Sooner, Better

LETTERS

AUGUST 29, 1955

When Red Sox second baseman Mark Bellhorn homered off the rightfield foul pole at Yankee Stadium in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, announcer Tim McCarver called the resulting...

When the courts ran a reverse last spring, two college football stars wound up on the sidelines. Their different ways of handling exile could shape their NFL futures

With America's favorite horse retired, this isn't the Breeders' Cup the industry hoped for. But if you have a jones for jazzy ponies, it could still be one heck of a party

Cleared by the NCAA, Rick Neuheisel hopes to move past a gambling scandal

49 Straight games without a defeat for Arsenal--a record for England's top flight--before Sunday's 2--0 loss to Manchester United.

Ruled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, that Paul Hamm, the first American to win the men's gymnastics all-around Olympic title,...

For the second time this year, a Boston postgame celebration turns tragic

Good to be here. Sorry, but this is getting out of hand. Now Barry Bonds's trainer is claiming he put something in Tiger's yacht that would make it undetected by the Coast Guard.

The 35-year-old former heavyweight and middleweight champion is working as a boxing analyst for HBO.

World Series

After winning the softball gold medal in Greece, pitcher Jennie Finch had little time to prepare for her nuptials to Diamondbacks minor league righty Casey Daigle. They had planned on a fall...

Chinese track star Liu Xiang, who won the gold medal in the 110meter hurdles in Athens, has signed a deal to endorse cigarettes.

"North Carolina State forward, after North Carolina's Rashad McCants likened playing for the Tar Heels to being in prison: "If that's the way you look at it, I would hate to see what their shower...

The 10 Spot takes a look at the most outrageous characters ever to play for this year's World Series teams. For the Red Sox:

Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback

Should these athletes be considered for SI's Sportsman of the Year?

As the Chicago Cubs' third baseman from 1960 to '73, Ron Santo had stellar stats: He batted .300 four times; he hit 342 home runs (30 or more four years in a row); he won five Gold Gloves and made...

What to watch and watch for

Ilene Fahle OSLO > Football

Trey Bien

Ravens Linebacker

[Who's Hot]

Based on a survey of 354 players

•WHERE IS IT NOW?

Mike Rucker, Panthers DE, with Jeffri Chadiha

What was your welcome-to-the-NFL moment? "When I got sandwiched by Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp in my first NFL start, against Tampa Bay back in 2001."

Even as they look ahead to Sunday's games, these NFL stars draw lessons from the past

Starbucks, rich techies, soft showers: One visit and you'll want to Hasselbeck

What the Panthers like about Seattle

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In their quest to KO the Cardinals--and the Curse--Curt Schilling and the Red Sox got off on the right foot

If Boston and St. Louis are America's two greatest baseball towns (who would argue?), let's see how they match up

They didn't have the same opinions about the Red Sox, but talking about the team helped bring them together, especially at the end

Jack Buck taught his boy many things: the job of broadcasting, the way to treat people and how to go to bed thinking about the Cardinals

What has the selling of the Babe wrought for the Red Sox? Exactly what the Boston faithful wanted: 8 1/2 decades of self-indulgent suffering

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With supreme confidence and accuracy, do-it-all Daunte Culpepper is threatening NFL passing records and putting the Vikings on a fast track to the...

DAUNTE CULPEPPER isn't the only NFL quarterback on the brink of a career season. Here are three other passers who, although at very different stages in their development, are having notable starts...

Running mad in Urban Meyer's radical spread-option attack, Utah is stalking an unbeaten season--and putting another scare into the powers behind the BCS

... Do the Utes belong with the big boys? Two opinions on whether a Mountain West team deserves a BCS bowl bid

Providence coach Tim Welsh and his staff gave SI an inside look at their 13-month pursuit of this year's entering class. It was a process filled with red herrings, blind alleys, rejection,...

The Week in Sports

Despite the proliferation of passing offenses, a few runners are bucking the trend and putting up big numbers

1. With defenses keying on running back Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma quarterback Jason White has returned to his Heisman form of 2003. Big games at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M the next two...

MISSISSIPPI RISING

A BIG MESS

ALTHOUGH RICK HENDRICK owns one of the most successful teams in NASCAR history--he has won five Cup titles--he was always nervous when his son, Ricky (right), slid behind the wheel to drive in the...

Kurt Busch didn't win at Martinsville, but his sixth straight top five finish jacked up his lead in the Cup Chase

The undefeated Eagles went way down their roster for help in pulling out an overtime win over the Browns

T.O.'S NEXT TARGET

GROUND ASSAULT

HOT TOPIC

Here's my quiz for this week. I'll give you the names, you tell me the team they all play for--Stephen Trejo, Reggie Swinton, Artose Pinner, James Hall. (Hint: Each of these gentlemen figured...

DISPATCHES

The Boston Red Sox? Mangy, loopy, unruly, bizarre, rebellious and going in a thousand different directions.

TALES OF TWO CITIES

Want to know how it feels to be a PGA Tour player? Walk a mile in his shoes, or better yet, his shoemaker's

Rookie Ryan Palmer's first Tour victory is more evidence that the old school is still in session

[Up]

Ryan Palmer hit a power fade to take the trouble out of play on the 72nd hole and clinch his first PGA Tour win

Instead of helping the Tampa Bay Lightning retain the Stanley Cup, associate coach Craig Ramsey was a spectator at the Funai Classic at Walt Disney World. "I have plenty of time to watch and play...

3

Voting hours at si.com: 7 p.m. EDT Sunday to 3 p.m. EDT Monday

• WORLD SERIES Red Sox in six.

Tiger Woods: The Authorized DVD Collection ($49.99), a three-disc set hits the stores in two weeks, and while the most famous athlete on the planet doesn't need his own infomercial, here it is. In...

And here's the scoop on Tiger's $20 million, 155-foot floating honeymoon suite, the now ironically named Privacy.

AT 7,315 YARDS Innisbrook sounds like a beast, but for the Tour pros playing in this week's Chrysler Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., it's little more than a supersized pitch-and-putt. That's...

PLUS: Senior Civil War page G4 • Handmade in Brockton page G10

Civil War on the Champions Tour

The husband and wife team that made big league scheduling an art is finally being replaced by a computer

Here are some scheduling oddities from the 2004 season

Lawsuits, boardroom jukes, negotiating jive: Who knew there was so much predatory behavior behind college football telecasts?

A college English teacher takes his lumps and loves it on a small-time football team in upstate New York

After nearly drowning this summer, Robert Carr went after the Yale rushing record as if his life depended on it

Along with Yale's Robert Carr, these four players have been conference standouts this season

Thanks to ReelSports Solutions, filmgoers don't cringe when they see a Hollywood celeb attempt a pass