April 01, 2002 | Volume 96, Issue 14

The earth moves often for sports fans in this era of bombastic pronouncements

don't miss

The online auction items of the week

No Surprise: Bob Costas Goes Deep

Jeff Cirillo, 3B, Seattle Mariners

MARCH 22, 1971

Chain LettersCharles Barkley (Citizen Barkley, March 11) is good for the black community, I believe. I'm an African-American professional who feels that there are still different sets of rules for...

Letters

Four new tales of the sports world that are stranger than fiction

When the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit indicted former Michigan booster Ed Martin last week, claiming he laundered $616,000 from an illegal gambling operation by loaning it to Chris Webber and...

Recently published sport-themed children's books, and the lessons of life they offer.

5Baseball postseason games won, of the last 224 played, by a team that maintained a payroll below the major league mean.

The new CBS sitcom Baby Bob, about a talking infant, was spawned by a series of commercials for an Internet access provider starring Shaquille O'Neal. Bob is only the latest sports-related...

A year to the day after a horrific crash left him in a coma for three weeks, Bill Johnson returned last Friday to ski the same slope at Montana's Big Mountain resort on which he had his near-fatal...

Alleged•By former major league outfielder Tom Paciorek, that he was molested by the Rev. George Shirilla while attending Catholic school in Detroit in the 1960s. Paciorek and three of his brothers...

Just another manic Monday. For full coverage of baseball's Opening Day and the NCAA men's championship game, log on to cnnsi.com.

A landmark court case focuses attention on a deadly problem

As the wife of a former major leaguer prone to getting into trouble, Charisse Strawberry has spent a lot of time in front of TV cameras. It was on the talk-show circuit last year discussing Darryl...

English vicar Stephen Girling plans to show the June 2 England-Sweden World Cup soccer match at his Stubbington church to lure parishioners to that day's service.

ALEX VAN PELTBills quarterback, on actor Will Smith's gaining 30 pounds to play the title role in Air. "Big deal. I do that every off-season."

Anthony Thompson isn't your average black Jewish accountant turned fighter

Cal sophomore Natalie Coughlin is making waves that could carry her to Athens

KNIGHT: My Story, by Bob Knight with Bob Hammel Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 375 pages, $25.95

Yvonne Walton, LONDONDERRY, N.H.FencingWalton, 50, an animal-hospital manager, won the veteran combined women's foil at the North American Cup to earn a berth in the world championships. Her...

Forget Cinderella, it's NBA-caliber big men—strong inside and agile outside—who give Indiana, Kansas, Maryland and Oklahoma the potential winning ticket in the Final Four

We asked coaches and assistants who this season have broken down hours of tape preparing game plans against the Final Four teams to tell us what they saw and offer insights on how to play those...

"Transition is their biggest weapon," says an assistant whose team lost to the Terps in the NCAAs. "[Point guard] Steve Blake and [guard] Juan Dixon make good decisions, and [power forward] Chris...

"Stay tight on Hollis Price regardless of what's happening elsewhere on the floor," says an assistant whose team lost to the Sooners in the NCAAs. "All he needs is a split second to get his shot...

"Indiana kills you with the three-point shot," says an assistant whose team lost to the Hoosiers in the NCAAs. "[Guards] Tom Coverdale, Dane Fife and Kyle Hornsby are all unbelievable streak...

Water GaitJulie Galloway of the Cypress Fairbanks swim club of Cypress, Texas, shoulders on during a preliminary heat of the women's 400-meter IM at the nationals in Minneapolis.

Iowa State senior Cael Sanderson closed out his sensational career with a sterling 159-0 record and his fourth NCAA title

SI picks the most impressive college sports feats ever

Though weighed down by fatigue, Alonzo Mourning continues to do battle against NBA centers, more than holding his own while uplifting the rest of the Heat

He's young, raw and strikes out too often, but the Reds' small-town slugger, Adam Dunn, can hit the ball a...

Last season Reds outfielder Adam Dunn became the latest in a long line of midsummer phenoms. Though he was not called up until July 20 and played in just 66 games, he finished the season ranked...

Here's a look at some rookies who could make a big league name for themselves in the next few weeks—or later in the season, as Adam Dunn did in 2001.

The deflected puck that felled Brittanie Cecil left her small Ohio town reeling and has the rest of us wondering about an accident that didn't have to happen

The puck that struck Brittanie Cecil in the left temple fractured her skull, but the cause of her death was a blood clot in a vertebral artery

Spectators don't want their views obstructed, but protecting fans, as European leagues do, should be an NHL priority

Teams and leagues are usually shielded from liability when spectators are injured during action, but that doesn't mean Brittanie Cecil's family won't be compensated

With new ballparks putting spectators closer than ever to the action, more fans are getting in harm's way

A Done Deal?Despite all their trades, the woeful Rangers look as if they'll miss the playoffs again

How did the Capitals obtain top goaltending prospect Maxime Ouellet and three high draft picks, including a first-rounder, from the Flyers for 39-year-old center and free-agent-to-be Adam Oates?...

Todd BertuzziCANUCKS LW

A Matter Of TimeLook for the Cubs to call up righthander Mark Prior, 21, sooner rather than later

Many teams take advantage of the frequent off days in April to go with a four-man rotation early in the season. Not the Red Sox, who are looking for ways to prevent the fragile Pedro Martinez from...

Star TreatmentNew Vikings coach Mike Tice has a plan to get the most out of enigmatic Randy Moss

This is how tired 49ers boss John York is of coach Steve Mariucci's flirtations in the job market (Notre Dame, Tampa Bay): The next time he tests the waters, Mariucci probably won't be welcomed...

Manual LaborsAllen Iverson's broken hand won't stop the Sixers in their run to the postseason

European prospect Nickoloz Tskitishvili will enter the draft if agent Marc Fleisher thinks he will go in the top 10. Fleisher hopes to negotiate a buyout for less than $1 million with...

On the value of the NCAA tournament in assessing prospects:

The way it should be: March Madness winds up this week after a month of showcasing the best college-age basketball players in America.

As usual, there was plenty of action at Sawgrass's island-green 17th, and some golf was played there too

It's only a matter of time before Lorena Ochoa does on the LPGA tour what she's doing at Arizona

Laura Diaz makes the case for substance over style

Forget Craig Perks, Johnny Miller was the real Sunday hero at the Players Championship. He saved a mostly somnolent telecast with some of his spikiest commentary ever—brutal, bombastic and...

Timing is everything, and the two pitch shots holed by Players champ Craig Perks couldn't have come at more dramatic moments

Craig Perks's victory at the Players was worth $1,065,000 more than his last win, a Hooters tour event in Natchez, Miss., in 1995, when he raked in $15,000....

Hinge and hold is how I describe the method for hitting short greenside pitches from the rough with a lob or a sand wedge. Here's a four-step guide to playing the shot the way Craig Perks does.

Achy Jim Colbert enlists in an aqua-aerobics boot camp

Thanks to a couple of amazing hole-outs when he needed them most, little-known Craig Perks fought off a star-studded field at the Players Championship