秘書長

SWEEP ! The Lakers' season ended Sunday with a 103-82 loss to the Spurs in Game 4.

2013-04-29T10:57:00.000+08:00

The Lakers' season ended Sunday with a 103-82 loss to the Spurs in Game 4. What does the future hold after Los Angeles was swept from the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 1967? Five SI.com NBA writers examine the burning questions facing the Lakers this offseason.

What was the single biggest issue for the Lakers this season?

Ian Thomsen: They didn't know who they were -- no identity, as Steve Nash put it. I think back to how Doc Rivers sat on a Duck boat riding the championship parade route with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen before their first season together and talking about what each of them would have to do in order to make the parade become real. The Lakers were never able to have that kind of shared understanding. Coach Mike Brown made the mistake of installing the Princeton offense; ownership overreacted by firing him so early in the season (a decision that should have been made much earlier, since the Lakers obviously had their doubts about Brown); and the hiring of Mike D'Antoni was blighted by the poor way the Lakers dealt with Phil Jackson.

Then there were the injuries that afflicted them like a web of viruses on a computer. Dwight Howard was never healthy and therefore never as effective as they hoped he would be. Steve Nash was out, and so D'Antoni's offense never hit a rhythm. Pau Gasol was ineffective and D'Antoni didn't know what to do with him. Kobe Bryant was the one constant until he went down in the final week of the season. They looked and played like a bunch of guys who chatted on the fly, as if via text message and Twitter. They were never able to establish who they would be as a team and how each of them would contribute to that team because the circumstances overwhelmed any hope of team-building.

Lee Jenkins: If I can only pick one -- age, injuries, lack of chemistry, lack of commitment -- I'll go with transition defense, because that's an area where so many other issues were evident. The Lakers launched too many three-pointers and committed too many turnovers, which caused too many fast breaks. The Western Conference is filled with speedy guards and the Lakers either weren't willing or weren't able to keep up. The scene unfolded and over and over. The Nuggets or Clippers or Thunder would collect a loose ball and sprint down court. The Lakers, appearing old, ailing or uninterested, would watch them dunk.

Chris Mannix: Coaching. It's foolish to suggest that L.A. would be a legitimate contender if Jackson were on the bench, not with all of the team's personnel issues. But the Lakers have not had a system within which they could succeed. This is a team with two of the preeminent post players in the game and it spent all season trying to avoid utilizing them in the best possible way. It seems to me that if this team had just played to its strengths, it would have been comfortably in the playoffs instead of having to scramble to get there down the stretch.

Ben Golliver: This is really a 1A (defense) and 1B (injuries) situation. From start to finish, the Lakers' defensive efficiency was below average, ranking 19th overall and ninth in the Western Conference. Their offense, which was merely very good and not "Seven Seconds or Less" elite, didn't stand a chance of carrying the team to meaningful success when the Lakers couldn't consistently keep lead guards out of the paint, rotate properly to weakside shooters, get back in transition or direct pick-and-roll situations. This was the worst defensive team that Howard, a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, has played on since 2006, his second season in the league. Cohesiveness and communication are key ingredients to good defense and the nonstop revolving-door lineups caused by the team's rash of injuries made a bad situation worse. That Howard wasn't playing at 100 percent for most of the season didn't help matters, either.

Rob Mahoney: A lack of continuity. Injuries not only robbed the Lakers of Howard's defensive activity, Nash's playmaking, Gasol's full repertoire and Bryant's late-career brilliance, but in the interim they also denied L.A. the chance to coordinate all of those highly talented parts into a more complex whole. Part of the reason why fit has seemingly been an issue for the Lakers throughout the season is because of how inconsistently the most prominent pieces have been available. These star-studded unions take time to grow and require plenty of strategic massaging to work at a high level. Even the Heat -- who were younger and more dynamic when they assembled a loaded roster in 2010 -- took the better part of two seasons to really figure things out, while the Lakers had but the luxury of a few weeks to make sense of their full starting five.

Amid myriad injuries, coach Mike D'Antoni (center) went 40-32 after taking over for Mike Brown.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

Does Mike D'Antoni deserve to return as coach?

Thomsen: I think so. The Lakers didn't quit on him -- obviously Bryant had a lot to do with that -- and in turn D'Antoni adapted his system to help the team survive this season. I still think he can be a very good coach for them because his approach is in line with where the game is headed. A healthy Howard could give him the defensive stopper he's never had.

Jenkins: When D'Antoni took over after Brown was fired, he said: "The expectation is to win a championship and we have the team and the players to do it." By the standards he set, they failed bitterly. D'Antoni was brought in to jump-start Nash and that didn't work. He never found a way to maximize Howard and Gasol. He couldn't find any rest for Bryant. Granted, he had to deal with injuries, a short bench and a flawed roster. But he is a supposed offensive genius who had four Hall of Famers and could not make them fit together.

Mannix: If you trade Gasol, add a couple of shooters and persuade Howard to accept being Amar'e Stoudemire, circa 2003, then yes, D'Antoni should come back. But Gasol is going to be tough to flip, the team is deep into luxury-tax territory and Howard will never be happy as a pick-and-roll player. D'Antoni's system could work in a lot of places, but in L.A., where the personnel is suited for a methodical half-court team, it's going to have a hard time being effective. Ownership won't want to swallow the last two years and $8 million of D'Antoni's deal, but if it doesn't make a drastic roster shakeup, it may have to.

Golliver: I don't have any major problem with D'Antoni, considering the difficult circumstances he inherited and the long list of injuries he had to juggle. Lakers management is going to need to take a long, hard look at the team's defensive struggles, which will largely fall on D'Antoni given his reputation for ignoring defense, but he will surely argue that a fully functioning, Nash-led offense aided by the addition of another shooter or two could have overcome some of those shortcomings. I also think that the Lakers' strong close to the regular season should be read as a vote of confidence among the players for D'Antoni. The Lakers opened the season playing like they wanted Brown canned and they finished the season playing hard, focused basketball. That should be enough to keep him in town.

Mahoney: Maybe not, but he doesn't deserve to be fired. I haven't been impressed with much of what D'Antoni has done with the Lakers, but the team's collective inability to defend is somewhat inexcusable. As noted above, injuries took a heavy toll, and D'Antoni didn't even have the benefit of an offseason or training camp to lay the groundwork for this season. For him to completely turn the team around midseason would have been an amazing accomplishment, and though he fell well short of that mark, I still see little reason to fire him.

Ang Li - Life of Pi

2013-02-26T11:19:00.000+08:00

第85屆奧斯卡得獎名單

2013年02月25日12:54

今日美國舉行第85屆奧斯卡頒獎典禮，得獎名單如下：

最佳影片
《亞果出任務》（Argo）

最佳導演
李安--《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》（Life Of Pi）

最佳男主角
丹尼爾戴路易斯（Daniel Day-Lewis）--《林肯》(Lincoln)

最佳女主角
珍妮佛勞倫斯（Jennifer Lawrence）-–《派特的幸福劇本》(Silver Linings Playbook )

最佳男配角
克里斯多福華茲（Christoph Waltz）--《決殺令》（Django Unchained）

最佳女配角
安海瑟薇(Anne Hathaway)--《悲慘世界》(Les Misrables)

最佳攝影
克勞迪奧·米蘭達（Claudio Miranda）--《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》（Life Of Pi）

最佳視覺效果
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott--《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》（Life Of Pi）

最佳原著劇本
昆汀塔倫提諾(Quentin Tarantino)--《決殺令》(Django Unchained)

最佳改編劇本
特里歐（Chris Terrio）--《亞果出任務》(Argo)

最佳原創配樂
唐納（Mychael Danna）--《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》（Life Of Pi）

最佳原創歌曲
《Skyfall》-《007空降危機》（Skyfall）

最佳製作設計
Rick Carter & Jim Erickson--《林肯》(Lincoln)

最佳剪輯
William Goldenberg--《亞果出任務》(Argo)

最佳音效剪輯
《00:30凌晨密令》(Zero Dark Thirty)
《007空降危機》(Skyfall)

最佳混音
《悲慘世界》(Les Misrables)

最佳服裝設計
賈桂琳·杜倫(Jacqueline Durran)--《安娜·卡列尼娜》

最佳髮型化裝
威斯考特（Lisa Westcott）& 達特涅爾（Julie Dartnell）--《悲慘世界》（Les Misérables）

最佳外語片
《愛‧慕》(Armour)

最佳動畫
《勇敢傳說》（Brave）

最佳短片動畫
《紙上傳情》（Paperman）

最佳實境短片
《宵禁》（Curfew）

最佳紀錄短片
《控訴》（Inocente）

最佳紀錄片
《尋找甜蜜客》（Searching for Sugar Man）

正妹就是這樣啦!

2012-12-21T10:43:00.002+08:00

錢德勒肘擊林書豪：他沒惡意

2012-12-19T09:18:00.002+08:00

回到紐約，賽前賽後的林書豪，都是滿面笑容。

開打前的熱身，林書豪就與尼克的史陶德邁爾（Amare Stoudemire）與錢德勒（Tyson Chandler）打招呼、閒聊；比賽後，林書豪到看台上與哥哥、大嫂、還有球迷見面。

一切，就好像他還沒離開尼克一樣。只可惜，他已換穿紅色球衣，一年也將只造訪麥德遜廣場花園一次。

「在這裡，我有很多回憶，」林書豪說，「隊友、教練、球迷、這個城市，是我永遠不會忘記的回憶。」

然而，比賽一開始，過去再好的隊友也變成敵人，錢德勒一記連手肘也出的惡性犯規，把林書豪整個人打倒在地上。

「我瞭解的，畢竟這是比賽，當有人切入禁區時，你一定得讓他不敢再來，所以他狠狠撞了我，」林書豪笑著說，「沒有什麼的，他並不是惡意，我們賽後也有聊天；當我在這裡時，他就像我大哥一樣，能跟他在場上見面，真的很有意思。」

林書豪的老戰友錢德勒場下擁抱致意(左圖)，場上卻是六親不認(右圖)。
路透

「尼克陣容不夠完整」

此外，林書豪也認為尼克隊在少了安東尼及史陶德邁爾下，才會吞下敗仗，「今天，他們少了兩名很重要球員，安東尼與史陶德邁爾，他們是這支球隊的主力，顯然，他們陣容不夠完整，而他們的實力是有目共睹，看他們在東區的排名就知道。」

其實，林書豪是想留在紐約的，尼克也不想讓他走，但NBA畢竟是門生意，在NBA受限自由球員制度的「庇蔭」下，林書豪得以拿到火箭的高薪合約，而尼克決定不跟進，如此而已。

「當初我就公開說過，我想要林書豪回來，」尼克總教練伍德森（Mike Woodson）說，「但他選擇了火箭的合約，他應該的，我為他感到高興，只是我們球隊選擇了不同的方向。」

「我現在的生活很不同了，心態也不一樣，」林書豪淡淡地說，「我離開了，他們（尼克）也在前進；我在這裡有很多美好回憶，但是現在我們都在不同的地方了。」

甜瓜避「瘋」頭不合說告一段落

「林來瘋」今天重返紐約，話題、張力十足，但「甜瓜」安東尼 (Carmelo Anthony)卻選擇避避風頭，於今天繼續掛傷號，缺席今天迎戰火箭隊林書豪之役。在兩隊本季不會再交手下，兩人過節的話題，也將會被淡忘。

全文網址: 錢德勒肘擊林書豪：他沒惡意 | 火箭大勝尼克 | 運動大聯盟 | 聯合新聞網 http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPO4/7574350.shtml#ixzz2FSMDdRjX
Power By udn.com

What Happen to Derek Jeter?

2012-12-04T09:11:00.000+08:00

What is this word? very popular agenda in Taiwan

2012-11-20T15:57:00.003+08:00

bumbler Ma

beauty

2012-11-13T14:45:00.000+08:00

Giants beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings for sweep 舊金山巨人隊橫掃底特律老虎隊 - 棒打老虎

2012-10-29T12:09:00.000+08:00

Giants beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings for sweep

DETROIT (AP) -- Marco Scutaro singled home the tiebreaking run in the 10th inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Sunday night to complete a four-game sweep and win their second World Series title in three years.
Ryan Theriot , who went hitless for St. Louis in Game 7 of last year's Series, singled softly into right field off Phil Coke opening the 10th.
Brandon Crawford sacrificed, nearly bunting the ball past Coke. Angel Pagan struck out and Scutaro singled into short center field as Theriot slid home ahead of Austin Jackson 's throw.
Pablo Sandoval , who hit three homers in Game 1, was selected Series MVP. He was 1 for 5 in Game 4, dropping his Series average to .500 (8 for 16).
Santiago Casilla got the final out of the ninth for the win, and Sergio Romo struck out the side in the 10th for his third save, freezing Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera with a called third strike to end it. The Giants ran out of the dugout and bullpen to celebrate between the mound and second base.
Of the 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads, 21 swept and three won in five games.
Delmon Young hit a tying home run off Matt Cain in the sixth. Cabrera and San Francisco's Buster Posey homered, marking the first time both reigning batting champions went deep in the same Series game.
San Francisco's Brandon Belt hit an RBI triple off the right-field wall in the second inning following a ground-rule double by Hunter Pence . But on a night when the wind was gusting to right field at up to 25 mph, Cabrera put Detroit ahead for the first time in the Series with a wild-blown, two-run drive in the third.
Cabrera's drive, on an 86 mph breaking ball, sailed over Pence, who thought he would catch it but ran out of room in front of the right-field wall on the cool, blustery night. It drove Jackson, who had walked with one out, and ended Detroit's 20-inning scoreless streak.
San Francisco had not trailed since losing Game 4 of the NL championship series, when the Giants fell into a 3-1 series deficit against St. Louis.
With a light rain falling, Scutaro reached on a chopper to third leading off the sixth and, one out later, Max Scherzer hung an 82 mph breaking ball. Posey drove it down the left-field line, where it stayed a few feet fair and landed a couple of rows over the wall for a 3-2 lead.
That advantage didn't last long. Young sent an opposite-field, no-doubt drive into the right-field stands in the bottom half, setting off cheers among the crowd of 42,152, with many fans waving white rally towels.
Andy Dirks followed with a single and Jhonny Peralta hit a drive that Gregor Blanco caught against the wall in left.
After watching Barry Zito , Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong each allow one run or none in the first three games, Cain gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and two walks.
Scherzer, pitching on nine days' rest, gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings, struck out eight and walked none. After he left with a runner on second and one out in the seventh, lefty Drew Smyly retired Brandon Crawford on a flyout and righty Octavio Dotel induced a groundout from Angel Pagan .
Smyly, Dotel and Coke combined for 2 2-3 innings of hitless relief before the 10th.
Jeremy Affeldt followed Cain and struck out four in a row before Peralta hit a ninth-inning drive to center that the wind carried and was caught by Pagan on the warning track
Casilla relieved and hit Omar Infante with a pitch, breaking his left hand. Danny Worth ran for Infante and Gerald Laird hit into a forceout.
Sandoval was 1 for 5, dropping his Series average to .500 (8 for 16). He also made a nimble play to throw out Quintin Berry on a bunt to third.
Detroit's Prince Fielder was hitless in four at-bats, dropping to 1 for 14 in the World Series (.071) and 1 for 25 (.040) against right-handers in the postseason.
Detroit has lost seven straight postseason games.
On a 44-degree night, fans bundled up at Comerica Park and some players wore caps with earflaps during batting practice.
Detroit scratched catcher Alex Avila , playing with a sore right arm since he was hit by a foul tip in the opener, and replaced him with Laird. Infante moved up to eighth in the batting order.
San Francisco started Ryan Theriot at designated hitter instead of Hector Sanchez .
NOTES: Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, attended the game

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/gameflash/2012/10/28/43787/index.html#recap#ixzz2AeplcLqw

Tigers rout Yankees 8-1 for 4-game ALCS sweep

2012-10-19T09:12:00.001+08:00

Tigers rout Yankees 8-1 for 4-game ALCS sweep

DETROIT (AP) -- Prince Fielder waved his arms franticly, gleefully calling off his teammates before catching the final out.
From the moment Fielder signed his massive contract in January, an entire city had been waiting for a moment like this.
Max Scherzer capped a stupendous stretch for Detroit's starting rotation, and the Tigers advanced to the World Series for the second time in seven years by beating the New York Yankees 8-1 Thursday for a four-game sweep of the AL championship series.
Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta hit two-run homers in a four-run fourth inning against CC Sabathia, who was unable to prevent the Yankees from getting swept in a postseason series for the first time in 32 years.
"Yeah, we did it," Cabrera said. "It's an unbelievable feeling. ... Four more wins, guys. Four more wins."
Scherzer took a no-hit bid into the sixth against a New York starting lineup that was again without Alex Rodriguez , who flied out with two on in the sixth as a pinch hitter.
Austin Jackson added a solo shot in the seventh for Detroit, and Peralta hit another homer an inning later.
The game ended with Fielder, Detroit's $214 million acquisition, catching Jayson Nix 's popup. The Tigers spilled onto the field for a celebration that began near second base and eventually moved closer to the third-base line.
General manager Dave Dombrowski hugged manager Jim Leyland - who is in the final year of his contract - while owner Mike Ilitch rubbed Leyland's right shoulder.
"I've got a great bunch," Ilitch said. "We don't have one hot dog in the bunch. They're all great guys. ... The Tigers are something special."
Detroit won its 11th American League pennant and first since 2006. The Tigers have five days off before the World Series starts Wednesday at defending champion St. Louis or 2010 winner San Francisco.
After scoring in just three of 39 innings during the series, New York heads home to face unpleasant questions about its future following a postseason of awful hitting, benched stars and veterans showing the wear and tear of age. Rodriguez, the $275 million third baseman, was out of the starting lineup for the third time in the playoffs. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera could only watch following season-ending injuries.
The Yankees hit .188 in the postseason and .157 in the LCS. New York went quietly in the ninth inning, with the Comerica Park crowd chanting "Sweep!" while the last three batters made out in order.
Detroit outhit New York 16-2 in the finale and 46-22 in the series. The Tigers' starters are 4-1 with a 1.02 ERA in this postseason.
Without a World Series title since 1984, Detroit lost to Texas in last year's ALCS and then signed Fielder in the offseason. The excitement of that bold move subsided a bit when the Tigers struggled to a 26-32 start in the AL Central, but they overtook the Chicago White Sox in the final 10 days of the regular season and won the division with an 88-74 record, matching the Cardinals for the fewest wins among the 10 playoff teams.
In the postseason, their rotation has been impeccable. Scherzer, Justin Verlander , Anibal Sanchez and Doug Fister allowed only two earned runs against the Yankees. New York was shut out once and totaled six runs in the series.
"Unbelievable. It's why we're here right now because out pitching," Cabrera said. "Wow!"
Scherzer allowed a run and two hits in 5 2-3 innings in the finale, struck out 10 and walked two.
"I really had my changeup and my slider going," he said. "When I can combine that with my fastball, that's what makes me effective."
The Yankees lost Jeter to a broken ankle in the opening game, and the slumping Rodriguez was benched for Game 3. He was out of the starting lineup for Game 4 too, but A-Rod did have one last chance to turn his postseason around when Scherzer was lifted for left-hander Drew Smyly with two outs in the sixth and the Tigers up 6-1.
As Smyly finished warming up, Rodriguez popped out of the dugout to pinch hit for Raul Ibanez , but with runners at the corners, he hit a routine fly to center field. He grounded out in the ninth, completing a 3 for 25 (.125) playoffs with no RBIs.
The Yankees failed to win a game in a postseason series for only the fifth time. They hadn't been swept since a best-of-five ALCS against Kansas City in 1980. The last team to sweep four straight against them had been Cincinnati in the 1976 World Series.
Detroit also beat New York in the division series in 2006 and last year. The Tigers became the first team to win three straight postseason series against the Yankees, according to STATS, LLC.
New York never led in this series - the only other time that's happened to the Yankees was when they were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1963 World Series.
After a rainout Wednesday, Game 4 started under a sunny sky, and Detroit immediately took the lead on series MVP Delmon Young 's RBI single. Young became the first player with four game-winning RBIs in one postseason series, STATS said.
Avisail Garcia drove in an unearned run in the third with a single before the Tigers broke it open in the fourth. Cabrera, the first Triple Crown winner in 45 years, made it 4-0 with a towering drive to left field. Peralta drove in two more runs with his shot to the same part of the ballpark.
After Andy Dirks doubled, Sabathia was pulled. He allowed five earned runs and 11 hits in 3 2-3 innings.
When the fourth inning finally ended, the crowd at Comerica gave the Tigers a standing ovation, sensing that an even bigger celebration wasn't too far off.
Scherzer made sure of that. The right-hander was terrific down the stretch for the Tigers before his throwing shoulder acted up near the end of the regular season. He made it through 5 1-3 innings in the division series against Oakland without allowing an earned run, then kept the Yankees off the scoreboard until Eduardo Nunez tripled in the sixth for New York's first hit and scored on Nick Swisher 's double.
Swisher, likely playing his last game with the Yankees, was 1 for 35 with runners in scoring position in his postseason career before that hit. He struck out with two on and two outs in the third.
About the only thing the Yankees had done well in this postseason was pitch, and Sabathia failed to keep that going. He didn't have much help from his defense. Teixeira, a four-time Gold Glove winner at first base, misplayed two grounders in the third - one for an infield hit and one for an error.
New York's hitting was abysmal thoughout the playoffs. Robinson Cano was at .075 (3 for 40) with no home runs, including a 29 at-bat hitless streak. Curtis Granderson 3 for 30 with 16 strikeouts, Nick Swisher .167 (5 for 30) with two RBIs and Russell Martin .161 (5 for 31) with one RBI.
NOTES: Detroit closer Jose Valverde , who allowed four runs in Game 1, did not pitch again in the series. ... Cabrera has a hit in a record 17 straight LCS games. He's reached base in all 20 of his postseason games with the Tigers, a team record. ... Sabathia was 4-0 in his previous eight postseason starts. ... Thursday was the 35th anniversary of Reggie Jackson 's three-homer game for the Yankees in the World Series against the Dodgers. ... New York scored seven runs at Baltimore in the division series opener, then was held to four or fewer in the next eight games. The Yankees' longest previous stretch like that in postseason play came in 2001, when they were held to four or fewer run in all seven games of the World Series by Arizona.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/gameflash/2012/10/18/43728/index.html#recap#ixzz29hdsMqeo

