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There is still a long way to go, and things can certainly go wrong. But the United States is in wonderful shape to qualifying for Brazil 2014 and extend that ongoing streak, to find its way into a seventh consecutive World Cup.Given the U.S. history in World Cup qualifiers on home soil – basically, they don’t lose at home – and given that Jurgen Klinsmann’s team has already gained four of a possible nine points on the road, there is no other way to see it.Remember when the CONCACAF draw came out? We all looked at the schedule and, exhaled...

I want to get a tactical scope for my M1-A to fill out a collection of several U.S. military rifles beginning with an 03-mark1. I am looking for one that most closely approximates what snipers currently use. I have narrowed my interest down to Leopold and Nightforce. It looks like I have to spend about $2,000. The technology part of the Nightforce website talks a really good story, but at the high end wouldn’t Leopold take the same care? Does anyone know which scope maker has the greatest presence in the military market? In terms of accessories I have a...

Saturday’s running of the Belmont Stakes might not live up to the finish on Friday afternoon in the Brooklyn Handicap, one of several high-profile races run at Belmont Park the day before the last leg of the Triple Crown. Before a national television audience on the NBC Sports Network, the $700,000 Grade II Brooklyn Handicap saw 7-1 Calidoscopio pull off not just an upset but perhaps one of the greatest closes in racing history. Down 22 lengths at the midway point of the 1 ½ mile Brooklyn Handicap, jockey Aaron Gryder was out of the picture for much of the...

Proving again that golfers are the most volatile and violent athletes, a Michigan man was arrested yesterday after allegedly breaking a club over another duffer’s arm during a scoring argument. Glenn Lott, 59, was jailed yesterday for felony aggravated assault with a weapon following the confrontation at the Westwynd Golf Course in Oakland Township outside Detroit.

'RANGERS Soccer Schools coaches are delighted to be heading out to America this weekend for yet another Overseas Camp with Rangers Premier FC based in Auburn, Indiana. This will be camp number four for the soccer school affiliate club and promises to be the biggest and best yet. Rangers Premier FC are now well in to their 10-year affiliation agreement with Rangers Soccer Schools and have seen their club grow from recreational players only to travel teams now competing at state level. The travel programme has grown from strength to strength and has even seen their teams make the trip...

Montréal Race Date: 09 Jun 2013 Circuit Name: Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve First Grand Prix: 1978 Number of Laps: 70 Circuit Length: 4.361 km Race Distance: 305.270 km Lap Record: 1:13.622 - R Barrichello (2004) Cloudy 14C Cloudy 19C Partly Sunny 22C

Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Matt Birk is pro-life — so when it came time for the Ravens to visit President Barack Obama for the annual congratulations to the Super Bowl winners, he decided not to go. “I wasn’t there,” Birk told The Power Trip. “I would say this, I would say that I have great respect for the office of the Presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood.’” Birk, who also took a public stance during the recent gay rights movements that swung through...

A man apparently attempted suicide outside NBC’s “Today” show studio in New York City Thursday morning, requiring the crowd to be evacuated and the show’s anchors to move inside.

Of all the umpire-related stories we've seen this year, here's one that's just really odd: Jordan Baker is a rookie umpire who's getting noticed for tossing his gum into the outfield after every half inning. If he's umping — like he was Tuesday night in the St. Louis Cardinals-Arizona Diamondbacks game — you'll see wads of gum behind him. The announcers of Tuesday's game noticed as much and talked about it on the air. That wasn't the only reason Baker was noticed. He also threw Diamondbacks bench coach Alan Trammell out of the game after an argument about a stolen...

Welcome to the Summer Stretch. TNT will be the channel for races.

...The '74 Indians were a smorgasbord of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an open-air mausoleum. That year, in a city that fielded one of the founding professional teams (the Forest Citys, incorporated there in 1869), 85 percent of the seats at home games went unsold. All those empty seats meant a balance sheet written in red. The team's executive vice president, Ted Bonda, could put up with losing teams and an ugly stadium (he had inherited both in 1972), but he would not tolerate insolvency. Bonda called a meeting to discuss options for improving attendance, which must have felt...

