NAVIGATING THE WEB

With the overwhelming amount of information available on the
Internet, the biggest problem is locating whatever it is you're
looking for. The easiest way is to use the World Wide Web, a
graphical Internet interface that even the most hardened critic
of digital technology can quickly grow to appreciate.

Sports fans will find the Web most useful for two things --
instant access to updated scores and news, and in-depth
information on particular teams or sports. Here are some Web
sites to get you started:

Perhaps the most comprehensive Web site for sports news is
ESPNET SportsZone (http://espnet.sports zone.com/), a joint
venture between ESPN and Paul Allen's Starwave Corp. This site
provides news stories, commentary from ESPN broadcasters,
updated scores, audio interviews with athletes, statistics and
more. All this information makes SportsZone very popular -- it
is visited by 45,000 users a day.

The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C., provides another top
news service, The Sports Server from NandO (http://www2.
nando.net/sptsserv.html). The News and Observer has been a
leader in adapting its news-gathering resources for use on the
Internet. It provides staff-written stories, wire service
reports, scores and information, largely statistical, on every
team in baseball, football and pro basketball. There is also
the SI Web site (http://www.pathfinder.com/si/ welcome.html),
which, in addition to current and classic stories from the
magazine, offers a photo gallery and an archive of They Said Its.

Beyond those journalistic ventures the Web is home to sites of
hundreds of teams, sports organizations and businesses providing
what is often billed as inside information or comprehensive team
reports but what often amounts to press releases. Fans also have
their say at sites created by and for people who root for the
same team.

One Web directory, in fact, lists almost 2,000 sports-related
sites. Thankfully, there are indexes to this sea of information.
The World Wide Web of Sports (http://www.tns.lcs.
mit.edu/cgi-bin/sports) lists links to other sites relating to
sports. Just by clicking you can reach sites for many teams and
sites focusing on such esoteric sports as Ultimate Frisbee or
Australian Rules football.

The NFL (http://nflhome.com) and big league baseball
(https://www2. pcy.mci.net/mlb/index.html) already offer
official Web sites, and the other major leagues are soon to
follow. Even the NHL Players' Association
(http://www.nhlpa.com/) is on the Web.

And if you decide to take in a game the old-fashioned way, you
might want to know where you'll be sitting. To do that, just
check out the stadium and arena info page (http://www.wwcd.com/
stadiums.html).

--MARK MCCLUSKY

COLOR ILLUSTRATION:ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW DAMON[images of balls from various sports superimposed on image of the earth]