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.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
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.
Getty ImagesPart of what A-Rod has accomplished can be attributed to the fact that he’s playing in a Golden Age of offense. It’s no accident that the great streaks of run production to precede him were accomplished in the 1920s and 1930s, the only era that’s still ahead of today’s in offensive production.
You can complain, if you must, about A-Rod’s postseason production and the fact that he’s never won a ring. In that, he’s more like Bonds, who was awful in the playoffs for the Pirates and never had a good postseason until 2002, when he hit .471 in the World Series that the Giants lost to the Angels.
But that’s a different argument and an omission that A-Rod still has time to remedy. We’re talking regular-season now, those six months of the year that determine if teams are even getting into the playoffs.
This year, it’s hard to picture the Yankees even in the picture without his extraordinary efforts. I’ve been as tough on him as anyone over the postseason, but I’m cutting him a break on this season, because he’s been as clutch as anyone in the game.
Rather than go on about his October numbers, I’ll instead pick on two regular-season stats as the only real holes in his resume.
One is his strikeout total. In the process of getting to 500 home runs he’s also struck out more times at age 31 than anyone except Sosa. The strikeouts are what’s kept his lifetime batting average at .306 when it should be higher. It’s also held his on-base percentage down to .387 for his career, a good number, but not close to a great one.
The great hitters didn’t strike out a lot. A-Rod averages better than 120 whiffs a season — about the same as his RBI total. Babe Ruth never struck out 100 times in a season. Neither did Hank Aaron, and Bonds and Mays did it only once each — Mays in his last full season and Bonds in his first.
But that’s it for the flaws in A-Rod’s game. He may not get as many extra-base hits as the old-timers, and he strikes out more than he should, but he just keeps on producing runs, as consistent season after season as anyone since Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.
That’s pretty good company.
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.
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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.