PRO BASKETBALL—All four best-of-seven semifinal conference series were still in doubt at week's end, as underdogs proved to be a bit tougher than expected. In the East, at first it seemed that...

DANI BARRIOWA CITY, IOWADani, a junior at Iowa City High, was the state girls' all-around champion in gymnastics for the second straight year. She won the vault (9.5), uneven bars (9.7) and floor...

Those in charge in sports often don't control themselves

SOFT TIME

•Bo Schembechler, football coach and newly appointed athletic director at the University of Michigan, on his career plans: "I'll coach as long as I desire or until the new athletic director...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the short end? Mark Eaton, Utah's 7'4" center, had him there until L.A. tied the playoffs 2-2

Even as their physical style left various NBA teams in pieces this season, the Detroit Pistons could never quite put together their own. In failing to fulfill their regular-season mission of...

Boston's icemen made it to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in a decade, but New Jersey extended them to the utmost

Beset by controversy, a drained Zola Budd left England and returned to South Africa

Could the Seattle Mariners' hapless start this season be a case of poetic justice?

The opening words of Ron Fimrite's story about Martins Ferry, Ohio, the town that produced John Havlicek, the Niekro brothers and other accomplished athletes (page 78), are "The beauty of the...

The Chinese team swept past the rest of the world at the McDonald's meet in Florida

Mats Wilander is happy being almost the top tennis player in the world. Question is, will he take the next step?

Perennial late starter Gwen Torrence came to sprinting reluctantly; now she's easing her way to the Olympics

Syracuse's Gait twins are a one-two punch in the NCAAs

Led by Rick Mears, Team Penske filled Indy's front row

A DEAL IN TIME CAN SAVE A NINE

FORTUNE, FAME AND SHAMEThe Pirates wanted to honor Willie Stargell on the occasion of his election to the Hall of Fame. So for the event the club chose May 21—a day on which the Atlanta Braves,...

John Kruk was pulling into the parking lot at the San Diego Padres' Yuma, Ariz., training camp in March when a security guard stopped him. Kruk explained that he was a player. The guard,...

Martins Ferry, Ohio, and its sister villages have produced a generation of superb athletes

GEHRIG'S FAREWELLDavid Noonan's story about Lou Gehrig and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Double Legacy of the Iron Horse, April 4) is one of the finest pieces I've read in your magazine. Could...

Baseball journals prove the pen is as mighty as the bat