Sports Talk

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College Football
NCAA's 'Death Penalty' could be option for Miami.
profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/273961_703785436_7166821_n.jpg [/img] NCAA President Mark Emmert says he's willing to back up his tough talk on punishing rule-breakers — even using the "death penalty" as a deterrent. With salacious allegations swirling around Miami's football program, and one week after Emmert joined with university presidents to discuss toughening sanctions against cheating schools, the NCAA's leader said he believed the infractions committee should make the harshest penalty an option.
What happened at SMU has made the NCAA hesitant to use its toughest penalty again. The Mustangs posted only one winning record over the next 20 years, didn't reach another bowl game until 2009 and the sanction is believed to have played a part in the breakup and eventual dissolution of the Southwest Conference.
Does Miami deserves the so-called death penalty. I don't know. But I do know that every few years a scandal seems to erupt at the university and whatever sanctions it has faced in the past don't seem to have worked. Maybe the "death penalty" is the only thing left.

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GOLF
You need a scorecard for the PGA Championship.
Sunday’s second-to-last pairing will feature a player whose next major will be his second and a 47-year-old miracle of modern medicine; followed 10 minutes later by the day’s final tee time that has collected just a single PGA Tour title, combined. Your 54-hole front-runners are Auburn’s Jason Dufner, whose most meaningful trip to Atlanta was last year’s Southeastern Conference championship game, and Brendan Steele, who compared Glory’s Last Shot to his victory at last year’s Nationwide Tour Championship – really, he did – and is playing his first major. For those in search of more familiarity, or perspective, the leaderboard at the 93rd PGA Championship offers precious few outlets. Keegan Bradley, a rookie like Steele, and veteran Scott Verplank will begin the final round one and two strokes back, respectively; and the top 12 players have a combined two majors. “It feels great,” said Verplank , who has been slowed this year by a wrist injury. “I don’t feel a day over 100.”

BASEBALL
a. Uggla extends streak, but Braves fall to Cubs 8-4. The latest entry in Uggla's improbable hitting streak was not enough as Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney each had four hits to help the Chicago Cubs beat the Braves 8-4 on Saturday night. Uggla had a first-inning single and a fourth-inning homer to extend his hitting streak to 33 games.

b. Posada takes advantage of chance to play. Veteran hits grand slam n return to lineup as Yankees cool off Rays. Phil Hughes also got a reprieve, though his strong outing Saturday might not have been enough on its own to prevent a possible demotion to the bullpen. "It's special," Posada said. "I got an opportunity today to play — and it's tough to sit around. It's not easy to be sitting here and look at everybody playing."

College Football
SEC: 'No action taken' on A&M, will stay at 12 schools for now.
assets.espn.go.com/i/teamlogos/ncaa/sml/trans/245.gif [/img] At least for now, it appears the heavily rumored move by Texas A&M to the SEC will not happen. At least for now. The SEC chancellors and presidents were called together for a teleconference yesterday to discuss the addition of Texas A&M as their 13th member and slammed on the brakes to speculation that has been rampant for the past five days. The conference has indicted it will not add any school/schools at this time. The door was left open for future expansion that might possibly include the university in College Station, Tex.

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Clean sweep: Sooners claim top spot in both preseason polls.

Earlier this week, the coaches in the USA Today's preseason poll made Oklahoma the overwhelming No. 1 and now the AP has done so also. It's the 10th time they have been the preseason favorite. Alabama is no. 1, followed by Oregon, LSU and Boise State. No. 6-10 are Florida State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska.
Frankly, I think they should do away with preseason polls and not do them until the end of September when there are several actual games to base their opinions on. What if Oklahoma's QB is injured and out for the season like Sam Bradford was a couple of years ago? Then Oklahoma would not be #1. What if someone, say defending champ Auburn, starts off with a bang, but because they are not even in the top 10, it will take an extraordianry effort to be ranked even in the Top 10. In the preseason poll, Auburn is ranked no. 23.

