October 27, 1969 Table Of Contents

Author:
SI Staff

TV Talk

In the first of his series of columns on sportscasting, Wilfrid Sheed finds the tube boobier on the ear than on the eye

By Wilfrid Sheed

Yesterday

The Beat of a Drummer

A dirge played that dreary day for a naive Lothario and horseplayer

By J. A. Maxtone Graham

The Mets

NEVER PUMPKINS AGAIN

A seven-year joke—and a fraying one at that—the Mets brought joy to New York with a succession of World Series victories that would be hard to match for dramatic impact or for sheer improbability

By William Leggett

From The Bottom

THE VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM

CHICAGO, CHICAGO, THAT TOTTERING TOWN

By Robert F. Jones

WHEN THE SAINTS GO STUMBLING OUT

By Tex Maule

Pro Basketball

NBA: goodby to the old balance of power

Russell is gone, Alcindor and Hawkins are here, new coaches run three key clubs and nothing will ever be the same again. The shifts in talent bring the teams closer together, increasing the enjoyment of fans but complicating the chores of forecasters like our own Frank Deford. To reflect all the changes through competitive performance, Deford here bases his scouting reports and prophecies on preseason exhibition games involving all 14 NBA squads.

ABA: competition will be stimulating but the quality is second best

Transfers

TRANSFORMED BY THE TRANSFER

Curly-haired Quarterback Dennis Dummit, a refugee from nearby Long Beach City College, switched to UCLA and has helped turn a losing team into a contender for the Rose Bowl and national honors

By Dan Jenkins

JOSE SETTLES AN OLD ACCOUNT

Nemesis of a succession of Cuban fighters, Emile Griffith had taken titles from two of them and had the chance to tie a record when he went after Jose Napoles' welterweight crown

By Jerry Kirshenbaum

College Football

State stands tall with the aid of some zap

You know what zap is, that magic bolt that suddenly makes things go right. The Mets had it, and late last Saturday Penn State did, too, as it rallied from a 14-0 deficit to beat Syracuse

By Pat Putnam

From James Bay, Quebec, the ducks and geese are pouring down the flyways in numbers calculated to make this season one of the best

By Virginia Kraft