Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller spoke truth to power, changed sports forever

By Thomas Boswell, Tuesday, November 27,2012

The most important man in sports in the past 40 years died at age 95 on Tuesday. Marvin Miller, whose union won free agency for baseball players in 1975 and thus eventually gained the same fundamental bargaining rights for all pro athletes, lived to see his vilified ideas utterly vindicated. What started as a cause became commonplace. What was once controversial became incontrovertible.

When I started on the baseball beat, there was no free agency, in baseball or any sport. It was a different world. One story from that time defines for me why everything Miller stood for was right — both then and in

Zito Has Chance to Pull Giants Even With Reds

Zito Has Chance to Pull Giants Even With Reds

By JOE KAY AP Baseball Writer
CINCINNATI October 10, 2012 (AP)

Joaquin Arias hit the ball, put his head down and ran. All he knew was that the Giants' season depended upon how fast he made it to first.

"That's the fastest I've ever run to first," the infielder said.

He won the playoff dash, taking advantage of third baseman Scott Rolen's momentary bobble to beat the throw. Arias' foot hit the bag, and the Giants suddenly had a little hope.

After managing only one hit through the first nine innings, the Giants took advantage of a passed ball and Rolen's error in the 10th inning for a 2-1 victory that cut the Cincinnati Reds' lead in the division series to 2-1.

A team that's struggled just to get hits is suddenly feeling like it has a chance against long odds. The Giants are trying to become the first team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five series by winning three straight on the road.

"I think we have to be really happy that we came away with a win tonight because we didn't swing the bats very well at all," said Buster Posey, who singled as part of the winning rally.

Kobe Bryant To Retire?

Kobe Bryant To Retire?

2012/10/9

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Tigers' Cabrera wins Triple Crown

Tigers' Cabrera wins Triple Crown

OCT 4, 2012
KANSAS CITY, MO. (AP)
Miguel Cabrera had just achieved baseball immortality, and everyone around him knew it.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland had tears welling in his eyes. General manager Dave Dombrowski kept trying to remind people to stop and enjoy the moment. Prince Fielder simply shook his head in disbelief at the history that had unfolded.

Less than an hour earlier, in the midst of Detroit's otherwise meaningless 1-0 victory over Kansas City, it had finally become official: Cabrera had won the Triple Crown.

Raul Ibanez delivers when it matters most in Yankees' 4-3 win vs. Red Sox

Raul Ibanez delivers when it matters most in Yankees' 4-3 win vs. Red Sox

Ibanez merely delivered the biggest hit of the season, a game-tying, two-run home run in the ninth inning against the Red Sox when the Yankees were about to fall back into a first-place tie with the Orioles.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012

Way back in spring training, I was making the case to Yankees GM Brian Cashman that he had signed the wrong guy to be the Yankees’ DH.
Raul Ibanez? But what about Johnny Damon? He was the one who had proven he could deliver in October for the Yankees, and really, isn’t that all that counts for this ballclub?
Cashman said he preferred the 40-year-old Ibanez in part for his defense, believing he would need him to play some outfield this season. But then he added the clincher:

European media hail ‘Miracle of Medinah’ after historic Ryder Cup win

European media hail ‘Miracle of Medinah’ after historic Ryder Cup win

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, October 1
LONDON — The Miracle of Medinah.

That summed up the reaction in the European media to Europe’s improbable victory in the Ryder Cup.
Europe’s historic comeback to beat the United States 14½-13½ at Medinah was celebrated on the front and back pages of European newspapers on Monday.

Nowhere was the win more special than in Spain, the home of European captain Jose Maria Olazabal and the late Ryder Cup stalwart Seve Ballesteros.

Spanish sports daily Marca ran a front-page headline: “This one is for you, Seve.”

Martin hits 3-run HR, Yankees beat Blue Jays 11-4

Martin hits 3-run HR, Yankees beat Blue Jays 11-4

 Sep 29, 2012 

TORONTO (AP) -- Fired up by a furious playoff race, Yankees catcher Russell Martin is finishing the season strong.

Martin hit a three-run homer, Eric Chavez added a two-run shot and New York maintained its one-game lead atop the AL East by beating the Toronto Blue Jays 11-4 on Friday night.
The victory let New York keep its slim lead over second-place Baltimore, which used six first-inning runs to beat Boston 9-1.
Martin, who has six home runs and 16 RBIs this month, said he's feeding off New York's battle with Baltimore.

Longoria homers in ninth to give Rays eighth straight win

Longoria homers in ninth to give Rays eighth straight win

By ROGER MOONEY | The Tampa Tribune
Published: September 27, 2012
Updated: September 28, 2012 - 7:10 AM

CHICAGO --
The offense, what little of it there was Thursday night, disappeared after the fifth inning. For those familiar with the script used by the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season, that was a bad sign.

