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6254. wabbit - 1/24/2009 7:54:25 PM  Richard Gasquet was cruising along in his third-round match Saturday against Fernando Gonzalez, winning the first two sets and appearing well on his way to an easy victory at the Australian Open. But the 28-year-old from Santiago found a way back, saving a match point in the third-set tiebreaker and needing seven set points to send it to a fourth. It was well and truly game on. Just after midnight, 4-hours and 9-minutes after it started, and with both players hitting the exact number of winners -- 191 -- the match ended with Gonzalez a 3-6, 3-6, 7-6 (10), 6-2, 12-10 winner…
Gonzalez meets top-seeded Rafael Nadal in his next match, poor thing. Nadal was broken by Haas for the first time in the tournament, but showed no weakness in ripping 53 winners to only eight unforced errors in a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory… btw, Rafa blogs.
Fourth-seeded Murray, seeking his first Grand Slam title, ran off 11 straight games while overwhelming Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 6-0, 6-3. The 21-year-old Scot had only 10 unforced errors and next plays No. 14 Fernando Verdasco…
Australian Open
6255. wabbit - 1/26/2009 11:33:08 PM SI's Dan Patrick interviewed Tom Verducci, co-author of Joe Torre's new book The Yankee Years . Some highlights:
- Don't believe all the headlines. Torre never uttered the words "A-Fraud" or "Single White Female" about Alex Rodriguez. A lot of that was from A-Rod's teammates and other people Verducci spoke with. "Obviously A-Rod is a lightning rod," Verducci said. But don't jump to conclusions about what Torre actually said.
- Verducci said he talked to Torre on Sunday, and the current Dodgers manager isn't surprised by all the controversy. After all, it's New York.
- Verducci says it's not shocking that A-Rod has trouble fitting into the Yankees locker room. And it's no surprise Rodriguez has issues with Derek Jeter. Of course A-Rod did.
Read an excerpt here.
Andy Pettitte and the Yankees have agreed to a $5.5 million, one-year contract that brings the left-hander back to New York. A person familiar with the negotiations said the agreement would be announced Monday. Pettitte can make an additional $6.5 million on performance bonuses and bonuses based on time on the active roster. Late last year, New York had offered a deal that would have guaranteed Pettitte $10 million, down from the $16 million he earned last year. He joins a starting rotation that already includes CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain. The deal raised the Yankees' projected opening-day payroll to $196.8 million for 17 players with agreements…
6256. wabbit - 1/26/2009 11:33:58 PM  Alex Kovalev made his mark well before he stared down Montreal native Roberto Luongo in the shootout. The only problem was the NHL All-Star game was still tied when Kovalev set out on yet another breakaway. With two 1-on-1 goals and an assist already in the bank during Sunday night's midseason classic, Kovalev gave the Eastern Conference the little extra oomph it needed to finally finish off the West with a 12-11 victory in the 57th NHL All-Star game.
The home of hockey produced an All-Star shootout from start to finish. All that was missing was Rocket Richard. In the city where the NHL was born 92 years earlier, Kovalev gave Montreal and Canadiens fans something new to cheer about in the 100th season of the league's most storied franchise. Kovalev, the Canadiens' biggest current star, scored two breakaway goals and then capped the night off in the shootout. Kovalev was selected the MVP.
It was the second-highest scoring game in All-Star history and the fifth decided after regulation. The West erased an early deficit and outshot the East 22-13 after the second period, 54-48 overall…
6257. wabbit - 1/26/2009 11:35:14 PM  For 21-year-old Andy Murray, there will be plenty of other days to get his head into his tennis game. Murray was being touted as one of "the big four" players expected to make it to the men's semi-finals. Fernando Verdasco, who bounced back from being two sets to one down against a player he had lost to on five previous occasions, had a different plan. Verdasco will meet fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who beat No. 9 James Blake 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3), leaving No. 7 Andy Roddick as the only American in the men's draw. Tsonga was runner-up last year to Novak Djokovic, while Blake has failed to get past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in 28 appearances…
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, left 2007 runner-up Fernando Gonzalez feeling out of sorts with another dominating performance in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win. He has yet to drop a set and next faces the sixth-seeded Simon, who advanced when fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils retired with a wrist injury…
Three players had to quit mid-match with injuries or illness, paving the way for Serena Williams, Gilles Simon and Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the quarterfinals. Williams was the biggest beneficiary of the wave of retirements. She lost the first set to 13th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and was so frustrated with her first serve that she cursed it, earning a warning for a verbal obscenity. The 19-year-old Azarenka, who woke up sick, had to quit in the second set…
Australian Open
6258. wabbit - 1/27/2009 6:23:24 PM I'm not sure about "The Ability to Fly" Bud commercial on this list from last year's Super Bowl, but there are usually some good commercials aired during the Super Bowl. I still like the E*Trade baby ads and I'm a sucker for Clydesdales.
