Letters
Duke's Crown
The questions you posed in your April 1 issue—Can Duke? Can Kansas?—were answered when both teams played superbly in the Final Four (Yes!, April 8).
STEVE WILSON
League City, Texas
Kansas can.
Duke can.
UNLV? Can 'em.
ARLAN ANDREWS
Taos, N. Mex.
It seems UNLV got more ink than Kansas did in your Final Four story, even though the Runnin' Rebels didn't make the title game. The Jayhawks beat four top-quality teams in the tournament—Pitt, Indiana, Arkansas and North Carolina—and, given an excellent class of incoming recruits, Kansas may be back in the Final Four in 1992. UNLV made a heck of a run at an undefeated season, and the Blue Devils deserve accolades for winning the championship, but you slighted the Jayhawks just as everyone else did throughout the tournament.
PATRICK J. SLATTERY
Wright, Kans.
The crowning touch to a great NCAA tournament came as I watched the Duke celebration. How classy! How dignified! Thanks, Duke, for showing us how it can and should be done.
DON DUNN
Booneville, Ark.
Finch Facts?
In your April 1 issue you pictured Hayden (Sidd) Finch alongside the table of contents. According to your caption, Finch once threw a 168-mph fastball. Where did you find your information? To my knowledge, Nolan Ryan holds the record for the fastest-thrown baseball. I am curious about this feat, so would you please run a full article on Sidd?
DECKER BRADLEY HAINS
West Point, N.Y.
•We already have, in the issue of April 1, 1985, six years to the (April Fools') day before our brief update on the elusive Finch.—ED.
I suggest you check your facts. Some years after his short, albeit spectacular, baseball career, Finch did return to the Far East to continue his research. But he often came back to the U.S. to obtain original source documents for his work. It was on one of those visits, while doing research at our library, that Dr. Finch expressed an interest in a newly created position. He has been the Coordinator of Fugitive Data and Migratory Information at our institution for 2½ years now. The owner of a dry-cleaning chain? Ha! It seems that someone has pulled your leg just to get his name in print.
WESLEY A. DOAK
Oregon State Librarian
Salem, Ore.
It was nice to see that you remembered the sixth anniversary of Hayden Finch's major league debut. I was at the Mets' spring training camp that year and saw Hayden pitch. His fastball was awesome. I was fortunate enough to get his autograph for my son Dan. I'm glad to see Hayden's still active, and I hope he gets his customers' cleaning done as fast as he threw the baseball.
CHARLES A. GIANNONE
Houston
Six years ago, when I was in the seventh grade, I wrote you about the apparently miraculous Sidd Finch. The letter appeared, and it was the most exciting thing to happen to me all year. Thanks for the reminder, and the memory.
MATTHEW SIEGEL
Amherst, Mass.
UNLV
Kudos to Curry Kirkpatrick for his excellent article on UNLV (When 'The Best' Went Bust, April 8). Kirkpatrick was right on the button. UNLV was grossly overrated in a weak conference. The Big West teams could never make it in conferences like the ACC or the Big East.
DAVID L. BEECHER
York, Pa.
I can't believe you people. Just three weeks after you praise a still great UNLV team (Could Anybody Beat UNLV?, March 18), you rip apart the same amazing and classy athletes and their wizard of a coach. Kirkpatrick is a terrific writer, but he is an example of the countless UNLV fans who jumped on the bandwagon during the glory days and jumped off as soon as the Rebels lost. UNLV still reigns supreme.
RICHARD COCHRANE
Lewiston, Idaho
Kirkpatrick's article casts a shadow on what was the best game of the Final Four. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski recognized the class act of his opponent. Maybe Kirkpatrick should have dug a little deeper to reveal that same class in coach Jerry Tarkanian and his Runnin' Rebels.
Having coached high school athletics for many years, I'm glad—maybe fortunate—that my postgame locker room comments following a tough loss have never turned up in a national publication.
PAUL C. KLAYS
Fowler, Calif.
Faldo
I truly appreciated your story about Nick Faldo (Do You Know Me? Not Bloody Likely!, April 8). On April 4 the PGA Tour came to my community for the Independent Insurance Agents Open, and I was watching Faldo calmly sink 15-foot putts, one after another, on the practice green. Suddenly he began watching a man who was fishing in a nearby pond. When the man pulled a three-or four-pound bass out of the water, Faldo walked right over and congratulated him. That day I saw some of that "other side" of Faldo to which you referred.
GREG O'KONSKI
The Woodlands, Texas
I empathize with Nick Faldo's initial uncertainty about the prospect of having a child with Down's syndrome. But as the father of a determined, capable boy with Down's, I can attest that Faldo would find in many Special Olympians the same resolve that he displays on the PGA Tour.
CHARLES J. JOHNSON
Hingham, Mass.
The Son Also Rises
The cover of your April 8 issue spotlights Grant Hill, a freshman basketball standout for Duke and the son of former Yale and NFL star running back Calvin Hill. Calvin graced SI's cover twice: on Aug. 16, 1971, as a Dallas Cowboy, and on Aug. 16, 1976, as a "high-priced"—$135,000!—acquisition of the Washington Redskins. You can really see the family resemblance by comparing Grant's cover with either of the two on which his dad appeared.
By the way, is this the first time a father and son have made separate covers of SI for their own achievements?
ROBERT A. RIFENBERICK
Amherst, N.Y.
•No, two other fathers and sons have appeared separately on our cover. Bobby Hull has been on our cover five times, including that of Feb. 12, 1968, shown at right; his son Brett was on the March 18, 1991, cover. Maury Wills has appeared three times (shown: July 12, 1965); his son Bump made our March 28, 1977, cover. (Cal Ripkin Sr. shared our June 6, 1988, cover with five other coaches and managers; his son Billy was on the May 2, 1988, cover. Cal Sr. and Billy also appeared with Cal Jr., on March 9, 1987.)—ED.
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JOHN W. MCDONOUGH
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DAVID E. KLUTHO
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WALTER IOOSS JR.
THREE PHOTOS
NEIL LEIFER
Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and should be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020-1393.
