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.
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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.
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.
AP
PHILADELPHIA - Game 3 of the World Series was scheduled to start at 10 p.m. Saturday night after an 85-minute delay caused by a storm system that brought heavy rain and gusty winds to the area.
“We’re going to play baseball tonight,” commissioner Bud Selig said at 8 p.m., about a half-hour before Tampa Bay and Philadelphia had been scheduled to begin. The Rays and Phillies were tied at one game each.
“The front is going through. We have three different weather services, and we’ve been talking to them all day,” he said.
The National Weather Service said the rain was to taper off after midnight.
At about 9:20 p.m., the grounds crew removed the tarp, but rain was still falling. Phillies starter Jamie Moyer walked across the field to the bullpen a few minutes later, and the start time was announced at about 9:40 p.m.
A postponement would result in games at Philadelphia on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. If the Series went to a sixth game, it would be played Wednesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the teams would lose the off day.
Fans at Citizens Bank Park huddled under the overhangs and crowded the concourses during the delay to watch No. 3 Penn State play No. 10 Ohio State on television. A few hardy souls sat in seats behind the dugout, covered by plastic sheeting that whipped wildly.
“People have been out tailgating here since 3 o’clock this afternoon,” Selig said. “If you called a game off every day starting April 6 because it rained sometime during the game, you’d play till Feb. 8. So people are used to it. And by the way, the parking lots are jammed, and people are here.”
Colors from the ceremonial World Series logos bled onto the crushed brick warning track behind home plate. Puddles formed on the warning track around the outfield and pools collected on top of the tarp before the Phillies’ first home World Series game since 1993.
Rays manager Joe Maddon was happy the delay was in a ballpark that opened in 2004 and has modern facilities and space.
“If you’re in Fenway, in that clubhouse, it gets kind of annoying,” he said. “The clubhouse is, what, maybe half this size. And when you have all the amenities and you get yourself a nice cheesesteak while you’re waiting or watch a game on the tube — J.P. Howell is up there watching Texas versus Oklahoma State right now — this kind of facility ameliorates that situation a bit and permits you to get through the moment.”
His use of “ameliorates” brought laughter from a room of baseball reporters.
Maddon wondered how Rays starting pitcher Matt Garza would spend the time.
“Matt Garza is a different story. I don’t know what he’s going to do. If there’s a padded room around here, I’d really like to know about, so he can go there and bounce around for a bit,” he said.
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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.
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.