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.
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.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Von Hemel Family Trainers have never achieved the kind of renown that, say, the Von Trapp Family Singers got from the movies more than 40 years ago, but in the insular world of horse racing, they are famous in their own right. Don, the 73-year-old patriarch, long ago left his imprint on tracks throughout America's breadbasket, and sons Donnie, 46, and Kelly, 42, have taken the family legacy a generation deeper while campaigning at tracks from Texas to Minnesota.
On this side of the Mississippi, however, they aren't quite as well known, although all have spent their fair share of time in Chicago, Kentucky, and other tracks farther east. Clever Trevor might have been the best horse ever trained by a Von Hemel - he was second to Easy Goer in the 1989 Travers at Saratoga for Donnie - unless your vote is for Mariah's Storm, whom Donnie sent out to defeat Serena's Song at Turfway Park in 1995 before she attained even greater fame as the dam of Giant's Causeway and the basis for the movie "Dreamer."
Another chance has arisen for the family to further its name, and once again it is Donnie who is running up the flag. The Clark Handicap, the annual highlight of the fall meet at Churchill Downs, should be a litmus test for a 3-year-old named Going Ballistic, a $4,000 yearling purchase who blipped onto the racing radar in September by winning the Super Derby but who otherwise has never been considered among the top echelon of an extraordinary crop headed by Curlin, Street Sense, Hard Spun and others.
Yet when he lines up against older horses Friday in the 133rd running of the $500,000 Clark, Going Ballistic has an opportunity to begin filling a huge vacuum created by the recent retirements of many of the sport's stars. Going Ballistic, a gray Florida-bred by Lite the Fuse, is one of about 10 horses expected for the Grade 2 race.
"I hope he can step up and begin filling those big shoes," Von Hemel said early this week from Oklahoma City. "But we've got a lot of questions to answer. There's a lot of room at the top right now, so I'm sure everybody's kind of got the same hopes that we do."
Going Ballistic was well beaten by Curlin early in the year at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Rebel and fifth in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby.
"When we left out of Hot Springs with him, we thought we were getting less out of him than we thought we could," said Von Hemel.
But in his seven races since the April 14 Arkansas Derby, Going Ballistic has improved steadily and has never finished worse than third. After rolling past Grasshopper to win the Sept. 22 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, Going Ballistic posted a last-to-first triumph in the Oct. 21 Oklahoma Derby, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
"He really has progressed as year has gone on," said Von Hemel. "If he were to run big again Friday, we'd have to think about some of the major races for older horses in Hot Springs next winter."
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
DAILY RACING FORM |
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 | INTERACTIVE |
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 | Slideshow |
 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
| INTERACTIVE |
 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
 | Slideshow |
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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.
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.