The Lineup

DEPARTMENTS

4 Leading Off
12 Letters
Hockey fans feel dissed--again

14 Catching Up With ...
17 Air and Space
Everything you never knew about the Fourth of July by Steve
Rushin

19 Scorecard
Anna Kournikova reconsidered
Green Monster on big screen
Tim Montgomery near the end?
A few jabs from Lennox Lewis

28 Faces in the Crowd

100 The Life of Reilly
Blood, sweat and beer: blissed out at the ArenaBowl by Rick
Reilly

SI'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

36 Dream State
By nearly every measure, California is No. 1 in the nation in
sports by Michael Silver

INSIDE ...

93 Tennis
Williamses' tennis passion down?
Croatians roll at Wimbledon

94 The NBA
Garnett is SI's Player of the Year
Five who could unseat KG

96 The NHL
Capitals' top pick: instant star?
Hasek might be Ottawa-bound

BASEBALL

44 The Game Is Back
Ten reasons why there's hope in San Diego, Cincinnati, Tampa
Bay and all over the majors by Tom Verducci

56 A Cut Above
Boston's Manny Ramirez went from unwanted to unstoppable--and
it's all in his swing by Charles P. Pierce

66 Remember the Titans
Scrappy Cal State-Fullerton beat the odds and stunned Texas
in the College World Series by Daniel G. Habib

GLOBALIZATION OF SPORTS

68 Football vs. Futbol
On two continents, a pair of leagues awash in red ink ask, How
do you win over an alien culture? by Grant Wahl

PRO BASKETBALL

76 Big Deal in Dallas
After adding to his crowded roster at the draft, can Mavs
owner Mark Cuban land the biggest prize of all? by Ian Thomsen

FISHING

80 Seeing Snook
There is something touching about snook, their funny-faced
striving, their sneakiness, their sleaziness by Thomas McGuane

COVER

PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAY PATRICK MCBRIDE
INSET PHOTO: DUSANSMETANA.COM
COVER FLAP PHOTO: GILBERT IUNDT/TEMPSPORT/CORBIS

SI EXTRA
To sign up for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's free subscriber-only e-mail
newsletter, go to sicustomerservice.com/siextra.

Complete Wimbledon coverage--including live scores and analysis
from SI's pair of ace tennis writers, S.L. Price and L. Jon
Wertheim--at si.com/tennis.

COLOR PHOTO: SIMON BRUTY; EXTENSION BY SI IMAGING AVE MARIA Russian teen sensation Maria Sharapova turned headswith her looks and her game at Wimbledon (page 19).