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I hope this is okay to post. But a couple of things. First what do you think of my Cubs? Second who's your team and favorite player? Third if you found out a player was a complete opposite of you beliefs wise would it affect your opinion of him? My answers 1. I thought they'd be good but this team is awesome. Despite what might be 2 losses in a row to the Marlins. 2. Cubs. Kerry Wood or Ryan Dempster. 3. I don't think conservatives are this way. We like to watch the guys play and don't care how...

... Sokolove cites studies showing that young women who play soccer, basketball and volleyball suffer tears to the anterior cruciate ligament (or A.C.L., a flexible, rectangular-shaped band of tissue that stabilizes the knee joint) up to eight times as often as men in the same “jumping and cutting” sports. And the injury parade doesn’t end with hobbled knees. Female athletes tend to get shin splints more often than their male counterparts; women who play on college soccer teams suffer the same rate of concussions as men on the football team do. Over all, female athletes may simply be more prone...

BEIJING — In a bikini version of real-life conflict, the Georgian and Russian women's beach volleyball teams met in the sand Wednesday, and underdog Georgia squeaked out a victory in three sets — to the delight of the Chinese crowd.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running. A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run. Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found. "At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Any...

Listen to the Skip Carey Memorial Service from this afternoon.

With no room for error in his quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals, Phelps and three American teammates headed into perhaps the toughest obstacle of all on Monday morning: a showdown in the 400-meter freestyle relay against France, a team led by world record holder Alain Bernard.

Opportunity is knocking, Clemson. You better capitalize now because the path to an ACC crown may never be this smooth again. The Tigers are the storyline of the 2008 season in the ACC. While they’ve got the league’s best quarterback, Cullen Harper, and as much talent as anyone in the conference, the rest of the ACC is down. Way down. Florida State and Miami remain weak facsimiles of the programs that used to collect crowns faster than anyone else in the country. Boston College was built for last year. Georgia Tech and Virginia are about to undergo some serious growing...

Iraqi and Coalition competitors finish up a friendly game of soccer, Aug. 1 at FOB Endeavor in Najaf. U.S. Army photo by Christopher Koym. FOB KALSU — The ‘Hope Tour 2008’ kicked off with a friendly game of soccer in Najaf, Aug. 1. Soldiers from the 30th Iraqi Army Brigade took on members of the 30th Military Transition Team, the Ugandan Guard Force team, the Najaf Provincial Reconstruction Team and Team Borlaug from Texas A&M. Soldiers from the 30th IA Bde. won five to one and received England soccer jerseys. Members of the FOB Endeavor soccer team received "HOPE Tour...

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I just want to say that we should boycott the Olympics. China is a repressive, corrupt, un-godly, heinous regime. Our athletes are forced to compete in their foul air, under the watchful eye of big brother. China's citizen's were forced to skim their foul seas of algae so their government would not be embarrassed. We should not reward them with our viewing.

By Sharon McGovernI understand the appeal of the Olympics, kinda. Though not a sports fan, I get why people are excited about better, stronger, faster (okay, that’s from The Six Million Dollar Man—who would be quite a bargain these days, come to think of it). My beloved Auntie has been involved with Olympic swimming for decades and speaks touchingly of the skills and dedication of the athletes. The shorter events are undeniably captivating, and the young men and women impressive. But this editorial by Jonah Goldberg is a reminder that the Olympics have an unsavory side. He gives a brief...

I have a FREE Yahoo Fantasy Football League with 3 openings. We're looking for competitive managers who will keep up with lineup changes regardless whether you're winning or losing. This league has a LIVE draft scheduled for August 30 at 1:30 p.m. We had a good time last year and want to make it better this year. If interested, Freepmail me and I'll give you directions on how to join.

Save the Children by: Deborah Lambert, July 17, 2008 First it was dodge ball, then it was tag. Now it is sack races and three-legged races that might cause children harm. These games were recently cancelled right before an Edwardian-themed school sports day, which affected hundreds of kids, according to the London Telegraph. The move was criticized as “completely over the top.” But teachers at the John F. Kennedy Primary School in Washington, Tyne and Wear, defended the decision, saying that although games that involved running and hopping would still be played, the cancellation of the three legged-race and sack...

I don't know what happened, but I'm watching Mike & Mike on ESPN this morning, and when they came back from a break, Mike Golic was no longer ther. The duo was at the white House last night and are currently broadcasting from DC. Greeny has only stated that Golic had to step away and "we'll have to go on without him."

Okay as we just had the All Star Game (what a thrilling game) what does everyone think as we head into the 2nd half? Which is your favorite team and players?

