SCORECARD

HOMERISM

Dennis Conner has said that he favors Honolulu as the site of the next America's Cup series. Other serious sailors agree. Hawaii's strong breezes are perfect for 12-meter racing; they're much like the winds off Fremantle, Australia, where Conner won the Cup earlier this year. As Dave Pedrick, a designer for Conner's Stars & Stripes, says, "Windy conditions like those in Hawaii make good sailing, and good sailing makes good media coverage, and good media coverage excites the sponsors, and good sponsorship gets money to the syndicates. Everybody is happy."

But few are happy, because Honolulu looks to be out of the running. As sponsor of the winning boat in Fremantle, the San Diego Yacht Club has the right to decide where the next races will be held. The SDYC has chosen a seven-member committee to review possible sites. None of the seven has any recent international yachting experience, and all are true-blue San Diegans. "The reason they have those guys on there is that they're going to vote for San Diego," a source close to the SDYC told SI's Duncan Brantley. "It's a done deal." If the committee delivers the races to San Diego, don't expect them to be as exciting as those in Australia. The light and fluky winds off Southern California are considered unsuitable for 12-meter racing. Faced with a similar problem in 1930, the sponsoring New York Yacht Club sportingly moved the races to Newport, but it seems the SDYC is dedicated to its home port.

Conner's syndicate is furious about the way the committee was chosen. The SDYC had said that a 7-to-11-member committee would be established. The syndicate inferred that it would have an input in the makeup of that committee. Conner had plumped for Sail America president Malin Burnham and former America's Cup sailors Gary Jobson and Buddy Melges, none of whom is among the SDYC's seven. "I feel like we've been duped," said Conner's tactician, Tom Whidden.

FAST ACTION

When the automobile invaded the serene streets of Bermuda back in 1946, the island's citizenry put its foot down—and not on the pedal. The Road Traffic Act established a 20-mph speed limit for all modes of transport.

A small problem arose when the International Triathlon Championship chose Bermuda as the site for its inaugural event, which will be held this August. "Never since the speed limit was put in had exceptions to it been granted," says Patrick O'Riordan, the triathlon's organizer and a 19-year resident of Bermuda. "We were going to bring the best triathletes in the world out here, and when they go shooting down the hills on their bicycles they will be in excess of 40 miles per hour. You can't circumvent the law. This had to be handled properly."

The proper court of appeal—actually the only court of appeal—was the Bermuda legislature. At a session earlier this year, the Minister of Tourism argued in behalf of O'Riordan's attention-getting $100,000 event. Then the 47 lawmakers, who know upon which side the island's bread is buttered, voted unanimously to allow higher speeds during the triathlon. O'Riordan says the amendment to the Road Traffic Act is "quite an historical thing, really."

SEZ YOU!
In the November 1986 issue of Golf magazine, Larry Mize, who won this year's Masters with a 140-foot chip shot on the second hole of sudden death, was chosen by his fellow pros as the player with the least intestinal fortitude. Certainly Greg Norman, Mize's playoff victim, wishes he could retract his assessment in Golf. "I almost hate to say it, but Larry just doesn't show that special look at any time. He never seems to say, 'Hey, I've got a chance to make a birdie here....' I've played with him a couple of times, and I've never seen that. He pulls that shoot-to-the-center-of-the-green routine way too often."

UNWIELDY ROSTER
The names of the winners in the Penn Relays' Metropolitan 1,600 last week were Troy, Simon, Vernon, Richard, Gilbert, Harvey, Bruce and Phillip. An eight-man team? No. Each of the runners on Manhattan College's 4 X 400 squad has one of those confusing two-first-name names. So, like we said, the winners were Troy Simon, Vernon Richard, Gilbert Harvey and Bruce Phillip.

THE HARD WAY

On Saturday, Point Park College of Pittsburgh beat Waynesburg State 8-1 in an NAIA baseball game. The victory was the Pioneers' 35th in a row, breaking the college mark set by Texas in 1977 and tied by David Lipscomb College of Nashville in 1984. Remarkably, Point Park is a three-building institution in the heart of Pittsburgh and owns neither a gym nor a baseball diamond. "We don't have athletic facilities per se," says Ginny Frizzi, the school's director of media relations, "but we make do."

