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.
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.
AP
ST. LOUIS - If there is any consolation for the Mets — and, really, there may not be — at least that was Albert Pujols out there, breaking them down with his bat, softening them up with his feet and his glove.
“The perfect player, in my opinion,” said his manager, Tony La Russa.
Pujols insists he is not perfect, just a humble man living for his faith and his family, but at the moment he is probably the best player in baseball.
The staggering Mets, with little pitching or dash or instinct, can only give thanks they see Pujols six more times.
The road part of the season series is over, after the third straight loss to a recent series, a 12-8 mauling in which Pujols hit two homers for three runs, scored four times, stole a base and made a nifty stretch for an out at first base. He also made an error, as if to prove his imperfection.
Pujols is so vital to the Cardinals that the organization prevailed on him to show up in the early afternoon of a recent game to plug the All-Star Game here in July. The governor and the mayor also showed up, but they are probably not hitting .345. The ominous part about this civic treasure is that his seven-year, $100 million contract ends after 2011, and everybody knows he could opt for the bigger dollars that one of the richer clubs could offer.
Six games into this season, columnist Bernie Miklasz of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted the Cardinals’ own version of the Doomsday Clock — theoretically only 480 regular-season games for Pujols in St. Louis. All Cardinals fans are surely doing the gloomy math.
“I do know we have him guaranteed for three years,” William O. DeWitt Jr., the chairman and chief executive of the Cardinals, said Wednesday after the All-Star Game news conference. “I’m not thinking beyond that. Three years is three years.”
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“It’s not about the money all the time,” Pujols said at the start of spring training about his own future. “It’s about being in a place to win and being in a position to win.” At the moment, the Cardinals are hustling and have a good record, in direct contrast to the Mets.
All the Mets’ money from cable television and bad-sightline seats and taxpayer-supported naming rights might not turn the club into a winner. Pujols is playing for a better team here in the heartland.
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.
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.