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.
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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
ReutersNew York trailed Boston by 5½ games on the morning of Aug. 11 before going 35-12 the rest of the way. Johnson was a big reason why, going 6-0 with a 1.93 ERA in eight starts since Aug. 21. With New York down by four games on Sept. 11, he beat Wakefield 1-0 to start the final push.
“Every game out was like a bigger game for him,” Jeter said, “and he got better and better.”
Wakefield (16-12) started on three days’ rest for the first time this year and gave up seven runs on seven hits, striking out one in five innings. He had won eight of his prior 10 decisions while avoiding the clunker of an outing that the knuckleball seems to produce, allowing only three homers in September.
But he quickly matched that on the first day of October.
Sheffield hit a two-run shot as New York took a 3-0 lead in the first. Ramirez’s two-run homer in the bottom half cut the deficit to one run. The Yankees scored on a pair of sacrifice flies in the second inning and then made it 5-2 on Matsui’s homer in the third.
Rodriguez added a solo shot in the fifth — his 48th of the year, moving him ahead of Ortiz for the AL lead. Wakefield also allowed one of the more painful homers in Red Sox history when he gave up Aaron Boone’s shot that ended Game 7 of the 2003 AL championship series.
The Red Sox recovered the next year and won their first World Series title since 1918. But they’ll have to wait at least one more day to find out if they’ve got a chance to defend their title.
Notes: Jeter reached the 200-hit milestone for the fourth time. Only Lou Gehrig, who had 200 hits eight times, has more as a Yankee. ... When Francona heard that the Yankees had brought in a knuckleballer to pitch batting practice Saturday to prepare for Wakefield, he quipped, “we imported a 6-foot-11 guy.”... Torre said facing a knuckleballer in batting practice was more to get the Yankee hitters adjusted to the speed of the pitch rather than the movement. “So much today is based on timing to a certain speed of pitch,” he said. ... Torre moved Cano up to sixth in the batting order and Martinez up to seventh largely because of the success they’ve had against Wakefield in the past.
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.
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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.