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.
APThe following year, the wild-card Marlins were back in the Series, where they dispatched the Yankees in six games, who had faced the wild-card Red Sox in the LCS. Last year, for the third straight time, the wild cards in both leagues — Boston and Houston, made the LCS and, also for the third straight year, a wild card won the Series — Boston.
Before 2002, wild cards were given little chance of getting to the Series, much less winning it. But the performance of recent years suggests that the wild card has as good a chance of winning it all as anyone — maybe more.
So on recent history alone, there’s reason to fear the wild card. Add in two terrific pitching staffs like those of Florida and Houston, and you have teams that are downright scary to meet with everything on the line.
The question yet to be answered is whether either of those teams can make it. The likelihood is that one will. Philly, after all, has to play the NL East down the stretch, and that division has been a meat grinder all year. The Marlins have to do the same, but they’re playing better than Philadelphia right now and, again, they have the pitching to carry it off.
But Houston, if it can escape its current four-game set with Florida with a split, has a better chance than either Florida or Philly, since it gets to play the Pirates and Brewers in addition to the Cubs and St. Louis. Only St. Louis among those teams has a winning record.
And regardless of who makes it, recent history suggests that the extra playoff team won’t be in the playoffs just to create an extra series. It will be in it to win.
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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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.
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.