April 15, 2002 | Volume 96, Issue 16

Batters UpOh, the agony! After spending all winter trying to erase from my mind the image of Luis Gonzalez's World Series-winning bloop single, I open my mailbox to see Jason Giambi on the front...

Letters•For the fastest response, please fax us at 212-467-4049 or e-mail us at letters@si.timeinc.com.

With the Celtics in the hunt and the Lakers in town, Boston fans have plenty to get fired up about

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Murray Brothers Hit the Links for Yuks and Zingers

The online auction items of the week

OCTOBER 11, 1976

Should Michael Jordan come back to fight another day?

Oct. 30First game of season: Jordan scores 19 but misses game-tying shot with 18 seconds left in 93-91 loss to Knicks.

Last week trainer Bob Baffert, a perennial presence at the Kentucky Derby, surveyed the field of 3-year-old contenders for this year's race from a trackside perch at Santa Anita Park and...

What do you get the baseball fan who has everything? Well, if you really need a singular gift, you could put in a bid for Luis Gonzalez's game-used gum. That's right, a wad of Bazooka I bubble gum...

320,000Lego blocks in the faux soccer stadium on display at Tokyo's Spiral Garden to honor the World Cup finals, which begin May 31; the 9-by-6-foot model is filled with 7,000 miniature players...

At a party for the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED swimsuit issue three years ago, Indians pitcher Chuck Finley posed for photos with his wife, actress Tawny Kitaen. The two, who had posed for the SI annual...

Police in Coral Gables, Fla., are investigating the theft of several Hurricanes playbooks after portions detailing Miami's vaunted 4-3 defense were scanned and posted on the Internet last week....

Entered•The mayoral race in Hartlepool, England, H'Angus the Monkey, the mascot of the Hartlepool United soccer club. Residents of the northeast coastal town have been called Monkey Hangers since...

What a crowning achievement. Get the royal treatment with a double dose of our own Peter King every Monday and Thursday at cnnsi.com/football.

Chloe McLeod, one of Australia's two entrants in the World Short Track Championships, was skating training laps around Montreal's Maurice Richard Arena last Thursday as her coach, Steven Bradbury,...

From trading paint to spilling ink: Jeff Gordon will soon write his autobiography. According to a publishing insider, a 50-page proposal titled Jeff Gordon: Finding the Line had been making the...

The Mooresville, N.C., town council has voted to let police officers drive squad cars that are replicas of NASCAR race cars.

JESSE ROGERSCubs radio broadcaster, while interviewing Chicago reliever Antonio Alfonseca, who has six fingers on each hand: "Were you born that way?"

Marc Courtney-Brooks, COLUMBUS. OHIOSwimmingCourtney-Brooks, a sophomore at Kenyon College, helped set two Division III records, won two individual tides and was part of four victorious relay...

•HOWDY HOUSTON

HOWDY HOUSTON: c. The Oilers made Miami defensive end Kenny Holmes their first pick (18th overall) in 1997, their last season in Houston.

Coach Bruce Arena faces hard choices as he finalizes the U.S. World Cup roster

Forget All That Zen Stuff—Here's the Golf Book the Golf World Really Needs

Full-contact hoops played on trampolines? The idea's so crazy that it might work

As he abets U.S. Davis Cup efforts, James Blake studies the good life

Fresh off a storybook season in which he quarterbacked the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory at age 24, TOM BRADY is learning to cope with the blitz of newfound fame

Horse FlyGive Over (IO), T.P. Rudd up, clears the first of many fences and hurdles on his way to finishing second in the Irish Grand National.

With five homers in his first four games, Giants slugger Barry Bonds seems set to prove that his home run record of a year ago was made to be broken

Minnesota, which had stubbornly stayed with homegrown talent, won its first NCAA title in 23 years by turning to an outsider

In a jailhouse interview Jim Brown sounds off about his life behind bars, the NFL and do-nothing sports stars

Once the heir to Jerry West as a player, Geoff Petrie has succeeded him as the NBA's preeminent collector of talent, molding the high-scoring Kings in his image

Having barely survived a horrific crash in which he lost both legs, Alex Zanardi is attacking rehab with the same passion and purpose that made him a racing champion

The NBA

Rapid DeflationInjuries only partially explain the Bucks' fall from Finals contender to bubble team

HE'S 6'9" AND 240 POUNDS, but Ben Wallace seems to get even bigger as the season goes on. The league's leading rebounder, Wallace pulled down 10.9 boards per game in November, 11.8 in December,...

Who Deserves the Hardware?

Great PainsAnother injury could cost Ken Griffey Jr. another year—and a chance to restore his rep

Mike PiazzaNEW YORK METS

WHITE SOX 14, ROYALS 0April 6

Jason Giambi (right) received his official welcome to New York last week-boos and derisive chants of "Tino! Tino!" from fans at Yankee Stadium, who were dismayed by the $120 million man's 3-f...

One-man ShowThanks to goalie José Théodore's heroics, surprising Montreal looks playoff-bound

Flames general manager Craig Burton may be on the hot seat because of Calgary's second-half collapse, but he should get credit for stealing Hobey Baker-winning defenseman Jordan Leopold from the...

Jay BouwmeesterMEDICINE HAT TIGERS DIn his third full season in the Western Hockey League, the 6'3½" 206-pounder had career highs in assists (49) and points (60). The 18-year-old was ranked first...

What a loser Phil Mickelson is. The champ chump. Gagger Vance.

Retief Goosen's victory in Atlanta makes him a favorite in Augusta

Doug Tewell? Bobby Wadkins? The decline of the Legends of Golf is symbolic of what ails the Senior tour. Once a celebration of the men who made the game great, the Legends is now just another...

Despite a bad start and two muffed bunker shots in the final round, Retief Goosen's upbeat attitude carried him to victory

Playing his 12th tournament in the last 14 weeks, Jesper Parnevik busted loose with a final-round 65 at the BellSouth to climb from 20th place to second....

The postshot routine is vital because it provides a positive emotional foundation for the next swing.

Typical Los Angeles fans: On the eve of the Office Depot Championship about two dozen LPGA players road-tripped to Dodger Stadium for Amy Alcott Night, at which the honoree threw out the...

SI's sexist pictorial from the Nabisco shows how little the magazine cares about women's golf

Did the changes to Augusta National enhance or detract from the tournament?

Scott McCarron is one of the nicest guys on the Tour—until the time comes to step on your neck