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.
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Mr. Iditarod Lance Mackey beat 71 other mushers in 2010 to win 1,100-mile race for fourth straight time. more photos |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The race is on between Lance Mackey and Jeff King.
Two years ago, King, a four-time champion, appeared on his way to a fifth win in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race with a faster team when he was snookered by Mackey, who went on to win.
On Saturday, Mackey, the defending champion with three back-to-back wins, again snatched the lead, leaving King behind in the Kaltag checkpoint where he rested his dog team for about four hours.
King had been leading the race but Mackey made his move shortly after noon, leaving the Kaltag checkpoint without resting his team. The front-runners now head toward the Bering Sea coastline in the 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.
“I am shocked by how fast this race is. The front is blowing the doors off this thing,” Seward musher Dallas Seavey told KTUU-TV. Seavey, son of 2004 winner Mitch Seavey, was in 10th position and resting his team in Nulato. His father was in fifth place further up the trail.
King was the first musher to arrive at the Kaltag checkpoint at 11:42 a.m. Mackey arrived 12:28 p.m. and stayed just seven minutes before getting back on the trail.
He was followed more than two hours later by Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, Canada, fresh off his fourth win in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in February. Mackey finished second in the Quest.
King was third out of Kaltag on Saturday afternoon, about three hours behind Mackey.
In 2008, Mackey and King were battling for the lead when King fell victim to an old musher’s trick just 123 miles from the finish. Mackey arrived at the checkpoint 3 minutes ahead of King, drank coffee and acted like he was settling in for a long nap. He told checkpoint volunteers to wake him in an hour. But with King snoring, Mackey sneaked out ahead of his opponent and eventually won the race.
King, no doubt, would like this year’s race to end differently. The 54-year-old musher has said this will be his last Iditarod.
Mackey left Kaltag at 12:35 p.m. on Saturday. King remained in the checkpoint, along with Hugh Neff of Tok and Mitch Seavey of Seward, who were in fourth and fifth places.
John Baker of Kotzebue, Ken Anderson of Fairbanks were next, followed by Sonny Lindner of Two Rivers, the 60-year-old musher who won the very first Quest. Lindner finished sixth in this year’s Quest.
Mackey, 39, who lives in Fairbanks, is a four-time Quest champion and finished second this year in the 1,000 mile race between Alaska and Canada.
His father, Dick, won the Iditarod by a second in 1983, edging out by the narrowest of margins Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, the race’s only five-time winner. Swenson was in 14th position on Saturday. Mackey’s brother, Rick, also is an Iditarod champion.
Kaltag is a few hundred miles from the finish line in Nome, where it was a chilly 30 degrees below zero on Saturday morning. It had warmed up to 15 below by midday.
After leaving Nulato, Iditarod teams embark on a 42-mile run along the frozen Yukon River to the Kaltag checkpoint, where mushers then head for the Bering Sea coast and the sizable town of Unalakleet. The distance between the Kaltag and Unalakleet checkpoints is 90 miles, one of the longer stretches between checkpoints in the race.
Unalakleet is about 260 miles from the finish.
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.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
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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.