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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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 file
Ask any American what’s wrong with the game of baseball, and the issue of runaway salaries is more likely than not to top the list.
Unless, of course, it’s your own team handing out the money. Then it’s simply a prudent investment.
That’s why the news that the Red Sox are prepared to spend something along the lines of $100 million for a guy who’s never thrown a pitch in the major leagues didn’t exactly plunge Boston fans into fits of despair. On the contrary, they would be dancing on top of the Green Monster right now if they could.
Let the Kansas City Royals or Minnesota Twins worry about skyrocketing salaries and competitive imbalance. The Red Sox have an evil empire to conquer.
Besides, look around this week at the general managers’ meetings in Florida. The price of entry to the 2007 season is getting a whole lot higher.
Daisuke Matsuzaka will end up costing the Red Sox some $20 million to $25 million a year when he’s finally signed in the coming weeks. The hated Yankees, meanwhile, will counter by spending just about the same amount of money per season for Mike Mussina.
Outfielder J.D. Drew walked away from the final three years and $33 million of his contract with the Dodgers, certain he would get more on the open market. There’s little doubt he will, despite the feeling in Los Angeles that he was a chronic underachiever who wouldn’t play if he had the sniffles.
The New York Mets gave a deal worth $12 million to Orlando Hernandez, a 41-year-old who has lost as many games as he has won the last two seasons — average, by anyone’s standards. And the bidding for Alfonso Soriano has barely begun.
“It sounds like a lot of clubs this year have spending ability that they haven’t had in years past,” said San Diego general manager Kevin Towers.
Sure does. But if astronomical salaries bother you — and a recent AP-AOL poll showed fans think baseball has no bigger problem than skyrocketing salaries — maybe it’s time to switch to another sport.
Like it or not, baseball is a rich man’s game.
The owners are rich, and the players are rich. Even the clubhouse attendants are doing pretty well.
The sport is awash in cash flowing in from new television deals, and the 75 million people who paid their way to see a game last season. Baseball has even managed to do what other sports merely dream of — find a way to make big bucks by charging fans to watch or listen to games on the Internet.
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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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.