Party to the Max: Tigers sweep way to Series

Behind Scherzer, four homers, Detroit claims 11th AL pennant

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/18/2012 7:58 PM ET

ALCS Gm4: Coke gets Nix, sends Tigers to World Series

DETROIT -- The high-90s fastball hasn't been in Max Scherzer's arsenal since his shoulder problems began a month ago. His offspeed pitch, however, was devastating Thursday.
So, too, was the changeup the Tigers threw at the Yankees for an American League Championship Series sweep.
It wasn't that the Tigers completed an ALCS upset with an 8-1 win in Game 4. Many believed they had the pitching to outlast the Bronx Bombers coming into the series. It's the way they dominated the series that was the shocker.
For four games, they never trailed. Not even Jose Valverde's ninth-inning collapse in Game 1 put them down. The Yankees scored four runs in that series-opening rally. They scored two runs in the next three games.
As a result, the Tigers are heading back to the World Series for the second time in seven seasons, and the third time in 43 years, earning their 11th AL pennant. And the curveball the Tigers threw the rest of baseball finally dropped.
Delmon Young was named the ALCS MVP after going 6-for-17 with two homers. He drove in as many runs (six) as the Yankees scored in the series.
"We did it," Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera said. " ... It's what we worked for all year to get to this point. Hopefully we get lucky and win the World Series for Detroit."
For close to five months, Detroit looked like one of baseball's underachievers. For one month, the Tigers played playoff-type baseball to get into the race. For two weeks, they played some of the stingiest baseball in postseason history.
"Hopefully we've quieted some doubters now," manager Jim Leyland said. "The guys just stepped it up when we had to. We caught a couple breaks when the White Sox couldn't win a couple of games they needed to win.
"They really answered the bell all year long."
It all culminated in one magical evening and a flat-out mismatch.
"Our players have just put forth an effort down the stretch that has been phenomenal," Tigers president/general manager David Dombrowski said. "Our support once we got going here, with Jim's leadership and the rest of the staff, we got on a good roll. We said about a month ago we have a chance to make it a special season still, and we still do. It's here, but we still have four more."
Once Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta hit two-run homers in a fourth-inning surge that built a 6-0 lead and chased Yankees ace CC Sabathia, the rest of the game became a celebration for the crowd of 42,477 who could make it after Wednesday's rainout.
After three games of hearing what the Yankees were doing wrong, the Tigers punctuated their sweep by doing nearly everything right. It was no contest.
At that point the Tigers were pulling away in the fourth, the Yankees didn't have a hit off of Scherzer, who had only a Prince Fielder error and an Ichiro Suzuki walk on his record.
Once Scherzer sent down the side in order in the fifth, he had struck out nine of the first 16 batters he faced. Save for the velocity, he looked more like the midseason co-ace who led the big leagues in strikeouts for much of the summer.
"Unbelievable," Cabrera said. "That's why we're here right now because of our starting pitching. If you have pitching, you have a good chance to win -- good defense and run support. We did it."
Eduardo Nunez's triple on Scherzer's first pitch of the sixth inning took care of the no-hit bid, and Nick Swisher's double two batters later broke up the shutout. Nothing, however, was going to break up the Tigers' celebration.
Scherzer finished with 10 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings before another Peralta home run and an Austin Jackson solo shot padded the margin. Drew Smyly, Octavio Dotel and Phil Coke shut down the Yankees over the final 3 1/3 innings for the win.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Jeter out for 2012postseason

2012-10-15T10:50:00.004+08:00

NEW YORK -- You don’t expect to hear a Yankee say “we just didn’t have any luck tonight” after another game-tying ninth-inning Raul Ibanez home run. But when Mark Teixeira said it early Sunday morning after the Yankees’ 6-4 loss to the Tigers, you could see where he was coming from. They left the bases loaded three times, they let their would-be magical comeback go to waste and exhausted their bullpen, and while all that could be shrugged off as just one game, they saw Derek Jeter lying on the field, his ankle fractured, done for the season.
There is a lot of very understandable exhaustion among baseball fans, even some Yankee fans, at hearing about how great Derek Jeter is. The Yankee Captain may be that rare example of an all-time-great first-ballot Hall of Fame player who still, somehow -- and through no fault of his own -- manages to be overhyped. Players and fans and the media can be so over-the-top about his leadership, his “intangibles,” his gritty-clutch-graceful-ambassador-for-the-game blah blah blahness, especially during the postseason, that is easy to roll your eyes. He’s a great ball player, not Mahatma Gandhi.
But, unlike Gandhi, Jeter is in fact an all-time-great first-ballot Hall of Fame player, and one with a whole season’s worth -- an amazing 158 games, and as of Saturday 200 hits -- of top-level postseason play and ludicrous game-winning October highlights. Eduardo Nunez, who now returns to the roster, is not what you would call a fair trade. And so the Yankees had the wind knocked out of their sails, inflated just a few innings earlier.
After the game, which lasted 12 innings and nearly five hours, Joe Girardi talked about Jeter like he was terminal instead of just out for three months -- but on Oct. 14, three months more or less is terminal, baseball-wise. “I’m sad for him,” Girardi said, “but he would tell us, ‘let’s go.’”
The Yankees said exactly what you would expect them to say: “We’ll take this one day at a time.” “One game at a time.” “Just fight through it.” “Get through it.” “Push through it.”
The Tigers, for their part, proved to anyone who was unsure that the Yankees don’t have a monopoly on crazy comebacks, even at Yankee Stadium in extra innings in games in which they have already had crazy comebacks. Still, Jeter’s injury made exuberance over the win unseemly, and closer Jose Valverde’s implosion in the ninth (on the heels of a similar blown save in Oakland) made the need for extra-inning derring-do a bit alarming. Reporters in Jim Leyland’s postgame conference referred to “The Valverde Crisis” as if it involved communist missiles pointed at American soil, and Leyland refused to say that Valverde was still his closer, only that he and his staff would discuss it.
Doug Fister, who loaded the bases and wriggled out of it in both the first and second innings (helped tremendously by good defense and luck) before settling down for six-plus scoreless -- referred to having “grown up watching Derek Jeter play,” and Delmon Young -- who continues to feast on New York’s pitching when not being arrested for misdemeanor hate crimes -- said “we’re all big Derek Jeter fans since we were younger.”
Delmon Young is 27. Derek Jeter’s been doing this for a long time.
If there is any good news for the Yankees, aside from the fact that whatever white or dark magic Raul Ibanez may be using on the baseball gods continues to be effective, it is that at least they seem to be starting to hit again. They stranded 13 base runners Saturday night, which, granted, might not seem to be a great stat, but at least they got 13 runners on base. All throughout the Division Series, the Yankees collectively -- with the notable exception of Ibanez -- could not have hit their way out of a paper bag … and, if that paper bag was in a canoe and they fell out of it, they could not have hit water. There were signs of life on Saturday.
On the other hand, Hiroki Kuroda, already tired down the stretch after a long season and pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his American career, goes Sunday in Game 2, backed by a tired bullpen. Jayson Nix or Eduardo Nunez will be the options at short. Alex Rodriguez is still being pinch-hit for at key moments.
Anibal Sanchez, Sunday’s starter for Detroit, has plenty of his own concerns, including an ERA vs. New York this year of 21.00, earned over three disastrous innings. Jose Valverde, backed by Detroit’s alarming fielding, continues to be a recipe for ninth-inning miracle comebacks for opposing teams.
“Take it one game at a time” is, for those of us without the ability to bend the space-time continuum, advice we can’t help but take. But if these games are going to continue in a vein as crazy as Saturday’s, one at a time will be plenty.

陳偉殷大聯盟季後賽首勝3:2擊敗洋基隊

2012-10-09T17:15:00.001+08:00

王建民復活!

2012-09-25T09:23:00.002+08:00

BoSox send Gonzalez, Beckett, Crawford to Dodgers

2012-08-27T09:28:00.001+08:00

BOSTON (AP) - The Los Angeles Dodgers are stocking up for the stretch run with some new, expensive players who couldn't help the Boston Red Sox make it to the postseason this year or last.
The Dodgers acquired first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett and injured outfielder Carl Crawford from Boston on Saturday, hoping to boost their playoff hopes by taking on the underperforming and high-priced stars who failed to thrive in a fractious Red Sox clubhouse.
Boston also sent infielder Nick Punto and about $11 million in cash to Los Angeles in the nine-player trade that was the biggest in Dodgers history. In return, the Red Sox got first baseman James Loney, pitcher Allen Webster, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr. and two players to be named while shedding more than $250 million in salaries through 2018.
"We understand that you have to spend money to be good in this league,'' said Magic Johnson, the former NBA star who is part of the rich new Dodgers ownership group that has dramatically revamped their roster in the last month.
"When we came in, we made it clear that we want to build the Dodgers back to what they once were,'' Dodgers president Stan Kasten said.
Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat for the Dodgers, while the depleted Red Sox blew a six-run lead to the Kansas City Royals and lost 10-9 in 12 innings Saturday night.
Mauro Gomez, filling in for Gonzalez at first base, had four hits, including his first major league homer. But Aaron Cook, a late substitute for Beckett, gave up three runs before recording a single out, and after Boston rallied to take a 9-3 lead the bullpen couldn't hold it.
Kansas City scored six in the seventh, all with two outs.
"It was frustrating,'' Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "We couldn't get that third out in the seventh inning. Had about four tries.''
Los Angeles, two games behind the San Francisco in the NL West, has in the past month acquired shortstop Hanley Ramirez, outfielder Shane Victorino, starter Joe Blanton and reliever Brandon League. The latest deal comes less than a week before the Aug. 31 deadline for players to be eligible for the postseason.
"It's just exciting,'' Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp said. "Everybody wants to win, and the guys up there are really making a statement and showing us that they want to win just as bad as we do.''
For the Red Sox, 13 1/2 games back in the AL East, the trade signaled a concession for 2012 and a chance to rebuild without hefty contracts given during an undisciplined foray into free agency that, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington conceded, has not worked out.
"It gives us an opportunity to build the next great Red Sox team,'' Cherington said. "We just felt like to get to be a team we believe in and a team the fans deserve, to sustain winning year after year, it was going to take something more than cosmetic changes. It was going to take something bold.''
The Red Sox will save $261 million in salaries through 2018, plus a few million more for the rest of this season. Boston will send $11 million to the Dodgers as part of the deal, according to a baseball official with knowledge of the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the financial terms were not public.
"The bottom line is we haven't won enough games. That goes back to last September,'' Cherington said. "We just haven't performed on the field. As a team we haven't performed. ... This is not about the four players we gave up - anything particularly they did wrong. We just didn't perform as a team.''
Beckett was a key part of the team that won the 2007 World Series, but he was also the ringleader last year when the ballclub went 7-20 in September and missed a playoff spot on the final day of the season. Reports of players drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse during games surfaced afterward, and Beckett's haughty demeanor - and rising ERA - continued to alienate fans.
The 2003 World Series MVP with the Florida Marlins, Beckett now moves from fried chicken to the land of In-N-Out Burger, bringing with him a pair of other players who were not productive enough to justify their contracts. Beckett was due $31.5 million over the next two years; Gonzalez has $127 million coming through 2018; Crawford is due $102.5 million over the next five seasons.
Both Cherington, who replaced Theo Epstein after the September collapse, and Valentine, who was brought in to replace Terry Francona, defended their departing players. But Valentine agreed that change was needed in the clubhouse.
"Yes. It was necessary,'' he said. "(It) just didn't seem like it mixed as well as it should.''
Players traded in August have to first pass through waivers. Any team with a worse record than Los Angeles could have claimed Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford before the Dodgers, but it would have had to pick up their contracts.
Instead, the teams worked out a deal that reshuffled the NL West race and had the rest of baseball talking, too.
"It's surprising,'' New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "You're not used to seeing that many big names go in one trade - a bunch of All-Stars, guys who have been in World Series and played at a very high level.''
Red Sox players said before Saturday night's game against Kansas City that they were surprised to see their longtime teammates gone in a deal that came together quickly. Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford were already on their way to Los Angeles on Saturday, according to a picture Punto posted on Twitter; Boston pitcher John Lackey had already claimed Beckett's locker, pulling rank over Clay Buchholz.
"Nothing surprises me in this game,'' Red Sox outfielder Cody Ross in the Fenway Park clubhouse, where the nameplates had already been removed from his former teammates' lockers. "This isn't your normal trade. This is a blockbuster deal that will probably go down as one of the biggest, but it still doesn't surprise me.''
Gonzalez, a former San Diego Padres star, said on Twitter in English and Spanish that he was excited to get back to California. Beckett joined the social media site to thank Red Sox fans, writing "Even in the tough times I ran into so many wonderful people that were so awesome I'm Greatly appreciative to all of you.''
The 32-year-old Beckett is 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA in 21 starts this season. A three-time All-Star, he is 130-92 lifetime with a 3.93 ERA.
Gonzalez, 30, is a four-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner. He hit .300 with 15 home runs and 86 RBIs this season, his second since being traded by San Diego to Boston.
Crawford, at 31, hit .282 with three homers and 19 RBIs in 31 games this season. He had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow this week and is expected to take six to nine months to recover. Crawford was a four-time All-Star with Tampa Bay before signing with Boston.
The 34-year-old Punto hit .200 with one homer and 10 RBIs as a backup.
Loney hit .254 with four homers and 33 RBIs for the Dodgers this season. At 28, he'd spent his whole career in Los Angeles.
The 25-year-old DeJesus was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. He hit .273 in 23 games for the Dodgers this year. Webster, a 22-year-old right-hander, was 6-8 with a 3.55 ERA at Double-A Chattanooga.
---
AP Sports Writer Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/wires/08/25/2010.ap.bbo.dodgers.red.sox.trade.10th.ld.writethru.1563/index.html#ixzz24hpRBxhr

Amid 40th anniversary of Title IX, women set new standard in London

2012-08-13T09:54:00.001+08:00

LONDON -- Sixteen years ago, we had an American sorority party in Atlanta. At those 1996 Olympics, the U.S. women's teams won gold medals in softball, soccer, gymnastics and basketball. Those Games were deemed the "Summer of the Women" and were taken as a ringing validation of Title IX -- the first generation born into a world where women were legally granted equal access to sports was reaping the dividends.
Here in London -- in the same summer that the 40th anniversary of Title IX has been celebrated -- the Girl Power celebration has continued. Without the benefit of home crowds or the host advantage present in Atlanta.
In the intervening years since the '96 Olympics, Title IX has been hotly debated and the target of reform. The state of college sports has been -- rightly -- decried, as a morally bankrupt institution.
But the story of the London Olympics is that something right is happening in our collegiate athletic and youth programs that are the primary feeder system for Olympic sports. And that Title IX and its beneficiaries aren't going anywhere. The law continues to reap dividends for Americans and its impact is spreading around the globe.
For the first time Team USA included more women than men. And they're coming home the richer for it. The U.S. women have won 58 medals to the men's 45 and 29 gold medals compared to the men's 17.
Women are succeeding in traditionally popular disciplines like gymnastics and swimming. And in new events like women's boxing. American female gold medalists come in all shapes and sizes: diminutive Gabby Douglas, powerful Abby Wambach, sturdy Kayla Harrison, ripped Allyson Felix. They come in all personalities: bubbly Missy Franklin, controversial Hope Solo, fierce Serena Williams.
They are athletes to be celebrated. The evolution is that now -- more so than in Atlanta -- they are being lauded for their power and performance more than their social significance.
But the cultural piece is still in play, notably in other countries. Great Britain is in love with its own women athletes like Jessica Ennis and Lizzie Armitstead. The local citizens turned out in record numbers to watch women play football at Wembley Stadium. The most famous athlete in Ireland is boxer Katie Taylor, whose fights here drew crowds of more than 10,000 to big screens set up in Ireland.
Still, the Olympics are still not an equal world. Yes, every participating country had a woman on its team, for the first time ever. That's a big bragging point for IOC President Jacques Rogge, though he can't find a way to reinstate softball and only has room for one female member on his executive board. The women on the Saudi Arabia team walked behind their male members and have been called prostitutes at home. The Japanese women's soccer team flew here in coach, while the men (who did not make it to the gold medal game) were upgraded to business class.
And it's not just other countries that find ways to belittle their women athletes. Douglas had to deal with a debate about her hair while winning gold. Lolo Jones was criticized for actually attracting too much attention and making too much money in endorsements. The U.S. basketball team -- which just won its fifth straight gold medal -- was almost completely ignored because they were deemed to be too dominating.
At least the basketball players, unlike the soccer players, have a place to ply their trade when the Olympics end. And at least both get to play here, unlike the softball players who are still left on the outside.
Coach Geno Auriemma, who has helped elevate women's sports in America, was irritated that the preseason college football poll could make an international edition of an American newspaper, but his team's domination of China wasn't mentioned.
"We really don't care," Auriemma said. "We're not running around burning our bras trying to make people believe in our team. We just play basketball and whether anybody cares or writes about it, there's nothing we can do about it. We're not in the p.r. business. We're in the basketball business and we're pretty damned good at it."
More and more women athletes from around the globe are in the sports business. They're proving that they're pretty damned good at it.
And only getting better.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/ann_killion/08/12/2012-olympics-women-title-ix/index.html#ixzz23O4QXSvV

Battle-tested team returns U.S. to the top with second straight gold

2012-08-13T09:47:00.000+08:00

LONDON -- It wasn't easy, and isn't that supposed to make it more worthwhile? The American men won their second straight Olympic gold medal and third straight international championship Sunday, which is a streak that had been accomplished only twice before by their countrymen. But here was the big difference: The current group of U.S. players did it the hard way, while looking up to their opponents.
As the fourth quarter began in the gold medal game, Spain was exploiting its crucial advantage in size along the front line, pulling within 83-82 of the U.S. Before returning to the court, Chris Paul pulled together his teammates for a brief talk. "He was saying we didn't fight for this long to come up short," said Kevin Durant. "He said we just got to keep fighting and we're going to get over the hump."
Instead of worrying about what they might lose, Paul and his teammates thought about all they had to gain, and why they had decided to play together over the last many years. And so their ensuing 107-100 win will define them on their own terms, separate from their ancestors. The original Dream Team was all about obliterating the competition and affirming what everyone already knew. The current U.S. team overcame injuries to its big men as well as the world's slow-boiling response to the lessons of the Dream Team 20 years ago. The world is much better at playing the American game than it was in 1992, but the Americans can return home satisfied that they are still the best.
This was the fifth straight game in which the U.S. had been tested in the second half. The Spaniards became the final victims to wilt. They had started strong around the renewed scoring of Juan Carlos Navarro, who had been slowed throughout the Olympics by plantar fasciitis before exploding for 19 points to drive Spain to within 59-58 at halftime. But as good as Navarro was in the first half, he tallied only two points in the second.
Pau Gasol would dominate the third quarter with 15 points earned almost entirely around the basket against the size-deficient American defense, but he would score only one of his 24 points in the fourth.
They had looked injured and tired and old throughout the previous two weeks, but then for three quarters Sunday the Spaniards played like the 1980 U.S. hockey team trying to upset the Soviets at Lake Placid. They believed in miracles, which enabled them to withstand a torrid assault of seven U.S. threes in the opening period, but the American stars believed in themselves more. Their depth and togetherness and peaking talents overwhelmed the technical advantages of length and institutional teamwork that the Spaniards had developed over their decade of playing together. Really, it came down to this: From the beginning, the Spaniards imagined they could win, but the Americans knew they would win in the end.

