THE TROUBLED CHAMP

•Graig Nettles, one of the four Yankees who were fined $500 for missing a welcome-home luncheon for charity: "If this club wants somebody to play third base, they've got me. If they want somebody...

When Gary Player won his third straight tournament, it was a triumph for strict dieting and firm purpose. Also a new putting stroke

With Bill Walton hurting—and then out of it entirely—Portland fell dangerously behind in its NBA playoff battle against Seattle

Buffalo's Gilbert Perreault is used to being rocked and rolled, but his Stanley Cup encounters with Philadelphia turned up new obstacles and intensified his rivalry with Rick MacLeish, whose...

The Red Sox have been crushing the ball again, and Jim Rice and Butch Hobson have been the main marauders

It is a capital day on the sports calendar, a day brimming with history and tradition. It also is a day for people and horse watching, and for wild, sweet imagining. Artist Oscar de Mejo paints a...

The overlooked holder of the indoor and outdoor pole vaulting records is doing a slow burn because humans like Mike Tully are getting all the acclaim

What's a nice Harvard boy doing in a cramped Greenwich Village office with all that info on the horses?

In the words of one co-worker, Staff Writer Bruce Newman is "the son Pat Boone never had."

It's too early to call it a big success, but the Times Square Gym sure beats anything else playing on 42nd Street

In '77 the Dodgers had the National League West wrapped up by mid-May. But by winning two of three last week in L.A., the Reds showed they plan no '78 el foldo

AL WEST

ELIAS SOSA: The 27-year-old right-handed relief pitcher from the Dominican Republic appeared in all five of Oakland's games, allowing two hits in 62⅔ innings, saving two wins over Seattle and...

Jay Cronley has no artistic pretensions in his little novel about big-time college football. Fall Guy (Doubleday, $6.95). It's a modest tale that offers a modest moral or two, a number of solid...

And what comes out is more zip when you want it, thus more potential sporting pleasure in this day of shrinking engines and dwindling power. Turbos are old hat at Indy; now come the street cars

For tall odds on a small horse in the Kentucky Derby, try Esops Foibles

He won the AAU title with a borrowed style, and now Greg says he, too, is the greatest

Mary Decker remembers how wonderful life was when she was 14 and a world-class runner. Now, after years filled with turmoil and pain, she has come back to the sport she loves and become a...

PRO BASKETBALL—"The times we beat them in the past they didn't play as a unit. They went one-on-one," the Knicks' Jim McMillian said of the 76ers. "Now they're more of a team than I've ever seen...

4—Manny Millan13—drawing by SQW24—Dick Raphael25—Manny Millan26—Dick Raphael57—Heinz Kluetmeier62—illustration by Jim Flora67—William Strode73—Tony Triolo82—James Drake93—Linsey Scott Barrington (1)

JAMES BOWEN PARKSSUMMERVILLE, S.C.Bo, a sophomore, struck out 20 batters while pitching his second prep no-hitter for Summerville High School, a 3-0, seven-inning defeat of conference rival...

HOOP FEVERSir:I sincerely hope that Curry Kirkpatrick is as wrong about Portland not winning the NBA championship as he was about Phoenix winning it (Why Is This Man Eating Popcorn? April 17).KEN...