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Every time Freddy Garcia thinks he’s out, the White Sox pull him back in.

Well, maybe. Jon Heyman of SI.com reports that the team is considering bringing Garcia back for the 2011 season, which would make for a really roundabout way of staying put. The team expressed interest in keeping him all the way back at the start of the offseason, Garcia went on to be linked to just about every team with pitching needs (which means just about every team in the big leagues) and now things have come full circle.

The biggest stumbling block for the White Sox, as Heyman mentions, is that they will have one starter too many once Jake Peavy is ready to pitch again. That’s not going to be until June at the earliest, however, and that leaves quite a few starts to fill before even taking into account the various anvils that can fall onto the heads of starting pitchers over the course of the season.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/white-sox-might-be-staying-in-the-freddy-garcia-business/

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Bubba WatsonSAN DIEGO — With a 5-under final-round 67 Sunday at Torrey Pines, Bubba Watson won the Farmers Insurance Open — his second PGA Tour title — by one shot over Phil Mickelson and put the PGA Tour on notice.

He’s serious.

“It just shows that I can do it,” Watson said. “I did it twice now. I’m only like 50 behind Phil and 80 behind Tiger, so they better watch out.”

Watson, no malice intended, is seen by many as something of a golf goof ball. The 32-year-old self-taught player from the little Florida Panhandle town of Bagdad, likes to post Internet videos featuring trick shots and comedy. One of his favorites is a wedge shot from out of a tiny loving cup, over a swimming pool and into a sand pail.

He also has posted a “Happy Birthday” tribute to Ellen DeGeneres, and, last December at the Shark Shootout, dressed as Santa Claus to sign autographs after finishing play.

Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/30/bubba-watson-edges-phil-mickelson-to-win-at-torrey-pines/

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WASHINGTON ? As the complexion of youth development in MLS and the United States continues to evolve, the role of college soccer goes along with it. And while the role of the collegiate program will be debated down the road, given the size of the United States, players will most likely always emerge from the college system.

Source: http://www.dcunited.com/news/2011/01/despite-academies-colleges-still-producing-mls-talent

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Sure, Chip Ganassi’s driver lineup looked unbeatable: three Indy 500 champions, a Daytona 500 winner and the reigning sports car season champs. But in the always grueling, unpredictable and increasingly wild and woolly Rolex 24 at Daytona, it takes more than talent. It takes luck, preparation and in Sunday’s case, great tenacity to win.

Reigning Grand-Am Series champ Scott Pruett took the lead from his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, 2008 Indy 500 champ Scott Dixon, with 45 minutes left in the twice-around-the-clock race on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, then held him off on a re-start with one lap to go to give Ganassi his fourth Rolex 24 win in the last six years.

Ganassi is the first owner in racing history to simultaneously own the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400 and Rolex 24 trophies — something people are already affectionately calling the “Chip Slam.”

“I don’t drive the cars, I don’t change the tires and I don’t work on the engines,” Ganassi said, modestly acknowledging the accomplishment. “I’m just the guy that gets to stand up here and talk about it. It’s a lot of other guys that do the hard work.

“A win here does not reward you at the next race. We had a great day today and tomorrow we’re on to the next race.”

The first four finishers were separated by less than four seconds after 24 hours of what was one of the most competitive races in the event’s 49-year history. It was the fourth overall and ninth class win for Pruett, who co-drove with Memo Rojas, second-generation IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and sports car veteran Joey Hand.

“We were very optimistic, but did we know we’d win? No,” Pruett said about his last stint in the car after chasing his teammates for much of the race. “But Joey (Hand) did a great job making up time. We knew we had a strong car and were just looking at our options.”

Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/01/30/chip-ganassi-makes-more-history-with-rolex-24-at-daytona-victory/

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Craig ThompsonThe Mountain West Conference is content with its current membership.

That was the gist of a release issued by the conference following two days worth of meetings by the Mountain West’s board of directors in Las Vegas.

“The Board feels strongly the membership configuration already established going forward creates outstanding prospects for future success,” the release stated.

For the past two days, rumors have been rampant that the Mountain West was looking at adding two members in order to create a conference championship game and perhaps gain a more lucrative television deal. While the teams the conference was considering — Utah State and San Jose State — might potentially have brought the television markets of San Jose/San Francisco and Salt Lake City, they added very little to the conference’s quest of ultimately being a BCS automatic-qualifying conference.

“In addition, we are continuing with our strategic initiatives related to our television partnerships and the MWC’s efforts to effect change in the BCS structure,” the statement said. “The Board is excited about what is undoubtedly a bright future for the Conference.”

