Greener Pastures Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems to be a lot happier with his new racing team, Hendrick Motorsports. You can see from your story that Rick Hendrick really cares about his drivers. The...

Barry has left the building—and the Giants are loving life

WHO'S Hot

Which team has the best fans in the NHL?

Returned To international competitive gymnastics with a handy win at the American Cup, Paul Hamm (above). In his first international competition since winning the all-around gold medal in Athens 3...

PAT RILEY Coach of the 11--46 Miami Heat: "I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony. I know what to do; I just don't know where to start."

A nine-year-old girl in Australia has been banned from her tennis club for grunting too loudly when she hits the ball.

W.C. Heinz wrote sports with spare elegance

EVEN IF you never listened to him bellow "yoi!"—or, if the action was especially gripping, "double yoi!"—during a Steelers broadcast or read one of the more than 40 stories he wrote for SI between...

THE FIRST photograph Theo Westenberger shot for SI was a 1986 portrait of Teresa Weatherspoon, Stacey Davis and the rest of Louisiana Tech's powerhouse basketball starting five decked out in...

RED SOX CENTERFIELDER

Sightless students make a tense Everest trek

ADAM CAROLLA'S comedy about a carpenter turned boxer, The Hammer (March 21), is the TV and radio personality's first starring role but not his first foray into the sweet science. After he grew...

What to watch and watch for

Kaitlyn Orstein MOUNT LEBANON, PA. > Swimming Orstein, a senior at Washington & Jefferson, won the 200-yard individual medley, the 100 and the 200 breaststroke, and was part of the winning 200...

Last fall former Cowboys running back Ron Springs appeared to have pulled off a medical miracle. In February 2007 Springs, 51, who suffers from diabetes and had waited on a kidney transplant list...

The Interview Bruce Pearl TENNESSEE COACH

Nobody plays harder or has done more to make his team a winner than Tyler Hansbrough, No. 1 North Carolina's maniacally focused junior forward—which is why he's SI's pick for national player of...

DEBATE CONTINUES

MEN

Tennessee's Candace Parker has topped last year's all-world season with a better one—and is SI's pick for women's POY

Thanks to the lessons of his Hall of Famer dad, the Virginia standout learned early that to be a top NFL prospect requires an uncommon passion

MOCK MADNESS

Bully defenseman Mike Komisarek has transformed the Canadiens into the meanest, most Cup-worthy team that Montreal has had in years

PLAYOFF PUSH

Having endured so many departures, Cleveland fans are expecting the worst as C.C. Sabathia approaches free agency

SEASON PREVIEW

Once known for her highlight-reel crashes, Lindsey Vonn started relying more on technique than breakneck speed and developed into a dominant force on the World Cup circuit

The red-hot Rockets figured to plummet after Yao Ming went down. But their upward path has continued thanks to Tracy McGrady and some surprising contributors

ONE-YEAR WONDERS

Luminous paintings by Kadir Nelson re-create the power and majesty of the Negro leagues, in a time when some of the game's greats played in undeserved obscurity—but with undiminished passion

College Basketball UCLA's hottest player is high-flying sophomore shooting guard Russell Westbrook • Cornell ends the era of Princeton-Penn Ivy League dominance by earning its first NCAA bid in 20...

Catching Fire

With an 86--53 win over Harvard last Saturday, Cornell ended the era of Ivy League bipartisanship—a 20-year span in which only Penn or Princeton (the so-called Killer P's) earned NCAA tournament...

Double Down

Thanks largely to such innovations as head and neck safety restraints and the steel and foam energy reduction barrier (SAFER), six drivers walked away from wrecks at Las Vegas on Sunday that in an...

ALL THE explanations have sunk in. Enlarged heart. Went out doing what she loved. It was her time. But here's one thing Shannon Veal's parents can't figure. They'd videotaped dozens of her games...

Nowinzki Lakers forward Kobe Bryant (24) zeroed in on the loose ball after the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki had it stripped in the fourth quarter at Staples Center on Sunday. Nowitzki scored 30...

Vardon, interlocking or 10-finger. Strong, weak or neutral. For every Tour pro, the seemingly simple act of holding a golf club contains a story

After a nearly career-ending decline, Steve Stricker used introspection and hard work—as well as a mirror—to recapture the success he experienced a decade ago

Big win, bold talk by Ochoa

How should Tour players approach the Tiger Woods juggernaut?

WHO Ernie Els

In his last nine starts Tiger Woods has ripped off eight wins and a second. Woods has played magnificently but has also benefited from less than stellar play by his final-round playing partners....

"I hear that some Tour players have been making bets with each other that Tiger Woods will go undefeated this season."

Is Tiger Woods's dominance good for the Tour? Yes 95% No 5%

After years of suffering, I'm trying to beat my allergies

With the move to PGA National, the Honda Classic has finally arrived.

FedEx Cup playoffs reset is tweaked to create more volatility

For Ernie Els, a narrow win at the Honda Classic was not only a relief but also a welcome sign of progress in the larger scheme