Kyle Busch Wins Nationwide Race, Goes for Weekend Sweep Sunday

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years.

It wasn't as easy as it looked, not with his car getting loose and Carl Edwards bearing down over the final few laps.

Busch dominated from the pole early and held off Edwards late, maintaining the lead the entire way in the Nationwide race Saturday to set up the chance for a perfect weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

"It came down to the end of the race and Carl was alongside of me and we were racing really hard trying to beat each other, and I was like, 'Man, just beat him back to the start-finish line, man, just beat back to the start-finish line,"' Busch said. "I was just trying to hold on for as long as I could."

The Nationwide opener last weekend was a nail-biter, with Tony Stewart nipping Clint Bowyer by .007 seconds for the series' closest finish ever at Daytona. Busch had race No. 2 looking like a walkover until Edwards pulled beside him three times in the final 20 laps.

Busch never let him get around, though, fighting a car that had lost some handling after the final pit stop to lead all 200 laps around Phoenix's bumpy mile oval. He's the first green-to-checkers winner in any NASCAR series national race since Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it during a Nationwide race at Daytona in 2003.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2011/02/26/kyle-busch-wins-nationwide-race-goes-for-weekend-sweep-sunday/

Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively

PGA Set to Host Another Pebble Beach Party for AT&T Pro-Am

Filed under: PGA

Yep, the PGA Tour is playing again this week. It's the Pebble Beach AT&T National Pro-Am.

That means Pebble Beach. Cool. Great tournament. There is the celebrity/amateur thingy that was once very, very hip when Bing Crosby was the host, but now too many people wonder "who the hell is Bing Crosby?" and Bill Murray, George Lopez and Andy Garcia are the celebrity headliners.

Play will be slow and the weather most-likely lousy, but there may be no greater piece of real estate in golf than Pebble Beach.

Remember, they did play the U.S. Open there last year.

Graeme McDowell won it, but Dustin Johnson came close. That's significant because Johnson did win the two Pebble Beach Pro-Am stops before that. So, despite the fact Johnson in June shot a final-round 82 to fall out of the hunt, he led after three rounds and also has been the winner at the previous two PGA Tour events at Pebble Beach by one shot over David Duval and J.B. Holmes last year and four in front of Mike Weir in 2009.

 

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/02/09/pga-set-to-host-another-pebble-beach-party-for-atandt-pro-am/

Robin Tunney Rosario Dawson Rose Byrne

Marco Sturm Claimed off Waivers by Washington Capitals

Filed under: Capitals, Kings, Eastern, Western

Marco Sturm was claimed by the Washington Capitals on Saturday, a day after the Los Angeles Kings put the left winger on waivers.

Sturm, 32, was acquired by the Kings earlier this season after he worked his way back from surgery to repair his ACL and MCL, an injury he suffered in the Eastern Conference Final as a member of the Boston Bruins. He played 17 games with the Kings, scoring four goals and compiling five assists.

Sturm, a first-round draft pick by the San Jose Sharks in 1996, is in his 14th NHL seasons. The Caps also announced Saturday that they recalled center Jay Beagle and goaltender Todd Ford, and sent down center Mathieu Perreault.

 

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/26/marco-sturm-claimed-off-waivers-by-washington-capitals/

Rhona Mitra Rihanna Robin Tunney

Charley Rosen: Carmelo Burns LeBron as Knicks Win in Miami

Filed under: Heat, Knicks

No surprise that the marquee matchup in New York's 91-86 win in Miami pitted Carmelo Anthony versus LeBron James. Turned out that Melo won both the battle and the war.

Simply put, Anthony shredded LeBron's paltry attempts to guard him. On several drives hoopwards -- whether resorting to straight power-moves or tricky spins -- Melo left James in the dust. Indeed, at the time Melo was putting the finishing touches on any given layup, James was beaten so badly that he wasn't even posterized.

As ever, LeBron's defensive stance was too upright, and the slightest ball-fake drew him completely off-balance. On one embarrassing sequence, LBJ was so mesmerized by the ball that he was unable to react when Anthony executed a nifty back-door cut, caught a lob pass from Amar'e Stoudemire, and scored on an uncontested dunk.

