April 20, 1998 | Volume 88, Issue 16

Couples kissed. Strangers hugged. Women in heels threw elbows for position. Fifty-eight-year-old Jack Nicklaus had just birdied the 15th hole on Sunday to get within two shots of the Masters lead,...

January 30, 1967

It's players like Mark McGwire who make the Albert Belles and Mo Vaughns disappear.—GEOFFREY S. GOLLIHURPitman, N.J.

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,...

A useful rule of thumb for television viewing: Any program that includes footage of Mark Gastineau writhing in pain after crashing his bicycle deserves a look. To see that vainglorious, erstwhile...

•That more coaches had the humility of Larry Bird, who termed talk of his being named coach of the year "a joke."

4Different uniforms (two home, two road) that have been worn by the Diamondbacks, who through Monday had played 13 major league games.

ARIZONAForget the 90 games the Diamondbacks are sure to lose this year. Owner Jerry Colangelo has a rabid fan base and a cash-cow ballpark, and this master salesman will build a contender by 2000....

Monday is Patriots' Day in Beantown, but don't count on a red-white-and-blue win in the 102nd Boston Marathon. Once dominated by U.S. men, the race has for more than a decade been ruled by runners...

Calling it "not exceptional," Uli Hoeness, general manager of Bayern Munich, Germany's premier soccer club, admitted that the club had hired a private investigator to tail the movements of...

CLYDE DREXLERHouston Rockets guard and, beginning next season, University of Houston basketball coach, after Michael Jordan asked if there was anything he could do to help Drexler in his new job:...

Favorites encountered detours and potholes aplenty in the last round of Derby preps

Epic Season: The 1948 American League Pennant Raceby David Kaiser

The Bataan Memorial Death March honors fallen warriors

Can savvy marketing break Nike's toehold?

Springtime on top of the World: Temperatures hovering around a balmy 0°, winds blowing at a soothing 50 mph, perfect conditions for attacking Mount Everest's 29,028-foot summit. The month-long...

The cast of serial bowlers in the U.S. Open featured more than a few characters

Spring break is almost over for the nine boats competing in the Whitbread Round the World Race. After a three-week layover in Fort Lauderdale (more high-tech tuning up than high-times tuning out),...

Ashley Hayden, Westborough, Mass.LugeAshley, 16, who is in only her second year of international competition, won the overall World Cup championship in the girls' 13-16 age group. She came in...

By his own estimate, Derek Sanderson who during the early 1970s was the highest-paid hockey player in the world, blew $3 million on bad investments, cocaine, alcohol, pills and—as myriad photos...

Departments

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and CNN team up on the Internet to offer up-to-the-minute sports news and stats. This week SI's Peter King provides in-depth coverage before, during and after the NFL draft and...

Sunday 4/19

Those annual miniseries, the NBA and NHL playoffs, commence this week (hockey, Wednesday, ESPN and ESPN2, 7:30 p.m.; basketball, Thursday, TBS, 7 p.m., and TNT, 8 p.m.). Here's how to know, at a...

Young lions and Tiger and a Golden Bear— slipped past a menagerie of rivals to win the Masters

With overpowering performances in his first three starts, has ignited the kind of ardor that Red Sox fans once reserved for Roger Clemens

Three WoodThe bat of Milwaukee Brewer Jeff Cirillo breaks into three pieces as he grounds out to third off a pitch from Montreal Expos righthander Dustin Hermanson.

In today's now-or-never NFL, the heat is on personnel chiefs to draft college players who not only will make good pros but also will have immediate impact

Here's how Paul Zimmerman thinks the first round of the NFL draft will unfold. (Asterisk indicates a projected trade.)

They aren't the top-rated players at their positions, but Dr. Z is intrigued by these five prospects.

Five years after walking on at Florida State Andre Wadsworth has become the most coveted defensive player in the NFL draft

His contract controversy behind him, Sergei Fedorov is back in the good graces of his teammates and leading the red-hot Red Wings into the playoffs

On the verge of a breakup, the creaking Rockets are trying to summon the pride and proficiency to ignite one final—and glorious—playoff run

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Beating Up Their Own

Unugly Duck

C JASON ARNOTTDevils1997-98 salary: $1.8 millionThis big fella (6'3", 220) shoots often, but with only 10 goals through Sunday he hadn't been the finisher he's paid to be.