Major League Baseball will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Miami-area clinic at the heart of an ongoing performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, possibly within the next few weeks, "Outside the Lines" has learned. If the suspensions are upheld, the performance-enhancing drug scandal would be the largest in American sports history. Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players. One source familiar with the...

The Crissy Field beach looked like a psychedelic tent city, with dozens of colorful kite-boarding kites strung along the shore. Seventy-five kite boarders representing 22 countries slipped into white and blue jerseys as an air horn summoned them to the ready. The scene was part of the Northern American Kite Board Racing Championships, a four-day kite board course race which originally began at the St. Francis Yacht Club five years ago. “Our group here, the local fleet and the St. Francis Yacht Club figured out how to get these boards to begin to sail upwind,” said regatta chairman Jim Kiriakis,...

How bad are things going for Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby? Not only do the Penguins trail the Boston Bruins 2-0 in the Eastern Conference final, in part because Crosby’s high-octane game has been stuck in neutral, but now the young star is being openly mocked by people outside the hockey industry. The pilot of the JetBlue flight transporting members of the Boston media from Pittsburgh to Boston got into the act Tuesday, asking if “Sidney Crosby is in the back of the plane” after hearing a baby crying on the flight. The pilot’s comment was tweeted by a couple...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) - Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with a type of cancer in his upper jaw. He is scheduled to have surgery June 7th. Kelly says that his prognosis is "very good" and the cancer has not spread to other parts of his body. The announcement comes on the same day as Kelly's annual Celebrity Golf Classic. The Hall of Fame quarterback spoke to the media Monday, he was upbeat but knows he has a tough battle ahead of him. Kelly says that a few weeks ago his jaw...

David "Deacon" Jones, the original sackmaster, has died. The Hall of Fame defensive end credited with terming the word sack for how he knocked down quarterbacks, was 74. The Washington Redskins said that Jones died of natural causes at his home in Southern California on Monday night.

New York Knicks guard Jason Kidd has retired after 19 years in the NBA. He's leaving money on the table. Kidd still had two years on his contract. He would have been paid $6 million if he finished out his contract. But after a disappointing playoffs where he looked over-matched against younger opponents, he has decided to hang it up. He also made $184 million in his NBA career, so another $6 million isn't make-or-break. Here's his statement (via Alan Hahn): "My time in professional basketball has been an incredible journey, but one that must come to an end after...

The Big Ten Conference announced Monday that men’s and women’s lacrosse will become the conference’s 27th and 28th official sports and that Johns Hopkins University has been accepted as a sport affiliate member for men’s lacrosse only beginning with the 2014-15 academic year. Big Ten competition in both sports will feature Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers, with Johns Hopkins participating in men’s lacrosse and Northwestern competing in women’s lacrosse. Big Ten rules allow for a conference championship when six institutions sponsor a program in any given sport. [ BigTen.org: Big Ten announces lacrosse as official sport, addition...

Chestnut gobbles up 11 pounds of pastrami sandwich Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is more than just a Fourth-of-July phenomenon. Best known for his domination of the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog-Eating Contest each July 4, the San Jose State graduate and renowed competitve eater set a new world record by eating 25 pastrami sandwiches in 10 minutes Sunday at Katz's Delicatessen World Pastrami Eating Championship in New York City. At a speed of 1.1 pounds per minute, Chestnut took down 11 pounds as the famous deli celebrated its 125th anniversary. Just a short time later, Chestnut deemed himself fit for a night...

Today while I was planting the garden, a neighbor started shooting his guns. He is known to do this during the summer and for his bachelor party he and his crew shot constantly for four hours. I do not mind the noise and before today my only concern was how he could afford all the rounds he fires. Today was different because he would shoot and then I would hear a bullet "whiz" through the air above the swamp and then thwack into the woods on the other side. This was right behind my property and I knew the bullets...