Kevin Durant's 30 points and nine rebounds, Kobe Bryant's 17 points and the typical line of 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists by LeBron James provided the foundation for the final quarter. Shortly after Paul had delivered his sermon, he hit a three over Sergio Rodriguez and then drove past Rodriguez while at the other end Rodriguez was feeding 6-foot-9 Felipe Reyes, who was unable to finish around the basket against the more athletic American defenders. That sequence extended the U.S. lead to 90-84.
Spain had overcome the absence of Marc Gasol (17 points) for all but 17 minutes, the result of picking up a fourth foul prematurely in the first half. "Probably it was a mistake," said coach Sergio Scariolo, who referred to it as the kind of risk one takes in hope of upsetting a power like the U.S. The benefit of the benching was the defensive presence of Serge Ibaka, who came off the bench to serve as a kind of deterrent to James. In the fourth, said Pau Gasol, "We tried a new defense that we really didn't practice, and they made us pay for our mistakes." The defense was a box-and-one, and when James faked a handoff, two defenders went for the fake opening a clear path which James used to drive for a dunk. On the next possession, James canned a three over Marc Gasol for a 102-93 advantage.
The clinching play was a drive by Paul to make it 104-93 with 50 seconds to go as he turned to face his bench. Within moments coach Mike Krzyzewski was jumping as best he could and slapping hands with Anthony and other players who were sending him to his international retirement (though at 65 he will remain coach of Duke) with a third international title and a 53-1 record at the helm of the U.S. overall. Eventually he would be splashed with water. "I set him up," said Bryant, "and LeBron doused him."
After the U.S. failures in the 2002 worlds and 2004 Olympics, Jerry Colangelo was hired to oversee the men's program. As managing director of the national team, Colangelo in turn hired Krzyzewski, and together they recruited the core of the team that was celebrating this turnaround of American basketball at the ultimate level.
Other American teams had done similar work. The U.S. won the 1952 and '56 Olympics around its '54 world championship, and also sandwiched its win in the '94 worlds around Olympic gold medals in '92 and '96.
What made this run different was the extended investment of the players and staff. James Harden and Anthony Davis were the only Americans to come to London without championship experience internationally. Five of their teammates owned Olympic gold medals from 2008 at Beijing, and the other five had won the 2010 world championship in Turkey.
James, Bryant, Anthony, Paul and Deron Williams joined 13 other Americans who own two gold medals in basketball. But no player has ever won three. "I have no idea," said James when asked if he might be willing to play in a fourth straight Olympics in 2016. "I'm going to have fun with my teammates and I'm not even thinking about that right now."
The idea of playing small was not so much a plan to consummate a new era of versatile athleticism as it was a strategy forced upon the U.S., which could give thanks that it had James to implement it.
The U.S. faced its biggest obstacle before it even arrived in London, when injuries decimated its frontcourt. Not only was the U.S. missing the athleticism of stars like Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose in the backcourt, but Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin were unavailable to play. As recently as five weeks ago, when the 12-man roster was selected in Las Vegas, Krzyzewski was planning to go with a more traditional lineup of 7-1 Tyson Chandler and 6-10 Blake Griffin sharing time in the post at center. When Griffin suffered a knee injury on July 11 and was replaced by rookie 12th man Anthony Davis, Krzyzewski had no choice but to go small.
Opponents, of course, would object to claims that the U.S. was undersized: The U.S. led the tournament in rebounds overall (44.6) and no quarterfinalist was more aggressive on the offensive glass, where the U.S. averaged 14.8 boards per game.
"We've had to come up with a system to fit this group once we lost our big guys,'' said Krzyzewski. "And they've been great about it. So what we thought about a few months ago was a lot different once we started training camp, and actually it changed even a couple of days into training camp when we lost Blake.''
The ability to turn the weakness of size into a strength of athleticism could be traced back to the hiring of Colangelo following the debacles of the 2002 world championship and 2004 Olympics, during which the U.S. lost six games with poorly-assembled teams.
"If you put the infrastructure in place, you can take your lumps -- your hits, your injuries -- and still be able to compete and win,'' said Colangelo. "Some people might say, 'What if Howard and Bosh and Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade were here, how good would you be?' Well, probably better; we'd be different. People said, 'What are you going to do against all of the bigs?' Well, what are they going to do with our athleticism, quickness and speed? I'll take that all day long against [being] big. Because what usually goes with big is a half-a-step slow. Athleticism, quickness and speed -- that's where this game is today and that's what we're showing.''
The athleticism was unstoppable because the stars didn't care which of them scored. No U.S. player averaged as many as 20 points (Durant led the team with 19.5) or 25 minutes per game. Durant had been told to shoot more often by his teammates last month. "When we first got together I was passing those shots up, making unnecessary dribbles and messing our offense up," said Durant. "I didn't want be the guy taking all those shots, the one guys didn't want to be playing with."
On Sunday, he was making those shots and glancing to his bench. "I looked over at my teammates and they were jumping up and down for me," he said.
They were jumping higher than ever at the end.
"It's sweet to have this gold medal around your neck," said Paul. "But it's tough, because you don't get this opportunity anymore. I hate that in a couple months these guys will be my enemies. This is the funnest time of my life."
Of course it could have been worse: He could have been wearing a silver medal instead. But as he well knew at the start of the fourth quarter, that was never going to happen.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/ian_thomsen/08/12/us-spain-gold-medal-lebron-james-chris-paul/index.html#ixzz23O1sldEF

Durant, James lead U.S. past Spain 107-100 for hoops gold medal

LONDON (AP) -- This was no Dream Team. This was reality.
The gold medal was in doubt for the U.S. men's basketball team.
The Americans led Spain by only one point after three quarters, a back-and-forth, impossible-to-turn-away-from game that almost anyone would hope for in an Olympic final.
Especially, it turns out, the U.S. players.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We didn't want it easy," LeBron James said. "A lot of teams have won gold easy. We didn't want it that way. We're a competitive team, and we love when it gets tight. That's when our will and determination kind of shows. It was the same way in '08."
Same result, too.
The Americans defended their title Sunday by fighting off another huge challenge from Spain, pulling away in the final minutes for a 107-100 victory and their second straight Olympic championship.
And just like 2008, the star-studded Americans had to work for this one.
The London 2012 daily magazine proclaimed them "the new Dream Team" in an article, but the real Dream Team never had a game like this 20 years ago in Barcelona. And if that means this group isn't worthy of the comparisons to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Co., the players had their own response.
"Everybody wants to make that comparison, but at the end of the day we're both wearing these," forward Kevin Love said, pulling on his gold medal. "That's pretty good."
James capped one of basketball's most brilliant individual years with a monster dunk and a huge 3-pointer in the final 2:50 that finally ended a Spanish threat few expected after the Americans had been so dominant for so long in London.
Yet four years after beating Spain 118-107 in a classic in Beijing, the U.S. found itself in another tight one, unable to ever really slow the Spanish down until the closing minutes.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points and James had 19 on a day he joined Jordan as the only players to win the NBA title, regular-season MVP, NBA Finals MVP and Olympic gold in the same year.
"It was a good year. It was a great year for me as an individual," James said. "But this right here, it means more than myself, it means more than my name on my back. It means everything to the name on the front. I'm happy that I was able to contribute to this great team. It's one of the best teams ever."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has said he's retiring as national team coach after restoring the Americans to their place atop world basketball, emptied his bench in the final minute
James stood with both arms in the air, then held Durant in a long hug before they came off the court.
The Americans, who insisted they were better than their 2008 version and even good enough to take a game from the 1992 Dream Team, may not have been at that level.
Still, they were better again than Spain - though not by much.
When the final horn sounded, Krzyzewski locked James in a tight embrace as Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" rocked the arena.
The Americans hugged at midcourt, guard James Harden holding a doll of the Olympic mascot, and then after being handed flags, this group of NBA players - and one kid just out of college - who grew into a tight-knit group during their time together, paraded around the floor, the Stars and Stripes flowing off their backs like capes.
Yes, they were Olympic superheroes again, but they had to fight until the finish.
"To do it twice is a special moment," Carmelo Anthony said. "As the U.S. men's team, we go through a lot. For us to persevere the way we did is just a special moment for myself, and for the guys who are on this team."
For Kobe Bryant, it was his last Olympic moment.
"This is it for me," said Bryant, who scored 17 points and now has a second gold medal to go with his five NBA championships. "The other guys are good to go."
Pau Gasol scored 24 points and Juan Carlos Navarro had 21 for Spain, which was again just a few minutes from its first basketball gold but couldn't finish the job against the Americans.
The U.S. came in averaging nearly 117 points and stomping on their competition with such ease that even the Olympics' own daily preview had a hard time envisioning intrigue, writing that it would "likely take a great game from Spain and an off-day from the USA to cause an upset."
Well, Spain brought the great game and trailed by only a point heading into the fourth quarter.
But the Spanish somehow lost sight of James, and the game's best player drove uncontested and threw it down for a 99-91 lead with 2:48 left. After Marc Gasol dunked, James dribbled outside the circle with Marc Gasol giving him just a bit too much room, and James pulled up for the 3 that made it 102-93 with 1:59 to play.
Pau Gasol then was called for an offensive foul on a pick, and the Americans could sense that it was over.
Gasol, who carried the flag for Spain in the opening ceremony, nearly carried his country to its greatest Olympic basketball glory, but had a big miss inside with Spain down by six about three minutes to go, screaming out loud in frustration as he went back down the court.
"I am disappointed, but on the other side I'm very proud how of the we competed, how we played," Gasol said. "We fought for 40 minutes. I am proud of having another Olympic medal around my neck.
"It's disappointing because I thought we had our chance. We were right there pretty much the entire game. We let them get away in the fourth and we couldn't get back."
It was the 14th gold medal for the Americans, who lost at least five players who might have been on the team when Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Derrick Rose had to pull out with injuries and Blake Griffin was hurt in training camp.
Along the way, they showed they could be vulnerable during their exhibition schedule, falling into early holes against Brazil and Spain, having to hold on against Argentina.
Any concerns once they arrived in London seemed to be wiped away as quickly as the way the Americans play.
They were tested only once, beating Lithuania 99-94, and the statistics revealed a tournament that was more varsity against junior varsity than best in the world against each other. The Americans came in leading the tournament in eight statistical categories, with laughably lopsided advantages in points off turnovers (198-77) and fast-break points (175-55).
James didn't seem too concerned Sunday, laughing his way through warmups, even when he badly botched a dunk.
He and the Americans would soon realize this one wasn't going to be all fun and games.
They used an 18-4 run to wipe out their early five-point deficit and made seven 3-pointers in the first quarter, yet led by only eight points. Spain then opened the second period with a 12-2 burst, taking a 39-37 lead on a 3-pointer by Sergio Rodriguez.
Spain, long considered a finesse team, came to fight in this one, Rodriguez delivering a blow to Tyson Chandler's ribs while setting a pick that led to technical fouls on both players.
Both teams grew frustrated with the officiating - Spain in particular when Marc Gasol was called for his fourth foul while going for a rebound with 5:29 remaining in the first half. The Spanish scored their final seven points on free throws, cutting the U.S. lead to 59-58.
Though a gold-medal rematch was expected before the Olympics, the Spanish struggled in London, losing twice in the preliminary round and saying that just getting to the gold medal game was an accomplishment given some injuries they faced. The Americans waved off Spain's claims of being tired and hurt, and, sure enough, the Spanish team they expected showed up in the final, believing they could pull it off.
"Of course we did. We wouldn't be playing if we didn't think we had a chance," Marc Gasol said. "Give them a lot of credit. They made a lot of shots - tough shots. They have so many options, great players and they made shots."
Size was always the Americans' biggest obstacle, and the 7-foot-1 Pau Gasol dominated them to start the second half, scoring Spain's first 13 points to give them a 71-70 lead at the midpoint of the third quarter. Serge Ibaka at 6-10 also hurt the U.S. inside, and the Americans led only 83-82 heading into the fourth.
Though this was expected to be the final international game for Krzyzewski and Bryant, the U.S. will apparently still be able to bring its best to the next Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Though the NBA has said it might prefer an under-23 age limit for the Olympics, FIBA's secretary general said Saturday he doesn't see any changes being proposed in time for 2016.
James isn't sure if he will return after he, Bryant, Anthony, Chris Paul and Deron Williams joined a list of 13 Americans who have won multiple gold medals.
Paul's basket while drawing a foul near the end had Krzyzewski jumping for joy in his final minutes as U.S. national team coach. He said even before joining Hank Iba as the only coaches to lead the U.S. to consecutive golds that this would be his last game - though USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo promised to do his best sales job to bring the respected coach back.
He led a powerful performance in Britain, where there is such little history and awareness of basketball that some basic rules were explained during pregame announcements.
Now the British have seen the game at its highest level.
"We came through from the beginning of July and worked hard for one goal and I'm glad I accomplished it," Durant said.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/08/12/usa-spain-gold-medal.ap/index.html#ixzz23O26RVDV

After another record-setting rout at PGA, McIlroy may be ready to assume the throne

2012-08-13T09:40:00.002+08:00

Andrew Hancock / SI

Rory McIlroy won his second career major championship and first PGA.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- Maybe, just maybe, Rory McIlroy is finally ready for the throne.
There isn't another major championship in sight for the next eight months, so there is plenty of time to debate, but the Age of McIlroy may have finally begun. Sorry, Tiger, but you knew this day coming.
McIlroy, 23, of Northern Ireland is the winner of the 94th PGA Championship here at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island. He won in a rout, beating runner-up David Lynn by a whopping eight shots in a victory reminiscent of his first major championship, an eight-shot win at the 2011 U.S. Open.
Golf has been waiting for a new king ever since Tiger Woods assumed the throne with a Masters win for the ages in 1997. The rush to judgment began last year when McIlroy romped past the U.S. Open field at Congressional Country Club, where the course was soft and slow and not much tougher than a regular PGA Tour stop. Still, McIlroy torched Tiger Woods's U.S. Open scoring record of 12 under par by shooting 16 under. Sixteen!

(Related Photos: Rory McIlroy's Career In Pictures)

His ascent seemed certain when he won the Honda Classic this March, holding off His Majesty Tiger Woods, who threw a Sunday 62 at Rory with no effect.
But the anointment was premature. McIlroy stumbled under the glare of the 24/7 modern media machine that followed him and his tennis star girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, across the globe. He missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship, the European tour's flagship event, where he was some 21 shots off the lead. He missed four out of five cuts at one point, including the Players Championship and the U.S. Open.
"I've taken my eye off the ball," he admitted.
At the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, where he tied for 60th, he beaned a young spectator. When he learned the fan was camping out for the week, McIlroy found a hotel room (an amazing feat) and put him up for the duration of the tournament.
Winning or not, the kid has heart.
But his game returned at the Ocean Course. He finished off a 67 in the storm-delayed third round on Sunday morning, then shot three under par on the first nine of the final round. He simply outdistanced his pursuers, which didn't make for the most exciting victory, but it was a convincing one. Quite a contrast to Adam Scott's British Open meltdown, which led to a victory for Ernie Els.

(Related Photos: Sunday at the 2012 PGA)

McIlroy is now ahead of the major pace of Woods. McIlroy turned 23 three months ago; Woods won his second major, the 1999 PGA at Medinah, when he was 23 years, 7 months old.
Ahead of Tiger's pace, behind Tiger's pace -- it doesn't really matter. Tiger's run, which led to 14 majors, was so remarkable that it's amazing to even be on a similar trajectory. This is the dawn of a great opportunity for McIlroy, and he will fuel our golf conversations until we return to Augusta National next April.
As for Tiger, all you really needed to know was the scene at the par-5 second hole in Sunday's final round. He reached the green in two and had a lengthy eagle putt. His roll looked promising, but as his ball went past the hole, Woods fell to his knees as if begging it to go in.
That's what Woods was reduced to on Sunday, begging. He took himself out of the tournament with a terrible front nine in the third round, which was stopped by storms Saturday evening, and then failed to make a move on his back nine on Sunday morning.
In the final round Sunday afternoon, Woods needed to make something happen early, especially since McIlroy broke out of the gate with two birdies in the first three holes. But Woods couldn't get it done.
The most animated Woods got all day was on the third hole, where he missed the green long and made a less-than-stellar pitch to 12 feet. He left himself a curvy, swinging putt and poured it in. That elicited his trademarked air punch, which was telling. Have you ever seen Tiger Woods celebrate like that for a par on the third hole of the final round? Yes, he wanted this one.
Other than another birdie at the par-5 seventh, Woods didn't make anything happen. In fact, he had to scramble for several par saves. A great one came at the 10th, where he drove into the gallery, near some temporary fencing, and played a shot off the matted, bare ground used as a cart path. That shot reached the greenside bunker, and he got up and down to keep his faint hopes alive. The problem was, Woods had started the final round five shots behind McIlroy. His two-under 34 on the front was good, but not good enough to catch McIlroy, who posted 33.
The air went out of Woods when he chopped up the par-5 11th. He played his third shot out of a dune left of the fairway and popped it up, barely getting onto the grass. From there, he made an indifferent pitch to 20 feet and missed the putt. Making bogey on a par 5 when he needed birdie was a death knell, and he knew it.
The real challengers of the day were Ian Poulter and Carl Pettersson. Poulter, the brash Englishman who is a former World Match Play champion, birdied the first five holes in the final round to race into second place. He added a sixth birdie at the par-5 seventh, then bogeyed the eighth from a greenside bunker, before getting two more birdies at the 11th and 12th.
Poulter's swing isn't the most reliable, but the man can putt, and his putter was sizzling early in the day. He made four bogeys in his last six holes, however, and finished four under, tied for third.
Pettersson, a transplanted Swede who played college golf at North Carolina State and looks like your beer-drinking buddy from the bowling league, sparked the controversy of the day. He drove into a slope inside a hazard on the opening hole and played it out. He made an apparent par, then birdied the third hole. Coming off the fourth tee, he was approached by rules official David Price, who informed him of a two-shot penalty because replays showed Pettersson's club hitting a dry leaf on his backswing in the hazard. That's moving a loose impediment, a penalty. Pettersson was understandably not happy, but he did the smart thing -- he got even. He birdied the fourth, fifth and seventh holes to join Poulter in what turned out to be a futile race to catch Rory.
All McIlroy wanted this week, he'd said earlier, was a chance to get in contention and feel the familiar buzz that comes with challenging for a major. He got that, and more. He may be golf's new dominant player -- we'll see -- but we do know that he is halfway to the career grand slam already.
We know one other thing: he's got a long way to go. The major championship leaderboard reads Tiger 14, Rory 2.
Still, he's off to a beautiful start.