When baseball's All-Stars gather for tonight's midsummer classic in Yankee Stadium, they'll participate in what organizers are billing as the “greenest” event in Major League Baseball history. All-Star Game planners are trying to reduce the event's ecological damage and encourage fans to lead eco-friendly lives. Coordinators are doing things such as ordering a giant red carpet made of recycled fibers, handing out reuseable tote bags and sponsoring a playground made largely from recycled materials. Such efforts are all the rage across the sports world. The Olympic planning committee in Vancouver, British Columbia, recently announced that the 2010 Winter Olympics will...

The competition determines a champion. It also determines the greatness of a champion. What would Larry be without Magic, Ali be without Frazier, and the Yankees be without the Red Sox, just to name a few. While certainly not his fault, Tiger has no Magic, Frazier, or Red Sox. A recent study by a college student showed that pro golfers shot higher scores when Tiger Woods was in the tournament than when Tiger was not in the tournament. If this isn’t the definition of choking, I don't know what is. This study should come as no surprise to anyone who...

Mando Ramos, a two-time lightweight world champion, died Sunday morning at the age of 59 at his home in San Pedro.

It is my hope that the art of conversation is not inborn as much as learned, because I frequently find myself feeling out of place in social situations. I’m not good at being funny on the spot, and I’m extremely poor at feigning interest in things that just don’t interest me. In fact, the only two things I really enjoy talking about, besides myself, are sports and politics. Sports and politics, what strange bedfellows. This worries me because sports – although I adore them and can rationalize more value from them than anyone alive – do not matter the way...

Four years, two teams and a championship later, Shaquille O'Neal is still ripping Kobe Bryant. Video on TMZ.com shows the Phoenix Suns center doing a freestyle rap in a nightclub on Sunday night in which he puts down his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate. "You know how I be," Shaq rapped. "Last week Kobe couldn't do without me." Bryant led the Lakers to the NBA Finals this season, but they were beaten 4-2 by the Boston Celtics. O'Neal and Bryant last played together during the 2003-04 season, when the duo led the Lakers to the Finals. They lost to the...

This is a terrible time for a lot of businesses. And the secret is out by now: this is a particularly difficult time for the newspaper business, such as that business once was. Rising newsprint costs. Reduced advertising demand. Changing desires of our audience, due to the internet revolution. This isn't affecting one or two newspapers. It is affecting every newspaper. Many talented, hard-working people are losing their jobs. Those of us still employed (for now) are dealing with a perfect storm of sorts: tighter deadlines, less space, less travel, less access. We are also adjusting to evolving standards and...

<p>I decided to go scout the Miami Dolphins on Monday, to see how they look this year. This is important, because the Dolphins represent South Florida's manhood, and last season we had the same community testosterone level as the audience for a Barbra Streisand concert. The Dolphins lost 15 games and won only one, which I believe was against Princeton.</p>

Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta was killed today in a fiery crash during a drag race at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, race officials said. Kalitta, 46, was pronounced dead at Old Bridge Township Hospital after his car lost control during the fourth and final round of qualifying at the National Hot Rod Association Super Nationals, according to statement by the association.

SAN DIEGO — With a throbbing knee and a pounding heart, Tiger Woods made one last improbable escape Monday and won the U.S. Open in a 19-hole playoff over Rocco Mediate, his 14th career major and maybe the most amazing of them all. One shot behind after a collapse no one saw coming, Woods birdied the 18th hole to force sudden death at Torrey Pines against a 45-year-old with a creaky back who simply wouldn't go away. But that one extra hole was enough to doom Mediate, trying to become the oldest U.S. Open champion at 45 years, 6 months.

SAN DIEGO - Charlie Jones, the deep-voiced sportscaster whose career as a play-by-play announcer spanned 38 years for ABC and NBC, has died. He was 77.Jones died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, his longtime agent, Martin Mandel, told The Associated Press."Charlie is one of the legends of sports broadcasting starting with covering the first Super Bowl," Mandel said. "He had a wonderful kettledrum voice. He was known for that and his versatility."NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol called Jones "one of the great pioneers of NBC Sports. His work in...

Even if Yao Ming had never donated a single jiao to the earthquake effort, the resentment that Chinese people have had for him is largely unjustified. First, it was not China that elevated Yao Ming to his current stardom in the United States. It was his own ’blood and sweat’ that made him into a star. If anything, China has created problems for Yao Ming’s career including a host of CBA regulatory obstacles. Second, Yao Ming has done much more for his country than many Chinese people care to admit or perhaps even know about. He has been involved in...

