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?
LIVE VIDEO: NBCSports.com shows Washington-New York, with alternate camera angles, HD views and more.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
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.
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.
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) -England defender Joleon Lescott preserved Manchester City's two-point lead in the Premier League by scoring a second-half winner in a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday.
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
SAN FRANCISCO - Rookie Eli Whiteside wasn’t even supposed to be catching Friday night. Instead, he played a huge part in Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter for the San Francisco Giants.
The 29-year-old backup backstop got the call about 30 minutes before batting practice because starter Bengie Molina’s wife, Jamie, went into labor with the couple’s first child.
What a night for Whiteside in just his 13th career start.
“That’s an unbelievable feeling,” Whiteside said. “I caught two in the minor leagues, but nothing like that.”
Whiteside, who spent part of the 2005 season with the Baltimore Orioles in his only other major league season, had appeared in nine of the team’s previous 21 games. This one certainly will be among the most memorable for the rest of his life.
Sanchez tossed the majors’ first no-hitter this season in an 8-0 victory over the San Diego Padres, the left-hander’s return to the rotation following a nearly three-week demotion to the bullpen.
“We talked about the hitters at the beginning of the game in the clubhouse,” Sanchez said. “He came to me and we talked. I told him, ’I’m going to follow you the whole game. If I say no, if I shake you off, just go back to the same pitch.’ “
It only happened once or twice, Sanchez said.
“I knew he had good stuff in the bullpen,” Whiteside said. “That’s what I told him, ’Take that stuff into the game.’ After a few innings, he had unbelievable stuff. That’s what he’s capable of. We sat over in the corner (before the game) and he had a game plan — and he stuck to 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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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.
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.
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