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 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.
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.
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
CLEVELAND - These were truly sacrifice flies.
Swarming bugs, millions and millions of them, bombarded the New York Yankees at the worst possible time Friday night, covering and rattling rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain and helping the Cleveland Indians to a 2-1 win in 11 innings and a two-game lead in their AL playoff series.
“It’s like somebody let them go,” Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all — that’s home-field advantage.”
Midges 1, Yankees 0.
Where was the Sultan of Swat when they needed him?
Travis Hafner hit a bases-loaded, RBI single with two outs in the 11th to score Kenny Lofton as the Indians, who trailed 1-0 before the flying pests invaded in the eighth inning, won a game their fans will never forget.
Unreal. Surreal. Hitchcockian. Call it whatever you’d like. October baseball has rarely witnessed something like this.
At times, it was like watching a low-budget, late-night horror flick: “The Bugs Who Ate The Yankees.”
And for some reason they feasted on Chamberlain, who stood on the mound struggling to see catcher Jorge Posada’s target as the tiny pests buzzed around his head. As some of them stuck to his muscular, sweaty neck and back, Chamberlain threw a wild pitch in the eighth that gave Cleveland the tying run.
Three innings later, the Indians won it and swarmed Hafner like their little helpers did to the Yanks.
“They bugged me,” Chamberlain said. “But you’ve got to deal with it.”
Umpire crew chief Bruce Froemming said he never considered stopping the game, which will surely go down as one of the strangest in postseason history.
|
“It was just a little irritation,” he said. “We’ve had bugs before. I’ve seen bugs and mosquitoes since I started umpiring. It might not be a perfect scenario. Within about 45 minutes, basically they were gone.
“There was just about a 10-minute period where everybody was lathering up,” he said.
By the end of the night, the Indians were celebrating and heading to New York looking for a sweep.
“I don’t feel safe at all, though,” first baseman Ryan Garko said. “I mean, it’s the Yankees.”
Lofton, a gnat-like nuisance to the Yankees — one of his many former teams — so far in this series, walked on four pitches to lead off the 11th against Luis Vizcaino. Franklin Gutierrez failed twice to get down a sacrifice before hitting a single.
|
Casey Blake moved the runners up with a bunt before the Yankees walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases. Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera missed his chance at being a hero by popping up right in front of the plate, but Hafner, who has struggled all season, delivered.
Cleveland’s designated hitter lined a single on a 3-2 pitch to right-center — making the Indians just 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position — and was mobbed by his teammates as an exhausted crowd of 44,732 towel-waving fans celebrated a win they’ll talk about for years to come.
One day after the Indians slugged their way to a 12-3 win, Fausto Carmona and the Yankees’ Andy Pettitte put pitching back into the series.
New York finished with just three hits, all off Carmona during his nine spectacular innings. Rafael Perez went two innings for the win.
|
Until the first pitch, everyone will talking about the bugs.
“It was like blankets of stuff out there,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Chamberlain, the wildly popular 22-year-old, came in for Pettitte in the seventh with runners at first and second. He struck out pinch-hitter Gutierrez and got Blake on a soft fly to right to keep the Yankees up 1-0.
That’s when everyone started buggin’ out.
Chamberlain needed to be sprayed with repellant before taking the mound in the eighth as the pesky insects descended upon the ballpark on another muggy fall night. Chamberlain wasn’t alone, either, as Alex Rodriguez, Jeter and the rest of the Yankees infielders fanned their gloves and waved their caps to keep the little critters off.
Chamberlain walked Grady Sizemore to open the eighth and threw a wild pitch before asking for another dose of spray. Plate umpire Laz Diaz, who also was under attack, consented and watched as Chamberlain held out his arms as if he was going through an airport security scan as a trainer sprayed him down.
“There’s not much you can do about it,” Torre said. “He was having trouble seeing out there. Unfortunately, it was a bad time.”
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.
HardballTalk headlines |
 | Interactive |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Unbreakable records in baseball A look at the most unbreakable records in baseball including Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters. |
| Slideshow |
 | The top tools of baseball You hear a lot about the tools of baseball, but who are the best hitters, fielders and pitchers? We break it down. more photos |
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.