It's beyond dispute: Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time

2012-08-01T14:14:00.000+08:00

LONDON -- The view from Mount Olympus is not quite as awe-inspiring from the second step. The grand sweep of more than a century of history is less apparent from a lower height.
Michael Phelps, so used to looking up, was looking down at the Aquatics Centre pool deck, waiting for an Olympic medal to be hung around his neck for the 18th time, as many times as any athlete since the world started keeping score 116 years ago. Phelps has posed for the camera often enough during the past eight years that he really should have been more practiced at faking a smile, but the show of teeth looked forced, almost painful. He did not look happy as he pasted on a grin. He looked constipated.
That is the problem with a silver medal if you live in the rareified world.
If you look at silver in the wrong light, it might appear gray.
The business of history is messy, just like life, and in the perfect world of the greatest Olympian -- and brook no dissent on the issue, Phelps is precisely that -- he would have tied Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with a shiny gold in the 200-meter butterfly, becoming the first man ever to win the same individual event in three straight Olympics. But he seemed caught between strokes, just as he was when he won the 100 fly at the wall in Beijing, and was out-touched by a lachrymose South African named Chad le Clos -- he later called his finish "lazy." Phelps wheeled to look at the scoreboard, saw he had lost gold by five hundredths of a second, whipped off his cap and threw it in the water in frustration. He was considerably more gracious minutes later during the medal ceremony. Le Clos, who wept on the podium as he heard his national anthem, clearly was a neophyte at this gold-medal business -- not surprising considering Phelps set the world record in the 200 fly in March 2001 and still has it -- and Phelps needed to remind him to hold the medal closer to his face while motor drives whirred.
Then Phelps laughed, transformed into a prematurely avuncular 27-year-old who has been there and done that.
Phelps stood alone later Tuesday, or more correctly he stood with teammates Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens, as he won his record-setting 19th medal, in the 4x200 relay. This was history as afterthought, a foregone conclusion -- as if, say, Ted Williams had crashed the .400 plateau with an infield single. In the huddle before the race, Phelps thanked his teammates for helping to nudge him to the brink and joked that they better hand him a substantial lead. They did, and only fractions leaked away in Lane 4 as Phelps powered to the wall, smiling throughout the last 20 meters.
He did not sing the national anthem, not at a loss for the words but too emotional to warble. The moment was too fresh for perspective for a swimmer who is capable of introspection but does not always lend voice to it. Le Clos, inspired by Phelps' six gold medals in Athens, ladled praise on his idol, saying it was an honor to swim in the lane next to him. Le Clos was so effusive, you would have thought that the Aquatics Centre had imported its water from across the Channel in Lourdes. Phelps being Phelps, he rarely delved deeper than calling everything cool.
He is not his own best advocate on the subject of who is the greatest Olympian. There actually is an argument to be made that Phelps is not. In our contentious times, there is always a case to be made. The argument is one of honorable pedants and poets who are overthinking the issue. In parsing Phelps' fabulous Olympic career, they keep smacking into trees and ignoring the forest. The heft of numbers occasionally does not need footnotes. They eloquently state their own case. Phelps has won 19 medals, a record 15 of them gold, including this swim in the 4x200 free relay. Game, set and -- pretty much -- match. There is no "yes, but," capable of sustaining prolonged debate.
The obvious: the Phelps of London is not the Phelps of Beijing. In his Olympics dotage, Phelps has become a compiler of medals rather than a fulcrum of the Games, someone who is caught in the final 25 meters in one of his lock events and who, even in half jest, asks for a comfy cushion heading into the anchor leg. This, of course, is all wildly beside the point. In padding his total -- a silver medal in the 4x100 free on Sunday and the two medals on Tuesday -- he continues to heap on "toppings on the sundae" as he calls them. Phelps started his swim into posterity when he finished fifth in the 200 butterfly in Sydney as a 15-year-old. He will end competitive swimming in London a dozen years later with perhaps six more medals.
A tawdry silver medal?
Please, nothing short of drowning diminishes his legacy.
Sport transcends the gray smudges of life precisely because it is measurable. Black or white. Sometimes gold or silver. And among this subset of human experience, Phelps' handiwork is among the most tangible of achievements because it is beyond dispute. There are head-to-head races and timing devices, not opinions, in Olympic pools. Unlike Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, whom Phelps leapfrogged to the summit and who sat in the Aquatics Centre as an eyewitness to greatness, no judge ever flashed a "9.6" for Phelps. Pixie dust coats some of those gold medals, including Jason Lezak's Superman anchor-leg swim in the 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing, but nine of Phelps' gold medals -- the same number of golds won by Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi in track and field -- came without an entourage.
The caviling about Phelps and his place in the Olympic pantheon generally revolves around swimming itself. True, swimming is not as global as track and field. (Neither Africa nor South America are major players in the pool, despite the revival South Africa is having in London.) And Lewis, a sprinter and long jumper, had to do more than one discipline to win his nine, one of which came not on the track but in the doping control room after Ben Johnson was disqualified in the 100 in Seoul. But Phelps won gold medals in butterfly, freestyle and the individual medley, an event in which he swims all the strokes. Phelps benefited by having a smorgasbord of medal possibilities, but the wrongheaded focus is on his opportunities rather than on what Phelps was able to do with them. He had raced in 21 Olympic finals through Tuesday; he had finished out of the medals in just two. Given the competitive jumble in the London pool, the eight-for-eight in '08 looms even larger than it did when Phelps was mesmerizing the world in real time. When the 23-year-old Phelps strode into the Water Cube at the confluence of his physical, emotional and mental peaks, he wrapped the Olympics around his ring finger. Now he glides along, caught by the tides of time and occasionally a butterflyer who averred he has watched all of Phelps' races a million times.
The other arguments against Phelps are mostly semantic. Greatest Olympian? Define great. Maybe that list starts with Norwegian speedskater Johann Olav Koss, who won four gold medals and one silver and established the Right to Play foundation, or Canadian cyclist and speedskater Clara Hughes, the only Olympian to win multiple medals in Winter and Summer Games and a dedicated humanitarian. Then there is Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in track and field in Berlin 1936 and reduced the master-race theory to a steaming pile of manure right under Hitler's nose.
There is no moral relativism. None. There can be no comparison between the circumstances Owens faced in 1936 and anything in sports.
But no Olympian, including Usain Bolt, has been a slide under the global microscope as long as Phelps. For three quadrennials, Phelps has faced withering scrutiny as the diffident star of the reality TV show that NBC airs, sometimes on tape delay, for two weeks every four years. Phelps competes in the age of Instagrams and instant communications. All that twitters is not gold in a non-filtered 140-character universe, but Phelps has stood up rather well to the rheumy eye of the world's glare.
Phelps could have spent the past four years doing nothing but taking an extended victory lap, which, in a sense, he did. He disengaged. He wavered from his Spartan training regimen. In his post race news conference Tuesday, he said he had done the work -- and sometimes he had not. Phelps was not always prepared for the metronomic workload required to fend off competitors like Lochte, still perceived as the up-and-comer although he is 11 months older than Phelps.
Before London one of Phelps' teammates, Tyler Clary, suggested to the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise that Phelps was the swimming equivalent of a kid behind the counter in a Kevin Smith movie. Clary was served en brochette for calling Phelps essentially a slacker, something Phelps has been willing to say about himself albeit in more polite terms. Clary was not wildly wrong about Phelps. Just myopic. He, too, had failed to notice the big picture. This was Michael Phelps, grandest of Olympians. Jordan Rules in the NBA. Michael Rules in the pool. If Phelps had been good enough to make Team USA by playing Marco Polo at the Y pool ... well, he had earned it.
Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, bristled during a pre-Games press conference at Clary-inspired questions about Phelps' work ethic. Then when Phelps finished fourth in the 400 IM in his first swim, the first time he had missed the Olympic podium in 12 years, Bowman retraced his steps. When asked if Phelps' defeat was a fitness issue, he replied, "It's a fitness issue over what he hasn't done over the last four years. He didn't get by on talent this time, did he?"
Phelps had announced his retirement from the 400 IM after Beijing, but he found his way back because he is so damn good at the event -- even if he approaches it with the circumspection of a 10-year-old eyeing a plate of brussels sprouts. Phelps eked into the final, which left him out in Lane 8 -- the equivalent of seeing George Clooney in a middle seat, coach. A vexed Phelps later said he had a "crappy" race, an explanation that hardly mollified those who heard his 103-second interview in the mixed zone. Media overreaction was predictable. In a little more than the time its takes an Olympian to swim eight lengths of the pool, Phelps had gone from a towering sportsman who needs an agent and a publicist to a guy who needs water wings and a lifeguard. He was Johnny U with the Chargers or Joe Willie with the Rams. He was Shoeless Joe Hardy, the devil's bargain turning old before the eyes of the world.
The man who had taken too many days off since swimming in Beijing probably just had an off day. Lochte predicted Phelps would rally in the next event, the relay, which, of course, he did. Phelps swam the fastest split among the Americans, earning his first Olympic silver when Lochte was overtaken in the anchor swim. Phelps did not "redeem" himself that night. He did not "turn back the clock" because there is a best-before date imprinted on us all. He simply swam a superb second leg, one that was truly Olympian.
Phelps has three more events before London, and a career, ends. His medal count will swell into the 20s. Anyone who dissects his career and finds anything other than the pinnacle of Olympic achievement is trying too hard, even though Phelps one day might mildly regret that between Beijing and London he did not try hard enough.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/michael_farber/07/31/michael-phelps-greatest-olympian-all-time/index.html#ixzz22GxNs8kK

懊惱沒優質先發殷仔退場才知創紀錄

2012-07-30T16:12:00.003+08:00

【聯合晚報╱華盛頓記者賴昭穎/二十九日電】

2012.07.30 02:57 pm

六局上，陳偉殷習慣性的脫帽擦汗動作下，臉部的表情沒什麼變化，他不知自己已經寫下台灣投手的新紀錄。
美聯社

台灣左投陳偉殷投出創紀錄的12Ｋ，殷仔賽後表示，當時只想盡快解決打者，完全不知道自己締造紀錄，下場後才知道，未來只希望每一場比賽都可以優質先發。

球場大螢幕立即秀紀錄

當殷仔在六局上半Ｋ掉第11名打者，打破王建民在洋基隊締造的台灣選手三振紀錄時，球場大螢幕立刻秀出這項成績，全場觀眾起立鼓掌。

雖然締造單場12Ｋ的破紀錄，但陳偉殷賽後受訪仍是一副酷哥樣，沒有太多興奮的表情，但言談中仍流露出對這場比賽結果滿意的程度。

陳偉殷說，在場中當時沒有注意到三振的紀錄，只想趕快投球，六局上面臨一、二壘有人的失分危機，只注意自己的投球節奏；但打者被觀眾歡呼聲打斷，在打擊區進進出出，讓他覺得很煩。

陳偉殷表示，當時心裡面只想著，「你快點進去（打擊區）好不好，我要趕快投球，解決掉你，這場比賽才有優質先發。」剛下場時還很苦惱，差一個出局數就可拿到優質先發，後來教練和翻譯恭喜他，才知道創了三振的紀錄。

至於此役狂飆12Ｋ的關鍵，陳偉殷指出，這場比賽直球的進壘角度和尾勁感覺不錯，加上捕手威特斯的配球，多少有一些幫助。此外，他記得在日本職棒的三振紀錄也是12K。

不求破建仔每一個紀錄

對於改寫前輩建仔紀錄的感想，殷仔說，目前只是美職第一年，並沒想那麼多，而且建仔的紀錄有很多，不奢求每一樣都可以破，只希望他投的每一場比賽都可以優質先發；比賽輸贏不是他一個人可以造成的，但只要優質先發，球隊贏球機率就高，希望以優質先發為第一目標。

今年在大聯盟初登板就已拿下九勝，陳偉殷說，當初給自己的目標是趕快適應投一休四的先發輪值，其他沒有設定目標，不知道自己的體力負荷能否撐一整年，只希望投好每一場球；目前已是下半球季，體力上或許有一點透支，「所以就投一場算一場吧。」

此外，陳偉殷也說，一場三振五、六名打者就已經很多了，其他就是搶出局數；第六局就是沒先抓到出局數，後面投得就比較辛苦。而且三振型投手用球數比較多，他想盡量減少用球數，而不是當一個三振型投手。

2012 London Olympic

2012-07-27T10:31:00.000+08:00

2012 Olympics | July 27 - August 12

Sports
- Archery
- Badminton
- Basketball
- Beach Volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoe / Kayak
- Cycling
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Field Hockey
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Judo
- Modern Pentathlon
- Rhythmic Gymnastics
- Rowing
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Soccer
- Swimming
- Synch Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Track & Field
- Trampoline
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Water Polo
- Weight Lifting
- Wrestling
Schedules & Results
Team USA
Athletes
Historical Medal Tracker
Photos
Video
SI Writers
More From SI.com

Posted: Thursday July 26, 2012 10:06AM ; Updated: Thursday July 26, 2012 3:13PM

Brian Cazeneuve>INSIDE OLYMPICS

More Columns Email Brian Cazeneuve

Projected Medal Count

Country		Gold	Silver	Bronze	2012 Total	2008 Total
	U.S.	42	26	31	99	110
	China	42	30	25	97	100
	Russia	28	23	28	79	73
	Great Britain	23	23	19	65	47
	Germany	11	15	23	49	41
	Australia	16	13	11	40	46
	Japan	12	14	13	39	25
	France	8	15	9	32	41
	Italy	7	5	13	25	27
	South Korea	8	9	6	23	31
	Ukraine	5	5	8	18	27

Medal Picks

Archery

Men's Individual Archery
	Im Dong-hyun	South Korea
	Brady Ellison	U.S.
	Dmytro Hrachov	Ukraine
Note	Two-time champ Im has 20/200 vision.

Men's Team Archery
	South Korea
	France
	Italy
Note	The U.S. could land on the podium.

Women's Individual Archery
	Ki Bo-bae	South Korea
	Deepika Kumari	India
	Fang Yuting	China
Note	Kumari used to practice by targeting mangos.

Women's Team Archery
	South Korea
	China
	India
Note	South Korea has won all six Olympic women's team golds.

Badminton

Men's Badminton Singles
	Lin Dan	China
	Lee Chong Wei	Malaysia
	Peter Gade	Denmark
Note	Lin is only player to have won a career Super Slam of the sport's nine majors.

Men's Badminton Doubles
	Cai Yun & Fu Haifeng	China
	Jung Jae-sung & Lee Yong-dae	South Korea
	Mathias Boe & Carsten Mogensen	Denmark
Note	U.S. duo, Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan, won worlds in 2005.

Women's Badminton Singles
	Wang Yihan	China
	Wang Xin	China
	Li Xuerui	China
Note	The Wangs are not related.

Women's Badminton Doubles
	Wang Xiaoli & Yu Yang	China
	Tian Qing & Zhao Yunlei	China
	Ha Jung-eun & Kim Min-jung	South Korea
Note	China swept the golds at 2011 worlds.

Mixed Doubles
	Zhang Nan & Zhao Yunlei	China
	Ma Jin & Xu Chen	China
	Tontowi Ahmad & Liliyana Natsir	Indonesia
Note	Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier could win a medal for Britain.

Basketball

Men's
	U.S.
	Spain
	Lithuania
Note	The U.S. won its eight games in Beijing by an average of 27.9 points.

Women's
	U.S.
	Australia
	Czech Republic
Note	The U.S. won its eight games in Beijing by an average of 37.6 points.

Boxing

Men's 49 kg (108 pounds)
	Zou Shiming	China
	Shin Jong-hun	South Korea
	David Ayrapetyan	Russia
	Jantony Ortiz Marcano	Puerto Rico
Note	Zou has studied French cuisine.

Men's 52 kg (114 pounds)
	Misha Aloyan	Russia
	Rau'shee Warren	U.S.
	Nordine Oubaali	France
	Andrew Selby	Great Britain
Note	Warren is the first U.S. boxer to make three Olympic teams.

Men's 56 kg (123 pounds)
	Lazaro Alvarez Estrada	Cuba
	Luke Campbell	Great Britain
	John Joe Nevin	Ireland
	Mohamed Amine Ouadahi	Algeria
Note	Nevin beat his cousin Michael to win the Irish nationals.

Men's 60 kg (132 pounds)
	Vasyl Lomachenko	Ukraine
	Yasniel Toledo Lopez	Cuba
	Robson Conceicao	Brazil
	Domenico Valentino	Italy
Note	Lomachenko was voted outstanding boxer of the Beijing Games.

Men's 64 kg (141 pounds)
	Everton Dos Santos Lopes	Brazil
	Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo	Cuba
	Denys Berinchyk	Ukraine
	Daniyar Yeleussinov	Kazakhstan
Note	Last year Lopes became the first Brazilian to win a world boxing title.

Men's 69 kg (152 pounds)
	Taras Shelestyuk	Ukraine
	Alexis Vastine	France
	Myke Ribeiro de Carvalho	Brazil
	Serik Sapiyev	Kazakhstan
Note	In Beijing, penalties for pushing cost Vastine a spot in the final.

Men's 75 kg (165 pounds)
	Evhen Khytrov	Ukraine
	Soltan Migitinov	Azerbaijan
	Abbos Atoev	Uzbekistan
	Ryota Murata	Japan
Note	Khytrov edged Murata, 24-22, to win the 2011 world championship.

Men's 81 kg (178 pounds)
	Julio César La Cruz	Cuba
	Oleksandr Gvozdyk	Ukraine
	Egor Mekhontsev	Russia
	Adilbek Niyazymbetov	Kazakhstan
Note	World champ Cruz, just 22, is Cuba's captain.

Men's 91 kg (201 pounds)
	Oleksandr Usyk	Ukraine
	Teymur Mammadov	Azerbaijan
	Jose Gomez	Cuba
	Tervel Pulev	Bulgaria
Note	Usyk went down a class to win Euros in '08, then won 2011 worlds at 91 kg.

Men's 91+ kg (more than 201 pounds)
	Anthony Joshua	Great Britain
	Magomedrasul Majidov	Azerbaijan
	Roberto Cammarelle	Italy
	Erislandy Savon Cotilla	Cuba
Note	Joshua ran the 100 meters in 11 seconds in high school.

Women's 51 kg (112 pounds)
	Ren Cancan	China
	Nicola Adams	Great Britain
	Mary Kom	India
	Karolina Michalczuk	Poland
Note	Adams has been an extra in British soaps.

Women's 60 kg (132 pounds)
	Katie Taylor	Ireland
	Sofya Ochigava	Russia
	Natasha Jonas	Great Britain
	Quanitta Lee (Queen) Underwood	U.S.
Note	Taylor played for the Irish soccer team.

Women's 75 kg (165 pounds)
	Savannah Marshall	Great Britain
	Claressa Shields	U.S.
	Nadezda Torlopova	Russia
	Elena Vystropova	Azerbaijan
Note	The quiet Marshall is known as the Silent Assassin.

Canoe/Kayak (Flatwater)

Men's canoe singles, 200 meters
	Valentin Demyanenko	Azerbaijan
	Alfonso Benavides	Spain
	Ivan Shtyl	Russia
Note	All sprint events have been shortened from 500 meters to 200.

Men's canoe singles, 1,000 meters
	Sebastian Brendel	Germany
	Attila Vajda	Hungary
	Mark Oldershaw	Canada
Note	Five Oldershaws from three generations have paddled at the Games.

Men's canoe doubles, 1,000 meters
	Alexandru Dumitrescu & Victo Mihalachi	Romania
	Peter Kretschmer & Kurt Kuschela	Germany
	Aleksandr Bogdanovich & Andrei Bogdanovich	Belarus
Note	The Brothers Bogdanovich rallied for 2008 gold at 500 meters.

Men's kayak singles, 200 meters
	Ed McKeever	Great Britain
	Piotr Siemionowski	Poland
	Marko Novakovic	Serbia
Note	McKeever will soon qualify as a chartered accountant.

Men's kayak singles, 1,000 meters
	Max Hoff	Germany
	Adam Van Koeverden	Canada
	Rene Poulsen	Denmark
Note	Van Koeverden trains at a retreat with no plumbing or electricity.

Men's kayak doubles, 200 meters
	Liam Heath & Jon Schofield	Great Britain
	Arnaud Hybois & Sebastien Jouve	France
	Alexander Dyachenko & Yury Postrigay	Russia
Note	Ex-bartender Heath can mix 150 cocktails.

Men's kayak doubles, 1,000 meters
	Rudolf Dombi & Roland Kökény	Hungary
	Peter Gelle & Erik Vicek	Slovakia
	Martin Hollstein & Andreas Ihle	Germany
Note	Hollstein and Ihle were a new pair when they won in Beijing.

Men's kayak fours, 1,000 meters
	Denmark
	Australia
	Germany
Note	The unheralded Danes were surprise European champs last month.