Tentative deal reached ending NFL lockout

Tentative deal reached ending NFL lockout

September 27, 2012


(CBS/AP) NEW YORK — The National Football League and the referees' union reached a tentative contract agreement at midnight Thursday, ending an impasse that began in June when the league locked out the officials and used replacements instead.

"Our officials will be back on the field starting tomorrow (Thursday) night" for the Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens game, Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We appreciate the commitment of the NFLRA (National Football League Referees Association) in working through the issues to reach this important agreement."

With Goodell at the table, the sides concluded two days of talks with the announcement of a tentative 8-year deal, which must be ratified by 51 percent of the union's 121 members. They plan to vote Friday and Saturday.

Green Bay Packers stunned by final call in 14-12 loss to Seattle Seahawks

Green Bay Packers stunned by final call in 14-12 loss to Seattle Seahawks

September 25, 2012 ( SEATTLE) -- M.D. Jennings was convinced he had the ball pinned to his chest the entire time and would be awarded an interception to cap Green Bay's comeback victory.
A crew of replacement officials had other views - the ones that counted.

The result is a bizarre ending that gave the Seattle Seahawks a 14-12 victory Monday night that capped a tough weekend for the replacement refs.

"I was very shocked," Jennings said. "But, the refs got the last say, so it is what it is."

Russell Wilson threw a disputed 24-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate on the final play of the game, a game that finally ended 10 minutes later when both teams were brought back on the field for the extra point.

Jeremy Lin begins workouts

Jeremy Lin begins workouts

Associated Press September 18, 2012

HOUSTON -- Jeremy Lin is finally getting his own bed.

The 6-foot-3 point guard, who became an international phenomenon during one dazzling month with the Knicks last season, went through his first workout with the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

Naturally, he drew a horde of media to the Toyota Center, evidence that Linsanity has plenty of life left in it.

"I don't know if I'm the face of the franchise just yet," Lin said. "I think we're a young team and we're all going to buy in. The thing about us is it's not going to be any one person that's going to carry us to where we want to go, it's going to be everybody. I think it's so early on, I'm just trying to get to know the guys."

Quietly One of the Biggest Games of the Day: Bills vs. Chiefs

Quietly One of the Biggest Games of the Day: Bills vs. Chiefs

2012/9/17
From FANIQ
We know the Patriots will be in the playoff picture come December. The same can probably be said about the Texans, Steelers*, and Ravens, but which teams are going to be the ones on the fence when the AFC’s six playoff teams start rounding out? The Bills and Chiefs both had a decent amount of preseason hype, in serious discussion as potential playoff contenders, but disappointing week one performances by the two teams left a lot of NFL watchers with some skepticism. Which team will be able to bounce back more effectively?

The Bills started out last season in dream fashion, only to fizz out over the course of the year. Still, the big addition of Mario Williams over the offseason led a lot of NFL watchers to believe the Bills could be for real this year. Last season, their defense couldn’t stop anyone that came their way. While losing 8 of their last 9 games in 2011, the Bills surrendered 30 or more points 5 times. Williams and the Bills defense disappointed in a big way last weekend, giving up 48 points to a Jets offense that was filled with question marks going into the season.

Martinez Tops in Middleweight Title Fight

Martinez Tops in Middleweight Title Fight

September 15, 2012
By Journal's all-purpose sports report.
6:41 pmPre-match by Gordon Marino
Welcome to the Wall Street Journal blog of the Julio Cesar Chavez vs Sergio Martinez bout.

Chavez will be defending for the WBC middleweight crown, one that Martinez relinquished but is eager to reclaim.

Cards blow 3-run lead in 8-5 loss to Dodgers

Cards blow 3-run lead in 8-5 loss to Dodgers

Sat, Sep. 15, 2012
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES -- The St. Louis Cardinals had a chance to put a little more distance between themselves and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL wild card race after getting home runs from Yadier Molina, Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday in a span of seven batters.

Then one swing by Luis Cruz changed that. Cruz greeted St. Louis reliever Edward Mujica with a first-pitch, three-run homer in the sixth inning, and the Cardinals lost 8-5.

Trevor Rosenthal (0-2) inherited a 4-3 lead from fellow rookie Joe Kelly after five innings and game up a leadoff single by Andre Ethier, who got the Dodgers back into the game in the third with a two-run homer. Rosenthal hit Hanley Ramirez on a 1-0 count two outs later.