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill apologized after his weekend arrest in the Atlanta area for investigation of misdemeanor marijuana possession just weeks before he could become a free agent.
In a statement Monday, Hill said he's embarrassed by the Saturday morning arrest "and the poor judgment I showed." And he added: "Please understand my actions were not consistent with the type of person I hope to become."... Isn't it time to legalize, or at least decriminalize, pot? Seriously. Treat it like alcohol for things like driving, but how much money and police effort is wasted arresting over 750,000 people for possession? Let the legal system concentrate on other drugs, or other crimes.6259. wabbit - 1/27/2009 6:24:14 PM  With ice packs and massages failing to provide relief, third-ranked Novak Djokovic looked increasingly woozy and had to give up while trailing 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1, allowing No. 7 Andy Roddick to claim a spot in the semifinals. He will face second-ranked Roger Federer, who moved within two victories of his record-tying 14th Grand Slam by routing No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. Federer, who owns a 15-2 advantage in previous matches with Roddick, ran off the last 13 games against del Potro…
Vera Zvonareva ran off 11 straight games in a 6-3, 6-0 win over 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli of France to reach the semifinals for the first time in 25 majors. Seventh-ranked Zvonareva will meet fellow Russian Dinara Safina, who survived 11 double-faults and 36 unforced errors to beat Australia's Jelena Dokic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a back-and-forth match with 11 service breaks. It's the second straight Grand Slam semifinal for Safina -- younger sister of 2005 men's champion Marat Safin -- who lost to eventual champion Serena Williams at the U.S. Open.…
Australian Open
6260. wabbit - 1/29/2009 6:52:19 PM  You just have to feel sorry for poor Andy Roddick. No matter how well he plays, and he's playing very well right now, he just cannot get past Roger Federer in a grand slam. Federer just floats around the court and wins. Federer moved within one victory of his 14th Grand Slam title with another dominating victory, ousting Roddick 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 Thursday to reach the Australian Open final. Roddick, who undertook a rigorous offseason training regime designed to help him beat Federer and top-ranked Rafael Nadal, was in good form. But the second-ranked Federer outplayed him in every phase of the game. Ripping winners from all over the court and usually forcing Roddick to hit more than one good shot to win a point, he even had more aces than the hard-serving American, 16-8. Federer, seeking his fourth Australian title, will face the winner of Friday's semifinal between Nadal and fellow Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco. Any doubts about whether Rafa will win?
The women's final should be fun to watch. Serena Williams finally won over Elena Dementieva, who had won their last four matches. Williams was calm, collected and cool -- with the Rod Laver Arena roof closed to keep out Melbourne's oppressive heat wave -- to end Olympic champion Dementieva's 15-match winning streak with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. All that stands between her and a 10th Grand Slam title is third-seeded Dinara Safina, who is hungry to take home her first major trophy to go along with the two that brother Marat Safin has earned. Safina ousted fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semifinal. The winner Saturday also will rise to the No. 1 ranking…
Australian Open
6261. wabbit - 1/30/2009 4:40:29 PM What a match. Fernando Verdasco double-faulted to give the fifth set to Rafael Nadal in their semi-final. Nadal didn't win this one so much as persevere until Verdasco made a mistake to lose a heartbreaker, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1), 6-4. This was the longest match in the history of the Australian Open at 5 hours, 14 minutes, breaking the previous mark of 5:11 in a match between Boris Becker and Omar Camporese of Italy in 1991. Rafa will play Roger Federer in the final on Sunday.
The Williams sisters won their third doubles title at the Australian Open and eighth Grand Slam title as a combination over Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Japan's Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-3. Hantuchova and Sugiyama had to dodge a number of stinging shots at the net, particularly from Venus. It was a good tuneup for Serena's singles final Saturday, when she will face Russia's Dinara Safina.
