Which magazine published the 1985 April Fools' article about Sidd Finch?

Sports Illustrated published the 1985 April Fools’ article about Sidd Finch.

Written by George Plimpton, “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” appeared in the April 1, 1985, issue. Finch was presented as an English orphan who had learned yogic techniques in Tibet and could throw a baseball at an astonishing 168 miles per hour.

The New York Mets cooperated with the hoax by providing a uniform and locker, while photographs showed Finch alongside real Mets players and staff. Many readers believed the story, despite its increasingly improbable details. The supposed pitcher was actually Joe Berton, an Illinois schoolteacher recruited to pose for photographs.

A common mix-up is remembering the article as a newspaper story or an ESPN feature. ESPN later revisited the hoax, but Sports Illustrated published the original article. Plimpton subsequently expanded the idea into a 1987 novel, The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.