"To me, Rosey's been throwing the ball as good as anybody we have right now," manager Mike Matheny said. "We've put him in higher-leverage situations, and he's thrown the ball well. We have quite a few guys down there, so there's lots of options. But I felt very good about him coming in. Rosey's the guy we wanted there."

Packers run fake FG, beat Bears 23-10

Packers run fake FG, beat Bears 23-10

By CHRIS JENKINS (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press
2012/9/14
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- The Green Bay Packers rattled and robbed Jay Cutler while Aaron Rodgers and Co. sputtered at times against the stout Chicago Bears defense.
So with all those stars on the field for the NFL's most storied rivalry, the biggest play of the day was a gutsy call for a perfectly executed fake field goal in Green Bay's 23-10 victory at Lambeau Field on Thursday.

Red Sox drop Yankees into tie for division lead: AL roundup

Red Sox drop Yankees into tie for division lead: AL roundup

The Associated Press Posted: Sep 12, 2012
by cbc sports

Red Sox 4, Yankees 3
BOSTON — Jacoby Ellsbury singled in the winning run in the ninth inning and Boston beat New York to drop the Yankees into a tie for first place in the AL East.

Pedro Ciriaco, who started the rally with a single, slid in to beat the throw from right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, giving Boston only its second win in 13 games.

The loss left the Yankees and Orioles tied with 79-62 records.

Pitching Woes Catch Up to Yankees

Pitching Woes Catch Up to Yankees

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 12, 2012
BOSTON
Yes, Curtis Granderson acknowledged late Wednesday night, he does check the scoreboard. The only reason, though, is because he is playing center field at Fenway Park this week and can hear the out-of-town digits sliding into their squares in the Green Monster.

“I get a chance to look at all of them,” Granderson said. “If there’s nothing going on, I can hear when they put the different numbers in.”

Granderson hung a few numbers of his own on the Yankees-Red Sox linescore behind left field. He homered twice to help the Yankees to a 5-4 victory, preserving their first-place tie with the Baltimore Orioles, who beat the Tampa Bay Rays at Camden Yards.

When his eyes were on the action, Granderson watched an impressive performance by Yankees starter David Phelps. After Jarrod Saltalamacchia tripled to Granderson’s center-field neighborhood, leading off the fifth, Phelps kept him stranded with a strikeout, a pop out and another strikeout.

US Beats Jamaica in Second Game of World Cup Qualifying

US Beats Jamaica in Second Game of World Cup Qualifying

Published September 12, 2012

Fox News Latino

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After a tough lose in Kingston last week, the U.S. men's soccer team bounced back on their home turf to beat the Caribbean squad 1-0.
The U.S. rebounded from a loss at Jamaica four nights earlier and moved back into a tie for its group lead by beating the Reggae Boyz 1-0 Tuesday night as Herculez Gomez curled in a free kick in the 55th minute.
It was a night when the only respite from the din from a capacity crowd of 23,881 was the moment of silence before the game in remembrance of the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"That was an awesome homecoming," Gomez said afterward, almost drowned out as fans left Crew Stadium chanting and cheering. "You couldn't ask for more. The crowd was great, and the guys fed off of it."

Ravens Head to Uneasy Philadelphia After Slaughtering Bengals: A Fan's Outlook

Ravens Head to Uneasy Philadelphia After Slaughtering Bengals: A Fan's Outlook

By Robert Dougherty | Yahoo! Contributor Network 
2012/9/11
The Philadelphia Eagles made everyone react the same way against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 9. Every Eagles fan like myself echoed that if the Birds faced anyone other than the Browns, they would have lost instead of stealing a 17-16 win. When Philadelphia faces a real team, things will get more difficult - and unfortunately, a real team is coming to town as soon as next week.
The Baltimore Ravens further proved that they are a real team, and could be a pretty dominant one this season. They were certainly dominant against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 10, as the Ravens turned a close game into a 44-13 slaughter in the span of a half.

Murray fights off Djokovic to win US Open

Murray fights off Djokovic to win US Open

Becomes the first British man in 76 years to win a Grand Slam men’s singles title
Sep 11 2012
Julian Linden

New York: Andy Murray fought off Novak Djokovic to win an epic US Open final on Monday and become the first British man in 76 years to win a grand slam singles title.
The Scotsman, beaten in his four previous grand slam finals, made it fifth time lucky with a nerve-jangling 7-6 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2 victory at a windy Arthur Ashe Stadium where the players had to battle the elements as much as each other.
With both men struggling to control the ball in the gusting winds, and battling exhaustion in a final that tied the record as the longest at Flushing Meadows, the match became a test of courage and stamina and it was Murray who handled the decisive moments better.