Australian Open
6262. wabbit - 2/1/2009 7:10:34 PM  Serena Williams' 6-0, 6-3 rout of Dinara Safina on Saturday earned her a 10th Grand Slam title, a fourth Australian title -- coming each odd-numbered year since 2003 -- and the No. 1 ranking. Williams was so dominant that Safina, a 22-year-old Russian playing in her second major final, didn't feel worthy of being on the same court. Williams' win at the U.S. Open in September gave her the No. 1 ranking for the following four weeks, her first stint at the top since a 57-week span from July 2002. She started this year at No. 2 and slowly worked her way through the tournament. She was struggling with her serve at times and had to fend off Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals when the Russian was serving for the match. She lifted herself in the semis to snap Olympic champion Elena Dementieva's 15-match winning streak and was overpowering from the first game of the final, losing only eight points and winning 18 of the last 20 in the 22-minute first set. Williams finished with 23 winners and just seven unforced errors, winning more than twice as many points as Safina.
 Rafael Nadal held off Roger Federer in another five-set Grand Slam final, keeping Pete Sampras' record of 14 major titles intact for now. Nadal became the first Spanish man to win the Australian Open, beating Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 in a momentum-swinging, 4-hour, 22-minute final that finished just after midnight on Sunday. Federer, trying to equal Sampras' record, sobbed at the trophy presentation. Top-ranked Nadal, who has won five of the seven Grand Slam finals they've contested, now has a major on hard courts to go with his titles on clay and grass. He's the only man capable of a Grand Slam this season, 40 years after Australian great Rod Laver last won all four majors in one season. Federer, so dominant when he won three of the four majors in 2006 and 2007, has now lost finals on three different surfaces to Nadal.
Federer didn't look like he was in the match mentally, making too many errors and missing too many chances. Nadal is incredibly fit to be able to last over four hours just two days after a 5-1/2 hour match. This was the first Australian Open men's final to go to five sets since Mats Wilander beat Pat Cash in 1988, the first at Melbourne Park.
6263. wabbit - 2/1/2009 7:38:40 PM  Freshman Iman Shumpert hit a pull-up jumper with one second remaining to lift Georgia Tech to its first Atlantic Coast Conference win, a 76-74 upset of No. 6 Wake Forest on Saturday. Shumpert had only five points before tying the game on a basket with 20 seconds remaining and then faking a drive to the basket before stopping to hit his winning shot. Wake Forest committed two turnovers in the final 35 seconds and lost to the ACC's last-place team only three days after beating top-ranked Duke.
Hasheem Thabeet tied a school record by blocking 10 shots and recorded his first career triple-double as No. 2 Connecticut staked its claim to the No. 1 spot in the nation with a 94-61 blowout over the Friars on Saturday. The 7-foot-3 junior had 15 points and 11 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass. A.J. Price led UConn (20-1, 9-1 Big East) with 19 points, while Stanley Robinson added 18 and Jeff Adrien 14. It was the Huskies' ninth straight win since losing to Georgetown in the conference opener on Dec. 29. With No. 1 Duke losing earlier in the week to No. 6 Wake Forest and No. 3 Pittsburgh falling to Villanova, UConn is expected to take the top spot in Monday's poll.
DeJuan Blair watched most of Pittsburgh's previous game from the bench because of foul trouble. He didn't have that problem against Notre Dame on Saturday, and the sophomore center responded in a big way. Blair had 23 points and a career-high 22 rebounds and the third-ranked Panthers rallied from a rare halftime deficit for a 93-80 victory, the Fighting Irish 's fifth straight loss. Levance Fields scored 17 points, Jermaine Dixon had 16 and reserves Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker both added 13 for the Panthers (19-2, 7-2 Big East), who bounced back from a loss at Villanova on Wednesday to win their 15th consecutive home game.