One way the Pioneers make do is by working out in the basement of a campus building when it rains. Also, coach Mark Jackson, who has a 150-24 record in four years at Point Park, has installed a batting cage in a storage room. "I'm convinced our situation has helped us," he says. "Adversity is either going to rip you apart or make you stronger. We've chosen the latter."

The college, which has 1,000 full-time and 1,500 part-time students, has four athletic teams, whose home games are scattered far afield. The men's basketball team plays at a community college on the north side of town, while the women play at a high school in South Hills. The softball team hosts games at Chartiers Park in Bridgeville, Pa., and the baseball team plays at a public park in Butler, Pa. The baseball players make the half-hour commute to practice by bus, and on game day there are vans for fans. "We had 50 there a week ago when we tied the record," says Point Park sports information director Ron Wahl. "That's the most we've ever seen."

The game would have drawn even better had it been promoted as a record-setting effort. But, says Wahl, "No one knew we were that close." After the game, Jackson got curious. "I figured the record would be 40 or 50 straight wins," he says. "When I looked it up and realized we had tied it, I was really surprised. Obviously, we didn't focus on it."

WAGER WARNING
Two Maryland legislators have introduced a bill that would require state lottery ads to bear the warning, "Playing the lottery is a form of gambling and can be compulsive." Maryland already has two daily games plus the weekly Lotto, and Governor William Schaefer has proposed two additional sports lotteries to help fund the construction of two stadiums. Last year lotteries raised $718.3 million, and it is considered doubtful that the legislature will do anything to jeopardize this money-making machine.

PUTTING IS A SNAP

In a recent college golf tournament in Durham, N.C., Wooster's Mike Collins became frustrated after three-putting 4 of the first 10 greens. Collins rested his putter on the back of his neck, pulled down and—snap!—the club broke. So Collins started putting with his eight-iron. He didn't three-putt another hole and finished with a 79.

He should have learned. The next day, using the repaired putter, he three-putted five times en route to an 88.

ROLE REVERSAL

Last Summer, Cindy Keeling, the women's tennis coach at American River College in Sacramento, set her sights on a blue-chip prospect. "I knew she was talented," says Keeling. "I knew she was disciplined. I knew she wouldn't quit on me. I was a little nervous about what the team might think of her, but I needed her badly."

Keeling's recruiting pitch was successful, and why not? The blue-chipper was her mother, Eleanor, 55, who took up the game in her late 30's and had become a pretty fair tournament player. Enrolling at American River, she was 17-1 this spring playing No. 4 singles for the Beavers. "Mom had a great year," says Cindy.

"I did it because I wanted to play on Cindy's team, and I was interested in going to college, because I'd never been," says Eleanor.

Mother has taken pains to defer in tennis matters to daughter, who played No. 1 for UC Irvine in 1982 and '83. "I let her be the boss on the court," says Eleanor. "I even tried to do the workouts and wind sprints the other girls did, as much as I could." The resentment that Cindy feared never materialized, although Eleanor's 20-year-old doubles partner, Lisa Holland, was heard to complain, "I come to the courts to relax and get away from Mom, and here she is playing next to me." Says Eleanor, "I did give the girls a little advice on how to take care of themselves, on getting to bed early, things like that." But she was even rougher on opponents. "When they saw me this spring, they thought they could run me and tire me out, but I'm steady and outlasted most of them."

The Keelings will play mother-daughter doubles events this summer, before returning to school for another season. "I expected to get only one season out of her, but things went really well," says Cindy. "She's easy to coach. At least with her, I always know she's going to make curfew."

ILLUSTRATION

PATRICK McDONNELL

PHOTO

V.J. LOVERO

When it comes to college tennis, Mom (right) concedes that Daughter knows best.

THEY SAID IT

•Kent Biggerstaff, Pirates trainer, on 240-pound pitcher Rick Reuschel's 4-pound weight gain: "Like putting just one more suitcase on the Queen Mary."

•Steve Farr, Royals reliever, when asked if his shoulder soreness might be mental: "How could it be mental? I don't have a college education."