Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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Hardly a peep at all, in fact, about the contents, other than the suggestion that they might be based on “unsupported fabrications by extortionists and demonstrated liars.”
Seems like Bonds’ lawyers didn’t sleep through Obfuscation 101, where first-year law students learn that if you don’t have a defense you simply attack and raise enough smoke to overshadow the real issue.
What the lawyers were looking for in court wasn’t really a temporary restraining order. What they really wanted were sound clips that would paint Bonds as a victim, and headlines that might suggest to those who don’t read any deeper that Bonds was suing over the truth of the book and not over some arcane legal theory.
Bonds’ lawyers have known for a few months what is in the book. Plenty of time to put together a libel suit if the book was false. Plenty of time for Bonds to sit down before a microphone and deny the allegations himself.
“His bat speaks for himself and he’s not going to speak on this action and this book,” attorney Michael Rains said.
The problem is, Bonds’ freakish physique also speaks for itself. At an age when players generally start fading, he bulked himself up into a caricature of himself and began swatting home runs at a pace never before seen in the game.
According to the book, Bonds was so intent on regaining his position as baseball’s top slugger from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that he ingested an assortment of substances that included a medication used to treat infertility in women and a steroid that improves the muscle quality of beef cattle.
He then professed amazement that the home runs were coming so frequently — and going so far.
Even more amazing is how Bonds has so far escaped any punishment outside of the court of public opinion. He got a break when the principals of the BALCO scandal all pleaded guilty and avoided what would have been an embarrassing — and revealing — trial in court and, without the publication of the book, would have likely gotten through another season unscathed.
That season starts a week from now, with Bonds just seven home runs from breaking Babe Ruth’s mark of 714. The Giants say they plan to celebrate the occasion, but it had better happen at home because it could be an ugly scene on the road.
The truth is Bonds — and the juiced sluggers before him — are a disgrace to the game. Their home run records are meaningless and they have no business in the record books or the Hall of Fame.
The best lawyers in San Francisco can’t find a way to spin that enough.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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