For sure Carmelo Anthony is the most versatile point-maker in the NBA -- beating James from the low-post to wing isos and pull-ups -- but the game at hand should finally put the lie to all the hype concerning LBJ's being a top-notch defender.

Anthony's numbers: 10-of-22 shooting, two assists, three turnovers, nine rebounds, and 29 points. As is his wont, Melo was most comfortable when put in isolation situations -- his 12 iso opportunities led to scoring eight points. In grill-to-grill competition, Anthony scorched LeBron for a total of 20 points.

At the other end of the game, Anthony's quick-footed, aggressive defense against LBJ was a revelation. In fact, Melo hasn't played such ornery defense for such long stretches since he locked horns with Kobe Bryant in the fourth game of the 2009 Western Conference finals.

Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/28/charley-rosen-carmelo-burns-lebron-as-knicks-win-in-miami/

Mýa Nadine Velazquez Naomi Watts

Mariners Hire Ken Griffey Jr. as Consultant

by John Hickey

Filed under: Mariners, MLB Transactions, Sports Business and Media, Spring Training

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Ken Griffey Jr., the longtime face of the Seattle Mariners organization who left the team to retire last year when his playing time dwindled, is returning to the Mariners as a special consultant to the franchise.

The announcement was made by club president Chuck Armstrong, one of the few club employees who was already on board when Griffey came up in 1989 as a then-19-year-old to turn around what had been one of the saddest organizations in Major League Baseball.

Griffey forced a trade in Feb. 2000, to the Cincinnati Reds, and he played there for almost a decade before returning to Seattle in 2009, where he had one decent year before things fell apart in 2010.

With Griffey unproductive offensively for the first time in his life in 2010, then-manager Don Wakamatsu used him less and less, and Griffey ultimately opted to leave on June 2, driving home to Florida after deciding to retire.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/15/mariners-hire-ken-griffey-jr-as-consultant/

Shania Twain Shanna Moakler Shannon Elizabeth

Source: 'We're Nowhere' on NFL CBA Talks

Filed under: NFL Draft, NFL Analysis, NFL Labor Negotiations

INDIANAPOLIS -- NFL players' union chief DeMaurice Smith addressed agents in an annual meeting here Friday at the scouting combine. But several agents who were in the meeting said Smith didn't get into the specifics of the mediated collective bargaining negotiations that took place over the previous seven days in Washington, D.C.

One reason Smith withheld specifics was his concern that agents would leak the information to the media. But the more important reason is that, in spite of speculative optimism that emerged from the fact that the two sides were actually meeting, there just isn't very much to update.

"The truth is, we're nowhere," a person who'd been briefed on the talks told FanHouse on condition of anonymity. "Nothing has changed."

 

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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/25/source-were-nowhere-on-nfl-cba-talks/

Monica Potter Monika Kramlik Moon Bloodgood

Cavs' Trade for Baron Davis Was All About the Draft Pick

Filed under: Cavaliers, Clippers, NBA Rumors, NBA Transactions

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- What does a rebuilding team do when it wants draft picks to help recover from the departure of the league's two-time MVP? It trades another of its popular players for a first-round pick, and agrees to take on almost $28 million in salary for an aging, oft-injured point guard.

Such is the fate of the Cleveland Cavaliers that it celebrated a trade Thursday that took point guard Baron Davis from his home in Los Angeles and dropped him in Cleveland in the middle of winter. Davis goes from playing on the same team as Blake Griffin to joining a 10-47 team.

And the Cavs were exultant -- because they acquired a first-round draft pick that will give them two lottery picks this summer. They said they were happy about acquiring Davis, too, but sending Mo Williams and Jamario Moon to the Clippers was much more about getting that first-round draft pick.

"Our scouting department just got a little busier, which is a good thing," said GM Chris Grant.

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/24/cavs-trade-for-baron-davis-was-all-about-the-draft-pick/

Hilary Swank Isla Fisher Ivana Bozilovic