NCAA Basketball
6264. wabbit - 2/1/2009 7:39:01 PM Manfred Moelgg and Giorgio Rocca warmed up for the World Championships by giving Italy a 1-2 finish in a men's World Cup slalom Sunday. Moelgg, the defending World Cup slalom champion, rallied to win the last race before the worlds that start Tuesday in Val d'Isere, France. Although he clinched the slalom title in the final race last season, Moelgg's only previous World Cup win was a slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, last year. The two Italians trailed Reinfried Herbst after the first run but moved past the Austrian with fast second heats. Herbst, who won the slalom race last year in Garmisch ahead of Moelgg, had to settle for third. Moelgg won by a hefty margin in a combined time of 1 minute, 46.77 seconds on the sunny Gudiberg slope. Rocca, who was the slalom champion in 2006, took second in 1:47.06 and Herbst finished in 1:47.37. Herbst had won the previous slalom race last week in Schladming, Austria, when Moelgg was fourth.
Lindsey Vonn of the United States won her first Super-G race in two years with a dominant performance on a demanding course Sunday to extend her overall World Cup lead. The win was a major boost two days before another super-G kicks off the World Championships in Val d'Isere, France, but Vonn said she did not consider herself a favorite for the gold medal in the event. Vonn, who earned her fifth win of the season, also tied Tamara McKinney's American women's record of 18 career victories.
French skipper Michel Desjoyeaux won the Vendee Globe solo around-the-world yacht race after more than 80 days battling rough seas and high winds. Desjoyeaux steered his Foncia yacht into port on the west coast of France with a huge lead over Roland Jourdain of France, who is several days behind in second place on Veolia Environnement. The grueling event forced more than half of the 30-strong field to abandon, including defending champion Vincent Riou. The 43-year-old Desjoyeaux also won the event eight years ago. 6265. wabbit - 2/1/2009 7:40:33 PM Bernard Lagat won the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games for the seventh time Friday night to tie Eamonn Coghlan's record. Lagat finished in 3 minutes, 58.44 seconds. He beat New Zealand's Nick Willis, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 1,500 meters. Coghlan, dubbed the "Chairman of the Boards" for his dominance on the old wooden Millrose track, was in attendance at Madison Square Garden at the 102nd edition of the meet. The Irishman last won the Wanamaker Mile in 1987. ~ Olympic gold medalist Steven Hooker of Australia came up short of breaking the world indoor record in the pole vault. Hooker missed on three attempts at 20 feet, 21/2 inches. Pole vault great Sergei Bubka has held the mark of 20-2 since 1993. ~ Terrence Trammell, the two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, won the 60 hurdles in his first meet since a left hamstring strain knocked him out of the Beijing Games. Minutes later, he finished second in the 60 dash to fellow American Michael Rodgers. Kara Goucher, who posted the fastest marathon debut ever by an American woman in New York in November, dropped all the way down to the mile for the second straight year at Millrose. She defended her title, winning in a personal-best 4 minutes, 33.19 seconds as she worked on her speed as she prepares for the Boston Marathon in April. American Bianca Knight won the women's 60 dash, beating U.S. Olympian Muna Lee. Two-time Olympic silver medalist Adam Nelson won the shot put with a throw of 68-21/2. Amy Acuff won the high jump at 6 feet, 31/2 inches, and Jenn Stuczynski won the pole vault by clearing 15-51/2.
Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, has died, his daughter said Saturday. He was 76. Johansson died at a nursing home in Kungsbacka on the Swedish west coast, his daughter Maria Gregner told the Associated Press. Johansson was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dementia more than 10 years ago when he lived in Stockholm. He spent the rest of his life in Kungsbacka, only a few miles from the house where he grew up. 6266. arkymalarky - 2/2/2009 5:08:28 AM Damn. What a game! 6267. wabbit - 2/2/2009 5:12:37 AM Six for Pittsburgh! 6268. wabbit - 2/3/2009 2:56:36 AM  I didn't expect Super Bowl XLIII to be a good as it was. I thought Pittsburgh was a lock to win over Arizona. They did win, but by the skin of their teeth. Santonio Holmes caught a six-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds to play to give the Steelers a thrilling 27-23 victory over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. This was the sixth Super Bowl win for the Steelers out of seven appearances.
With only 29 seconds to play, the Cardinals were unable to make another march, the game ending on a fumble by Kurt Warner, who became the first quarterback to surpass 300 yards passing in three Super Bowls. That the Cardinals were even in the game was a minor miracle considering they committed 11 penalties for a Super Bowl-record 106 yards, faced two goal-to-go situations and got only one catch from Fitzgerald through the first three-plus quarters. Fitzgerald finished as the first player with seven touchdown catches in a single postseason and the first to surpass 100 yards receiving in four-consecutive playoff games.
