it finally be said that NCAA stands for No Cheating At All? The recent ruling to nullify SMU's 1987 football season (Shame on You, SMU, March 9) was a step in the right direction. But...

"Baseball," writes the poet Donald Hall, "is fathers and sons playing catch." Indeed, no other sport seems to pass so easily from generation to generation. Sixty-seven sons (and one grandson) of...

The last time the Indians won a pennant was in 1954, when SPORTS ILLUSTRATED was born and I started working for the magazine. The Indians were always near the top in those days. Season after...

Whom would you want at the plate when the game's on the line? Mattingly? Schmidt? Whom would you want pitching for your team? Scott? Righetti? Since 1975 the Elias Sports Bureau has kept track of...

What do you do for an encore after winning the NL East by 21½ games, the largest margin in the history of divisional play, and then winning the NLCS and the World Series with the come-from-behind...

Yes, Pete will play. "It may be May 15 [the first date he can be activated] or July 15 or September 15," says Rose, "but I can still pinch-hit and help this team. I can do it for a few more years."

One morning in Dunedin, Fla., a National League manager was watching the Blue Jays work out. "They remind me of one of those circus cars where all the clowns keep getting out," he said. "Toronto...

Early in spring training, manager Pat Corrales was asked if he was concerned that so many experts were touting his Indians as the up-and-coming team of 1987. "Naw," Corrales replied a bit testily....

Pitching beat the Yankees last year. Not Boston's: their own. New York had only one starter with more than 10 wins. Those numbers stand as a testament to manager Lou Piniella, who finagled 90...

Each morning in Clearwater there was a new name. Mike Smithson. Alejandro Pena. Mike Mason. They were all pitchers the Phillies thought they could get. "We could score five runs a game," said Mike...

Tommy Lasorda managed by the book last season. Unfortunately, the book was Gray's Anatomy. The Dodgers led the majors in both disabled listees (16) and lineups used (123), while displaying the...

Nolan Ryan isn't a gambler, but he went to Las Vegas in January to celebrate his 40th birthday. "Wasn't too lucky," he admits. "He told me he got sent home in his shorts," says Houston reliever...

Ivan Maisel

One day in spring training, Oil Can Boyd exploded at a sportswriter who asked him about some overdue videos borrowed for the Can's Film Festival last spring. The next morning, Roger Clemens walked...

So, who are these guys? Are they the Cardinals who were within one close call of the 1985 world championship, or the 1986 also-rans who became the first team ever to go from first to last in runs...

There is more than just a little bit of those old rollicking world champion Oakland A's of the early '70s in this year's team—and there could have been even more. Reggie Jackson is back, not as a...

Baseball is not a game of inches, it's a game of ifs, and no team is iffier than the Giants. You might even say that Candlestick Park is a veritable Château d'If. Take pitching. The Giants have...

The Angels, who missed by this much last year, won't be the same team this time around. They might be better, although that's not likely. "We'll be different, that's certain," says manager Gene...

There are new faces in Kansas City this season, from manager Billy Gardner to acquisitions Danny Tartabull and Juan Beniquez. But they aren't as important as the new looks on the old faces. The...

That darned kid. He found a dazzling paisley shirt in rookie infielder Julius McDougal's locker at the Twins' training camp in Orlando this spring, slipped it over his uniform and wore it out to...

"Platoon," barks Tiger manager Sparky Anderson. No, that wasn't his Oscar vote; it's his solution to Detroit's uncertainty at DH and catcher. Sparky has patched his team's holes with fresh grunts...

Pitching and defense go together like hand and glove. But in Baltimore last season the two of them were more like foot and mouth. It once was the Oriole Way to catch the ball efficiently, as the...