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 swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
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.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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
NEW YORK - A top baseball official will formulate a proposal for instant replay, and the technology could be tested in the Arizona Fall League this year.
Jimmie Lee Solomon, the sport’s executive vice president for baseball operations, wouldn’t put a timetable on a replay plan, which was recommended by general managers in November. The idea drew renewed attention following several blown home run calls by umpires in recent days.
“The times are such that our fans are used to seeing all the high technology and they’re used to seeing the other sports that use these systems to make determinations, and the fans are clamoring for all the sports to look at that,” Solomon said Thursday.
Baseball is developing tentative plans to experiment with replay during the Fall League and likely would continue testing, if it’s successful, during the 2009 World Baseball Classic, ESPN.com reported Thursday.
Solomon wouldn’t go that far.
“We’re looking at various places to start looking at instant replay,” he said. “We’ve made no final decision as to where exactly we’re going to try it out, do any test runs or anything yet.”
GMs voted 25-5 last November to use replays on boundary calls, such as whether possible homers are fair or foul, whether balls clear fences, and whether there’s fan interference.
On Sunday night, umpires at Yankee Stadium reversed a correct call and concluded an apparent home run by the Mets’ Carlos Delgado was foul. On Monday night, umps in Houston mistakenly ruled a ball off a center-field wall was in play. And on Wednesday night, the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez lost a home run when umpires decided the ball hit the fence — replays showed it glanced off a yellow staircase behind the fence.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly has said he’s against replay but also said he is willing to consider it.
“I’ve had conversations with the commissioner about it and I know he’s giving it a lot of thought and consideration and doing a lot of work on it. Commissioner Selig is getting a lot more information and will know the pros and cons,” Seattle Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said.
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“I think it’s certainly something that bares exploring and I look forward to hearing the results,” he added. “You have those things that happened this week in Houston or Yankee Stadium and those things just should not happen.”
Solomon noted Selig’s habit of being deliberate in his decision-making.
“I think that he’s going to be very cautious as we move forward,” Solomon said. “I’m hoping to have something to the commissioner as soon as I possibly can, and once I do that it will be on him to decide how fast he wants us to try to be looking at rolling something out, and then after that how soon we’ll look to be implementing something. So all of these things right now are very, very, very preliminary.”
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“You’re going to have to talk to all the parties that are involved because everybody will be needed to make the system a success,” Solomon said.
The NFL, NBA, NHL, some NCAA sports and major tennis tournaments use replay in some form. International soccer has resisted, although some leagues use it after matches to sort out suspensions for red and yellow cards.
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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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.
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.
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.