Women's kayak singles, 200 meters
	Natasa Douchev-Janics	Hungary
	Lisa Carrington	New Zealand
	Marta Walczykiewicz	Poland
Note	When Carrington was seven, her dad told her she'd be an Olympian.

Women's kayak singles, 500 meters
	Kathrin Wagner-Augustin	Germany
	Danuta Kozak	Hungary
	Rachel Cawthorn	Great Britain
Note	Wagner-Augustin is seeking gold in her fourth straight Games.

Women's kayak doubles, 500 meters
	Katalin Kovács & Natasa Douchev-Janics	Hungary
	Beata Mikolajczyk & Karolina Naja	Poland
	Volha Khudzenka & Maryna Pautaran	Belarus
Note	Douchev-Janics skipped the 2011 season to have a daughter, Milana.

Women's kayak fours, 1,000 meters
	Germany
	Hungary
	Belarus
Note	Germany and Hungary have finished one-two at the last four Olympics.

Canoe/Kayak Whitewater

Men's canoe singles, slalom
	Tony Estanguet	France
	Michal Martikán	Slovakia
	David Florence	Great Britain
Note	Estanguet and his brother designed a whitewater course in the Pyrenees.

Men's canoe doubles, slalom
	Pavol Hochschorner & Peter Hochschorner	Slovakia
	Gauthier Klauss & Matthieu Péché	France
	David Florence & Richard Hounslow	Great Britain
Note	The Hochschorner twins are three-time world champs.

Men's kayak singles, slalom
	Peter Kauzer	Slovenia
	Etienne Daille	France
	Daniele Molmenti	Italy
Note	Kauzer prefers extreme river kayaking.

Women's kayak singles, slalom
	Corinna Kuhnle	Austria
	Jana Dukátová	Slovakia
	Maialen Chourraut	Spain
Note	Kuhnle won world titles in 2010 and '11.

Cycling

Men's individual time trial
	Fabian Cancellara	Switzerland
	Bradley Wiggins	Great Britain
	Tony Martin	Germany
Note	World federation nixed YouTube-fed claim that Cancellara had a battery-boosted bike.

Men's road race
	Mark Cavendish	Great Britain
	Tom Boonen	Belgium
	Phillippe Gilbert	Belgium
Note	Cavendish hails from the Isle of Man.

Men's Keirin
	Chris Hoy	Great Britain
	Teun Mulder	Netherlands
	Maximillian Levy	Germany
Note	In Beijing, Hoy became the first Brit since 1908 to win three golds.

Men's omnium
	Glenn O'Shea	Australia
	Shane Archbold	New Zealand
	Zach Bell	Canada
Note	Michael Freiberg, last year's world champ, didn't make the Australian team.

Men's sprint
	Grégory Baugé	France
	Jason Kenny	Great Britain
	Robert Forstemann	Germany
Note	Baugé was stripped of his 2011 world title because he missed a doping test.

Men's team sprint
	Australia
	France
	Great Britain
Note	Australia missed a bronze by .008 of a second in '08.

Men's team pursuit
	Great Britain
	Australia
	New Zealand
Note	The Brits crushed runner-up Denmark by nearly seven seconds in Beijing.

Men's mountain bike
	Jaroslav Kulhavy	Czech Republic
	Nino Schurter	Switzerland
	Julien Absalon	France
Note	In a 2011 accident, a pickup truck knocked out several of Kulhavy's teeth.

Men's BMX
	Sam Willoughby	Australia
	Joris Daudet	France
	Maris Strombergs	Latvia
Note	Willoughby slept on floors and couches in California while learning the sport.

Women's individual time trial
	Judith Arndt	Germany
	Emma Pooley	Great Britain
	Linda Villumsen	New Zealand
Note	Defending champ Kristen Armstrong of the U.S. will contend.

Women's road race
	Giorgia Bronzini	Italy
	Marianne Vos	Netherlands
	Ina-Yoko Teutenberg	Germany
Note	Bronzini is known for facial piercings, spiked hair and a killer sprint.

Women's Keirin
	Anna Meares	Australia
	Victoria Pendleton	Great Britain
	Ekaterina Gnidenko	Russia
Note	Meares fractured vertebrae in an '08 crash.

Women's omnium
	Tara Whitten	Canada
	Laura Trott	Great Britain
	Sarah Hammer	U.S.
Note	Hammer holds the world record in the pursuit.

Women's sprint
	Victoria Pendleton	Great Britain
	Anna Meares	Australia
	Simona Krupeckaite	Lithuania
Note	Pendleton has nine world titles and 16 world or Olympic medals.

Women's team sprint
	Australia
	Germany
	China
Note	Australia led all nations with 15 total medals at worlds in Melbourne in April.

Women's team pursuit
	Great Britain
	Australia
	Canada
Note	Women's team pursuit and team sprint events are new in 2012.

Women's mountain bike
	Catharine Pendrel	Canada
	Maja Wloszczowska	Poland
	Julie Bresset	France
Note	As a teen, Pendrel was an equestrienne.

Women's BMX
	Sarah Walker	New Zealand
	Magalie Pottier	France
	Mariana Pajón	Colombia
Note	Walker started BMX after her brother bet her $5 she couldn't do a jump.

Diving

Men's 3-meter springboard
	He Chong	China
	Qin Kai	China
	Ilya Zakharov	Russia
Note	He is a fan of British soccer; Qin prefers the Los Angeles Lakers.

Men's 3-meter synchronized springboard
	Luo Yutong & Qin Kai	China
	Illya Kvasha & Oleksiy Prygorov	Ukraine
	Evgeny Kuznetsov & Ilya Zakharov	Russia
Note	Four-time Olympian Troy Dumais could challenge with partner Kristian Ipsen.

Men's 10-meter platform
	Qiu Bo	China
	Tom Daley	Great Britain
	Lin Yue	China
Note	Daley's coach taunted Qiu on Twitter this year.

Men's 10-meter synchronized platform
	Lin Yue & Qiu Bo	China
	Tom Daley & Peter Waterfield	Great Britain
	Patrick Hausding & Sascha Klein	Germany
Note	Hausding and Klein won silver in 2008.

Women's 3-meter springboard
	He Zi	China
	Wu Minxia	China
	Tania Cagnotto	Italy
Note	Cagnotto suffered multiple fractures when a car hit her scooter in 2011.

Women's 3-meter synchronized springboard
	He Zi & Wu Minxia	China
	Tania Cagnotto & Francesca Dallape	Italy
	Kelci Bryant & Abby Johnston	U.S.
Note	China swept all 10 diving golds at the 2011 worlds.

Women's 10-meter platform
	Chen Ruolin	China
	Paola Espinosa	Mexico
	Hu Yadan	China
Note	1988 Cy Young winner Frank Viola's daughter Brittany will dive for the U.S.

Women's 10-meter synchronized platform
	Chen Ruolin & Wang Hao	China
	Paola Espinosa & Alejandra Orozco	Mexico
	Meaghan Benfeito & Roseline Filion	Canada
Note	Espinosa was Mexico's flag bearer in 2008.

Equestrian

Individual dressage
	Adelinde Cornelissen	Netherlands
	Isabell Werth	Germany
	Laura Bechtolsheimer	Great Britain
Note	Dutch rider Anky van Grunsven is in her seventh Games.

Team dressage
	Germany
	Netherlands
	Denmark
Note	German star Werth has her own equestrian video game.

Individual three-day event
	William Fox-Pitt	Great Britain
	Andrew Nicholson	New Zealand
	Michael Jung	Germany
Note	Fox-Pitt's middle name is Speed Lane.

Team three-day event
	Great Britain
	Germany
	Australia
Note	Britain's team includes Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter.

Individual show jumping
	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Sweden
	Kevin Staut	France
	Eric Lamaze	Canada
Note	Lamaze missed '96 Games because of a later-overturned cocaine suspension.

Team show jumping
	Germany
	France
	Belgium
Note	The U.S. could leap onto the medal stand.

Fencing

Men's individual épée
	Bas Verwijlen	Netherlands
	Fabian Kauter	Switzerland
	Paulo Pizzo	Italy
Note	Princeton grad Soren Thompson could reach the podium for the U.S.

Men's individual foil
	Andrea Cassara	Italy
	Valerio Aspromonte	Italy
	Peter Joppich	Germany
Note	Brooklynite Race Imboden, a lanky lefty like Cassara, could medal.

Men's team foil
	Italy
	China
	France
Note	Italians hold the top three spots in the world individual rankings.

Men's individual sabre
	Alexey Yakimenko	Russia
	Rares Dumitrescu	Romania
	Nicholas Limbach	Germany
Note	Limbach's sister, Anna, was a world junior champion.

Men's team sabre
	Russia
	Germany
	Romania
Note	The U.S. took a surprise silver in Beijing.

Women's individual épée
	Li Na	China
	Anca Maroiu	Romania
	Luo Xiaojuan	China
Note	The 5-foot-10 Li was first a basketball player.

Women's team épée
	China
	Romania
	Russia
Note	This event returns after being out of the 2008 Games.

Women's individual foil
	Valentina Vezzali	Italy
	Nam Hyun-hee	South Korea
	Lee Kiefer	U.S.
Note	Kiefer won world bronze last year at age 17.

Women's team foil
	Italy
	Russia
	South Korea
Note	Italian leader Vezzali has 13 world and five Olympic titles.

Women's individual sabre
	Mariel Zagunis	U.S.
	Olga Kharlan	Ukraine
	Sofiya Velikaya	Russia
Note	Zagunis, the daughter of 1976 Olympic rowers, is a two-time champ.

Field Hockey

Men
	Australia
	Germany
	Netherlands
Note	Aussie complaints about early start times forced schedule changes in London.

Women
	Argentina
	Netherlands
	Great Britain
Note	A rising U.S. team beat Argentina at '11 Pan-Am Games.

Artistic Gymnastics

Men's team
	Japan
	China
	U.S.
Note	China ran away with the 2008 title, winning by more than seven points.

Men's individual all-around
	Kohei Uchimura	Japan
	John Orozco	U.S.
	Daniel Purvis	Great Britain
Note	Orozco had three background roles in Law & Order.

Men's floor exercise
	Diego Hypólito	Brazil
	Zou Kai	China
	Kohei Uchimura	Japan
Note	Hypólito's sister, Daniele, won Brazil's first world medal in 2001.

Men's pommel horse
	Louis Smith	Great Britain
	Krisztián Berki	Hungary
	Cyril Tommasone	France
Note	Smith tried out for the British X Factor.

Men's rings
	Chen Yibing	China
	Aleksandr Balandin	Russia
	Koji Yamamuro	Japan
Note	Chen won in '08 with near flawless routine.

Men's vault
	Yang Hak-seon	South Korea
	Flavius Koczi	Romania
	Denis Ablyazin	Russia
Note	Yang's handspring front triple-full is unmatched.

Men's parallel bars
	Feng Zhe	China
	Danell Leyva	U.S.
	Kazuhito Tanaka	Japan
Note	Cuban-born Leyva is coached by his stepdad.

Men's horizontal bar
	Zou Kai	China
	Fabian Hambüchen	Germany
	Emin Garibov	Russia
Note	Zou won gold in Beijing despite a misstep.

Women's team
	U.S.
	Romania
	Russia
Note	U.S. handily won the title at 2011 worlds.

Women's individual all-around
	Jordyn Wieber	U.S.
	Gabby Douglas	U.S.
	Viktoria Komova	Russia
Note	Wieber would be third straight American woman to win Olympics but not U.S. trials.

Women's vault
	McKayla Maroney	U.S.
	Sandra Izbasa	Romania
	Oksana Chusovitina	Germany
Note	Top Brazilian Jade Barbosa was left off her team in sponsorship squabble.

Women's uneven bars
	Viktoria Komova	Russia
	Huang Qiushuang	China
	Gabby Douglas	U.S.
Note	Britain's two-time world bars champ, Beth Tweedle, is the home favorite at age 27.

Women's balance beam
	Sui Lu	China
	Cätälina Ponor	Romania
	Larisa Iordache	Romania
Note	Now 20, Sui nearly quit after not making the national team in 2008.

Women's floor exercise
	Larisa Iordache	Romania
	Aly Raisman	U.S.
	Lauren Mitchell	Australia
Note	Some in Romania call Iordache, 16, the new Nadia.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Individual
	Yevgeniya Kanayeva	Russia
	Alexandra Merkulova	Russia
	Aliya Garayeva	Azerbaijan
Note	Olympic champ Kanayeva swept every individual event at 2011 worlds.

Group
	Russia
	Belarus
	Italy
Note	Italy edged Russia by .3 at worlds.

Trampoline

Men
	Dong Dong	China
	Lu Chunlong	China
	Masaki Ito	Japan
Note	Dong defeated Lu at the London test event.

Women
	He Wenna	China
	Karen Cockburn	Canada
	Huang Shanshan	China
Note	Cockburn is married to former training partner Mathieu Turgeon.

Judo

Men's 60 kg (132 pounds)
	Rishod Sobirov	Uzbekistan
	Hiroaki Hiraoka	Japan
	Ilgar Mushkiyev	Azerbaijan
	Georgii Zantaraia	Ukraine
Note	Sobirov was world's top judoka last year.

Men's 66 kg (145 pounds)
	Masashi Ebinuma	Japan
	Musa Mogushkov	Russia
	Leandro Cunha	Brazil
	Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar	Mongolia
Note	World No. 1 Alim Gadanov was left off Russian team.

Men's 73 kg (160.5 pounds)
	Wang Ki-chun	South Korea
	Riki Nakaya	Japan
	Dex Elmont	Netherlands
	Ugo Legrand	France
Note	Wang is 32-0 since a first-round loss at 2011 worlds.

Men's 81 kg (178 pounds)
	Kim Jae-bum	South Korea
	Leandro Guilheiro	Brazil
	Elnur Mammadli	Azerbaijan
	Takahiro Nakai	Japan
Note	Kim lost '08 gold bout in the final minute.

Men's 90 kg (198 pounds)
	Ilias Iliadis	Greece
	Masashi Nishiyama	Japan
	Dilshod Choriev	Uzbekistan
	Asley González	Cuba
Note	Iliadis's cousin Zurab Zviaduri won gold in 2004 for Georgia.

Men's 100 kg (220 pounds)
	Maxim Rakov	Kazakhstan
	Tagir Khaybulaev	Russia
	Takamasa Anai	Japan
	Henk Grol	Netherlands
Note	Rakov missed Beijing with a bad shoulder, but won worlds in 2009.

Men's 100+ kg (more than 220 pounds)
	Teddy Riner	France
	Aleksandr Mikhailine	Russia
	Rafael Silva	Brazil
	Andreas Toelzer	Germany
Note	Riner was born on the island of Guadeloupe, a French territory.

Women's 48 kg (105.5 pounds)
	Sarah Menezes	Brazil
	Tomoko Fukumi	Japan
	Alina Dumitru	Romania
	Charline van Snick	Belgium
Note	Injury knocked out 2011 world champion Haruna Asami of Japan.

Women's 52 kg (114.5 pounds)
	Misato Nakamura	Japan
	Bundmaa Munkhbaatar	Mongolia
	Soraya Haddad	Algeria
	Erika Miranda	Brazil
Note	Japan left 2010 world champ Yuka Nishida home.

Women's 57 kg (125.5 pounds)
	Kaori Matsumoto	Japan
	Telma Monteiro	Portugal
	Corina Caprioriu	Romania
	Rafaela Silva	Brazil
Note	Matsumoto wants to become a pastry chef.

Women's 63 kg (138.5 pounds)
	Gévrise Émane	France
	Yoshie Ueno	Japan
	Xu Lili	China
	Urska Zolnir	Slovenia
Note	The Cameroon-born Émane won two world championships at 70 kg.

Women's 70 kg (154 pounds)
	Lucie Décosse	France
	Haruka Tachimoto	Japan
	Edith Bosch	Netherlands
	Chen Fei	China
Note	Décosse won her first world title in 2005 in the 63-kg class.

Women's 78 kg (172 pounds)
	Akari Ogata	Japan
	Kayla Harrison	U.S.
	Mayra Aguiar	Brazil
	Audrey Tcheumeo	France
Note	The U.S. has never won Olympic judo gold.

Women's 78+ kg (more than 172 pounds)
	Tong Wen	China
	Mika Sugimoto	Japan
	Elena Ivashchenko	Russia
	Idalys Ortíz	Cuba
Note	Tong's 2009 doping ban was overturned and blamed on tainted Chinese pork.

Modern Pentathlon

Men
	Aleksander Lesun	Russia
	Riccardo De Luca	Italy
	Andrei Moiseev	Russia
Note	Two-athletes-per-country limit kept out Russia's former world champion Ilia Frolov.

Women
	Laura Asadauskaite	Lithuania
	Mhairi Spence	Great Britain
	Lena Schöneborn	Germany
Note	World champ Spence nearly retired after being left off 2008 team.

Rowing

Men's single sculls
	Ondrej Synek	Czech Republic
	Mahe Drysdale	New Zealand
	Alan Campbell	Great Britain
Note	Drysdale won five world titles after switching from the fours after Athens.

Men's double sculls
	Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan	New Zealand
	Scott Brennan & David Crawshay	Australia
	Iztok Cop & Luka Spik	Slovenia
Note	Nine current Kiwis have won world titles.

Men's lightweight double sculls
	Peter Taylor & Storm Uru	New Zealand
	Mark Hunter & Zac Purchase	Great Britain
	Eleftherios Konsolas & Panagiotis Magdanis	Greece
Note	Uru has earned degrees from Cambridge in chemistry and finance.

Men's quadruple sculls without cox
	Croatia
	Germany
	Australia
Note	Croatia has never won a rowing gold.

Men's pairs without cox
	Hamish Bond & Eric Murray	New Zealand
	David Calder & Scott Frandsen	Canada
	Apostolos Gkountoulas & Nikolaos Gkountoulas	Greece
Note	Bond & Murray are three-time world champs.

Men's fours without cox
	Great Britain
	Australia
	Greece
Note	Brits have a streak of three straight golds.

Men's lightweight fours without cox
	Denmark
	Australia
	Switzerland
Note	Danes have won three of last four titles.

Men's eights
	Germany
	Canada
	Great Britain
Note	A retooled U.S. team may nab a bronze.

Women's single sculls
	Mirka Knapkova	Czech Republic
	Zhang Xiuyun	China
	Natalya Mustafayeva	Azerbaijan
Note	Knapkova faded to fifth in the Beijing final.

Women's double sculls
	Katherine Grainger & Anna Watkins	Great Britain
	Kim Crow & Brooke Pratley	Australia
	Wang Min & Zhu Weiwei	China
Note	Crow will also row single sculls, a rare double.

Women's lightweight double sculls
	Christina Giazitzidou & Alexandra Tsiavou	Greece
	Katherine Copeland & Sophie Hosking	Great Britain
	Anne Lolk & Juliane Elander Rasmussen	Denmark
Note	Greeks were 2011 female crew of the year.

Women's quadruple sculls without cox
	Germany
	U.S.
	Ukraine
Note	China ended the German winning streak at five in Beijing.

Women's pairs without cox
	Helen Glover & Heather Stanning	Great Britain
	Juliette Haigh & Rebecca Scown	New Zealand
	Kate Hornsey & Sarah Tait	Australia
Note	Glover was a top-level field hockey player.

Women's eights
	U.S.
	Canada
	Netherlands
Note	Unbeaten since 2006, U.S. set a world best in May.

Sailing

Men's RS: X (sailboard)
	Dorian van Rijsselberge	Netherlands
	Przemyslaw Miarczynski	Poland
	Jon Paul Tobin	New Zealand
Note	Tobin finished fifth at 2011 worlds despite a sting from a cobbler fish.

Men's laser (one-person dinghy)
	Tom Slingsby	Australia
	Andrew Murdoch	New Zealand
	Paul Goodison	Great Britain
Note	Slingsby has five world titles but was 22nd in Beijing.

Men's finn (heavyweight dinghy)
	Ben Ainslie	Great Britain
	Jonas Hoegh-Christensen	Denmark
	Zach Railey	U.S.
Note	Ainslie has an Olympic gold and silver in Laser and two golds in Finn.

