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
MINNEAPOLIS - Growing up in Scarborough, Ontario, George Kottaras was one of the few youngsters in his neighborhood who didn’t play hockey.
After chasing pitch after pitch in the dirt and absorbing a collision at home plate on Wednesday night, the Boston catcher now knows exactly what it feels like.
Daisuke Matsuzaka and the rest of the Red Sox righties tied a modern-day record with six wild pitches while Twins starter Kevin Slowey was the picture of control in Minnesota’s 4-2 victory over Boston.
Matsuzaka (0-3) tied a franchise record set 80 years ago with four wild pitches, while relievers Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson also sent Kottaras scrambling. It was just the fifth time since 1900 that a team threw six wild pitches in a game.
“A lot going on around the dirt area,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “George’s Canadian background came into play there. He looked like a goalie at times. There were a lot of balls bouncing.”
Slowey (7-1) gave up two runs on six hits with five strikeouts and just one walk in six innings.
Speedy Denard Span had four hits, a walk and two runs scored for the Twins. Five of the wild pitches came with him on base.
Matsuzaka was all over the place in his second start off the disabled list. He gave up three runs on nine hits in five innings with three walks and six strikeouts. He became the first Red Sox pitcher to throw four wild pitches in a game since Milt Gaston on Sept. 14, 1929.
This was the first time Kottaras, who is the normal catcher for knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, was behind the plate for a start by Matsuzaka.
“There were cases out there today that our signs didn’t match up all the time or our timing didn’t match up,” Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. “All that comes from experience. I think I needed to take more of a leadership role out there with respect to working with Kottaras today.”
Matsuzaka was even wild during warmups. When he came out in the fifth inning, he bounced one in front of first baseman Jeff Bailey, who was filling in while Kottaras got his gear on.
His relievers weren’t much better. When Masterson wasn’t bouncing pitches in the dirt, he was hitting Twins batters. The lanky right-hander plunked Michael Cuddyer with the bases loaded in the sixth to score Span and give the Twins a 4-2 lead.
It was a rough day all around for the young catcher, who went 0 for 4, had a throwing error in the third that allowed Span to score, but also gritted his teeth and held on to the ball when he was run over at the plate by Carlos Gomez in the seventh.
“That’s just part of the gig,” Kottaras said. “After a game you should be exhausted. I’m going to leave it all on the field and do whatever I can to help the team win. We just didn’t come out on top tonight.”
Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 22 games and Jason Bay hit a solo homer for the Red Sox, snapping a string of 11 straight home runs that came with runners on base. That was one short of the major league record.
Jason Kubel had two hits, two walks and an RBI and Joe Mauer had a single and a sacrifice fly for the Twins.
Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier threw two innings of hitless relief to set up Joe Nathan’s eighth save.
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Boston’s slumping slugger, David Ortiz, batted sixth again and continued to look slow with the stick. He struck out on three pitches in his first at-bat, the last an 89 mph fastball that Slowey left up and over the middle of the plate.
Big Papi hit one to the warning track in center field in the sixth, then walked to the dugout shaking his head. He finished 0 for 4 to drop his average to .193.
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.
