FOR THE RECORD

Walsh calls a TV timeout...
The Mailman only rings once...
Jack Kent Cooke hates this book

Mothballed
By new Stanford football coach Bill Walsh, his NBC blazer. The network's marquee NFL analyst since he left the San Francisco 49ers in 1989, Walsh last week returned to the job he held in '77 and '78. As he strode to the dais at a reintroduction that had all the trappings of a papal visit, Walsh was heralded by the Stanford band and given a standing ovation by hundreds of delirious students and alumni who would happily have kissed his three Super Bowl rings. "Being a college coach does have redeeming value," said Walsh. "Unless it's at USC."

Buried
The hatchet, by former nemeses Isiah Thomas and Karl Malone. Their collision during a Pistons-Jazz game last month left Thomas with a 40-stitch gash above his left eye and Malone with a $10,000 fine and one-game suspension. The Mailman, unwilling to risk having his apology returned to sender, placed a long-distance phone call to Thomas. "Contrary to what people think," Malone said, "Isiah's a nice guy."

Spiked
The career of British javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread, a former world-record holder and Olympic medalist. Since Whitbread hurled the pike a world-best 254' 1" in '86, she has battled a defective right shoulder. Whitbread, originator of the victory shimmy that became known as the "Whitbread wiggle," had been training for the '92 Olympics but dislocated the shoulder on a practice toss in December and retired last week.

Surrendered
To police in his native Venezuela, Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Julio Machado, the target of a monthlong manhunt following the shooting death of a woman on a highway near Barquisimeto. On Thursday Machado admitted firing the shot that killed Edicta Vasquez, a passenger in a car that, Machado said, had been trying to force him to stop. Fearing a robbery, Machado aimed a pistol at the car—which had tinted windows—and pulled the trigger. "Forgive me," said a tearful Machado. "I didn't intend to take her life or anyone else's."

Jinxed
Jayson Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers, after a late-night drink with teammate Charles Barkley in a Chicago hotel bar on Jan. 15. First, the pair was approached by a man who claimed to be carrying a knife. Williams, feeling threatened, hit the man in the head with a beer mug. Police later decided Williams acted in self-defense. Hours afterward, upon arriving in Philadelphia, Williams learned that his house had been destroyed by fire. And later that day X-rays revealed that Williams had broken a bone in his left hand during the 103-80 loss to the Bulls. He's out for four weeks.

Reviewed
By Jack Kent Cooke, the colorful Washington Redskins owner, an unauthorized biography of him by Adrian Havill. In a letter to friends, Cooke wrote that The Last Mogul is "so packed with lies and exaggerated overstatements that by the time I finished reading it, my blood was boiling.... I write to tell you not to bother spending a nickel to buy the book. It is trash. God save the Republic." Responded Havill: "Sue me."

PHOTO

ERIC RISBERG/AP

Walsh showed off new school duds.