This summer, the Olympic Games in Beijing will highlight the best athletes in the world. Some Olympic sports, like basketball, will feature professional superstars in a modern day “dream team.� But most sports, true to the Olympic tradition, will highlight the best amateur athletes in the world. Colleges have long served as a training ground for elite amateur athletes, but, unfortunately, several Olympic sports have been under attack on colleges across the country. Sports — especially those like men’s gymnastics and wrestling — are endangered species on campuses where few programs remain and more get cut each year. Athletes at...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon wrestlers have gone to court to save their program from being eliminated so the university can restore its baseball team. "We don't want to see this program go away," said Ron Finley a former Oregon wrestling coach and now director of the Save Oregon Wrestling Foundation. The foundation is one of the main supporters of a lawsuit filed last Friday in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem by Equity in Athletics Inc., a nonprofit coalition of athletes, coaches, parents, alumni and fans. The complaint seeks a preliminary injunction to maintain the wrestling program while hearings...

NEW YORK -- Jim McKay, the veteran and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died. He was 86. McKay died Saturday of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes. "There are not many men who achieved what Jim McKay achieved both professionally and personally," said Sean McManus, McKay's son and the president of CBS News and Sports. "He had a flawless reputation...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The Detroit Red Wings clinched the Stanley Cup with a nail-biting 3-2 Game Six win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. The Red Wings, who were just 35 seconds from securing the Cup in Game Five on Monday, shrugged off the disappointment of the home defeat and hung on to claim the best-of-seven series 4-2 and lift their fourth Cup in 11 years...

In football, the Spygate scandal is just now settling down (no thanks to Arlen Specter's rabblerousing). In baseball and track, BALCO keeps rearing its Barry Bonds-sized head. In basketball, flopping has become so prevalent that the NBA is going to start penalizing it. In tennis, meanwhile, players are being investigated for fixing matches. And let's not forget NASCAR, where fender-bending seems to have taken a back seat to rule-bending. But wait! All hope may not be lost. I call your attention to two recent episodes in the state of Washington - one in college softball, the other in high school...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declared open season for fantasy-sports companies. The high court effectively ended a three-year legal battle when it rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its Players Association that, if successful, could have given professional sports leagues the ability to control the lucrative fantasy-sports business. Instead, the court's decision solidifies the rights of fantasy-sports companies to run their businesses without having to buy licenses from the major sports leagues or their players' unions anymore. The Supreme Court ruled that fantasy-sports companies aren't required to pay for licenses from leagues or players' unions. Fantasy sports...

Some good news for NBA fans: The rivarly is truly back! It's the Boston Celtics v.s. the Los Angeles Lakers in the '08 NBA Finals! It should be a decent series, and the national TV ratings should be decent as well.

In the book “How to Think Like a CEO: The 22 Vital Traits You Need to Be the Person at the Top,” author D.A. Benton created a list of 22 important traits shared by the more than 100 CEOs that she interviewed for the book. When people commonly think of CEOs, they tend to think of very visible corporate leaders like Warren Buffett and Jack Welch. However, CEOs exist in any business operation in which an individual leads a group of employees with the objective of performing at a high level to reach a business goal.

I love dogs that help humanity live a better life. I’m just not sure which dog in this video is helping more. I’ll let you decide....http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/19/banned-super-bowl-comml/

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the 21-year-old South African is eligible to race against able-bodied athletes, overturning a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations. CAS said the unanimous ruling goes into effect immediately. "As you can imagine, I have been struggling to hide my smile for the last half an hour," Pistorius told reporters in Milan, Italy. "I can definitely say the truth has come out. We have the opportunity once again to...

Suppose you ran a physical education program and discovered that girls were much more likely to suffer serious injuries than boys are. Before recruiting any more girls, would you want to alert them to this fact? Doesn’t seem like a hard question, does it? But the answer is controversial question in some circles, as Michael Sokolove reports in his Times Magazine cover story on girls’ soccer injuries. He notes that female soccer players are 50 percent more likely to be injured than male soccer players, and up to five times more likely to suffer serious knee injuries. (My Science Times...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A blind Iowa man scored a perfect 300 game at the Century Lanes bowling alley on Saturday, The Storm Lake Times reported. The Times said Dale Davis, 78, of Alta, called the game "quite a thrill." He rolled 12 back-to-back strikes, the first-ever perfect game at the Century Lanes, The Times reported. Excitement throughout the building grew as the crowd watched Davis roll ball after ball down the lanes. "When I got to the tenth frame, I said ‘Lord, let me throw three more good balls,’ Davis told The Times. Davis had given up his passion...