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CYCLING

There are two final cycling races televised for this year:

Tour of Colorado August 22-28
August 21-27 @ 3:30pm- Preview Show on Vs.
August 22-27 @ 4pm Daily

USA Pro cycling Challenge (The Quiznos Pro Challenge) will be the first pro cycling event of significance in the state since the Coors Classic, which ran from 1979-88 and gave a huge boost to the sport in America. Armstrong and Colorado's cycling governor were the prime movers in bringing the new event to the state.

Paris Tour, October 9
October 9 @ 7pm on Vs.

Paris-Tours is a French single-day classic cycling race every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours It is a fairly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200m, at Le Gault-du-Perche. It is known as the "Sprinters Classic" because it frequently ends in a bunch sprint on the 2.7 km long Avenue du Grammont, in Tours. The 2010 edition of Paris-Tours was the last one to finish on the Avenue du Grammont as a new tram line is to be built in Tours and the race will finish at an alternative location

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HORSE RACING

Shackleford clocks five furlongs prep for Travers Stakes.


Preakness winner Shackleford readied for next Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes (Grade 1) at Saratoga by takng a five furlong spin in 1:00.4/5, breezing over Saratoga's fast main track with jockey Jesus Castanon aboard. The move was the 7th fastest of 37 workouts at the distance on Saturday. "He worked pretty good as I was expecting," said Castanon, who was aboard for the Preakness and has the return mount for the Travers. "He has been feeling pretty excited every time I take him to the track and he did it pretty good. He has really relaxed a lot better."

"Fire and Ice take a spin around Monmouth.
Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice put in his final work for next Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes. He logged a half mile in 48.3/5 over the fast main track at Monmouth Park Saturday a.m. He worked in company with stablemate and Grade 2 winner Pants on Fire who could be headed to the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Sept 5then route to a ossible start in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby (Grade 2) on Sept 24th. "He went very easily," trainer Kelly John Breen said. "We duplicated everything like we did last time. He worked with Pants on Fire. They went together and both hit the wire in :48 3/5." "We'll either leave Friday afternoon or real early Saturday morning," Breen explained the plans for getting Ruler on Ice to Saratoga. "He's comfortable here at Monmouth, it's his home. We'll just try and keep him in his routine before shipping north."

Racing on TV:

Saturday, Aug 27: Travers Stakes (Grade 1) VS (5-6 p.m.)
Sunday, Aug 28: Pacific Classic (Gr 1) ESPN 3
Saturday, Sep 3: Woodward Stakes (Gr 1) VS (5-6 p.m.)

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]How's this for a sports headline - Suspects from shootings sought by cops.

Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers.
Police interviewed witneses and looked for suspects after two men were shot and wounded following a San Francisco 49ers-Oakland Raides preseason football game. The NFL and the mayors of the two cities jointly called for an end to 'intimidation' and acts of violence at sporting events.
This is the second time that violence has broken out at a game in San Francisco. A Los Angeles Dodgers fan is still hospitalized from the first incidence. As a joint statement from the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland said, "Fans come to our stadiums to enjoy an afternoon of football, not to be subjected to intimidation or violence." For heaven's sakes people, it's a sporting event, not life and death. It's for fun. You shouldn't have to worry about fans of the other team possibly trying to kill you.

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Basketball

Gunman opens fire at Philadelphia basketball game, 6 shot and wounded.
Police chase unidentified suspect from scene, make no arrests. Six spectators were shot, one critically, when a gunman opened fire at half-time of an adult basketball league game in southwest Philadelphia. The gunman appeared to be aiming for someone who arrived at a fenced area at 51st Street. Two police officer spectators chased the unidentified suspect on foot but could not catch him. "We don't know why it happened, we don't have a motive," Detective Orlando Ortiz, who was investigating the shooting, said. What's gong on? Have our sporting events become open season for nuts with guns? How are people supposed to defend themselves. Do we all have to become armed and carrying whenever we walk outside our houses? Is that what you want. Or is it time that strictly enforced anti-gun laws were passed to make it more difficult for things like this to occur.

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College Football:

LSU players players surrender to cops, are suspended.
Quarterback Jordan Jefferson and linebacker Josh Jones were released from the East Baton Rouge Parish prison earlier today after warrants on 2nd-degree battery charges were issued. They were released on $5,000 bail each. This is the outcome of a barroom brawl and will go before the grand jury further prolonging the process and extendiing the indefinite suspension of the two players. It remains to be seen what the effect on the LSU football team will be.

