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.
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 fileIt’s likely that Cashman stayed because he has a superhuman tolerance for pain, a tolerance that Epstein doesn’t share. But it’s also likely that the Red Sox are going to be harder to put back together than the Yankees. In New York, Cashman at least knows he has nearly unlimited financial resources. In Boston, there’s a budget. It may be the second-highest budget in the game, but when the Yankees are first, the distance from the highest budget is $80 million — more than the payroll of the world champion White Sox.
And at least when Cashman gets second-guessed, it’s by the owner, the man signing his hefty paychecks. In Boston, according to Ron Borges, it’s Lucchino, the team president, who insists on meddling in Epstein’s affairs and battling him for the headlines and credit. And Epstein doesn’t want to take it.
At bottom though, a G.M. would put up with some office politics and sniping in the newspapers if he could see a row of championships strung out ahead of him like street lights on Storrow Drive. That goes double for a man like Epstein, who’s too young to accept losing as the normal result of anyone’s labors in sports.
If he’s leaving, it’s because he can see that the team he put together is no longer the stuff of championships but is a train wreck waiting to happen. If this were football, it might be different. With contracts that can be terminated at any time and the salary cap, football teams can be quickly rebuilt. But when baseball teams crash, it’s not nearly as easy to reassemble the parts.
This was Epstein’s dream job. He’s 31 and was offered $1.5 million a year to do it. And he’s decided that neither the money nor the job nor the dream is worth it.
He’ll get another job as soon as he wants one. But Boston isn’t likely to get another championship on the same schedule. It was great while it lasted. Epstein’s departure is a sure sign it’s over
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.