From: MidwayUSA Web Management Team Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 11:45 AM To: Everyone; Battenfeld Everyone Subject: Scholastic Shooting Trust May 5, 2008 Dear MidwayUSA and Battenfeld Employees: Today I’m pleased to announce the official launch of the Scholastic Shooting Trust Fund, a mission of the newly-created MidwayUSA Foundation. The Scholastic Shooting Trust (SST) Fund is a web-based fundraising program designed to help support shooting education at every high school, college and university in America. Alumni who would like to see shooting programs offered at the school or schools they attended can help make that a reality by contributing to...

This casualty rate was not due to some random spike in South Florida. It is part of a national trend in the wake of Title IX and the explosion of sports participation among girls and young women. From travel teams up through some of the signature programs in women’s college sports, women are suffering injuries that take them off the field for weeks or seasons at a time, or sometimes forever. Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much...

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg(Washington). At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Anyone watching this spectacle right now (on HBO)? The participants: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Steve Forbes (no, that that Steve Forbes). Venue: Carson, CA. Both fighters are and have have been American citizens, yet the Mexican national anthem was played before the bout. That would be expected if one of the fighters were a Mexican citizen or if the bout were held in Mexico, but neither is the case in this instance. I've seen some nutty things at So. Cal sporting events. ...like the American national anthem booed at a U.S.A. vs. Mexico soccer match at the Coliseum in...

PLANO, Texas, May 1, 2008 – Servicemembers, veterans and military families across the country will have the chance to gain insight into life after combat through a series of seminars and appreciation dinners thanks to a Texas-based troop-support organization. United We Serve is teaming with football legend Herschel Walker and therapist Jerry Mungadze to offer “Managing Life After Combat.” The seminar will take place May 25 in Killeen, Texas, and registration with United We Serve is required. The goal is to offer support to military members and veterans with valuable information about combat stress and its symptoms, along with...

For some reason, I'm not afraid of blogs. I enjoy them. I post on message boards using my real name. I respond to the e-mails of bloggers. They don't threaten me or the newspaper/journalism industry I love. So I was somewhat stunned Tuesday night when one of the great journalist/authors of this era, Buzz Bissinger, erupted on HBO's "Costas Now" at the mere sight of deadspin moderator Will Leitch. All great journalists (and there's a huge difference between writers and journalists) walk with anger. However, they normally save their venom for more important targets than leaders of the online paparazzi....

MOTEGI, Japan (AP) -- Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history on Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps. Danica Patrick shows off her trophy after winning the Indy Japan 300 in Motegi, Japan, Sunday. 1 of 3 Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later. "It's a long time coming. Finally," Patrick said. "It was...

NFL Network is filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against cable TV giant Comcast in the latest legal wrangling between the two. The network announced Thursday it had served Comcast with the required 10-day notice of its intent to file a complaint. NFL Network is accusing the nation's largest cable operator of discriminatory and anticompetitive treatment in violation of the Cable Act of 1992. The two sides have been feuding over Comcast's decision to place NFL Network on a premium sports tier that customers must pay extra to receive. NFL Network sued Comcast in October 2006 over the...

Tiger Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday to repair cartilage damange, his second operation in five years on the same knee. He is expected to miss at least a month while he recovers. The surgery, announced on his Web site, came two days after Woods finished two shots behind Trevor Immelman in the Masters. He likely will miss The Players Championship, but should return in time to play the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. "I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery for after the Masters," Woods said. "The upside is that...

If there's anything that sports fans hate, it's somebody using a political cause to spoil their pleasures. Sports are sports, and politics is politics. The calls for boycotts or protests against the host country because of their savage repression in Tibet and support of a genocidal regime in Sudan have, more or less, fallen on deaf ears.

Book Review: God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (and How We Can Get It Back) Written by Will Leitch. Published by HarperCollins, 2008. If you would like a truly fresh and hilarious perspective on the protests surrounding the passing of the Olympic torch, pick up a copy of Will Leitch's book, God Save the Fan, and read his essay concerning the Olympics that starts on page 97. Leitch wrote the book long before the Chinese oppression of Tibet became the...

Ratings for the NCAA tournament may have fallen from last year on television, but on the web March Madness saw huge growth compared with 2007. More people than ever saw the games online this year. Through the first four rounds of the tournament, the most recent numbers available from CBS Sports, the March Madness on Demand video player has recorded 4.33 million unique visitors, up 147 percent over 1.75 million for the same period last year. The video player has streamed 4.59 million hours’ worth of games, bettering last year’s 2.27 million. And time spent per person with the video...