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.
AP
BLACKSBURG, Va. - It was a small rally, yet it signaled the start of a much, much larger one.
Trailing Miami by five in the bottom of the eighth, the Virginia Tech Hokies scored three quick runs to tighten their baseball game Friday night, injecting life into a crowd desperate for it.
Tech would lose 11-9, but on a day marked by tears and mourning, prayer vigils and tolling bells, an evening at the ballpark — the first sporting event hosted by Virginia Tech since Monday’s rampage by a student gunman — provided a hint of relief.
“We won before we got to the field today. The scoreboard was insignificant,” Hokies coach Pete Hughes said.
“It was a bittersweet feeling playing this game,” outfielder Jose Cueto said. “It feels good to get out and get away from everything but the fact that we’re getting away from that tragedy makes it hurt.”
In certain moments, there was a strange sense of normalcy. A little boy played catch with his dad. Teens scrambled to scoop up foul balls. Fans shifted impatiently in the long lines to buy hot dogs and Cracker Jack.
But Friday was a day of statewide mourning, and even at the ball game, the pain from the slayings of 33 people, including 23-year-old gunman Seung-Hui Cho, was never far from the surface.
Tears spilled down the cheeks of one player from the home team as a recording of Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni’s poem, “We Are Virginia Tech” echoed through the stadium. Several Hokies cried as the national anthem played.
Miami players and coaches wore black wristbands in memory of the victims during the three-game series against the Hokies.
Miami head coach Jim Morris drew raucous applause when he presented a $10,000 check on behalf of the university for the Hokie Spirit and Memorial Fund.
The rowdy crowd of more than 3,000 — five times larger than average — grew somber as they rose to observe a 32-second moment of silence.
Clutching a sign that read “4.16.07 Never Forget” senior Kristyn Heiser marveled at how the Hokies were able to play under the emotional circumstances.
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Athletic director Jim Weaver echoed her sentiments.
“You’ve either got to move forward or you move backward,” Weaver said. “We think it is the beginning of the healing process.”
Freshman Andrea Hacker, 19, said the game would help her set aside the horrific memories from Monday, when she heard Cho’s gunshots from a nearby building.
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“Students need to get back to normal,” said junior Chance Hellmann, whose friend Nicole White, 20, was killed in the shooting.
“Anything that keeps your mind off this is a good thing,” he said.
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.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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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.
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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.
