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- January 4, 1988SPORTBEST of '87
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- BEST TACK After retrieving the America's Cup from Australia,
- San Diego Yachtsman Dennis Conner had barely exhaled before New
- Zealand found a loophole in the old deed and issued a new
- challenge in an outsized maxiboat.
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- BEST DOUBLE PLAY Shades of all-around Athlete Jim Thorpe: Bo
- Jackson, who plays baseball for the Kansas City Royals and
- football for the Los Angeles Raiders, hit a 466-ft. homer and
- ran for a 91-yd. touchdown.
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- BEST STRATEGIST Railing against college basketball's
- three-point rule even as he mastered the strategy required for
- the 19-ft. 9-in. shot, Indiana Coach Bobby Knight led his third
- team to the national title in twelve years.
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- BEST COMEBACK Returning to the ring against everyone's wishes,
- Sugar Ray Leonard protected his repaired retina long enough to
- restore his crown in a startling upset of Middle-weight Champion
- Marvin Hagler.
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- BEST TRACK RECORDS Racing toward the 1988 Olympics, Canadian
- Sprinter Ben Johnson and American Heptathlete Jackie
- Joyner-Kersee dazzled at the Rome world track-and-field
- championships by winning their events. After 122 consecutive
- victories, U.S. Superstar Edwin Moses lost in the 400-meter
- hurdles.
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- BEST SCUFF/SNUFF JOB Minnesota Pitcher Joe Niekro was caught
- with an emery board on the mound at the height of baseball's
- season-long tempest over scuffed balls and corked bats. A
- meaner illegal substance, cocaine, stymied Mets Pitcher Dwight
- Gooden.
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- BEST DRIVER Rewarded for a life of grace, Puerto Rico's Chi
- Chi Rodriquez, 52, won seven tournaments and $509,145 on golf's
- senior tour.
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- BEST NET GAIN Rubbing out more than the competition, stoical
- Czechoslovak Tennis Ace Ivan Lendl at last learned to smile.
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- BEST SIDELINE ACT Replacing striking football players for
- three curious weeks, dreamers donned uniforms for their days in
- the sun, taking over the N.F.L. long enough to gain a financial
- stake in the playoff payoffs.
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- BEST LESSON LEARNED Forty years after Jackie Robinson broke
- the color line, Los Angeles Dodgers Executive Al Campanis raised
- cries of racism by saying on ABC's Nightline that black players
- "may not have some of the necessities" to manage baseball teams,
- either on the field or in the front office.
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