Original Issue

SCORECARD

Author:
Craig Neff

STOP THEPRESSES

When Pocket Bookssaid last week that it was scrapping plans to publish Personal Fouls, the bookabout North Carolina State's basketball program that had been anticipated withdread on that school's campus (SI, Jan. 30), North Carolina attorney generalLacy Thornburg hailed the decision as "a victory not just for NorthCarolina State University, but for truth generally." It may not have beeneither.

Pocket, adivision of Simon & Schuster, said only that author Peter Golenbock'smanuscript did not meet its publishing standards, but presumably the companyfeared libel suits. According to a proof of the book's dust jacket obtained bythe Raleigh News and Observer in January, Golenbock's book, subtitled TheBroken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano'sNorth Carolina State, alleged that during Valvano's tenure as coach large sumsof money had been given to players, positive drug tests covered up and gradesaltered. Valvano denied the charges, and questions have been raised about thethoroughness of Golenbock's research. In a Jan. 10 letter to Simon &Schuster, Thornburg warned that publishing allegations such as those on thedust jacket would be grounds for a libel suit if proven false.

But Thornburgshouldn't crow too loudly about Simon & Schuster's decision. Personal Foulshad a large advance order before the plug was pulled and may yet be publishedby another company. And the dust jacket allegations have spawned investigationsof Valvano's program by at least three bodies: an internal N.C. State panel,the NCAA and a state university system commission, which has enlisted the helpof the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI).

John A. SimondsJr., the former student manager of the Wolfpack basketball team and one ofGolenbock's sources, says that he recently has been interviewed at length byNCAA and NCSBI investigators, who asked him about a number of specificinstances of alleged wrongdoing at N.C. State. "I'm willing to stand at thetop of the tallest building and tell this story," said Simonds. "I knowwhat the truth is."

Sources have toldSI that Valvano has quietly been looking into the possibility of moving to theLos Angeles Clippers as coach and/or general manager. Valvano's agent, ArtKaminsky, says that he and Valvano have had no contact with the Clippers, but aspokesman for Clipper owner Donald Sterling said Valvano has had"exploratory" discussions with Sterling since early February. Two othersources say Kaminsky has also discussed with Sterling Valvano's possiblehiring. In any case, it would appear that the book is not yet closed onPersonal Fouls.

HYPE GOES TOWAR

Militaryimagery—bombs, attacks, gunners and so on—has long been a part of the languageof sports, but in three recent cases it has been taken to inexcusable extremes.Promoters of the June 12 rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns—afight billed as The War—sought to enliven a Leonard-Hearns press conference inLas Vegas by showing footage of storm troopers goose-stepping into Polandduring World War II. A foldout ad for Maxfli golf balls in the Jan. 27 issue ofGolf World magazine featured a group of PGA Tour pros dressed as commandos andbearing bullet-laden bandoliers, hand grenades and machine pistols. And at OxonHill (Md.) High, the football coach, Michael Pearson, was put on administrativeleave after several of his defensive standouts gathered to pose for aphoto—apparently envisioned as a "top guns" publicity poster—with amachine pistol, a bayonet and an assault rifle. An Oxon High spokesman said theweapons were confiscated by security personnel before any pictures of playerswere taken, and Pearson has refused to comment on the case.

TAKING ASTAND

In late Januarytwo amateur hockey teams in Montreal, Notre Dame de la Consolata and Fèdèrationsportive olympique 49, engaged in a 20-minute bench-clearing brawl, duringwhich police were called in. Last week officials of the Quebec Ice HockeyFederation suspended all of the players on both teams for the remainder of thisseason and all of next season.

The harshpunishment is sending the right message: There's no place for fighting inhockey. Unfortunately, the leadership of the violence-plagued NHL still doesn'tget that message. When he was asked about a survey of 1,500 Canadians bypollster Angus Reid, in which 74% of the respondents said that the NHL would bemore entertaining if it were less violent, league president John Ziegler calledthe findings "worthless" because the pollsters had not defined the term"violence."