Should the dog of fallen Navy SEAL lead Iowa onto the field in opener?

Earlier this month, Navy Seal and lifelong Iowa fan Jon Tumilson was one of the 31 SEALS killed in Afghanistan. His funeral was earlier this week and the photo of his beloved dog laying in front of the casket touched the hearts of many. Then former Hawkeyes football player Jon Lazar had the idea to have Tumilson's dog, named Hawkeye, lead the Iowa football team onto the field before their first game. Would there be a better way, eight days before the 10th anniversary of 9-11, for Iowa to honor the memory of both Tumilson and all his fellow serviceman who have given the ultimate sacrifice by having the soldier’s beloved dog lead his favorite football field out onto the field?

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]Baseball Talk:

Who says you can't lose your position because of inury?Rafael Betancourt to remain Rockies' closer over Huston Street just coming off rehab. Troy Renck of the Denver Post was told by Rockies' manager Jim Tracy that Rafael Betancourt will remain the closer for the time being. Betancourt hasn’t allowed a run over his last 20 appearances dating back to July 6. The veteran right-hander has a ridiculous 30/1 K/BB ratio over 17 2/3 innings during the same timespan. “I’m not going to pull the plug on Betancourt right now,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “I can’t do that . . . can’t do it. It’s a decision that’s being made in the best interests of the players and the club, period.”

Report: B.J. Upton claimed off revocable waivers.
He survived the trade deadline as a Tampa Bay Ray but there's now a chance he'll have a new home before the end of this season. According to Marc Toplon of the St Petersburg Times, he suspects that it could be the Nationals who expressed interest in him earlier this year. However, the working out of a deal is still unlikely at this time.

Dodgers Report:
1. Matt Kemp joins the 30/30 club. With his homer against the Rockies, he became the 55th player in MLB history to have a 30-homer and 30-steal seson. It is also the first time he has hit as many as 30 homers.
2. Vin Scully to return for his 63rd season in the Dodgers booth. Legendary Dodgers broadcster Vin Scully, who will turn 85 in November, announced he would return for his record 63rd season in 2012, keeping his usual schedule of home games and selected road games (nothing east of the Rockies).

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US. Open (tennis) begins Monday.

Murray, Djokovic favorites to win first US Open title.
Changing of the guard could continue if Federer, Nadal don't reach final. There has been head-spinning change on the men's side of pro-tennis this year, between the final Grand Slam of the season set to start in Flushing Meadows, NY, and back before the year's first major in Melbourne, Australia when the story was the so-called "Rafa Slam." Then Rafael Nadal was the talk of tennis and the projected future king of the sport who was projected to be the winner of all 4 of this year's Grand Slam tournaments. But what happened? The Aussie Open marked the emergence of a new future king, Novak Djokovic, who won easily the Australian Open easily and went on to have a record-breaking winning year. It was broken at the French Open where Nadal won again, and again beat Roger Federer. But Djokovic was back on top at Wimbledon, beating Nadal. So now it's US Open time where Djokovic lost to Nadal in 2010. Will he reverse his loss and make it 3 Grand Slams this year? Or will Murray finally break through?
Djokovic may be hurting or a little burnt from all this year's winning, but he likes New York, he likes hard courts, he's been to two finals here, and he hasn't lost to any of these guys in a long time. So tune in tomorrow and watch how things go.

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SPORTS: U.S. Open
....a. Venus a winner at US Open. Serena up next.
Williams returned to tennis on the big stage Monday, winning her first match at the U.S. Open after a two-month break she needed to fight off a viral illness. "A lot of the battle is just trying to be fit and stay healthy," Williams said after her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Vesna Dolonts. "Sometimes I've been losing that battle a lot. But I do feel like I can play six matches. I need to win them. No one is more in one-match-at-a-time mode than me now at this tournament." Venus, a two-time champion at Flushing Meadows, came into the tournament unseeded for the first time since 1997, when she was 17 and made a run all the way to the final. Of course, people overlook her at their peril. When healthy and motivated, she and her sister, Serena, are the biggest X-factors in any tournament they enter.
....b. Federer closes first day with quick win.