Wayne Gretzky's fabulous breakaway goal against the Canadiens last week was a perfect example of why the Great One should have been among the five players Canada used in the Olympic shoot-out it...

Russia is the last place its talented kids want to play

In Brett Tomko's first two starts this season, foes hit .204 against the Reds righty. As good as he is at painting corners, though, Tomko is at his best in front of an easel. He spent his...

In an April 7 game at San Diego, Reds pitcher Pete Harnisch had cruised through eight shutout innings, allowing just four hits and striking out four, when he was lifted by manager Jack McKeon....

Despite reports that Mike Piazza's contract negotiations with the Dodgers were on hold after he turned down a six-year, $80 million offer last week, both sides are still hoping to reach an...

In case you hadn't heard, Florida will not be repeating its unlikely run of last year. No team that started the season 1-9 or 0-10 (the Marlins were 1-11 through Sunday) has won the World Series....

Why baseball's lush past is still so easily connected to its present

Disaster Planning

How's this for a second act? Former NBA center Manute Bol is playing for a prince's team in Qatar....

Unlike the NHL, the NBA doesn't hand out an award for "sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct." If it did, the 1997-98 winner of basketball's Lady Byng would be Cleveland guard Wesley Person. While...

April 19 SEATTLE AT PORTLAND Rose GardenThe Sonics finish a smashing regular season in the same place where they began it: 145 miles down I-5, in Portland. Seattle, the undisputed champ of the...

On the road, Knicks trainer Mike Saunders uses a little gadgetry and lots of ice

APRIL 15 IS A DAY OF TORMENT FOR FOUR WHO PLEADED GUILTY TO TAX FRAUD AND LOST THEIR JOBS BECAUSE THEY CASHED IN AIRLINE TICKETS—AND DIDN'T REPORT THE INCOME

The practice rounds kicked off The seven most memorable days of any seasons

The annual par-3 tournament is a little mysterious and a lot of fun

One tournament ended and another began last Friday, when the name of the game was making the cut

Points of ViewG4 Photographer Lynn Johnson looks at the people and places that made the 62nd Masters something special

After a fight to the finish, what was a heartbreaking defeat for one man was a moral victory for another

Lasting images from Augusta National and the '98 Masters

Matt Kuchar woke up last Thursday morning in the Crow's Nest, the loft in the Augusta National clubhouse where the amateurs bunk, went downstairs and destroyed a hefty breakfast, then decided to...

Each in his own way, the Harmon brothers carry on the legacy of their father

Digging through a cache of long-forgotten papers, the author unearthed an unpublished series of photos and instruction in the hand of the greatest golfer of them all

The Woods

Local KnowledgeSubstitute caddie Joe Collins proved his mastery of the craft at Augusta

Couples: Fred Couples is the only green jacket winner never to have missed a cut in the Masters.

I keep hearing how the face of golf is changing—how Tiger Woods is bringing people of all colors to the game, and how programs like First Tee are making golf accessible to black kids. When I hear...

Straight Shooter: Though notably cool toward Fuzzy Zoeller at the Masters, Tiger Woods shrugged off questions about their supposed feud, claiming that the press has exaggerated it. After Woods...

Golf fans worried when Sam Snead, 85, was stricken with what appeared to be a stroke last week. During his annual five-hour drive to the Masters, Snead had gotten dizzy. "I'd eaten a bad piece of...

There were many intelligent exchanges between players and reporters at Augusta. Then there were these Q and A's that should have been DQ'd (plus what the player probably wanted to say).

What do these players have in common?

The best gunfight in golf is Hale Irwin versus Gil Morgan

154Greg Norman's 36-hole score last week at Augusta, where he missed the cut. Until then his worst two-round total in 18 Masters tournaments was 151.

PGA

Swirling winds swept away the clamor for change at Augusta National