STALKING THEBURKINA FASO

SI's AlexanderWolff, one of our resident Olympic-pin-trading aficionados, ventured to LakePlacid, N.Y., last weekend for the first-ever national pin-collectors'convention. He reports:

Despite asnowstorm that socked in much of the East Coast, nearly a thousand people filedinto the Olympic Center to ogle the wares of 31 vendors, who had come to theAdirondacks from such far-flung precincts as Seattle and Los Angeles. Theytraded and sold (for $1 and up) everything from corporate sponsors' pins toInternational Olympic Committee session badges. These were folks who knew theirMauritius from their Mauritania.

Among the hottestitems—selling for at least $100 if you could find one—were rare nationalOlympic committee pins from Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta). Gabon andNiger. Also in demand was a TV screen-shaped ESPN pin bearing—without IOCpermission—the Olympic rings; about 500 of these were produced for the CalgaryGames.

The show wasstaged by the Olympin Collectors Club, which started with seven members in 1982and now has 800. "We're at a point where our computer's memory is justabout full of members' names," said club president Don Bigsby of Albany,N.Y. Club members can't wait until 1992, when winter and summer games beginalternating every two years and new Olympic pins hit the market twice asoften.

Perhaps thelargest display in Lake Placid belonged to Rowan Fay, pastor of PilgrimHoliness Church in Marcy, N.Y., who exhibited his wares over four full tablesand a wall display. But, though the show ran through Sunday, Fay packed upSaturday evening and headed home, where less secular duties beckoned. To onepinhead anyway, there actually seems to be a higher calling.

THE FALLENPADRE

It's part ofSteve Garvey's misfortune that news of his allegedly having impregnated twowomen—neither of them the woman he married two weeks ago—comes at the height ofthe Wade Boggs scandal (page 38). "We're getting lumped together, but it'snot the same." says Garvey, 40, the former star first baseman for theDodgers and Padres. "I've been single for the past seven years."

Still, the newshas tarnished Garvey's once-sterling image and may hinder his expected pursuitof a political career. "I just hope the intelligent person will look atthis and ask. 'Has Steve's behavior been consistent with how he has handledsituations in the past?' " he says. "I think it has been. I haveaddressed the problem. I have told the women that if the children are mine, Iwill assume the responsibilities."

To the womeninvolved, Garvey has been all too consistent. In 1981 Garvey, then a member ofthe Dodgers, separated (and was later divorced) from Cyndy, his wife of 10years, with whom he has two daughters, Krisha, 14, and Whitney, 12. His nextsteady companion was Judith Ross, an L.A. businesswoman, who lived with himfrom '83 until '86. Ross, 34, says she and Garvey have rekindled their romanceseveral times. "In 1988 he was still trying to pursue me, and he was againtalking about marriage." she says.

But marriage towhom? In 1986 Garvey had met Rebecka Mendenhall, an editor at Cable NewsNetwork in Atlanta. "In August 1987, Steve told me he had fallen completelyin love with me," says Mendenhall. Mendenhall says she and Garvey becameengaged last November and set an April 1 wedding date. She even ordered acustom-made wedding dress.

On Jan. 4 Garveyphoned Mendenhall with bad news. He told her that another woman, whose name hasnot been revealed, was claiming to be pregnant with his child. Mendenhall, 33,soon learned that she, too, was pregnant; she claims Garvey is the father. ButGarvey had by now fallen in love with yet another woman, Candace Thomas, 30. ofPalos Verdes, Calif. Mendenhall says Garvey called her in late January tocancel the wedding and told her, "Marriage is not for me." On Feb. 18,Garvey and Thomas were married in Deer Valley, Utah.

Garvey, who hasbeen working as a commentator on CBS radio baseball broadcasts and has taped apilot—with Fawn Hall—for a syndicated TV show, reports that he is blissfullyhappy with Thomas. "I can tell you," he says, "love affairs stilldo happen."