A study examined whether "Sports Illustrated" offers a biased view of the sports world by focusing primarily on the eastern teams. The units of analysis were articles about Major League baseball appearing in the "Sports Illustrated" issues from late April to early October in the years 1975 to 1984. The teams were divided into three geographic regions: the east, the midwest, and the west. When the overall number of stories per division was analyzed, the eastern division contained the fewest number of teams, seven, and yet still received a greater combined total of stories (153 out of 409). When the subject and content of the stories were analyzed, the eastern teams also received the extra feature stories. In contrast, the stories about non-eastern teams consisted primarily of the team's or a single player's outstanding performance of that week or month and fluctuations in their division pennant race. A third analysis revealed that when stories are written about the non-eastern teams, they are often placed in discrete areas of the magazine. The majority of the articles about the eastern teams appeared as feature stories in the front. The study did not argue against the quality of the reporting done, but simply questioned the fairness of the coverage for each team and in the subjects reported. (MG)