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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
APHe is possessed of great physical talents — a keen sense of timing and a hard-riding style that earned him the nickname “Russell the Muscle.”
He has the light frame that is standard issue to members of the “old Baze network” — an extended clan of racetrackers that extends back through his jockey father, Joe, to his grandparents, Bert and Mabel, both of whom trained and rode on “bush” tracks in the Northwest and Midwest starting in the early 1920s. That has enabled him to avoid the worst deprivations that many jockeys endure to maintain riding weight and has undoubtedly contributed to his consistently positive outlook.
He has managed to stay relatively healthy for most of his career, which began in 1974 at Washington state’s defunct Yakima Meadows racetrack. (Even so, he has suffered five compression fractures, a torn disc and broken vertebrae in his back, a broken bone in his neck, a broken pelvis, three broken collarbones, numerous cracked and broken ribs, a broken leg, a broken wrist, a broken hand, and concussions during his career.)
And he has surrounded himself with winners, enjoying a long association with Northern California’s training kingpin, Jerry Hollendorfer, and a symbiotic relationship with longtime agent Ray Harris.
Baze, who despite his fierce competitive streak is as modest and unassuming as they come, isn’t arguing that ownership of the record automatically catapults him to the top rung of racing history.
"I don't expect anyone to think of me as the greatest rider," he told the Contra Costa Times recently. “. . . I could win 20,000 races and it wouldn't eclipse what Laffit did, what Shoemaker did."
But as someone who was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to watch him ride on a regular basis when I first began covering racing in the late 1980s, I can unapologetically make the case that Baze, at the very least, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as those great riders.
And whether or not you consider him the best ever to sit astride a thoroughbred, he should be appreciated today and during however many years he has left in the saddle.
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
 | INTERACTIVE |
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 | Slideshow |
 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
| INTERACTIVE |
 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
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.
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.
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