October 18, 1999 | Volume 91, Issue 15

The Groana In VeronaAfter landing a knockout punch just 31 seconds into her first bout, in a casino in Verona, N.Y., Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, screamed at April Fowler to get up and fight....

Every Friday night on America's high school football fields, it's the same old story. Broken bones. Senseless violence. Clashing egos.

Stefanie Spielman said that Chris felt sorry for all of the people who bought Spielman jerseys now that he has retired. I bought mine today.—ANN RAKOWIECKI, Williams Bay, Wis.

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,...

July 4, 1983

Highlights

In the John Irving novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, the title character improbably smashes a foul ball that kills the prettiest woman in town. In Game I of the American League Division Series...

The Yanks are coming! The Yanks are coming! Again? Pro sports' most storied and successful franchise, the Bronx Bombers are loved and hated but never ignored. As they seek a third World Series...

The Ivy League may not produce All-Pros, but its gridirons do breed prime-time all-stars

Rick SutcliffeThe rookie ESPN baseball analyst showed near-perfect pitch in his succinct and prescient commentary during his stint on last week's Astros-Braves National League Division Series.

CBSBeginning in 2002 the network that telecasts the AFC gets a team in Houston (1.7 million TV homes) rather than one in Los Angeles (5.2 million homes).

The unchallenged absurdities of today's TV sports have Bob Costas spewing invective—off the air

While Houston celebrates, L.A. faces a future without NFL football

He had a lot on his mind-like embodying the American Dream for his sporting goods company, Andl, and paying $105,000 to two motorists he hit with his car. So Latrell Sprewell blew off the start of...

19NFL teams that were outscored by the Red Sox on Sunday, when Boston clobbered the Indians 23-7.

Exposed•William McMullen, a football coach at Old Colony High in Rochester, Mass., who had pretended to be former Notre Dame All-America Nick Eddy for more than 20 years. The ruse was discovered...

Spain Won its first Dunhill Cup on Sunday at St. Andrews, but nothing in the 16-nation event matched the sight of Michael Jordan chasing Sergio (el Nino) Garcia down a fairway at the Old Course on...

When extreme kayaker Tao Berman paddled over 98-foot Upper Johnston Falls in Canada's Banff National Park on Aug. 23, the spectacle brought onlookers to tears. But for Berman the world-record...

Stone Cold IPO

Basketball Hall of Famer George Gervin does the voice of a card-playing dog on ESPN's NFL ads.

PAUL GASCOIGNEMiddlesbrough midfielder, on being ejected from an English Premier League soccer game: "What is the world coming to when you get a red card and get fined two weeks' wages for calling...

In her debut, Laila Ali, the daughter of the Greatest, was a chip off the old champ

Clair Bee's sports series is available again—but with some cautious updating

A self-proclaimed smash-mouth women's league had a not-so-smashing debut

The U.S., as expected, lost its first two matches in the World Cup

Sprinter Brian Frasure's carbon-fiber leg gives him a second shot at glory

The newest thing in artificial grass surfaces is more like the real stuff

The 16-inch game was dying until Chicago organized a high school league

Kevin Garnett's six-year, $126 million contract with the Timber-wolves, signed in October 1997, so drastically changed the NBA's financial landscape that owners orchestrated the first work...

John Thomas, TampaAutocrossThomas, 34, a building-products manufacturer, drove his 1986 Honda Civic to a 2.376-second victory over Bart Merriam of Anna, Ohio, to earn a record seventh straight E...

The wild, wild, wild-card Mets stopped the Diamondbacks and earned another shot at the Braves in the League Championship Series

RRRRRIIIIICO Henderson," New York Mets lefthander Kenny Rogers purred, the exaggerated ri rolling from his tongue, salsalike. "I've been with that guy on two teams, and I know how he's survived."

SI asked major league scouts who have closely followed the playoff teams to help prepare these reports on the four participants in the League Championship Series. The scouts were promised...

If you want to beat the Atlanta Braves, you have to beat the poet. By now everybody should know that. If the New York Mets can't figure out a way to do it, the National League playoffs will be a...

Lineup

The resilient Red Sox got off the deck to knock out the Indians and set up a showdown with the Yankees, who were clicking on all cylinders as they cruised through Texas

From Williams to Yaz to Fisk to Clemens to Vaughn, the Boston Red Sox have been a team defined, for better or worse, by a line of elder statesmen that traces back half a century. Times have...

Lineup

One by one his teammates hugged him so tightly, so earnestly behind the pitcher's mound at The Ballpark in Arlington that it seemed as if someone in this welcome wagon in spikes would hand over a...

Lineup

Rams quarterback Kurt Warner is lighting up the NFL, thanks largely to an unwavering faith that has been tested time and again

As Michigan learned the hard way, these aren't the same, soft Spartans

For Grizzlies point guard , his rookie season was a learning experience. By the end, he was an A student

Follow our pitch-by-pitch coverage of baseball's League Championship Series, with exclusive on-the-scene reports from SI's Stephen Cannella and Jeff Pearlman.

The best sailor in the U.S., Paul Cayard, may have mellowed some, but he's applying his trademark intensity to bringing home the America's Cup

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Sad CaseHeisman candidate Peter Warrick's felony charge overshadowed Florida State's sixth win

•USC (3-2) at Notre Dame (3-3)This matchup—11 Heisman Trophy winners have played in this series' 70 games—has produced some of the sport's memorable moments: 55 points in less than 17 minutes...

1. Pac-10—The conference has been pitiful this season and doesn't have a team ranked in the Top 25. Pac-IO schools are 0-4 against Top 25 teams, and preseason favorite Arizona has been a major...

Tennessee safety Deon Grant, a top ball hawk, is eyeing the good life

High RoadThanks to a gallant plea from injured Mike Modano, the Stars didn't do any Duck hunting last week

SERGEI FEDOROVRED WINGS CHis play has ranged from spectacular to subpar. He has averaged 1.11 points per game during his nine-year career. At 29, he's coming off a humdrum 26-goal season, but he's...

Oilers restricted free-agent holdout Bill Guerin may be sitting home for a long time if his agent, Bob Murray, insists on comparing Guerin, a righthanded-shooting winger, with Hurricanes holdout...

Ricky Williams must get healthy, then get more work, to help the Saints

1. Life's a BeachThe awarding of the NFL's 32nd franchise to Houston ensures that Los Angeles, the country's second-largest television market, will be without a team for the foreseeable future.

People moan about parity in the NFL. They gripe about it because griping is the thing to do, because they've read about it or heard it somewhere. They complain without fully understanding what...