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.
Reuters
PHOENIX - Brandon Webb didn’t look anything like a Cy Young Award winner. Against the Colorado Rockies, he rarely does.
Facing Webb for the seventh time this season, the Rockies used a patient approach that forced the right-hander to throw his sinker for strikes Thursday night and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1 in the NL championship series opener.
Back in spring training, Webb pitched against Arizona minor leaguers rather than face the Rockies in an exhibition game. The Diamondbacks didn’t want to give their NL West rivals any clues about Webb, who faced the Rockies on opening day.
Colorado seemed to know Webb well enough in Game 1.
Webb allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings with four strikeouts and two walks. He threw 98 pitches, 61 for strikes.
The Rockies didn’t pound him. They pestered him with bloopers and a 90-foot single that rolled down the third base line and kissed the bag.
“I had good stuff,” Webb said. “It was tough luck.”
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner had not given up as many as four runs in the first three innings since Sept. 2 — when the Rockies beat him 4-3. During the regular season he was 1-3 with a 5.77 ERA against Colorado — the lone win was Sept. 28, when Webb beat Jeff Francis to send the Rockies to their only loss in their past 19 games.
Webb has developed a reputation as a big-game pitcher. But with Chase Field nearly filled to capacity with towel-waving Diamondbacks fans, Webb quickly found himself in trouble.
With Colorado trailing 1-0, the Rockies loaded the bases with no outs in the second. Webb got Troy Tulowitzki to ground into a double play and struck out Yorvit Torrealba, limiting the damage to one run.
But Kaz Matsui’s bloop RBI single and Brad Hawpe’s two-run single made it 4-1 in the third. Arizona never recovered.
“They blooped about three, four that inning and strung them together and ended up scoring three runs,” Webb said. “Not a whole lot I could do right there. I thought I was executing my pitches fairly well, and they were getting hits.”
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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