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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
ASSOCIATED PRESSBut usually, Ozzie’s rants do strike home. Like when he went off at great and vulgar length about the alleged wonderfulness of the St. Louis Cardinals, Tony La Russa, and the National League Central. Or when he calls his players out for insipid play. He’s so brutal, they can’t even object — because he’s brutally right.
You can’t have everybody acting like Guillen and Piniella. It would be like having to watch SportsCenter 24 hours a day. It would make you want to puke.
But at the same time, you need somebody acting like them, if only for comic relief. They’re the guys who bring us back to earth after listening to all the people who want to make the game into a cold science. It’s not cold science to them. It’s a bleeping game that drives them bleeping nuts, and who the bleep are you bleeping bleeps to question why they didn’t bleeping bunt in the eighth bleeping inning?
There was a time when most managers used to strip down to their ragged game underwear after a game, chain smoke cigarettes, and either growl or trade jokes with reporters. Piniella is the last one of that breed. One of my favorite baseball memories is of Sweet Lou losing it after a Yankees loss. He was in the manager’s office in the old Yankee Stadium, stripped to his underwear. He looked at the writers wanting to know how his team screwed it up this time. He growled, fumed, and finally turned around and ripped a couple of bookshelves off the wall behind his desk.
“Is that what you bleeping wanted?” he yelled when he was done. “Did you all get that?”
Nobody said a word, but inside, I was thinking, “You betcha, Lou! Best post-game speech ever.”
I can guarantee you every reporter who is lucky enough to be present for one of Ozzie’s rants is thinking the same thing while also praying the batteries in the tape recorder don’t die.
Okay, so Lou doesn’t respect the rules of civilized behavior, and Ozzie ignores the rules of civil discourse. And, yes, that’s a terrible example for the youth of this country. But bleep it, we need people to show us the wrong way just as much as we need people to show us the right way. Mostly because the wrong way is so refreshingly funny.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
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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.
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.
Paul Pierce has been around long enough to know what Rajon Rondo's performance can mean for the aging Boston Celtics.