Utah State hasn’t had a winning season since 1996 and hasn’t been to a bowl game since 1993. The Aggies have only had three winning campaigns since 1980. San Jose has had just five winning seasons during the past two decades and is 3-22 in the past two years.

 

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Source: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/25/mountain-west-tables-expansion-for-now/

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James Johnson, selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 16th overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft, is expected to be assigned to the NBA D-League’s Iowa Energy on Thursday, according to a source close to the situation.

Johnson, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Wake Forest, has played in 12 games for the Bulls this season with his last being a Jan. 4 contest against the Toronto Raptors in which he played three minutes and recorded no statistics. In 71 career NBA regular season games — including 11 starts — Johnson’s averaging 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in just over 11 minutes per game.

Johnson has been consistently rumored to be on the Bulls‘ trading block but has yet to produce enough as a pro to justify to another team that he’s worth taking a chance on. Even at the Vegas Summer League, a setting in which a first-round pick should typically excel, Johnson averaged just 8.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 6.4 personal fouls in 28 minutes per game (players are allowed 10 fouls in the Summer League). Even worse, Johnson made less than 33 percent of his attempts from the field, most of which came in a game against the Sacramento Kings in which he made just two of his 14 shot attempts.

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/source-bulls-to-assign-james-johnson-to-d-league/

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For the better part of his life, Joe Morgan has spent his summer Sundays at the ballpark.

For two decades, starting when he was out of high school, it was as a player. Since 1990, it’s been as a broadcaster.

Now that’s over. With ESPN declining to offer Morgan and his longtime compatriot in the “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast booth, Jon Miller, contracts for 2011, Morgan is entering a new phase of his life.

He’s accepted the offer of Walt Jocketty to join the Cincinnati Reds as a front office adviser. Morgan, whose Hall of Fame career was launched when he helped form Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in the 1970s, has long had a locker in Cincinnati even after his retirement.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/01/28/joe-morgan-looking-forward-to-life-after-sunday-night-baseball/

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VANCOUVER — Shane O’Brien can still be counted on for a good quote, but not necessarily a good time.

“It’s a different Shane O’Brien,” he said. “I’m waiting for the offseason to explore Nashville a little bit more.”

He made the comments as the Predators visited Vancouver for his first game against the Canucks since they traded him at the start of this season. You could say the affable 27-year-old Port Hope, Ont., native, who developed a reputation for partying during two seasons as a Canuck, is trying to be a stay-at-home defenseman off the ice as well as on.

 

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/shane-obrien-cools-jets-in-nashville/

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by Milton Kent

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Few things draw the ire of network announcers more than allegations that they favor one team or player over another or that they pull punches. That, and cutting off their clothing and hair-care allowances.

So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, CBS’ No.1 NFL announce team, were all too happy to refute allegations that they took a little off their respective fastballs recently and made too nice with the New England Patriots during last Sunday’s telecast.

“That’s always the case, especially with fans,” said Simms Thursday during a conference call to promote CBS’ coverage of Sunday’s AFC championship game between Pittsburgh and the New York Jets. “I walk out of the booth almost every week (and hear), ‘Aw, you don’t say enough good things about us.’ “

Simms added, in a sarcastic tone, “That’s OK. You’re right. I want to show favoritism and get fired.”

The piece that triggered the response was written by veteran media critic Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News, who contended Monday that Simms had failed to take Patriots coach Bill Belichick to task for strategic gaffes he might have made during Sunday’s divisional playoff loss to the Jets.

 

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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/01/21/phil-simms-jim-nantz-respond-to-charges-of-patriots-bias/

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Someone said something shocking on a TNT NBA studio show Thursday night. No shock there, not with Charles Barkley as one of the analysts.

Except, the stunning statement didn’t happen in a studio, but rather on the floor of Madison Square Garden. And it wasn’t said by Barkley, but by comedian Tracy Morgan, who made the startling declaration that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was attractive.

Really, really attractive.

Here’s the set-up: Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson were conducting business at MSG in advance of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks game, which TNT televised. The trio were discussing the pending NBA All-Star Game and Thursday’s announcement of the Eastern and Western Conference starters, when Morgan, who stars in the NBC sitcom “30 Rock” happened by their makeshift set.

Barkley and Smith asked Morgan whom he thought merited inclusion on the All-Star roster. Then Morgan was asked to choose between Palin and Tina Fey, who created “30 Rock,” and has impersonated Palin on “SNL.”

That’s when Morgan said that Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee was “good masturbation material.” It may have marked one of the few times that the normally loquacious Barkley has ever been speechless.

TNT, however, recovered quickly, issuing a statement from spokesman Jeff Pomeroy that read: “It’s unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments.”

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/tracy-morgan-brings-tnt-pregame-show-to-halt-with-salute-to-sa/

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