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.
APWHAT PRESSURE?
Hitting with two strikes is white-knuckle time for most batters. Not David Eckstein.
The Cardinals shortstop was second in the NL batting with two strikes, hitting .279 with six of his eight homers and 37 of his 61 RBIs. But his biggest two-strike at-bat was Monday, when he hit a 1-2 slider from Houston’s Brad Lidge for a single with two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the NLCS, setting the stage for Pujols’ dramatic three-run homer.
“I’ll take my chances, win or lose,” Eckstein said. “It’s a calming feeling to be up at the plate at that time.”
His luck wasn’t so good Wednesday. Eckstein went to two strikes twice. He struck out in the fifth against Oswalt and grounded out to second in the eighth.
Eckstein said he feels he has a responsibility to work the opposing pitcher. When he gets strike two, all he has to do is hit.
“When I have two strikes, I feel free,” Eckstein said. “My job is to make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches, and when I swing at a bad pitch early in the count that bugs. Once I get to two strikes and I swing at a bad pitch, I don’t mind it at all.”
Eckstein’s father, Whitey, received a kidney transplant in August. Three siblings have also.
“What they’ve gone through, it puts a lot of things in perspective and that perspective will help you handle the situations in that you know win or lose, life is still going to go on,” Eckstein said.
RISP
Finally, the Astros found success hitting with men in scoring position.
Houston entered Game 6 hitting .103 (4-for-39) with men on second and/or third. On Wednesday, the Astros were 2-for-6 with two RBI singles, a sacrifice bunt and a successful squeeze bunt.
Craig Biggio’s third-inning single and Morgan Ensberg’s seventh-inning hit drove home one run each. Adam Everett laid down a perfect squeeze bunt in the sixth.
The Cardinals were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, the lone success pinch-hitter John Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly to drive home Mark Grudzielanek in the fifth. For the series, St. Louis hit .162 (6-for-37) in scoring situations.
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.