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McNair finished for season
McNair, last season's co-MVP, has missed the last five games and has battled through a multitude of ailments in his 10-year career. His aching body along with the Titans' (4-9) disappointing season has led him to mention the possibility of retirement. The former Walter Payton Award winner at Alcorn State passed for 1,343 yards with eight touchdowns and nine interceptions in eight games this season. McNair has thrown for 23,980 yards with 140 touchdowns in his career. Backup Billy Volek has played well in place of McNair. In Monday night's loss to Kansas City, Volek threw for a career-high 426 yards on 29-of-43 passing with four touchdowns.
Week 15 - Putting a Finger on Plummer's Woes
Giving a loudmouth Broncos fan the finger in last week's win over Miami was a snap decision that Plummer would like to have back.
We can all relate to that.
When someone cuts me off on the highway, I generally race by them in the slow lane, take both hands off the wheel, and give them both barrels. (I've been told I'm a little high-strung).
Mora finished with three hits while Miguel Tejada knocked in two runs for the Orioles, who took three out of the four games in the series. Brian Roberts added a sacrifice fly in the ninth. Bruce Chen started and lasted 7 2/3 innings in the no decision. He allowed five runs on five hits, including four homers, with four strikeouts. Ty Wigginton, Travis Lee, Tomas Perez and Jonny Gomes all hit solo home runs for the Devil Rays, who have lost six of 10 to open the season. Tampa starter Doug Waechter also got a no decision as he allowed only one run and six hits through six-plus innings of work. However, Shawn Camp allowed two runs in the eighth and Dan Miceli (0-1) gave up three runs in 1 1/3 innings of work to spoil Waechter's effort.
First of all, it is dumb to have a theme song when you enter a game. What is this, professional wrestling? But Wagner has the same song -- Metallica's "Enter Sandman" -- as Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Big news if you live in New York, where this topic has dominated the airwaves all week.
Peja Stojakovic added 23 points, scoring 15 over the final 24 minutes, for Indiana, which ended a two-game slide and won for just the second time in nine contests.
"We desperately need the win," said Jackson. "We've been an up and down team all year. I know we cane [stay consistent]. We have made a lot of excuses. Tonight we kept playing hard and stayed aggressive. We still have a lot to improve on the last five games and hopefully have momentum heading into the playoffs."
Austin Croshere recorded 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers, who pulled into a tie for the sixth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with the idle Milwaukee Bucks.
Jamal Crawford, whose jumper with .5 seconds remaining last Friday gave the Knicks a 98-96 win over the Pacers at Madison Square Garden, ended with 26 points and seven assists for New York. Eddy Curry added 12 points and Steve Francis tallied 11 for the Knicks, who had a three-game winning streak halted.
Superstar Kobe Bryant is not someone that a team is going to want to see in the opening round of a best-of-seven series. If the Lakers, who finished just 34-48 last season and did not qualify for the playoffs, can draw either the Denver Nuggets or Phoenix Suns in round one, they would have to like their chances of pulling off the upset.
Ottawa, which finished 29-9-3 overall at home, remains atop the Eastern Conference with 111 points. Second place Carolina trails the Senators by two points with three games left, two of which are at home.
With 107 career wins with the Panthers, Luongo surpassed John Vanbiesbrouck for the franchise record.
Olli Jokinen notched a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who have won two of the last three. Alexei Semenov, Jonathan Sim and Martin Gelinas also scored for Florida. Luongo made 46 saves.
Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher both posted a goal and an assist for the Senators, who have dropped five of six. Jason Spezza and Peter Schaefer added the other goals. Michael Morrison made 30 saves.
Alfredsson scored on a slap shot glove side just past Luongo's outstretched left skate with two seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime, and notch his 42nd goal of the season.
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If only the San Jose Sharks could have had Joe Thornton from the outset of the 2005-06 regular season.
If they had, perhaps we would be talking about their jockeying for position near the top of the Western Conference instead of the current battle to simply secure a playoff spot.
Before obtaining Thornton from Boston in late November, San Jose lost 16 of its first 24 games -- including a disheartening 10-game slide that spanned from November 5-30. Not coincidentally, Thornton's debut with his new club was a 5-0 win in Buffalo on December 2 to spark a six-game winning streak.
