The Cardinals find the right chemistry...Dorsett's Manila thrilla...the Kings are crowned

Honored
By the Clown Hall of Fame, in Delavan, Wis., with its Laughter Achievement Award, Max Patkin, 71, the Clown Prince of Baseball (SI, June 6,1988). Patkin, who hasn't missed a gig in 46 years, gave his first public comedic performance in 1944 when he tossed a gopher ball to Joe DiMaggio in a game between two armed forces teams. Patkin, then a minor league pitcher, followed DiMaggio around the bases, aping the Yankee Clipper's home run trot, and was enthusiastically escorted back to the mound by Joe D's teammates.

Rolled
To its first Intercollegiate Bowling Championship, Michigan's Saginaw Valley State, by beating Wichita State 393-385, in Columbus, Ohio. The Cardinals, who have had a varsity bowling program for 25 years, are coached by chemistry professor Berner Gorden.

Stung
By federal marshals in Chicago, 17 scofflaws, who were nabbed on outstanding arrest warrants (on charges ranging from illegal weapons possession to murder) after responding to a letter offering complimentary tickets to the White Sox's home opener. Law enforcement officials, who dubbed the sting Operation Home Run, sent out 2,500 letters to "lucky winners," promising them free tickets, sportswear and door prizes. When asked why so few invitees took the bait, U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman said, "There are a lot of Cubs fans out there."

Defeated
By the Minnesota Timber-wolves, 112-94, the Sacramento Kings, who thereby set an NBA record for most consecutive road losses (35), in Minneapolis. Last October, Kings management purchased a team airplane—nicknamed Airball One—that coach Dick Motta believed could be worth four or five more road victories a season. Sacramento has won only one away game since it got the plane.

Debuting
As a film actor, former Dallas Cowboy running back Tony Dorsett. In Kill Zone, a Vietnam combat film now being shot in Manila, Dorsett plays a good-guy Marine master sergeant who undermines a corrupt colonel. Asked to comment on Tony D's acting abilities, Dorsett's flack, Milton Kahn, said, "Well, he's no Laurence Olivier...or even Jeremy Irons."

Triumphed
By a combined score of 24-0, the U.S. women's soccer team, over national teams from Mexico and Martinique in regional women's World Cup competition, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Midfielder Brandi Chastain, a student-athlete at Santa Clara, who had not been selected for an earlier tournament in Bulgaria, scored five consecutive goals in the 12-0 U.S. win over Mexico.

Died
Former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Walker Cooper, 76; of respiratory disease; in Scottsdale, Ariz. Cooper, a six-time All-Star, formed a battery with his brother, righthanded pitcher Mort, during the early 1940s. In 1957, Cooper's daughter, Sara, a Miss Missouri, married Cards second baseman Don Blasingame. Said Cooper, who, at 42, was then the oldest player in the league, "You know it's time to quit when you've got a daughter old enough to marry a teammate."

PHOTO

LANE STEWART

Here's a prizewinning face.