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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
ASSOCIATED PRESSWhen last seen, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella was suggesting that his club might be more relaxed next season because it will be the 101st season since the franchise last won the World Series. Something about the round number 100 may have unnerved his club, Piniella theorized.
It certainly made top-level management lose its bearings.
Second-guess Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon all you want for his choices in the final game of the World Series, but Cubs chairman Crane Kenney made the bone-headed move of the offseason. He had a Greek Orthodox priest spread holy water in the club's home dugout before the playoffs began.
One can only imagine Piniella's reaction when told of the stunt. Piniella spends all season trying to downplay the idea of a "Cubs' curse," and the team chairman is acting as if it is for real.
That's why the Cubs are the Cubs.
With Tampa Bay's rise this season, all four expansion clubs from the 1990s have reached the World Series. Arizona and Florida have won it.
And then there are the Cubs. They last reached the World Series in 1945. They have lost their last nine postseason games.
At least they won a series and came within a game of the World Series under Dusty Baker. Piniella's clubs have been swept in two consecutive National League division series, scoring only six runs each time. This season's club led the NL in runs during the regular season with 5.28 per game.
"You can play postseason baseball between now and another 100 years, and if you score six runs in a three-game series, it's going to be another 100 years before you win here," Piniella said. "So we have to score more runs."
To do that, general manager Jim Hendry will have to re-shape the roster and possibly eat some salaries.
The Cubs would be better off without left fielder Alfonso Soriano, who beats up bad pitching and vanishes against top-three starters. Soriano, waving at breaking pitches off the plate, has hit .107 with a .138 on-base percentage in the last two postseasons.
With six years and $106 million remaining on Soriano's contract, Hendry would have a difficult time moving him. The alternative is to lessen the damage he causes by hitting leadoff.
Soriano had a .350 on-base percentage when batting leadoff this season. Among the 10 National Leaguers with at least 80 games in the leadoff spot, only Milwaukee's Ricky Weeks and Colorado's Willy Taveras had a worse on-base percentage.
Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts would be a suitable replacement at leadoff. Roberts would bring needed elements of speed and good at-bats. He had an American League-best .379 on-base percentage when batting leadoff this season.
The next step is to give Kosuke Fukudome the Kaz Matsui treatment.
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Fukudome's spin-out swing combined with a collapsing body will not work in the majors. Opponents quickly found his weaknesses and hammered them. Fukudome hit only .217 with a sickly .640 OPS for 175 at-bats in the second half.
The majors are no place to fix a swing. To have a chance at hitting major-league pitching, Fukudome needs an extended period of swing-repair in the minors. There is no other alternative. Fukudome is untradeable, and he is unlikely to return to Japan and forfeit $38 million over the next three seasons.
Fukudome certainly is not the left-handed bat that Piniella wants. Neither is center fielder Jim Edmonds, who gave the Cubs one good month before fading. The Cubs must look outside to break up their log-jam of right-handed hitters, which includes first baseman Derrek Lee and third baseman Aramis Ramirez.
In the regular season, the Cubs had a .579 winning percentage (66-48) when the opponent started a rigthhander and a .660 winning percentage (31-16) against lefthanders. In the last two postseasons, when the Cubs' offense stopped, opposing righthanders pitched 48 1/3 out of 54 innings.
The Cubs would have to free up salary space to make a run at free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira, a switch-hitter with power from both sides. Trading Lee is a possibility, if he would waive his no-trade protection and the Cubs find another team that believes his power will return after a two-year absence.
Outfielder Bobby Abreu (free agent) and Rangers corner infielder Hank Blalock (trade) are also possibilities.
"I was concerned about our offense coming into this thing," Piniella said after the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Cubs. "And, basically, my concerns were realized."
That leaves the Cubs with two options: fix the lineup, or wait for Crane Kenney to get the bright idea of an exorcism. The Cubs need a change, or year 101 will end like the 100 before it.
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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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.
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.
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