"I'LL TAKE THEIR MIDDLE OF THE ORDER."

"'THE GOAL IS CLEAR: TO WIN MORE THAN WE LOSE.' THAT GOAL'S STILL A YEAR AWAY."

"YOU GET CHANCES YOU WOULDN'T NORMALLY."

IT'S VERY easy," said Lou Piniella, the Cubs' second-year manager, who paused and grinned before dispensing a little baseball wisdom. "But if you don't see it, you might have a problem." He wasn't...

"YOUNG STARTERS ARE THE REASON THEY COULD MAKE THE JUMP THE ROCKIES DID LAST YEAR."

"OFF-SEASON FIXES WILL AID RUN PRE VENTION. RUN GENERATION WON'T BE A PROBLEM."

"BOURN, PENCE AND TOWLES AT LEAST BRING A FRESH IDENTITY TO A THIN, AGING ROSTER."

"THEY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED AS AN AGING FRANCHISE BUILT AROUND FRAGILE STARS."

"THERE ARE SOME PIECES THAT ARE WORTH THE FRONT OFFICE'S PATIENCE."

"THIS SEASON SHOULD PUT THE SERENDIPITY OF LAST FALL INTO CONTEXT."

"WE HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN, NOT ONLY THIS YEAR, BUT FOR SEVERAL YEARS."

"GREAT STUFF, GREAT MAKEUP—I WILL PUT MY REPUTATION ON HIROKI KURODA."

"WE PUT OUR PITCHERS IN A LOT OF TIGHT GAMES, A LOT OF HIGH-PRESSURE SITUATIONS."

"A POOR RUN OF DRAFTS, COUPLED WITH AN OVERRELIANCE ON VETERANS, CREATED THIS MESS."

YOU WANT to keep thinking of Washington, D.C., as a gridlocked, do-nothing town? Go ahead. Try to ignore the fact that, this Sunday, less than two years after breaking ground, the Washington...

High Heel As a Tar Heels fan for more than 40 years, I have watched some of the best college players ever at North Carolina. But I have never seen anyone with the tenacity and "will not quit"...

Cheerleading has become a 'serious' sport. Think sweat, blood, drugs

WHO'S Hot

Which NHL head coach would you most like to play for?

Committed To Ohio State, quarterback Terrelle Pryor (above) of Jeannette (Pa.) High. Pryor, who was widely considered to be the top unsigned recruit in the nation, is the first high school player...

TY ROGERS, Western Kentucky guard, on his buzzer-beating, overtime three-pointer that beat favored Drake in the first round of the NCAA tournament: "It kind of worked out good."

Axel Buescher was stripped of his German national carom billiards title after testing positive for an EPO masking agent.

Why some top college hockey players dropped out this season

THEY MAY get into some nasty scrapes, but the three main presidential contenders are of one mind when it comes to March Madness—North Carolina is the team to beat. The Tar Heels enjoyed...

548 Games former Cleveland center Brad Daugherty needed to score 10,389 points, which stood as the team's career record until last week.

Bob Knight finds that media life agrees with him

HAS THE Jessica Simpson Curse again reared its head? Simpson and her boyfriend, Cowboys QB Tony Romo (below), attended their first Mavs game in Dallas and saw the Lakers snap the Mavs' five-game...

CELTICS POINT GUARD

What to watch and watch for

ONE OF the most uplifting stories of the 2006 college football season was that of Ray Ray McElrath bey, the Clemson running back who rescued his 11-year-old brother, Fahmarr, from a broken...

Rachel Anderson CLINTON, ILL. > Track and Field Anderson, a senior at Illinois Wesleyan, ran the 400 meters in 55.66 seconds for her third straight Division III indoor title in the event and...

The Interview Aaron Rodgers PACKERS QB

Joey Dorsey powered Memphis into the Sweet 16, but the Tigers' mercurial star is just one of several key players left in the field who have something to prove

SPORTS IN REAL TIME. ALL THE TIME. ALL FREE.

