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.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has 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.
AP
NEW YORK - Bobby Abreu finished off the Devil Rays all by himself — in the first inning. Hideki Matsui kept getting applause all night.
Abreu hit a three-run homer and a three-run double in a nine-run first and finished with a career-high seven RBIs in the New York Yankees’ 12-4 laugher over Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
“It was crazy,” said Abreu, who went 2-for-3 with a third-inning sacrifice fly and fourth-inning flyout to the warning track, just missing a grand slam.
Matsui, returning from the broken left wrist that ended his consecutive games streak on May 11, went 4-for-4 with a walk, earning several standing ovations and tying his major league high for hits in a game. As fans rose before his first at-bat, he showed rare emotion, taking off his batting helmet and waving it at the crowd of 52,265.
“When I got to the plate, I never even imagined I would receive such an ovation,” he said through a translator. “I felt nothing but appreciation.”
Derek Jeter batted in each of the first four innings without getting an official at-bat: He had three walks and was hit by a pitch. He didn’t bat again, and his career-high 21-game hitting streak remained intact under baseball’s rules. With three runs scored, he increased his total to 102 and broke 100 for the 10th time.
Yankees manager Joe Torre at first forgot about the streak when he pinch hit for Jeter in the seventh.
“I apologized,” Torre said. “He said, ‘I wasn’t going to catch him, anyway,’ ” a reference to Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game streak.
Then Torre found out that Jeter’s streak continued under the rules. Jeter, whose .346 average is second in the AL to Minnesota’s Joe Mauer (.348), can’t avoid the streak these days.
“You notice it because every time you’re on deck, somebody in the stands is yelling to get a hit,” Jeter said.
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Mike Mussina (14-6) pitched 6 1-3 shutout innings to win for the first time in six starts, and the Yankees lowered their magic number to nine for clinching their ninth straight AL East title, maintaining a season-high 10½-game lead over Boston.
Pitching on six days’ rest after a stint on the disabled list caused by a strained right groin, Mussina allowed five hits, struck out five and walked none. He had been 0-3 since beating Tampa Bay on July 30.
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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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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.
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.
