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
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Texas Rangers outfielder Milton Bradley said Thursday he wanted to “introduce” himself to Kansas City Royals television announcer Ryan Lefebvre after some negative comments made on the air.
Bradley stormed up four flights of Kauffman Stadium stairs looking for Lefebvre after the Rangers’ 11-5 victory Wednesday night.
“I came in to watch my at-bat on the video and all of a sudden I heard my name,” Bradley said Thursday. “It was a spiel like five minutes out of the blue about me. I didn’t think anything he was saying was anything positive.
“I never met him and I heard him talking about me on TV. I was upset and was going to introduce myself. ... All I wanted to do was introduce myself and tell him the stuff you’re talking about is uncalled for.”
Bradley never made it to Lefebvre, who is the son of former major league manager and player Jim Lefebvre. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels interceded and the two went back to the clubhouse.
Daniels said the Rangers would take no disciplinary action against Bradley.
“It’s a situation you want to avoid, but I don’t see where disciplinary action is warranted,” Daniels said. “I was there the whole time. There was no aggressive action. There was no foul action, nothing of the sort. We move on.”
Daniels said he would have preferred Bradley handle it in a different way than trying to go the television booth.
“It was the heat of the emotion in the moment,” Daniels said. “It was an emotional response. Having been there, it was under control. We would have preferred it not become the public incident it did, but nothing happened.”
Lefebvre, the son of former major league manager Jim Lefebvre, said he met with Daniels and Washington about his on-the-air comments, but did not talk to Bradley. Lefebvre said the comments were intended to praise Josh Hamilton, who missed nearly four years of professional baseball with cocaine and alcohol additions, rather than tear down Bradley.
“It was a conversation about how Josh Hamilton has turned his life around and has been accountable for his mistakes,” Lefebvre told The Associated Press. “Right now, it seems like the baseball world and fans are rooting for him. ... It doesn’t seem like Milton Bradley has done the same thing in his life.”
Bradley, who leads the league with a .333 batting average and a .629 slugging percentage, said he wasn’t looking to physically confront Lefebvre.
“I get tired of people only choose to talk about negativity,” he said. “People would automatically assume that if I went to meet that guy that we were going to start fighting. That would be completely out of my character. I never had a fight in my life.”
Lefebvre commented about Bradley taunting fans above the dugout and in right field.
“I interact with the fans, but it’s not anything malicious,” Bradley said. “If anything it is malicious back to me, and I go out and play well and rub it back in their face. I have fun with it.”
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He slammed a plastic bottle at the feet of a fan in the right-field seats at Dodger Stadium in 2004 after someone threw it on the field. With San Diego in the pennant chase last September, he tore the ACL in his right knee when he was spun to the ground by Padres manager Bud Black, who was trying to keep him from an umpire.
Bradley claimed umpire Mike Winters baited the player into the confrontation and directed a profanity at him last September. Winters was suspended the final five days of the regular season and didn’t work the postseason.
Bradley knows the perception of him by outsiders may not be good because of past incidents.
“I’ve done some things that have been construed as violent or temperamental,” Bradley said. “But I’ve never physically harmed anyone. You can talk to any teammates I’ve had and the most they’ll tell you about me is I’m moody. I love to laugh and have fun, but when I’m out on the field it’s strictly business. It’s my life. I take a lot or pride in what I do.”
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.
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.
