Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
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Splitsville: Sports divorces A-Rod isn't the first athlete to have his marriage hit the rocks. Look back at some of the bigger sports-related splits. |
But in the New York Yankees clubhouse, big egos long have been a fact of life. Certainly, they’ll take it in stride if Access Hollywood starts appearing at postgame press conferences, or if Madonna’s kids are playing on the field before batting practice. As far as they might be concerned, an Alex Rodriguez who is thinking more about himself is a more productive Alex Rodriguez.
If there is a problem, it will be if Rodriguez comes to the park sporting a $26 red yarn bracelet on his left wrist — the symbol of adherents of Kabbalah. Or, at least the strain of it practiced by the Kabbalah Center, a specific sect that has targeted celebrities — and their money. The controversy over the Kabbalah Center is that until its existence, you had to be a Talmudic scholar to study this esoteric side of Judaism, which uses a text called the Zohar that uses astrology and numerology as it seeks to discover the origin of the universe, God and the soul. Mainstream rabbis have criticized the Kabbalah Center because it opens the study to anyone who merely pays enormous sums of money, and tells its members they can “feel” the Aramaic text without having to learn the arcane language famously spoken in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
Rodriguez as a Kabbalah Center adherent would be odd enough in the Yankees’ locker room, but what would be toxic is if he started trying to convert his teammates. Rifts over religious conversion have ripped asunder numerous teams, most famously in 1998 when the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars demanded the NFL investigate an organization called Champions for Christ, which combined hard-core spiritualism with hard-core tithing. Nothing came of that call, and the organization has become fairly mainstream among NFL teams, even as self-appointed cult investigators remain suspicious of its motives.
Various reports have Rodriguez falling under Madonna’s spell last November — about the time he fired Boras in favor of previously musician-oriented manager Guy Oseary, like Madonna a member of the Kabbalah Center. A tenet of the Kabbalah Center is that “if it happens to me, I must deserve it,” and only G-d knows what that will mean to Rodriguez and the Yankees.
Though maybe the center is on to something. Rodriguez went on the disabled list for the first time in his career on April 29, eight days after reportedly spending “10 minutes,” according to various reports, attending the birth of his daughter before high-tailing it back to Madonna in New York. Maybe the biggest danger — or benefit — of Rodriguez’s problems is that he and the Yankees might get exactly whatever it is they deserve.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
HBT: Prince Fielder is gone and Ryan Braun will likely miss a third of the season because of a failed PED test. Can Milwaukee stay in contention until he gets back?
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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.
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.
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.