19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

THE SAGA OF SIDD FINCH
Sir:
Three cheers for George Plimpton's marvelous April Fools' Day article The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch (April 1). Lane Stewart's imaginative photography—especially the picture showing Finch's locker between Darryl Strawberry's and George Foster's—was a masterstroke.
JEFF LEVY
New York City

Sir:
What a memorable piece of fiction! The story combined the allegory of Bernard Malamud, the metaphors of Roger Angell and Robert Coover and the humanity of Ring Lardner with the biographical skills of Robert W. Creamer and the insight of Ted Williams.
RICK COHEN
New York City

Sir:
The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch should go straight into the Practical Joke Hall of Fame—without the usual mandatory five-year waiting period.
ROBERT P. DUGAN JR.
Vienna, Va.

Sir:
In satisfying America's longing for such a wonderful baseball fantasy, and thanks to George Plimpton's singularly lunatic way of delivering it, you have gone one step beyond your customary practice of crowning the gods of America. You have actually created one!
RONALD OVADIA
Los Angeles

Sir:
I've been Orson Wellesed by George Plimpton and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED! Congratulations on the greatest ruse since War of the Worlds.
MIKE SALTER
Santa Monica, Calif.

Sir:
You lousy, rotten, good-for-nothing blankety-blanks. You got me hook, line and sinker—and I loved it.
MIKE LIDLE
Halifax, Pa.

Sir:
Not funny!
BILL DUNCAN
Berea, Ky.

Sir:
Ha-ha. Cancel my subscription.
THOMAS GALLAGHER
Charlottesville, Va.

Sir:
If Sidd Finch isn't a Sad Farce, then I am going to take a trip to Tibet right after I win the lottery.

Are there any frequent-flyer bonuses on trips to the Himalayas?
MARK S. SUCHANEC
Mount Sinai, N.Y.

Sir:
I called 10 friends to tell them about Sidd Finch. And they called 10 friends. And so on. And so on. Then I read a newspaper article revealing the joke. The next morning, my 10 friends called, as did their 10 friends. Masterful job. The quotes. The photographs. The detail. One helluva hoax.

Don't ever do that again!
TIMOTHY MAYER
Birmingham, Mich.

Sir:
I was about to compliment you on discovering Sidd Finch when I looked at the subhead. After taking the first letter of each word and putting them together, I caught on. Thank you for the clever joke.
MATTHEW SIEGEL
Chicago

Sir:
Here's a dose of your own medicine. Use your formula to decipher the following:

That had a nauseating kinda smell. Some people over reacted tremendously, so I looked, listened, understood—subtracted the reality and took extreme delight.
BOB PLATT
JIM RENIERS
RAY DUBE
Houston

Sir:
We enjoyed wholeheartedly, in some hilarity, your odd, unusual athlete. However, a pitching phenomenon yielding a perfect release in languid fashion, offhand, offers little satisfaction, despite a yearning thirst of ongoing sports information.
JOHN MOODY
WOODY WILLIAMS
Jackson, Tenn.

•Thanks.—ED.

Sir:
After reading the enlightening piece about Sidd Finch, I sold—no, gave away—all of my possessions and walked around with a bland look of contentment. Then I reread the article. I became suspicious. One junky boot? Dropped out of school? Difficulty getting along with others? The truth became obvious: Sidd is a Yalie.
KEN McCORMACK
Harvard, '76
Madison, Wis.

Sir:
I am a die-hard Cubs fan, and this is one time I'll be happy to wipe the egg off my face.
PAUL SCHWARTZ
Sycamore, Ill.

Sir:
Never have I wanted to believe a story more—even with the date (April 1) of Finch's decision staring me in the face! I'm crushed!
ELLEN DONNELLY
Rocky River, Ohio

Sir:
Haven't we Met fans suffered enough? I submit that the article was cruel and unusual punishment. Couldn't you have let Finch try out for the Yankees or Dodgers?
CHARLES E. GORDON
Winter Park, Fla.

Sir:
Poppycock! We could tell this story was a joke because any player with that kind of talent would have to have been acquired through a trade from the Cleveland Indians!
PETE KALGREEN
MIKE FICKES
KEVIN DELAGRANGE
Akron

Sir:
Now, if only Dwight Gooden were a joke.
DAN HALLEY
Rockford, Ill.

Letters should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.

CORRECTION

In the story A Troubled Star Begins To Shine (April 1), it was reported that Jacksonville Bulls running back Mike Rozier had confessed that he received payments of $200 a month from Nebraska alumni while playing for the Cornhuskers. That is erroneous. Rozier had been quoted by a Pittsburgh newspaper in early 1984 as saying, "I had some people send me money. Some alumni helped me out." But he subsequently explained that he had meant that only people from his hometown of Camden, N.J. had sent him money and that alums had, on occasion, invited him to dinner. Rozier did receive $206 from Nebraska in monthly expense money for housing and meals, but these payments, which other Husker scholarship athletes also received, were permissible under NCAA rules.