An inspirational Ironman...the Blazers' new brand of justice...a familiar camp for the PGA champ
Credited
By the Daily Racing Form with his 7,000th career win, jockey Angel Cordero Jr., after riding Don't Cross the Law to a 4½-length victory in the eighth race at Belmont Park on Oct. 17. Before the race Cordero said, "It's like being pregnant. You know it's going to happen, the question is just when." For Cordero, who trails only Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr. on the all-time win list, the exact date of delivery still remains a mystery. It seems that Racing Form officials failed to recognize as many as 293 winners that the 48-year-old jockey rode in his native Puerto Rico.
Banned
From the NBA for life, Dallas Maverick forward Roy Tarpley, after he missed a preseason practice and refused to take a subsequent drug test. Tarpley, who had been suspended twice in two years for violating the league's substance abuse policy, averaged 15.2 points and 12.1 rebounds a game over the past four seasons. The NBA considers Tarpley's refusal to take a drug test as tantamount to a third offense and therefore made him the seventh player to be barred for life since its policy went into effect in 1983. Tarpley, who can apply for reinstatement in two years, was notified of his banishment while visiting his drug counselor at Houston's John Lucas Treatment Center.
Returned
To Indiana in search of a house, John Daly, who won his only Tour title at the PGA Championship last August at the Crooked Stick Golf Club, in Carmel, Ind. After spending an afternoon autographing 950 lithographs of himself, Daly and his fiancèe, Bettye Fulford, viewed a number of houses, including several along the Crooked Stick course. Should Daly settle in Carmel and want a change of golfing scenery, he'll be only a 20-minute drive from Indianapolis, where Crooked Stick designer Pete Dye recently began transforming the Inch Motor Speedway infield into a championship-caliber golf course.
Elected
As chief justice of the Portland Trail Blazers' new kangaroo court, seven-foot center Kevin Duckworth, who will be responsible for enforcing team rules concerning conduct and decorum. The rear of the team's charter aircraft, Blazer I, serves as the courtroom. Among Justice Duckworth's first orders of business was to hit guard Terry Porter with a $2 fine for using a malapropism. Before a recent preseason game Porter received a cortisone injection, which he referred to as his "chromosome shot."
Victorious
In his third straight Iron-man Triathlon, Mark Allen, who covered the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run in eight hours, 18 minutes and 32 seconds to defeat Greg Welch by more than six minutes, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. However, the loudest ovation of the evening was given to 42-year-old Michael Fiscus, who crossed the finish line some eight hours later. In 1987, while training for his first Ironman competition, Fiscus was hit by a car and then spent nearly a year in a catatonic state. When therapists lowered him into a pool, he immediately started swimming laps, and his road to recovery began.
PHOTO
MICHAEL J. MARTEN/THE RACING TIMES
Cordero makes a big splash.