Men's 470 (two-person dinghy)
	Mat Belcher & Malcolm Page	Australia
	Stuart Bithell & Luke Patience	Great Britain
	Sime Fantela & Igor Marenic	Croatia
Note	Belcher earned his taekwondo black belt at age 10.

Men's star (keelboat)
	Bruno Prada & Robert Scheidt	Brazil
	Fredrik Lööf & Max Salminen	Sweden
	Ian Percy & Andrew Simpson	Great Britain
Note	Brazil has won more medals in sailing than in any other sport.

Women's RS: X (sailboard)
	Lee Korzits	Israel
	Marina Alabau	Spain
	Zofia Noceti-Klepacka	Poland
Note	Korzits is the only Israeli to have won three world titles in any sport.

Women's laser radial (one-person dinghy)
	Marit Bouwmeester	Netherlands
	Evi Van Acker	Belgium
	Alison Young	Great Britain
Note	Paige Railey, Zach's younger sister, could medal here.

Women's 470 (two-person dinghy)
	Berta Betanzos & Tara Pacheco	Spain
	Saskia Clark & Hannah Mills	Great Britain
	Ai Kondo & Wakako Tabata	Japan
Note	Britain led all nations with six total medals at the 2011 worlds.

Women's Elliott 6m (fixed keel, match race)
	U.S.
	Great Britain
	France
Note	U.S.'s Anna Tunnicliffe, a 2008 gold medalist, lived in England until age 12.

Open 49er (skiff)
	Iain Jensen & Nathan Outteridge	Australia
	Peter Burling & Blair Tuke	New Zealand
	Peter Lang & Allan Nørregaard	Denmark
Note	In Beijing, Otteridge capsized 100 meters from possible gold.

Shooting

Men's 10-meter air rifle
	Niccolo Campriani	Italy
	Zhu Qinan	China
	Pierre Edmond Piasecki	France
Note	In 2010, Campriani became the first athlete in any sport to qualify for London.

Men's 50-meter rifle, prone
	Sergei Martynov	Belarus
	Wang Weiyi	China
	Marco De Nicolo	Italy
Note	Michael McPhail and Eric Uptagrafft of the U.S. have a chance.

Men's 50-meter rifle, three positions
	Niccolo Campriani	Italy
	Nemanja Mirosavljev	Serbia
	Jason Parker	U.S.
Note	Parker prevailed after three hours of rain delays at the U.S. trials.

Men's 10-meter air pistol
	Tan Zongliang	China
	Jin Jong-oh	South Korea
	Tomoyuki Matsuda	Japan
Note	China has won a medal all six times this event has been held at the Olympics.

Men's 25-meter rapid-fire pistol
	Alexei Klimov	Russia
	Christian Reitz	Germany
	Ding Feng	China
Note	Reitz led the prelims in Beijing but settled for bronze.

Men's 50-meter pistol
	Damir Mikec	Serbia
	Tomoyuki Matsuda	Japan
	Zhang Tian	China
Note	Matsuda ran and swam for his life to survive the 2011 tsunami in Japan.

Men's trap
	Alexey Alipov	Russia
	Massimo Fabbrizi	Italy
	Alberto Fernandez	Spain
Note	Alipov won gold in 2004 and bronze in '08.

Men's double trap
	Joshua Richmond	U.S.
	Peter Wilson	Great Britain
	Vasily Mosin	Russia
Note	Richmond's trap-shooter dad won him his first shotgun when Joshua was in the womb.

Men's skeet
	Tore Brovold	Norway
	Valeriy Shomin	Russia
	Georgios Achilleos	Cyprus
Note	U.S.' Vincent Hancock beat Brovold in a shootout for the 2008 gold.

Women's 10-meter air rifle
	Yi Siling	China
	Katerina Emmons	Czech Republic
	Snjezana Pejcic	Croatia
Note	Emmons (née Kurkova) is married to U.S. shooter Matt.

Women's 50-meter rifle, 3 positions
	Barbara Engleder	Germany
	Du Li	China
	Sonja Pfeilschifter	Germany
Note	Two-time Olympic champ Du took 30 months off to start a family.

Women's 10-meter air pistol
	Zorana Arunovic	Serbia
	Olena Kostevych	Ukraine
	Tien Chia Chen	Taiwan
Note	After winning in '04, Kostevych was 31st in '08.

Women's 25-meter pistol
	Kim Jang-mi	South Korea
	Chen Ying	China
	Lenka Maruskova	Czech Republic
Note	Chen's family kept her mother's cancer diagnosis from her until after she won in '08.

Women's trap
	Liu Yingzi	China
	Fatima Galvez	Spain
	Zuzana Stefecekova	Slovakia
Note	In the last three Games, nine countries have won medals in this event.

Women's skeet
	Kimberly Rhode	U.S.
	Wei Ning	China
	Danka Bartekova	Slovakia
Note	Four-time medalist Rhode designs and licenses her own Olympic pins.

Soccer

Men
	Brazil
	Spain
	Great Britain
Note	Brazil has won five World Cups but never the Olympics.

Women
	U.S.
	Japan
	Brazil
Note	The U.S. avenges its 2011 World Cup loss.

Swimming

Men's 50-meter freestyle
	César Cielo	Brazil
	Cullen Jones	U.S.
	James Magnussen	Australia
Note	Cielo was a 12-time All-America at Auburn.

Men's 100-meter freestyle
	James Magnussen	Australia
	James Roberts	Australia
	César Cielo	Brazil
Note	Magnussen (a.k.a. the Missile) has boldly predicted a world record for himself.

Men's 200-meter freestyle
	Ryan Lochte	U.S.
	Yannick Agnel	France
	Paul Biedermann	Germany
Note	Olympic champ Michael Phelps qualified but opted out.

Men's 400-meter freestyle
	Sun Yang	China
	Park Tae-hwan	South Korea
	Hao Yun	China
Note	Park was the first Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal.

Men's 1,500-meter freestyle
	Sun Yang	China
	Gregorio Paltrinieri	Italy
	Park Tae-hwan	South Korea
Note	Sun, 20, won this and the non-Olympic 800 free at 2011 worlds.

Men's 100-meter backstroke
	Matt Grevers	U.S.
	Ryosuke Irie	Japan
	Camille Lacourt	France
Note	Grevers's mom was an Olympic swimming hopeful in her native Netherlands.

Men's 200-meter backstroke
	Ryan Lochte	U.S.
	Ryosuke Irie	Japan
	Tyler Clary	U.S.
Note	Irie's world record in May '09 was rejected because he wore an unapproved suit.

Men's 100-meter breaststroke
	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan
	Felipe Silva	Brazil
	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa
Note	World champ Alexander Dale Oen of Norway died in April.

Men's 200-meter breaststroke
	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan
	Tateishi Ryo	Japan
	Daniel Gyurta	Hungary
Note	Kitajima is the first swimmer to win both breaststrokes at two Olympics.

Men's 100-meter butterfly
	Michael Phelps	U.S.
	Milorad Cavic	Serbia
	Tyler McGill	U.S.
Note	Phelps beat Cavic in this race in Beijing by .01 of a second.

Men's 200-meter butterfly
	Michael Phelps	U.S.
	Takeshi Matsuda	Japan
	Nick D'Arcy	Australia
Note	Phelps has set the last eight world records.

Men's 200-meter individual medley
	Michael Phelps	U.S.
	Ryan Lochte	U.S.
	Laszlo Cseh	Hungary
Note	Phelps established eight straight world records, but Lochte has set the last two.

Men's 400-meter individual medley
	Ryan Lochte	U.S.
	Michael Phelps	U.S.
	Kosuke Hagino	Japan
Note	Phelps vowed after Beijing that he was done with this event.

Men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay
	Australia
	Russia
	U.S.
Note	U.S.'s 2008 relay hero, Jason Lezak, will swim in the prelims.

Men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay
	U.S.
	France
	Australia
Note	The U.S. has set 11 world records in this race since 1920.

Men's 4x100 medley relay
	U.S.
	Australia
	Germany
Note	U.S. has never lost this event at the Games.

Women's 50-meter freestyle
	Therese Alshammar	Sweden
	Britta Steffen	Germany
	Ranomi Kromowidjojo	Netherlands
Note	In 2011, Alshammar, 33, became the oldest female swimmer to win a world title.

Women's 100-meter freestyle
	Ranomi Kromowidjojo	Netherlands
	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden
	Jeanette Ottesen	Denmark
Note	Britain's Fran Halsall could win a medal.

Women's 200-meter freestyle
	Allison Schmitt	U.S.
	Camille Muffat	France
	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden
Note	Rising star Schmitt trains under Phelps's coach, Bob Bowman.

Women's 400-meter freestyle
	Camille Muffat	France
	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain
	Federica Pellegrini	Italy
Note	After winning the 400 and 800 in Beijing, Adlington received an OBE from the Queen.

Women's 800-meter freestyle
	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain
	Lotte Friis	Denmark
	Katie Ledecky	U.S.
Note	At 15, Ledecky is the U.S. team's youngest member.

Women's 100-meter backstroke
	Anastasia Zueva	Russia
	Missy Franklin	U.S.
	Zhao Jing	China
Note	Franklin is a dual citizen because of her Canadian-born parents.

Women's 200-meter backstroke
	Missy Franklin	U.S.
	Belinda Hocking	Australia
	Anastasia Zueva	Russia
Note	Last year, Franklin won five world medals at age 16.

Women's 100-meter breaststroke
	Rebecca Soni	U.S.
	Breeja Larson	U.S.
	Leiston Pickett	Australia
Note	Larson stunned Soni at the U.S. trials.

Women's 200-meter breaststroke
	Rebecca Soni	U.S.
	Satomi Suzuki	Japan
	Micah Lawrence	U.S.
Note	Soni underwent heart surgery in 2006.

Women's 100-meter butterfly
	Dana Vollmer	U.S.
	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden
	Lu Ying	China
Note	Vollmer underwent heart surgery in 2003.

Women's 200-meter butterfly
	Natsumi Hoshi	Japan
	Jiao Liuyang	China
	Ellen Gandy	Great Britain
Note	Gandy lives and trains in Melbourne -- site of the 1956 Olympics.

Women's 200-meter individual medley
	Stephanie Rice	Australia
	Ye Shiwen	China
	Alicia Coutts	Australia
Note	Rice won three golds in world-record times in Beijing.

Women's 400-meter individual medley
	Elizabeth Beisel	U.S.
	Hannah Miley	Li Xuanxu
	Li Xuanxu	China
Note	In Beijing, Beisel became Rhode Island's first Olympic swimmer since 1964.

Women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay
	Australia
	U.S.
	Netherlands
Note	U.S. great Natalie Coughlin will swim in prelims -- her only event in London.

Women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay
	Australia
	U.S.
	China
Note	Australia ended the U.S.' three-Games winning streak in Beijing.

Women's 4x100 medley relay
	U.S.
	Australia
	China
Note	The U.S. and Australia have two golds and two silvers each since 1996.

Open Water

Men's 10K
	Thomas Lurz	Germany
	Spyridon Gianniotis	Greece
	Alex Meyer	U.S.
Note	Lurz swam in the 1,500 free in 2004.

Women's 10K
	Keri-Anne Payne	Great Britain
	Martina Grimaldi	Italy
	Ana Marcela Cunha	Brazil
Note	Payne was born in South Africa.

Synchronized Swimming

Duet
	Natalia Ishchenko & Svetlana Romashina	Russia
	Huang Xuechen & Liu Ou	China
	Ona Carbonell & Andrea Fuentes	Spain
Note	Romashina recovered from a hernia operation to win 2011 worlds.

Team
	Russia
	China
	Spain
Note	Russians have won three straight.

Table Tennis

Men's singles
	Zhang Jike	China
	Wang Hao	China
	Timo Boll	Germany
Note	In 2004, then 16-year-old Zhang was kicked off China's team for bad behavior.

Men's team
	China
	Germany
	South Korea
Note	New team event replaces doubles.

Women's singles
	Ding Ning	China
	Li Xiaoxia	China
	Kasumi Ishigawa	Japan
Note	China has won 20 of the 24 golds ever awarded in Olympic table tennis.

Women's team
	China
	Singapore
	Japan
Note	Still an independent team, Hong Kong could grab a medal.

Taekwondo

Men's 58 kg (128 pounds)
	Yulis Mercedes	Dominican Republic
	Joel Gonzalez	Spain
	Tamer Bayoumi	Egypt
	Wei Chen-yang	Taiwan
Note	Mercedes lost by judges' decision after battling to a draw in the Beijing final.

Men's 68 kg (150 pounds)
	Servet Tazegül	Turkey
	Rohullah Nikpai	Afghanistan
	Idulio Islas	Mexico
	Mohammad Bagheri Motamed	Iran
Note	New Zealand's Logan Campbell opened a legal brothel to fund his training.

Men's 80 kg (176 pounds)
	Yousef Karami	Iran
	Steven Lopez	U.S.
	Ramin Azizov	Azerbaijan
	Mauro Sarmiento	Italy
Note	Lopez will become the sport's first four-time medalist.

Men's 80+ kg (more than 176 pounds)
	Akmal Irgashev	Uzbekistan
	Bahri Tanrikulu	Turkey
	Cha Dong-min	South Korea
	Liu Xiaobo	China
Note	A different South Korean has won this class at each Olympics.

Women's 49 kg (108 pounds)
	Wu Jingyu	China
	Yang Shu-chun	Taiwan
	Sanaa Atabrour	Morocco
	Brigitte Yague	Spain
Note	Wu outpointed foes 20-1 to win in Beijing.

Women's 57 kg (126 pounds)
	Hou Yuzhuo	China
	Jade Jones	Great Britain
	Bineta Diedhiou	Senegal
	Diana Lopez	U.S.
Note	Three Lopez siblings all won medals in '08.

Women's 67 kg (148 pounds)
	Sarah Stevenson	Great Britain
	Hwang Kyung-seon	South Korea
	Helena Fromm	Germany
	Karine Sergerie	Canada
Note	Sergerie practiced only karate until 13.

Women's 67+ kg (more than 148 pounds)
	Gwladys Epangue	France
	Maria Espinoza	Mexico
	Natalia Falávigna	Brazil
	Lee In-jong	South Korea
Note	Nadin Dawani could become Jordan's first Olympic medalist.

Team Handball

Men
	Denmark
	France
	Spain
Note	European teams have won 32 of 33 Olympic handball medals.

Women
	Norway
	France
	Russia
Note	Denmark won three straight golds until Norway won in 2008.

Tennis

Men's singles
	Roger Federer	Switzerland
	Novak Djokovic	Serbia
	Andy Murray	Great Britain
Note	Federer's only gold came in doubles in '08.

Men's doubles
	Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan	U.S.
	Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski	Poland
	Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram	Israel
Note	The Bryans won bronze in Beijing.

Women's singles
	Serena Williams	U.S.
	Sabine Lisicki	Germany
	Victoria Azarenka	Belarus
Note	Williams just won her fifth singles title at Wimbledon, site of Olympic tennis.

Women's doubles
	Serena Williams & Venus Williams	U.S.
	Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond	U.S.
	Lucie Hradecka & Andrea Hlavackova	Czech Republic
Note	The Williamses were 2000 and '08 champs.

Mixed doubles
	Lisa Raymond & Mike Bryan	U.S.
	Liezel Huber & Bob Bryan	U.S.
	Sania Mirza & Leander Paes	India
Note	Teams won't be set until July 31.

Track And Field

Men's 100 meters
	Yohan Blake	Jamaica
	Usain Bolt	Jamaica
	Justin Gatlin	U.S.
Note	Bolt warning: Cold and wet is not good weather for hamstrings.

Men's 200 meters
	Usain Bolt	Jamaica
	Yohan Blake	Jamaica
	Wallace Spearmon	U.S.
Note	Blake stunned Bolt in the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican trials.

Men's 400 meters
	LaShawn Merritt	U.S.
	Kirani James	Grenada
	Tony McQuay	U.S.
Note	Merritt has won eight of 11 finals since coming off a 21-month drug suspension.

Men's 800 meters
	David Rudisha	Kenya
	Mohammed Aman	Ethiopia
	Abubaker Kaki	Sudan
Note	Rudisha's father, Daniel, won silver in the 4x400 relay in 1968.

Men's 1,500 meters
	Silas Kiplagat	Kenya
	Asbel Kiprop	Kenya
	Ayanleh Souleiman	Djibouti
Note	Kiprop was moved up to gold in 2008 after Rashid Ramzi's drug disqualification.

Men's 3,000-meter steeplchase
	Brimin Kipruto	Kenya
	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya
	Abel Mutai	Kenya
Note	Kipruto won silver in 2004 and gold in '08.

Men's 5,000 meters
	Dejen Gebremeskel	Ethiopia
	Mo Farah	Great Britain
	Hagos Gebrhiwet	Ethiopia
Note	Somalia-born Farah trains in Oregon.

Men's 10,000 meters
	Mo Farah	Great Britain
	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia
	Wilson Kiprop	Kenya
Note	Africans have won every medal since 1988.

Men's marathon
	Wilson Kipsang	Kenya
	Abel Kirui	Kenya
	Ayele Abshero	Ethiopia
Note	No Kenyan had won this race until Beijing.

Men's 110-meter hurdles
	Liu Xiang	China
	Aries Merritt	U.S.
	Jason Richardson	U.S.
Note	Injured Liu pulled out of his first heat in '08.

Men's 400-meter hurdles
	Javier Culson	Puerto Rico
	Dai Greene	Great Britain
	Michael Tinsley	U.S.
Note	Greene, who has epilepsy, once turned down a pro soccer contract.

Men's 4x100-meter relay
	Jamaica
	U.S.
	Trinidad and Tobago
Note	U.S. dropped the baton in the heats in '08.

Men's 4x400-meter relay
	U.S.
	Bahamas
	Jamaica
Note	Paralympian Oscar Pistorius will run for South African contenders.

Men's 20K walk
	Valeriy Borchin	Russia
	Wang Zhen	China
	Luis Fernando López	Colombia
Note	Borchin has won two world titles since his Beijing triumph.

Men's 50K walk
	Sergey Bakulin	Russia
	Si Tianfeng	China
	Jared Tallent	Australia
Note	Tallent's wife, Claire, was an Olympic race walker for Australia in 2008.

Men's high jump
	Ivan Ukhov	Russia
	Andrey Silnov	Russia
	Jesse Williams	U.S.
Note	Williams was fifth at North Carolina's state high school wrestling tourney in 2002.

Men's long jump
	Greg Rutherford	Great Britain
	Sebastian Bayer	Germany
	Mitchell Watt	Australia
Note	An Achilles tendon injury shelved Olympic champ Dwight Phillips of the U.S.

Men's triple jump
	Christian Taylor	U.S.
	Phillips Idowu	Great Britain
	Fabrizio Donato	Italy
Note	Watch for world indoor champ Will Claye of the U.S.

Men's pole vault
	Renaud Lavillenie	France
	Björn Otto	Germany
	Raphael Holzdeppe	Germany
Note	A snapped pole broke Lavillenie's left hand last year.

Men's shot put
	Reese Hoffa	U.S.
	Dylan Armstrong	Canada
	David Storl	Germany
Note	Hoffa's PR on a Rubik's Cube is 38 seconds.

Men's discus
	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania
	Robert Harting	Germany
	Gerd Kanter	Estonia
Note	Alekna, 40, has two golds and a bronze.

Men's hammer throw
	Krisztián Pars	Hungary
	Sergej Litvinov	Russia
	Pawel Fajdek	Poland
Note	Pars finished fourth in 2008.

Men's javelin
	Vítezslav Vesely	Czech Republic
	Vadims Vasilevskis	Latvia
	Oleksandr Pyatnytsya	Ukraine
Note	Vasilevskis has carried the Latvian flag in two Olympic opening ceremonies.

Decathlon
	Ashton Eaton	U.S.
	Pascal Behrenbruch	Germany
	Trey Hardee	U.S.
Note	In June, Eaton upped the world record to 9,039 points.

Women's 100 meters
	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Jamaica
	Carmelita Jeter	U.S.
	Veronica Campbell-Brown	Jamaica
Note	Jeter's brother Pooh played for the NBA's Sacramento Kings.

Women's 200 meters
	Allyson Felix	U.S.
	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Jamaica
	Veronica Campbell-Brown	Jamaica
Note	Campbell-Brown edged Felix for gold in '04 and '08.

