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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
DENVER - Philadelphia’s first trip to the playoffs in 14 years ended in a power outage.
The NL’s highest-scoring team in the regular season sputtered once the playoffs started, leading to a quick and dismal sweep at the hands of the Colorado Rockies in the NL division series.
Handcuffed by Colorado’s young but effective pitching staff and maybe feeling a little squeeze from the spotlight of postseason baseball, the Phillies’ late-season charge ended with a screeching halt in a 2-1 loss to the Rockies on a strange, gusty Saturday night in the Mile High City.
“This is the first taste we’ve gotten of playoff baseball and we were a little tight,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I wouldn’t call it pressing. I would say we were anxious, like we wanted it too bad or were trying too hard.”
Led by MVP candidate Jimmy Rollins and All-Stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, the Phillies overcame a rough start to the season to track down the New York Mets, winning 13 of their final 17 games to take the NL East crown on the final day of the season.
But just when it looked like Philadelphia might have a chance to end its tortured quest for a championship, the Phillies’ bats went silent at the worst possible time — in two of baseball’s most hitter-friendly parks, no less. That led to their first postseason sweep since the 1976 NL championship series against Cincinnati.
After scoring 292 runs (5.5 per game) during the regular season, Philadelphia managed just eight against Colorado’s young pitching staff. The Phillies didn’t come close to their .274 average during the season, either, going 16-for-93 (.172) with 26 strikeouts during the series.
“We just didn’t hit,” said Aaron Rowand, who was 3-for-12 with four strikeouts in the series. “You can ask all the questions you want — we just didn’t hit.”
The worst of it came in Game 3, when the lights went out at Coors Field and on Philadelphia’s season. After a brief surge in Game 2, the Phillies were flat in the finale, managing a run and three hits, putting just two runners in scoring position.
“The way our staff was able to pitch to the top five of that Philly lineup was special,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. “That’s as good a lineup as you’ll face every day. We don’t want to face them anymore. Three games was enough.”
It was a surprising conclusion for a team with so many stars.
Rollins never really got going at the plate or on the bases, going 2-for-11 with one stolen base. Howard, last year’s NL MVP, hit a homer in Game 2, but had two hits in his 11 other at-bats and struck out seven times. Utley struck out five times, going 2-for-11 in the series.
And when the Phillies needed them the most, the trio couldn’t come through, combining for one hit in nine at-bats, each striking out twice in Game 3 at Coors Field, typically one of the easiest places to hit.
“I honestly believe it would have taken one inning for us, one at-bat, one sequence for us to turn this thing around,” said Game 3 starting pitcher Jamie Moyer. “Coming into this ballpark, if we would have won tonight I think we would have won the series.”
But that one moment never came, sending the Rockies into their clubhouse to spray champagne while the Phillies walked off in disgust, extending a sports-mad city’s misery for yet another year.
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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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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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