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.
ReutersBut where there is good, there is bad, and we would be remiss in not handing out midseason anti-awards to some deserving disappointments:
AL anti-MVP: Jermaine Dye, White Sox
Two years ago, Dye was World Series MVP. Last year, he was fifth in the AL MVP voting and was an All-Star. This season, he’s batting .214 and is one of the many reasons the White Sox are the worst-hitting team in the majors. All during a contract year, no less. Maybe Dye is tired of money.
NL anti-MVP: Andruw Jones, Braves
What happened to Jones? So what if the Atlanta center fielder is tied for the team lead in home runs, and second in RBIs. A career .265 hitter, Jones’ batting average has hovered around .200 all season, making him the NL’s worst-hitting regular player. He’s on his way to setting career lows in on-base percentage and slugging, and a career high in strikeouts. Instead of an Andruw Jones bobblehead, the Braves should give out corkscrews to honor the shape Jones finds himself in after another whiff.
AL anti-Cy Young: Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood, Rangers
It’s a tie, between the one-two punch(less) of Texas’ Padilla and Millwood. At a combined $25 million per year, equal to one Alex Rodriguez, they were expected to anchor the Rangers staff. And they have, if you mean sink to the bottom. As of July 7, Padilla was 3-8 with a 6.69 ERA, while Millwood was the "better" of the two at 5-7, 6.54. (To think Millwood is only two years away from having led the AL in ERA.) Following their example, the remaining Texas starters’ ERAs range from 5.72 to 6.70, meaning the Rangers could threaten the 1996 Tigers for the worst starting staff ERA ever (6.64).
NL anti-Cy Young: Anthony Reyes, Cardinals
Reyes was a rookie last year when manager Tony La Russa chose him over season-long starter Jason Marquis to pitch in the National League Championship Series and the World Series. Reyes was a hero, winning the first game in the World Series over Detroit, and setting a rookie record by retiring 17 straight batters. Now, Reyes is in the minor leagues, not likely to be called up before September, after starting 0-10 with a 6.40 ERA. As much as San Francisco’s Barry Zito and Los Angeles’ Jason Schmidt deserve this award for being big, free-agent flops, they’ve at least won a game. If it gives Reyes any comfort, the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey could end up being worse. He’s 0-7 with a 6.10 ERA, and still getting the ball as a major-league starter.
AL anti-rookie of the year: Elijah Dukes, Devil Rays
Before the Devil Rays put him on the inactive list, Dukes was among the AL rookie leaders in home runs, and strange calls to radio shows. Dukes, who was suspended numerous times as a minor-leaguer for his inability to manage his anger on the field, faced more serious charges of not being able to handle it off the field after being accused of threatening his wife via text message and at her workplace, in front of the middle-schoolers she teaches. Then came word that Dukes had impregnated the 17-year-old foster child living with his step-grandmother, which would be his sixth child by five women. Then came Dukes’ creepy, crazy call to a Tampa radio station to defend himself by arguing over the street value of crack, among other things. Dukes’ mother told the St. Petersburg Times that "every time one of those (whores) lays down with my baby, they end up pregnant." No wonder, with Dukes’ ex-girlfriend telling Tampa’s WDAE the call that prompted Dukes to call the station to respond — saying his favorite pickup line is "I want you to have my baby… can I be your first baby daddy?" It should be no surprise, of course, that teams are lining up to see if they can trade for Dukes.
NL anti-rookie of the year: No winner
After Dukes, no one seems quite so deserving.
AL anti-manager of the year: Ozzie Guillen, White Sox
The problems with the Chicago White Sox aren’t all Guillen’s fault, but he certainly isn’t doing much to make things better. Guillen is sounding much like Chicago’s favorite coach, Mike Ditka, at the end of his tenure in the city: alternately nutty, resigned, egotistical, profane and impotent. (On that last point, maybe Guillen someday will follow Ditka into pitching Levitra.) The us-against-them, crazy-sounding Guillen that worked in 2005 isn’t working now, and Guillen seems unwilling or powerless to tweak his style as needed.
NL anti-manager of the year: Charlie Manuel, Phillies
Every bad team has a sob story. Philadelphia’s is pitching injuries and other problems, which have forced the Phillies to use 25 pitchers, two short of the club record. Still, the Phillies have the talent to be doing much better than treading water at .500, so Manuel gets this dubious award. I’ll send Philadelphia radio host Howard Eskin to ask Manuel if he’s tough enough to handle this award, and see if Manuel yells at him again.
AL anti-executive of the year: Jon Daniels, Rangers
Texas’ Jon Daniels gets the award, and the honor of knowing he could single-handedly make teams fall out of love with the idea of hiring some young, Ivy League, business-savvy pseudo-Theo Epstein type to run the front office. How did trading Chris Young to the Padres work out? Or Francisco Cordero and Kevin Mench to the Brewers so you could rent Carlos Lee for a few months?
NL anti-executive of the year: Kevin McClatchy, Pirates
McClatchy, the recently departed Pirates chief executive, gets the award for laying the groundwork for a 15th straight losing season — geez, it never got this bad even for the Los Angeles Clippers. The media baron brought to the Pirates the same profit-margin-centered, hope-destroying, customer-fleeing management style that has worked equally as well for the American newspaper industry.
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.
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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