Women's 400 meters
	Sanya Richards-Ross	U.S.
	Antonina Krivoshapka	Russia
	Amantle Montsho	Botswana
Note	Botswana has not won an Olympic medal.

Women's 800 meters
	Pamela Jelimo	Kenya
	Caster Semenya	South Africa
	Mariya Savinova	Russia
Note	Jelimo kept her marriage secret from the Kenyan press until after she won in Beijing.

Women's 1,500 meters
	Abeba Arigawe	Ethiopia
	Genzebe Dibaba	Ethiopia
	Mariem Selsouli	Morocco
Note	Britain's best hope is ... Hannah England.

Women's 3,000-meter steeplechase
	Milcah Chemos Cheywa	Kenya
	Sofia Assefa	Ethiopia
	Habiba Ghribi	Tunisia
Note	Cheywa attended police college.

Women's 5,000 meters
	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya
	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia
	Sally Kipyego	Kenya
Note	Cheruiyot swept the 5,000 and 10,000 at worlds in 2011.

Women's 10,000 meters
	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya
	Belaynesh Oljira	Ethiopia
Note	Dibaba is married to Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine.

Women's marathon
	Mary Keitany	Kenya
	Edna Kiplagata	Kenya
	Tiki Gelana	Ethiopia
Note	No Kenyan woman has won an Olympic marathon.

Women's 100-meter hurdles
	Sally Pearson	Australia
	Brigitte Foster-Hylton	Jamaica
	Kellie Wells	U.S.
Note	Pearson ran a relay at worlds at age 16.

Women's 400-meter hurdles
	Irina Davydova	Russia
	Natalya Antyukh	Russia
	Lashinda Demus	U.S.
Note	Demus gave birth to twin boys in 2007.

Women's 4x100-meter relay
	Jamaica
	U.S
	Ukraine
Note	U.S. has botched handing off the baton at the last two Olympics.

Women's 4x400-meter relay
	U.S.
	Russia
	Jamaica
Note	U.S. hasn't lost in this since 1992.

Women's 20K walk
	Elmira Alembekova	Russia
	Olga Kaniskina	Russia
	Liu Hong	China
Note	In Kaniskina's first race, she won a box of candy for finishing last.

Women's high jump
	Anna Chicherova	Russia
	Svetlana Shkolina	Russia
	Chaunté Lowe	U.S.
Note	At age four Lowe asked her mother how to make an Olympic team.

Women's long jump
	Brittney Reese	U.S.
	Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova	Belarus
	Yelena Sokolova	Russia
Note	Reese donated 100 turkeys to feed the homeless in her Mississippi hometown.

Women's triple jump
	Olha Saladuha	Ukraine
	Caterine Ibargüen	Colombia
	Olga Rypakova	Kazakhstan
Note	Ibargüen has also high-jumped and long-jumped for Colombia.

Women's pole vault
	Yelena Isinbayeva	Russia
	Fabiana Murer	Brazil
	Silke Spiegelburg	Germany
Note	Two-time champ Isinbayeva was world sportswoman of the year in 2007 and '09.

Women's shot put
	Valerie Adams	New Zealand
	Nadezhda Ostapchuk	Belarus
	Gong Lijiao	China
Note	Adams's brother Steven is 7 feet tall and headed to Pitt to play basketball.

Women's discus
	Darya Pishchalnikova	Russia
	Sandra Perkovic	Croatia
	Li Yanfeng	China
Note	Perkovic was suspended for six months after failing two drug tests in 2011.

Women's hammer throw
	Aksana Miankova	Belarus
	Tatyana Lysenko	Russia
	Betty Heidler	Germany
Note	Heidler is on the police force border unit.

Women's javelin
	Barbora Spotáková	Czech Republic
	Sunette Viljoen	South Africa
	Christina Obergföll	Germany
Note	Spotáková was a heptathlete in college at Minnesota.

Heptathlon
	Jessica Ennis	Great Britain
	Tatyana Chernova	Russia
	Kristina Savitskaya	Russia
Note	Ennis is already immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds in London.

Triathlon

Men
	Alistair Brownlee	Great Britain
	Jonathan Brownlee	Great Britain
	Javier Gomez	Spain
Note	The Brothers Brownlee went one-three at last year's worlds.

Women
	Nicola Spirig	Switzerland
	Andrea Hewitt	New Zealand
	Helen Jenkins	Great Britain
Note	Jenkins married her coach in 2008 at Disney World.

Volleyball

Men's indoor
	Russia
	Brazil
	Poland
Note	Hugh McCutcheon, who coached U.S. men to '08 gold, now leads U.S. women.

Men's beach
	Phil Dalhausser & Todd Rogers	U.S.
	Alison Cerutti & Emanuel Rego	Brazil
	Jake Gibb & Sean Rosenthal	U.S.
Note	The 6-foot-9 Dalhausser is known as the Beijing Beast.

Women's indoor
	Brazil
	U.S.
	Russia
Note	U.S. women have seven world and Olympic medals, but no gold.

Women's beach
	Larissa França & Juliana Silva	Brazil
	Xue Chen & Zhang Xi	China
	Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh	U.S.
Note	May-Treanor and Walsh won 112 straight matches through 2008.

Water Polo

Men
	Croatia
	Serbia
	Italy
Note	Don't rule out three-time defending champ Hungary.

Women
	Australia
	U.S.
	China
Note	U.S. women have always won a medal, but never a gold.

Weightlifting

Men's 56 kg (123 pounds)
	Valentin Hristov	Azerbaijan
	Wu Jingbiao	China
	Tran Le Quoc Toan	Vietnam
Note	Azerbaijan paid Bulgaria to let Hristov change his citizenship.

Men's 62 kg (136.5 pounds)
	Zhang Jie	China
	Kim Un-guk	North Korea
	Erol Bilgin	Turkey
Note	China was tops at worlds with 13 medals.

Men's 69 kg (152 pounds)
	Lin Qingfeng	China
	Won Jeong-sik	South Korea
	Mete Binay	Turkey
Note	World champ Tang Deshang was left off the Chinese team.

Men's 77 kg (169.5 pounds)
	Lu Xiaojun	China
	Sa Jae-hyouk	South Korea
	Lu Haojie	China
Note	Third after the snatch, Sa rallied for '08 gold.

Men's 85 kg (187 pounds)
	Kianoush Rostami	Iran
	Lu Yong	China
	Andrei Rybakou	Belarus
Note	Lu is China's only returning Olympic lifter.

Men's 94 kg (207 pounds)
	Ilya Ilyin	Kazakhstan
	Artem Ivanov	Ukraine
	Anatoli Ciricu	Moldova
Note	Ilyin trains in an Almaty sports complex named after him.

Men's 105 kg (231 pounds)
	Khadzhimurat Akkayev	Russia
	Dmitry Klokov	Russia
	Jorge David Arroyo Valdez	Ecuador
Note	Akkayev's birth city of Tyrnyauz was buried in a mudslide in 2001.

Men's 105+ kg (more than 231 pounds)
	Behdad Salimi	Iran
	Jeon Sang-guen	South Korea
	Sajjad Anoushiravani	Iran
Note	The Iranians went one-two at 2011 worlds.

Women's 48 kg (105.5 pounds)
	Wang Mingjuan	China
	Panida Khamsri	Thailand
	Nurdan Karagoz	Turkey
Note	China left world champ Tian Yuan at home.

Women's 53 kg (116.5 pounds)
	Zhou Jun	China
	Zulfiya Chinshanlo	Kazakhstan
	Hsu Shu-ching	Taiwan
Note	The four Chinese women lifters at the Beijing Games all won gold.

Women's 58 kg (127.5 pounds)
	Nastassia Novikava	Belarus
	Li Xueying	China
	Pimsiri Sirikaew	Thailand
Note	Novikava edged Li at 2011 worlds.

Women's 63 kg (138.5 pounds)
	Svetlana Tsarukayeva	Russia
	Maiya Maneza	Kazakhstan
	Sibel Simsek	Turkey
Note	In Beijing, Tsarukayeva missed every lift.

Women's 69 kg (152 pounds)
	Oksana Slivenko	Russia
	Roxana Cocos	Romania
	Huang Shih-hsu	Taiwan
Note	Slivenko won silver in 2008.

Women's 75 kg (165 pounds)
	Nadezda Yevstyukhina	Russia
	Svetlana Podobedova	Kazhakstan
	Lidia Valentin	Spain
Note	Podobedova originally competed for Russia.

Women's 75+ kg (more than 165 pounds)
	Zhou Lulu	China
	Tatiana Kashirina	Russia
	Mariam Usman	Nigeria
Note	U.S.' Holley Mangold is the sister of New York Jets' lineman Nick.

Wrestling

Men's freestyle 55 kg (121 pounds)
	Radoslav Velikov	Bulgaria
	Jamal Otarsultanov	Russia
	Bayaraa Naranbaatar	Mongolia
	Hassan Rahimi	Iran
Note	Velikov was upset by Henry Cejudo of the U.S. in the semis in 2008.

Men's freestyle 60 kg (132 pounds)
	Besik Kudukhov	Russia
	Franklin Gómez	Puerto Rico
	Zelimkhan Huseynov	Azerbaijan
	Yowlis Rodríguez	Cuba
Note	NCAA champ at Michigan State, Gómez trains under Cael Sanderson at Penn State.

Men's freestyle 66 kg (145 pounds)
	Mehdi Taghavi Kermani	Iran
	Sushil Kumar Solanki	India
	Jabrayil Hasanov	Azerbaijan
	Andriy Stadnik	Ukraine
Note	Kumar is a railway manager and vegetarian.

Men's freestyle 74 kg (163 pounds)
	Jordan Burroughs	U.S.
	Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi	Iran
	Ashraf Aliyev	Azerbaijan
	Denis Tsargush	Russia
Note	Burroughs's Twitter name is alliseeisgold.

Men's freestyle 84 kg (185 pounds)
	Sharif Sharifov	Azerbaijan
	Anzor Urishev	Russia
	Jake Herbert	U.S.
	Dato Marsagishvili	Georgia
Note	Sharifov spoiled Sanderson's comeback at 2011 worlds.

Men's freestyle 96 kg (211 pounds)
	Reza Yazdani	Iran
	Abdusalam Gadisov	Russia
	Serhat Balci	Turkey
	Jake Varner	U.S.
Note	Nigeria's Sinivie Boltic is Africa's best hope for a wrestling medal.

Men's freestyle 120 kg (264 pounds)
	Bilyal Makhov	Russia
	Terval Dlagnev	U.S.
	Ioannis Arzoumanidis	Greece
	Alexei Shemarov	Belarus
Note	Born in Bulgaria, Dlagnev grew up in Arlington, Texas.

Women's 48 kg (105.5 pounds)
	Hitomi Sakamoto	Japan
	Carol Huynh	Canada
	Zhuldyz Eshimova	Kazakhstan
	Mariya Stadnyk	Azerbaijan
Note	Huynh's parents were Vietnamese refugees.

Women's 55 kg (121 pounds)
	Saori Yoshida	Japan
	Ida-Theres Nerell	Sweden
	Tetyana Lazereva	Ukraine
	Tonya Verbeek	Canada
Note	Yoshida was 177-1 until a loss in May.

Women's 63 kg (138.5 pounds)
	Kaori Icho	Japan
	Martine Dugrenier	Canada
	Elena Pirozhkova	U.S.
	Katerina Vidiaux	Cuba
Note	Icho's sister Chiharu has two Olympic silvers.

Women's 72 kg (158.5 pounds)
	Stanka Zlateva	Bulgaria
	Wang Jiao	China
	Ekaterina Bukina	Russia
	Vasilisa Marzaliuk	Belarus
Note	Stephany Lee was dropped from the U.S. team after a positive marijuana test.

Men's Greco-Roman 55 kg (121 pounds)
	Hamid Souryan Reihanpour	Iran
	Rovshan Bayramov	Azerbaijan
	Kohei Hasegawa	Japan
	Bekkhan Mankiev	Russia
Note	Five-time world champ Souryan was fifth in Beijing.

Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg (132 pounds)
	Luis Liendo	Venezuela
	Almat Kebispayev	Kazakhstan
	Zaur Kuramagomedov	Russia
	Omid Haji Noroozi	Iran
Note	Venezuela has one gold (boxing in '68) in Olympic history.

Men's Greco-Roman 66 kg (145.5 pounds)
	Saeid Mourad Abdvali	Iran
	Pedro Isaac Mullen	Cuba
	Manuchar Tskhadaia	Georgia
	Kim Hyeon-woo	South Korea
Note	U.S. entrant Justin Lester came out of retirement and could medal.

Men's Greco-Roman 74 kg (163 pounds)
	Roman Vlasov	Russia
	Mark Madsen	Denmark
	Selcuk Cebi	Turkey
	Arsen Julfalakyan	Armenia
Note	No Dane has won wrestling gold since 1906.

Men's Greco-Roman 84 kg (185 pounds)
	Damian Janikowski	Poland
	Alim Selimau	Belarus
	Nazmi Avluca	Turkey
	Nenad Zugaj	Croatia
Note	In 2008, Sweden's Ara Abrahamian lost a bronze after tossing the medal in protest.

Men's Greco-Roman 96 kg (211.5 pounds)
	Jimmy Lidberg	Sweden
	Elis Guri	Bulgaria
	Mohamed Abdelfatah	Egypt
	Rustam Totrov	Russia
Note	At 6-foot-5, Lidberg is especially difficult to turn.

From SI.com

Report: Isiah Thomas was “lukewarm” on Jeremy Lin (SI - Tracking Blog)
Penn State football players in contact with Vols head coach about transferring (SI - Tracking Blog)
Tarmoh revisits dead-heat 100, a race she says was 'taken' from her (SI - Olympics)
Romney expects Games 'to be highly successful' (SI - Olympics)
Mavs’ position in Dwight Howard derby (SI - The Point Forward)

From Around the Web

Fluent in Soccer, an International Business Language (The New York Times)
Don’t Eat The Broccoli In China (redOrbit)
Report: Wes Welker Tackled by Security, Nearly Involved in Brawl in Aspen (NESN.com)
Ronaldo Has His Lamborghini Towed in Madrid, Messi Grins (CarBuzz)
Weekly Inspiration: 10 Creative 2012 Olympic Designs – N.46 (UnderWorld Magazines)

[?]

More Olympics

Global athletes to watch History of opening ceremonies

Ervin returns to pool 12 years later U.S. kayaker paddles toward gold

: Hot Topics: Olympics 2012 MLB Trade Deadline Zack Greinke NFL Training Camp Dwight Howard Pac-12 Swimsuit

TM & © 2012 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. SI.com is part of CNN Digital Network, which is part of the Turner Digital Network.
Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines, your California privacy rights, and ad choices.

Yankees' Rodriguez breaks hand

2012-07-26T09:39:00.000+08:00

SEATTLE (AP) -- Alex Rodriguez has broken his left hand after being hit by a pitch from Felix Hernandez in the eighth inning of the New York Yankees' 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.
Rodriguez was the third player to be hit by a pitch from Hernandez. He immediately fell to the ground, wincing in pain and was removed from the game.
The Yankees said afterward that A-Rod had a non-displaced fracture of the left hand, and there was no timetable for his return. He will be placed on the disabled list and will see the team's doctor when the club returns to New York after Wednesday's series finale.
Hernandez also hit Derek Jeter and former teammate Ichiro Suzuki.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/07/25/alex-rodriguez-breaks-hand.ap/index.html#ixzz21gkxZxU5