Roger Federer showed that time was still on his side as the Swiss master rang the closing bell on opening day at the US Open tennis championship with a quick win at Arthur Ashe Stadium. 3rd seed Federer, who turned 30 earlier this month, completed a clockwork 6-4 6-3 6-2 win over 56th-ranked Colombian Santiago Giraldo, 24, to the delight of the Flushing Meadows night crowd. This was his frist step in his quest for a 6th US Open title. 16th overall. A 6th US Open would tie him with Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras for the most titles as a professional.

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Hockey:

KHL chief vows to rebuild team after plane crash.

All be one of the 28 Lokomotiv Yaroslavi players traveling to Belarus for ther first game were killed in a plane crash. The team will be rebult in time to take part in this year's Kontinental Hockey League season according to the league's leader, Alexander Medvedev. Each league team should volunteer up to three players to restock the decimated team. The KHL is an international club league that features 24 teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia. Lokomotiv is a leading force in Russian hockey, winning the Russian League championship in 1997, 2002 and 2003. It finished third in the KHL last year.

Among those killed were Lokomotiv coach/NHL veteran Brad McCrimmon (Canadian), ass't coach Alexander Karpovtsev (one of the first Russions to have his name on the Stanley Cup with the NY Rangers) and Pavol Demitra who played for the St Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakian team captain. Other standouts killed were Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Latvian defenseman Karlis Skrastins and defenseman Ruslan Salei of Belarus.

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U.S. Open (tennis)

Going into the match with Australian Sam STosur, Serena Williams was the heavy favorite among the experts. Well, they were wrong. Serena couldn't keep her temper and already being outplayed, she lost a point to her opponent for yelling during a point. The yell occurred after she had served the ball and seemed to me and evidently to the judge also, to be an attempt to rattle her opponent. She didn't. In the end Stosur beat her 6-2, 6-3 to win her first Grand Slam title. Hitting powerful strokes from the baseline, and looking fresher than the far-more-accomplished Williams right from the start, the ninth-seeded Stosur became the first Australian woman to win a major championship since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.

Today is the Men's Finals: Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal. Top-seeded Djokovic won 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 Saturday to improve to 63-2 on the year and set up a rematch in the final against No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who beat No. 4 Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in the second semifinal. Nadal beat Djokovic in the final last year, but Djokovic is 5-0 against the Spaniard this year. All the meetings have been in tournament finals, including Wimbledon. On Monday, Nadal must try to stop the losing streak against a player who will come into the final on the high of a win he called definitely the biggest of the year and "one of the biggest wins of the career under the circumstances." Whoever wins, it should be an outstanding match. CBS 4:00 EDT.

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Sports:
1. Stumbling Sox lose again. The reeling Boston Red Sox lost for the 6th tme in seven games when Adam Loewen's two-run single lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-4 win. Luckily for the Sox, the Rays fell to the Baltimore Orioles and failed to close on the Sox. Seattle just beat the Yankees in the bottom of the 12th inning with a walk-off home run by Luis Rodriguez off pitcher Corey Wade. And so everything remains the same in the AL East, except one game less to play.

2. Kershaw wins 19th as Dodgers, D-backs stay testy. NL Cy Young candidate Slayton Kershaw was tossed after beaning Gerardo Parra in the 6th inning in carryover from bad blood in Tuesday's game,. Manager Don Mattingly was also tossed but LA held on for 3-2 victory. Kershaw tied Arizona's Ian Kennedy for the NL lead in victories, the most for a Dodgers pitcher since Ramon Martinez went 20-6 in 1990. The left-hander struck out five, giving him 236 on the season, just two behind Detroit's Justin Verlander for the major league lead.

3. The Phillies clinch a playoff spot.

The Phillies beat the Astros 1-0 behind Roy Halladay's first shutout of the season, the first for a Phillie pitcher not named Lee (Cliff has six) and Halladay's 18th win. The game only took two hours and six minutes, as if they had a plane to catch or somethin'. This is the earliest that the Phillies have ever clinched a playoff spot. They clinched the pennant in 1915 in 148 games - today was their 146th game.

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