Contents

12 The 12s Shake Down
Carleton Mitchell reports on the Preliminary Trials of the four America's Cup contenders

14 A Shot at the Russians
U.S. athletes invade Moscow for a bloodless war of track and field

16 Spectacle: The Tempestuous Tour
Artist John Groth gives his impressions of that most famous of bicycle races, the Tour de France

25 Some Thoughts for Congress
A green light for baseball on antitrust exemptions? Here suggested: a yellow light

26 Champions of the 20-Goal Set
That's the mallet squad from old Meadow Brook, in a lively summer for polo

30 La Costa Brava
Four pages of sunny color surrounded by Horace Sutton's text reveal a Spanish seaside bargain

58 Xiphias the Swordfish
A profile of the greatest of big game fish, awesome in his power and mysterious in his ways

The departments

5 Scoreboard
11 X-ray
21 Events & Discoveries
26 Wonderful World
38 Baseball
42 Boxing
44 Horse Racing
49 Charles Goren
50 Tip from the Top
56 Sport in Art
63 19th Hole
64 Pat on the Back

Acknowledgments on page 54

Cover: Frank Thomas

The cheerful smile shown on this week's cover belongs to a relatively unknown baseball player who this season has become the most dangerous hitter in the National League.

Photograph by Phil Bath

TWO PHOTOS

PHOTO

12

PHOTO

14

ILLUSTRATION

16

PHOTO

26

PHOTO

30

PHOTO

58

Next week

•Summer life on the most famous little island in the world, historic Nantucket, is captured in the color photographs of Toni Frissell, with narrative by Gerald Holland.

•Despite acute international tension, a U.S. track team has flown to Moscow for the first head-on meet between the two nations. Accompanying the squad is Tex Maule.

•Novelist Mark Harris tells of Californian Fibber Hirayama, third baseman of the Hiroshima Carp, whose love of the game has occidentally oriented his Japanese teammates.