Who's Hot Who's Not

Who's Hot

ROCKIES
They may still make some trades (page 32) and they're not quite in contention, but Colorado's 11-game winning streak through Sunday recalled its 21-wins-in-22-games run at the end of the 2007 season. And get this, Dodgers fans, it's happening under new manager Jim Tracy, on the job since May 29.

SANYA RICHARDS
That was quick. The Olympic bronze medalist ran the 400 meters in 49.57—the world's best time this year—to win a Golden League event in Berlin, site of the world championships in August. Said Richards, "I'm looking forward to coming back and leaving with the gold."

TOMMY HAAS
Finally getting high on grass. A straight-set upset of Novak Djokovic gave Haas his first career win on that surface—and his first ATP win of any kind in more than two years. He did it in his homeland of Germany no less, and the crowd sent him off to Wimbledon with a standing O.

AGGIES
They win when they walk (the NCAA golf title, two weeks ago) and they win when they run. Under coach Pat Henry, Texas A&M's men's and women's track and field teams each took a national title. No school's done that since LSU in 1990. The Tigers' coach then? Pat Henry.

Who's Not

RAFER ALSTON
After the NBA Finals the Magic point guard didn't dwell on losing time to Jameer Nelson—Alston was benched for the last 18 minutes of Game 4—because "there's a lot of other things that went wrong." Like Alston's play in Game 5: 5-for-15 shooting, only three assists and no defense against the Lakers' 16--0 run.

KYLE KENDRICK
That was quick. The righthander, who's been in Triple A trying to get back to the majors, got a call-up from the Phillies last Friday in time to surrender three 13th-inning runs, and the game, to the Red Sox. After the defeat? He was sent right back to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

ANA IVANOVIC
An early exit from the French Open dropped her from No. 8 in the world to 13, an unlucky number for coach Craig Kardon, whom Ivanovic cut ties with. Then came her Wimbledon "tune-up": a first-round loss on the grass to No. 10 Nadia Petrova.

ARMANDO GALARRAGA
The Tigers' righty can't seem to fool any of the people any of the time: He's winless with a 7.36 ERA in his last eight starts. After the Pirates shelled Galarraga on Sunday, Detroit manager Jim Leyland pinpointed the problem: "His stuff wasn't good, and his location was terrible."

SI PLAYERS MLB POLL

DID THE YANKEES NEED A NEW STADIUM?

Yes 45%

No 53.6%

Don't Know 1.4%

FAST FACTS
Poll was completed in early June.... The new Yankee Stadium cost $1.5 billion to build.... Through Sunday 115 home runs had been hit at the new stadium—including a ballpark-high 13 by Mark Teixeira (above left)—25 more than at Camden Yards, the majors' second-most homer-friendly park.... The new Yankee Stadium is modeled after the old one, and the distance to the fences is roughly the same. But the old stadium, which stood for 86 years and was remodeled in the mid 1970s, never gave up more than 215 homers in a season; the new one will give up 291 at the current pace.

Based on a survey of 380 MLB players.

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BOB ROSATO (ALSTON)

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MICHAEL SOHN/AP (RICHARDS)

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CLEMENS BILAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (HAAS)

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TONY DING/ICON SMI (GALARRAGA)

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JOHN IACONO (TEIXEIRA)

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CHUCK SOLOMON (YANKEE STADIUM)