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.
AP fileCROSSING THE LINE
Stealing signs, or noticing when a pitcher is unintentionally tipping his pitches is not cheating, that’s just baseball. You try to get an advantage over your opponent any way you can.
But what Tejada was accused of is far different. He was accused of giving his opponent an advantage, and that’s a cardinal sin in baseball.
When I saw the story, I called a buddy of mine who played on the A’s at that time. He told me that there definitely was a concern about Tejada at the time, but doesn’t know for sure that anything happened.
He also told me a story about playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic and about the culture there. Many young players live in poverty in the Dominican Republic. It’s a completely different way of living, and in an effort to find a way to the big leagues, I wouldn’t be surprised if friends helped each other out in that way. Sometimes their friendships might override the team concept because they are pulling for each other, in a way.
It is possible something like that could happen in the majors. That being said, I played 22 seasons in the big leagues and I honestly never heard of anyone doing it, whether Dominican players or players of any nationality. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.
ACCIDENTAL TIPPING
I hope Tejada has never relayed signs to friends or countrymen on opposing teams. I hope if anything, he did it accidentally.
It’s like a catcher with a runner at second base. The catcher can’t move too quickly inside or outside or he’ll give away the location of the pitch. Something similar could have happened with Tejada.
Perhaps when he saw that a breaking ball was coming, he would take a step to his right to cover the hole. If a fastball was coming, maybe he took a step toward the middle. The other team could’ve picked up on that and adjusted accordingly.
I hope that’s what happened. But I know one thing: If I was on the mound and found out a teammate was giving signs to the hitters I was facing, there would have been a fight right then and there, and I would want that player off my team. And it wouldn’t matter if the score was 2-0 or 15-0, it would simply be unacceptable.
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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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.
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.