Playing in front of a home crowd, Taylor missed the cut by one shot at Augusta last week. On Thursday, he peppered the Harbor Town Golf Links with nine birdies during a 13-hole stretch on the way to the third first-round lead of his career.
"Last week was very nerve wracking...playing in front of the home crowd," said Taylor, who moved to Augusta as an infant and still lives there. "I came in this week and it just feels easy. I was really looking forward to The Masters, but I'm glad it's finally over. This week I feel very relaxed."
Taylor is one shot ahead of Jim Furyk, who opened with a seven-under 64.
Duffy Waldorf, Billy Mayfair and Tom Pernice, Jr. share third place at minus- six. Chris Riley, Brian Gay, Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley are all one shot further back in a tie for sixth.
THE NEW PHIL MICKELSON
I think Phil Mickelson got the hang of winning majors. The left-hander, who squandered chances at three Masters, a U.S. Open and a PGA Championship, finally broke through two years ago and the flood gates are now open.
He's won three of the last nine majors. That's one more than Tiger, by the way. You got the feeling that Mickelson might be ready to break out after the '04 Masters, but since it was Lefty, you weren't sure.
"Michael as I understand having listened to Derek Wright, put his boots on this morning and did some running with his football boots on," said Newcastle caretaker boss Glenn Roeder. "He did a very little bit of ball work as well, and after the session he was very happy."
The 26-year-old Owen was originally expected to miss eight to 10 weeks after having a metal pin placed in his foot. However, Owen needed a second operation in March and his comeback was put on hold.
Not only did the second operation delay his return to the Premiership, but more importantly, it was feared that Owen would be forced to watch the World Cup this summer in Germany from his living room.
With the latest progress report, Owen is expected to be fit before the end of the Premiership season, making him a real possibility to make Sven-Goran Eriksson's England roster.
Don't worry, you're not going crazy, journalistic standards have not been lowered, thedoesn't allow just any average idiot to file articles or columns on its site... well, I'm writing, but we'll get to that later.
However, there's got to be a number of soccer fans across the country simultaneously pondering that same thought, what is going on with the U.S. roster? Who will be on it, and isn't it time to stop auditioning players?
The second-seeded Gaudio grounded German Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-2, while the wild card Safin subdued Serbian Boris Pashanski 6-2, 6-2 at Valencia Tennis Club.
The Russian Safin is 3-2 lifetime against the Argentine Gaudio, all on red clay, but the two haven't met since 2003.
In other second-round action, sixth-seeded Italian Filippo Volandri vaulted past Czech Tomas Zib 6-4, 6-4 and Spanish qualifier Nicolas Almagro erased German Bjorn Phau 6-2, 6-1.
Friday's other quarters will pit Volandri versus Almagro, seventh-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco against his countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Italian Andreas Seppi versus France's Gilles Simon. Verdasco captured this tournament in 2004.
The winner of this $410,000 event will collect $46,700.
The former world No. 1 and currently third-ranked Henin-Hardenne, this week's top seed, improved to a flawless 13-0 lifetime at this event with a 6-4, 6-4 decision against Croat Karolina Sprem at the Family Circle Tennis Center. Sprem sprayed 34 unforced errors on her way to defeat.
The four-time Grand Slam titlist Henin-Hardenne, of Belgium, titled here in 2003, skipped the 2004 edition of the tournament and claimed another championship last year by besting Russian Elena Dementieva in the clay-court finale.
Up next for the 2005 French Open champion and 2006 Australian Open runner-up Henin-Hardenne will be seventh-seeded Russian Dinara Safina, a come-from- behind 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-2 victor against Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko on Day 4.
Meanwhile, second-seeded Petrova, of Russia, dispatched Czech Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-3. Petrova needed just 19 minutes to win the first set and blasted three aces en route to winning the second.
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Somewhere in the recesses of Jake Plummer's mind, the idea of the Broncos' quarterback raising his right hand, middle digit extended, must have seemed brilliant.
Philadelphia, PA -
Well, the 2006 Major League Baseball season is off and running and the biggest news of the young campaign has been the attention paid to the entrance music of New York Mets' closer Billy Wagner.
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The Los Angeles Lakers are a very dangerous team to have to play in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. They are more than capable of sending one of the top seeds home early.
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Here are some rantings from the world of professional golf. Sort of.
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The 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany is like two months away, and Bruce Arena has, like, no roster yet.