Bruce Springsteen did a fine halftime show, clocking in at exactly his alloted twelve minutes. Faith Hill and Jennifer Hudson were ok singing America the Beautiful and the National Anthem, respectively.
6269. wabbit - 2/3/2009 2:58:34 AM
Now for the important stuff - commercials. The network must have lost a bundle this year — it seemed like every third commercial was a promo for one of their new shows. At $3 million for a 30 second spot, that's a lot of money for promos. It was clever to get Budweiser to pick up half the tab on one of them. And when did 2D become 1D??
Some of the commercials were educational. We all know how to pronouce Hyundai now. Matt Light isn't a half bad dancer for a big guy. Ed McMahon and MC Hammer have a good sense of humor, in spite of their circumstances. Who knew Alec Baldwin was so funny? Talking babies are still cute. Danica Patrick should stick to driving.
Without question, my favorite commercial was aired early in the first quarter - the Dorito's Snow Globe commercial:
Too bad PETA didn't get to run their Veggie Love ad:
6270. wabbit - 2/3/2009 7:42:27 PM [ ... ] Michael Phelps acknowledged "regrettable" behavior and "bad judgment" after a photo in a British newspaper Sunday showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe. In a statement to The Associated Press, the swimmer who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games did not dispute the authenticity of the exclusive picture published Sunday by the tabloid News of the World.
"I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment," Phelps said in the statement released by one of his agents. "I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."
News of the World said the picture was taken during a November house party while Phelps was visiting the University of South Carolina. During that trip, he attended one of the school's football games and received a big ovation when he was introduced to the crowd. While the newspaper did not specifically allege that Phelps was smoking pot, it did say the pipe is generally used for that purpose and anonymously quoted a partygoer who said the Olympic champion was "out of control from the moment he got there."
The U.S. Olympic Committee said it was "disappointed in the behavior recently exhibited by Michael Phelps," who was selected the group's sportsman of the year. He also was honored as AP male athlete of the year, and his feat in Beijing -- breaking Mark Spitz's 36-year-old record for most gold medals in an Olympics -- was chosen as the top story of 2008. "Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people," the USOC said in a statement. "In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities."
The party occurred nearly three months after the Olympics while Phelps was taking a long break from training, and this apparently would have no impact on the eight golds he won at Beijing. He has never tested positive for banned substances and even agreed to extra testing before the games. Marijuana is viewed differently from performance-enhancing drugs, according to David Howman, executive director of the World Anti-Doping Agency. An athlete is subject to WADA sanctions only for a positive test that occurs during competition periods… 6271. wabbit - 2/3/2009 7:43:10 PM "We should grab this teachable moment," said Lisa Bain, executive editor of Parenting magazine. "It's a good opportunity to talk to your kids about role models. They're human. They're not gods. Any conversation you can have with your kids about the choices people make, especially those they hold up as role models, is a good thing."
I'm happy to see Parenting Magazine come out on the side of reason over hysteria. And the thing that bothers me most about this whole thing isn't Phelps, it's the weasel who sold that photo for a quick buck. Sadly, the most important lesson Phelps will learn isn't not to smoke pot, it's to be more careful about who he hangs with. Phelps' punishment will be lost endorsements, but that might not be enough for Richland County sheriff's investigators. 6272. wabbit - 2/8/2009 1:38:09 AM I would be shocked, shocked, if this turned out to be true.
In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.
Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004…
MLB may as well just build an asterisk room.6273. wabbit - 2/9/2009 2:56:28 AM  Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month.
Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean -- a dream she'd had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.
The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on Jan. 12, swimming 19 out of 25 days and battling waves of up to 30 feet. The distance from Cape Verde to Trinidad is roughly 700 miles. Crew members are still computing exactly how many miles she swam.
The original plan was for her to swim to the Bahamas but inclement forced them to change their plans and she arrived at Trinidad on Thursday. She now plans to swim from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands, ending her odyssey at the Bitter End Yacht Club in late February.
Then it's home to Aspen, Colo. -- where she trained for months in an outdoor pool amid snowy blizzards -- to reunite with her Alaskan Malamute…
I wonder why she chose to swim west to east — wouldn't swimming west be more difficult that swimming east?
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