With a sweet stroke, Stephen Curry made Davidson the tournament darling

Revised bracket, same pick: UCLA shows Kansas all you need is Love

How great was the '05 draft? Six teams passed on shortstop Troy Tulowitzki—and even after he led Colorado to the World Series, only one of them regrets it

Five more phenoms from the best draft ever are about to show what all the excitement is about

BREWERS OUTFIELDER

REDS OUTFIELDER

NATIONALS THIRD BASEMAN

DIAMONDBACKS OUTFIELDER

The Red Sox and Yankees made a major strategic shift in 2005, battling in a new arena: the draft. Now their moves are paying off

HOW THEY'LL FINISH

"HOW EFFECTIVE WILL THE YOUNG PITCHERS BE WHEN THEY GET TO THAT SEVENTH MONTH?"

"THERE'S ONLY ONE MISSION HARDER THAN HAVING A DREAM SEASON LIKE '07: TO DO IT AGAIN."

"THEY MIGHT HAVE THE DEEPEST PITCHING STAFF, YET THEY NEED NEW YORK OR BOSTON TO FALTER."

"THEY'LL WIN (GULP) MORE THAN 70 GAMES."

"IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE RECOGNIZING THE BIRDS, THAT'S EXACTLY HOW THE CLUB WANTS IT."

"THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE OF THE MOST DOMINANT OFFENSES THAT ANY TEAM HAS FIELDED IN 10 YEARS."

"A RETURN TO FORM BY TRAVIS HAFNER IS PARAMOUNT FOR ANOTHER RUN AT THE PENNANT."

"THEY COVERED THE LITTLE HOLES THEY HAD, BUT THERE ARE SOME GAPING ONES TO BE FILLED."

Her Level Best Purdue guard FahKara Malone let fly after being fouled by Utah's Leilani Mitchell (11) during their first-round NCAA tournament game on Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind. Malone, who...

"I'VE HAD PEOPLE APPROACH ME AND SAY, 'YOU KNOW, A .500 SEASON WOULD BE JUST GREAT.' "

"PEOPLE OVERLOOK WHAT THEY STILL HAVE."

WHEN TORII HUNTER filed for free agency in October, he had no idea which team would sign him. But Hunter thought he knew which team would not come after him. "The Angels," he says. "There was no...

"ANYTHING SHORT OF MAKING THE PLAYOFFS WILL BE A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT."

"BILLY BEANE HAS BEGUN ANOTHER RENOV ATION--THIS ONE MASSIVE EVEN BY HIS STANDARDS."

ULTRATALENTED centerfielder Josh Hamilton was driving balls so far this spring, he was inspiring baseball insiders to invoke the phrase "A-Rod ability." Hamilton, in fact, is the most exciting...

"THERE IS NO CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION UNLESS JOSE REYES RETURNS TO FORM."

"FORGIVE ROLLINS FOR FEELING AS IF HE'S BEING HUNTED; THE METS ARE SEEKING VENGEANCE."

Tour dreams come true in Puerto Rico

Tiger Woods is so hot these days he's everywhere, or not

WHO Tiger Woods

With Tiger Woods on a rampage and the possibility of a Grand Slam the talk of the practice range, the first major of 2008 is the most anticipated Masters since '01, when Woods successfully...

"There's no way to make a course harder that doesn't give the advantage to Tiger. The tougher Augusta is, the greater advantage he has."

Which would you take to win the Masters, Tiger Woods or the field?

New audio technology lets us listen and learn from a veteran pair

The Tour's move to Puerto Rico has opened an enthusiastic new market.

Michelle Wie reinjures her wrist, pulls out of the Safeway International

A three-putt here, a too-early click of a camera there, and suddenly someone like Geoff Ogilvy is slamming home the hard reality of golf: Even Tiger Woods can't win them all