Dream Team still resonates long after dominating 1992 Olympics

2012-07-26T09:36:00.003+08:00

Jack McCallum's new book, Dream Team, chronicles the success and worldwide impact of the 1992 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team. SI.com's Macklin Woodruff caught up with McCallum to discuss how the book came together and why the team had such a big effect on the sport.
SI.com: What inspired you to write this book about the Dream Team?
McCallum: I'd like to say I was smart enough, but it wasn't even my idea. An editor from Random House called me up a couple of years ago and said, "Hey, in 2012 it's going to be 20 years since the Dream Team. Do you think there's a book there writing about their impact and the experience then and what's become of them and everything?" And right away I said, "Yeah." So I guess the honest answer is, What inspired me is someone else inspiring me. A lot of times, the best ideas you don't come up with yourself. What can I say? I owe him.
SI.com: What did you set out to accomplish by writing this book?
McCallum: When people would say, "What's your angle?" my answer would be "everything." No. 1, it was 20 years ago. A lot of people don't even remember who was on the team. No. 2, the written record of that time is not that large. There's a book that came out right after the Olympics about the Dream Team, [but] it didn't have much about the Olympics even. There wasn't social media, websites, tweeting. So we didn't have a sort of daily record of these guys. Newspapers had covered it, but it wasn't the same kind of thing as today. So that's kind of the reason to do the history of it.
Beyond that, I thought these guys had remained such compelling characters that you can tell about them now. Then when I started writing the book I realized that it could be about the whole era. Starting with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird [in the NBA in the 1980s] and kind of ending with the Dream Team, that was sort of the glory of the most successful era of basketball. So, my idea was to include everything in it. And I hope it worked.
SI.com: How did the book evolve as you began getting more and more information?
McCallum: The No. 1 thing is getting everybody [to talk]. You start out with that mission because you know it's going to become the hardest thing. These guys got inducted en masse into the Hall of Fame in 2010. So that was the unofficial start of it. I went up there [to Springfield, Mass.] and tried to tell all of them that I was doing it. And that meant that I could plant the idea and get a couple of phone numbers. Once you have that, you start trying to pick them off one by one, but the hardest thing is getting them. I didn't want to interview any of them there; I wanted to see them on their own turf. So that process basically took two years. I interviewed Larry Bird when the book was in galleys in February of 2012.
You always have those interviews, but then the way I started was to go back and read every story I had written about these guys since 1984. Do whatever kind of research you can do. I read a number of books, certainly Jackie MacMullan's book about Bird and Magic and Sam Smith's book about Jordan, because I sensed from the beginning that they were going to be the dominant characters. So you're doing all of this research and as you get somebody, you go back and fill in the blanks. You do not do a book like this on page one and then the end, page 330. It changes all the time, goes back and forth all the time. The beginning becomes the middle, the middle becomes the end, and the end becomes three quarters of the way through, based on the information that you get from the guys during the interviews.
[Photo Gallery: Classic pictures of the Dream Team]
SI.com: You didn't get Bird to talk until that late in the process?
McCallum: I thought that Bird, Magic and Michael [Jordan] would be the hardest guys. But of those three, I figured Bird would be the easiest because he's kind of a captive audience there -- he's working for a team [Bird was the Indiana Pacers' president at the time; he stepped down in June]. But for some reason we just had trouble hooking up -- he didn't want to do it, he blew another interview off, one time I went out there and he wasn't there. So he turned out to be the hardest, when I thought it would probably be Michael.
Michael never does interviews anymore. He almost never talks. And he had this ancient fight with Sports Illustrated about the cover line for a story about him when he was playing minor league baseball. I tried to make it clear in the email I sent that it didn't have anything to do with Sports Illustrated, and Michael and I had always had a good relationship. When Michael talked to me -- I think it was late June of 2011 -- that was major. He was really good, too. He was very honest and candid.
SI.com: Why do you think the Dream Team still has so much relevance today?
McCallum: Somebody asked me the other night, "Did you have to change the audience that you wrote for or try to explain these guys?" I said that I began with the implicit idea that everyone knew these guys, that I was not reintroducing them. That generation, it loomed above all others. Even if you didn't know who those players from 1992 were, and you were a fan of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, you endlessly heard LeBron and Durant referred to as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, and any white player who comes around, maybe Kevin Love, is referred to as Larry Bird. So the frame of reference for basketball always seems to be these guys. You could tell me better, not whether that's accurate, but it seems that it is. These guys were accepted as basketball royalty, and therefore you didn't have to over-explain it. That's very helpful for a writer when he can be writing for someone who is 70 years old and hopefully be writing for someone who's 20."
SI.com: What was the hardest part about writing this book?
McCallum: Getting the guys, by far. I've been doing this for 40 years and if I'm not pretty good at writing or if I'm not pretty good at interviewing, I should have got out of the business a long time ago. But the mechanics of getting someone to sit down in a place where you can talk to them without them being distracted, with the idea that they're going to pay attention to nothing but you for one hour, or two hours, or three hours or whatever you have them for, that process remains difficult. I remember the minute that Michael Jordan walked into the room, and we were talking in a quiet room in Charlotte, I thought to myself, "The book is over. I will have a great interview with Jordan. He will be honest. And I will be able to write the hell out of whatever that comes out of this thing."
SI.com: How did the players react when you approached them about their Dream Team experience?
McCallum: I was lucky in that respect. Once I got them, it was easy for them to talk because what I was asking about was such a major part of their lives. There is a point 20 years later -- they're all established, they're all icons, so they were all pretty honest, even when talking about the controversial stuff.
SI.com: Did you ever expect to get Jordan to admit his role in Isiah Thomas' omission from the team? How did that come about?
McCallum: Jordan was actually the one who brought it up. I was trying to find a way to edge into the subject, but he mentioned it before I even tried.
Jordan was the guy. [U.S. team organizers] needed Jordan, Jordan didn't need them. He didn't need the endorsements. He was the busiest person in the world, and he was already the biggest star in the world, and he didn't want to spend his summer playing basketball with someone he didn't want to play with. He didn't want chemistry issues in July and August.
SI.com: How much of the hype surrounding the Dream Team was situational, in the sense that it was the first time that non-college players could participate?
McCallum: I would agree with you, but I wouldn't really define it as hype. No. 1, people forget that there was a legitimate news angle here: "Hey, what's going to happen? Are they going to win by 90 points or are they going to get challenged somehow?" So people were curious about the kind of mix of oil and water that was going to go on.
No. 2, what was also situational was that Europe at the time was an incredibly fertile ground. They had the NBA, but they really had it in bite-size nuggets. They really had only the appetizer, and what they were waiting for was the main course. So there was sort of a mystical, easy thing about the NBA, and now they were going to see it in real life.
And finally, these players, in terms of a sporting culture, were as big as you could get. I think probably you could put LeBron in that category now. Maybe Kobe and Shaq when they were together. But you're talking about a time in our sport when guys like Magic, Michael and Larry were as famous as any athletes, and the NBA was at the top of the sporting culture.
You combine those three things, and there's no doubt that the Dream Team had a situational advantage.
SI.com: Do you think that athletes now aren't perceived in the same light because they are more accessible and humanized through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter?
McCallum: Yeah, I do think that. You need no further example than Michael Jordan. Here's the odd thing about it, though: Michael since then, yes, he has become completely humanized. He kind of failed with the Washington Wizards, he's really struggling with the Charlotte Bobcats, he's gotten divorced. He has not become a tabloid headline, but he is not the 'Michael Jordan' of the committee room that he was as a basketball player. But what is odd, as I go back and do the research, is that his reputation as a basketball player, and pretty much all of those guys with the exception of Christian Laettner, is as good as it ever was. In other words, there doesn't seem to be a tendency in our culture to start sniping away at their basketball careers. We say, "Jordan has been a real failure in the front office, but that guy was still great on the court." I think people still give them their due as basketball players while realizing that things off the court have done a lot to humanize them.
SI.com: Do you think there will ever be a team with the same larger-than-life aura surrounding it?
McCallum: No, and it was for the reasons that you said. The world has become too small. You send Kevin Durant over there now -- yeah, he's a fresh face, he's young, he's fun, good-looking and smart. But they've seen 10,000 videos of Kevin Durant; there's no mystery. There's not this distant magic aspect to these people anymore. It just doesn't exist, it just couldn't happen. The Dream Team came along at just the right time to be doing this.
SI.com: In one section of the book that was excerpted in Sports Illustrated, you write about the Dream Team scrimmage before the Olympics. What made that scrimmage the so-called "best game nobody ever saw"? Does the mystery of it play a role?
McCallum: I'm not about to proclaim it the best game ever played, just the best game "nobody ever saw." It is unbelievable the way that it grew in legend , but even Magic says in the [recent NBA TV] documentary that the level of play in the game is overblown. However, the mystery of it, and the fact that I was able to get this tape and that it exists as a record, and the extent that it shows the competitiveness between Magic and Michael, that part of it is not overblown. That's why it was so culturally significant. The combination of things -- the mysteriousness of it, the fact that nobody really saw it, and how hard these guys played and went at each other within this silent gymnasium -- is a really nice historical bit of footage."
SI.com: The cover of your book says that the Dream Team changed basketball forever. How did these men manage to do that?
McCallum: What went on was a basketball revolution in other countries. And this didn't really become clear to me until I talked to Dirk Nowitzki. I think I talked to Dirk pretty early, so I kind of got that idea and was able to explore it, and that was that most of the world was looking at this like, "What a slaughter! We're losing to these guys by 50 points. Aren't these guys great? But what the hell are we getting out of it?" Well, the kids who were basketball players then, who were 13 years old and living in Germany and Lithuania and Argentina and Turkey and France, they saw something different. They saw that suddenly the game was kind of demystified. The United States was really good at it. "Michael Jordan is really freaking good. But he does the same things we do! He comes down, he spins, he fakes right, he backs his man in, he steps back, he shoots a jumper. He just does it 100 times better than we do. Maybe if we practice we can get it to 10 times better than we do, and by the next generation, we're doing it the same."
Plus, it was a numbers game. It was suddenly 100 million people are watching this team, well maybe five million of them start playing basketball instead of soccer. And maybe one million of them start becoming really good. And maybe 100 out of that million get to the NBA level. This isn't just me theorizing it; the NBA has done research on what happened and why the game evolved into an international game and where the international players can thrive. The No. 1 reason by far was not marketing, not touring teams, not clinics, not television proliferation -- although all that happened. The No. 1 reason they list for why the game began to grow was the advent of the Dream Team in '92.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/jack_mccallum/07/25/dream-team-interview/index.html#ixzz21gkKLqxZ

Helen Lindes

2012-07-26T09:32:00.001+08:00

Spain, Brazil among Team USA's toughest challengers at Olympics

2012-07-26T09:29:00.000+08:00

While the U.S. men are the prohibitive favorite to win the Olympic gold medal, their lack of size and need for unusual lineups have created hope around the world for a major upset. Here's a look at the five main challengers the U.S. will face in London.

1. Spain

Spain is the world's No. 2 nation for basketball, and its deep roster stands as proof of the potential challenge it could pose to the U.S. in London. Nine of its team members are current, former or future NBA players, including All-Star 7-footers Pau and Marc Gasol, whose size advantage could cause matchup problems with the U.S. frontcourt.
Spain will try to win without injured point guard Ricky Rubio, who drove Spain to within four points of the U.S. in the final three minutes of the 2008 Olympic final before the U.S. pulled away to win gold. While Rubio won't come off the bench this time, the Spanish backcourt remains strong. Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro will play after recovering from injuries last season. Navarro has been held out of training as he recuperates from plantar fasciitis, and his health is crucial: He has been an exceptional scorer in games against the U.S over the years.
The big question for any U.S. opponent is whether its backcourt can hold onto the ball against the American defensive pressure, and Spain -- even without Rubio -- has no shortage of ballhandlers. Jose Calderon (of the Raptors), Sergio Rodriguez (who spent four seasons with the Blazers, Kings and Knicks) and Sergio Llull (the 24 year old of Real Madrid whose second-round rights were purchased for a record $2.25 million by the Rockets in 2009) will all be available.
If Spain can avoid turnovers and establish its offense in the half court, then it will look to feed the Gasol brothers and control the game from the blocks, with Pau and Marc moving fluidly between the high and low posts. Both are excellent rebounders, scorers and passers, and Spain will count on them to read the defense and set up their teammates. Coming off the bench will be 6-foot-10 Serge Ibaka, the Thunder's shot-blocking specialist who can also knock down elbow jump shots, and 6-foot-9 Victor Claver, who is moving to the Blazers next season.
The U.S. will likely counter with a variety of unorthodox lineups, units that emphasize athleticism in order to mask a lack of size up front. Spain will play more traditionally, and the familiarity of its players -- they've been contending for medals for years and know each other as well as any international team -- will generate confidence that it can read and react to the unpredictability of the U.S. rotations. The U.S. deserves to be the heavy favorite, but the continuity, depth and experience of the Spanish gives them the best shot at delivering an historic upset. They will have to play exceptional team basketball, but they also believe that they've invested the necessary time together to produce the game of their lives.

2. Brazil

Others may rate Argentina or France as the most dangerous challenger to the U.S. and Spain, but the Brazilians have a superior blend of coaching, size and experience. It starts with coach Ruben Magnano, who led Argentina to upsets of the U.S. in both the 2002 Worlds and 2004 Olympics. Magnano is to international basketball what Pete Carrill once was to the NCAA Tournament, but Magnano plays at a faster pace and with superior talent. His players know how to move without the ball and look for each other in space, enabling his team to create easy baskets in the half court by using backdoor cuts for layups and dunks.
The key to the team is 29-year-old point guard Marcelinho Huertas, who recently signed with Barcelona of the Spanish league. He is an exceptional international playmaker with a strong handle, a skill he demonstrated in an exhibition loss to the U.S. on Monday. Huertas attacked the American defense to buy time for his teammates to cut to the basket. The big problem for Brazil is its failure to establish a reliable backup to Huertas: When he was on the bench, the U.S. defenders forced his surrogates to create turnovers that were crucial in the U.S.' 80-69 win.
Huertas will have to play big minutes for Brazil to earn a rematch in the medal round (Brazil, like Spain, has been assigned to Group B for the opening round and will avoid the U.S., which is expected to win Group A.) When he's on the floor, Brazil will seek to play through its effective trio of NBA big men, all 6-foot-10 or taller: Nene (of the Wizards), Tiago Splitter (Spurs) and Anderson Varejao (Cavaliers). All are currently in their peak years.
Leandro Barbosa will also be a key player in providing penetration and scoring from the perimeter, threats that can take pressure off the big men and spread the floor against the rotating U.S. defense. Every opponent will likely have trouble dealing with American defensive pressure, but if Brazil can maintain control of the ball, then its combination of length up front, Huertas' playmaking and Magnano's schemes can cause problems for the U.S.

3. Argentina

This will be the final Olympics for Manu Ginobili, who will turn 35 the day before the opening game in London. And the dynamic of his national team has much in common with the Spurs -- Argentina knows it can win the gold medal based on its experience, but it also acknowledges that it may be too old to win again. Eight players are in their 30s, something that should give Argentina confidence when the game begins, but reason to worry down the stretch. As fatigue sets in, a younger American opponent could raise its level of intensity.
Matchups will also be a problem against the U.S., as Argentina is a small team that won't be able to exploit the Americans' absence of a traditional center beyond 7-foot-1 Tyson Chandler. The tallest Argentinian is 6-foot-11 backup center Marin Leiva, and its go-to big man is 6-foot-9 power forward Luis Scola, who overcomes his lack of size in the NBA by outworking opponents. But that style figures to be less effective in the Olympics. The deep U.S. bench will be able to come at him in waves.
A key player will be 32-year-old Andres Nocioni, who rarely played for the 76ers last season and hasn't scored in double-figures since he averaged 11.4 points for the Bulls and Kings in 2008-09. He must be an aggressive scorer in the Olympics, but at 6-foot-7, he will have difficulty against the more athletic American forwards.
Argentina will play through its NBA backcourt of Ginobili, Carlos Delfino and point guard Pablo Prigioni, the 35 year old who will make his NBA debut next season with the Knicks. They may be able to handle the first layer of defensive pressure, but can they run their offense effectively enough to overcome the swarming American defense?
Argentina is scheduled to finish group play with a game against the U.S., but it may not have reason to give its best effort at that time. Assuming that the Americans win Group A, then the best route for Argentina would potentially be to finish either second or fourth in the group and land in the opposite bracket for knockout play, avoiding the U.S. until the final. A strategic loss could place Argentina in the easier bracket, thus increasing its hopes of reaching the gold-medal game.

4. France

Tony Parker may be even more indispensable to his French team than he is to the Spurs.

John Berry/Getty Images

The French avoided a catastrophe when Tony Parker was cleared to play in the Olympics following the eye injury he suffered during a brawl at a New York nightclub this summer. Parker is more important to France than he is to the Spurs. He was an MVP candidate for San Antonio this season, but he is absolutely indispensable for France as a playmaker, scorer and inspirational leader.
France has long been the least reliable contender in international basketball. Its run of disappointing results ended last summer at EuroBasket, where it finished second in the European championship to Spain behind Parker's tournament-leading 22.1 points per game. The question is whether France can maintain that performance against more dependable contenders like the U.S., Spain and Argentina.
However, France is loaded with NBA talent. Parker will share the backcourt with Nando De Colo, the 6-foot-5 combo guard who will join him as a 25-year-old rookie in San Antonio next season. Nicolas Batum, whose contentious free-agent negotiations secured him a salary of more than $10 million with Portland over the next four seasons, is a 6-foot-8 small forward who can play in transition, knock down threes and defend at a high level. Boris Diaw, another Spur, has all of the skills needed to be an international big man. But the French suffered a big loss when a lingering ankle injury sidelined center Joakim Noah from the Olympics, leaving the team without a reliable defensive quarterback to protect the rim. Instead, France will rely on NBA backups Ronny Turiaf and Kevin Seraphin up front.
France opens the Olympics with a game July 29 against the U.S., a matchup that promises to set the tone for both teams. The U.S. should be hungry to establish itself as the gold-medal frontrunner against a team of NBA opponents, while France will look to prove that it can hang with the Americans. It should make for one of the most interesting games of the tournament.

5. Russia

The Russians dominated the recent Olympic qualifying tournament behind 6-foot-9 small forward Andrei Kirilenko, who looks healthy after a season in the Euroleague with CSKA Moscow. If Kirilenko can maintain his high level in the Olympics, then it will help the Russians defend and create opportunities in the open floor.
Russia is a big team across the board with five current, former or future NBA players. Timofey Mozgov, who was famously included in the Knicks' trade package for Carmelo Anthony two seasons ago, is a 7-foot-1 center. He'll be joined up front by 6-foot-9 power forward Viktor Khryapa, the former Blazer. Alexey Shved is the 6-foot-6 shooting guard who appears to be headed to the Timberwolves next season, and point guard Anton Ponkrashov is an imposing 6-foot-8.
Kirilenko is the only Russian in his 30s. The young roster has been pulled together by David Blatt, the American who spent the last decade establishing himself as one of the top coaches in Europe. Russian basketball struggled to develop young talent following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it would be unfair to view this team as endemic of a new promising era. It is built around the unusual skills of Kirilenko and the coaching of Blatt, and it lacks star power. The Russians would do very well to medal in London.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/ian_thomsen/07/20/team-usa-olympic-challengers/index.html#ixzz21giPZHKD

USA Men's Olympic basketball preview

2012-07-26T09:26:00.001+08:00

The 20th anniversary of the Dream Team could bring an end to the concept of the biggest American basketball stars representing their country at the Olympics. With NBA commissioner David Stern vouching for a move toward an under-23 roster at future Games, this summer's U.S. team could be the last of its kind.
There was talk that the current group might rival its 1992 forefathers, but injuries have blunted those comparisons. The absence of centers Dwight Howard (back surgery) and Andrew Bynum (knee treatment) and power forwards Chris Bosh (abdominal strain) and Blake Griffin (knee surgery), among other big men, will force the United States to pursue a second straight Olympic gold medal with unorthodox lineups that shift Kevin Durant to power forward and LeBron James to center. Dwyane Wade, James' teammate with the NBA champion Heat, will also miss the Olympics as he prepares for offseason knee surgery.
[Sport Explainer: Basketball]
But the U.S. remains the overwhelming favorite in the 12-team field to win a third consecutive international championship, following the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. Rival contenders have suffered injuries of their own -- Spain won't have point guard Ricky Rubio and France will be without center Joakim Noah -- and no country can match the U.S. for depth or athleticism.
The Americans understand the historical context of their mission: The team leaders have been committed for the last several years to restoring USA Basketball to No. 1 in the world, and they're unlikely to accept anything less than a gold medal as their era concludes. As if they needed anything more to play for, this figures to be the last international tournament for coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has been in charge since 2006.

U.S. Prospects

The nature of the Olympic tournament promises to help focus the American stars, who must approach the final three games (beginning with the quarterfinals) as if they're competing in the one-and-done NCAA tournament. James and Carmelo Anthony were on the 2004 Olympic and 2006 World Championship teams that lost in the semifinals, and those negative experiences have helped galvanize them and their teammates to make sure they don't fall short again.
The Americans may lack traditional size in the pivot -- NBA Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler is the only true center on the 12-man roster, with Kevin Love and No. 1 pick Anthony Davis behind him -- but they are nonetheless likely to control their air space. No other country possesses as many vertically aggressive stars as the U.S., which has James, Durant, point guard Russell Westbrook and others. The pick-and-roll that Greece ran possession after possession during its semifinal upset of the U.S. in the 2006 Worlds has been offset by Team USA's lineups of versatile defenders who can switch without fear. Consider this potential combination: James at center, Anthony at power forward, Durant at small forward, Kobe Bryant at shooting guard and Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Westbrook at the point -- altogether they should create endless pressure at both ends of the floor. The U.S. also has a top NBA wing defender, Andre Iguodala, coming off the bench.
Even with a shortage of big men, the Americans should have more than enough depth elsewhere to win Group A (which includes Argentina, France, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia) and claim the gold medal for the 14th time in 18 Olympics in which basketball has been contested. Lurking in a potential gold-medal game is Spain, which headlines a Group B that also features Brazil, Russia, Great Britain, Australia and China. The top four teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals.
[Ian Thomsen: Biggest challengers to Team USA]

Athletes To Watch

LeBron James, U.S.: He could be tired after carrying Miami to the championship during the lockout-truncated season, but these Olympics represent an opportunity for him to show the world what the NBA learned this spring: that James is the best player in basketball.
Kevin Durant, U.S.: He was the leader of the 2010 World Championship team, and it will be interesting to see how the NBA scoring champion and James -- his rival in the recent NBA Finals -- team together to lead the U.S.
Kobe Bryant, U.S.: The 33-year-old was the backbone of the 2008 Olympic team. What role will Bryant play this summer?
Pau and Marc Gasol, Spain: The 2008 silver medalist will be counting on its twin towers to carry it in an anticipated gold-medal Olympic rematch against the U.S., but the job will be harder without Rubio and with explosive shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro slowed by a foot injury.
Tony Parker, France: The four-time NBA All-Star is the experienced playmaker and leader of a talented French team that includes guard Nando De Colo, a 2009 second-round pick, who will join Parker in San Antonio next season; another Spur, veteran power forward Boris Diaw; small forward Nicolas Batum, who recently signed a four-year, $46.5 million contract with the Trail Blazers; and forward-center Kevin Seraphin, who averaged 14.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in 21 starts with the Wizards last season.
Manu Ginobili, Argentina: The soon-to-be 35-year-old leads an older team -- power forward Luis Scola, small forward Andres Nocioni and point guard Pablo Prigioni are all 32 or older, and swingman Carlos Delfino will turn 30 in August -- that won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games and finished third in Beijing.
Leandro Barbosa, Brazil: The former Sixth Man Award winner is an aggressive scorer who could join with big men Nene, Anderson Varejao and Tiago Splitter in leading Brazil to the gold-medal game.
Jonas Valanciunas, Lithuania: A lot of NBA fans will be getting their first look at the 20-year-old big man, who is set for his rookie season with the Raptors after being drafted fifth in 2011.
Andrei Kirilenko, Russia: The former NBA All-Star, who spent last season with CSKA Moscow, headlines a young team guided by American David Blatt, one of the top coaches in Europe.

Dream Matchups

U.S. vs. Spain: This matchup won't happen in pool play because the teams are in different groups. But this is the clash that many want to see in the final, even if the charismatic Rubio's injury has taken away a bit of the luster.
Argentina vs. France: The top rivals to the U.S. in Group A will meet in round-robin play, meaning San Antonio backcourt mates Ginobili and Parker will face off early.
Brazil vs. Spain: The Brazilians will be the biggest threat to Spain in Group B.
U.S. vs. Brazil: As with Spain, the U.S. won't meet Brazil in the group stage. But don't be surprised if the Brazilians are playing for the gold on Aug. 12 thanks to their size and the expert coaching of Ruben Magnano, who led Argentina to victories against the Americans in the 2002 World Championship and 2004 Olympics.

Underdog Tale

The British have been slow to take to basketball -- in fact, British teams have made only one previous appearance in the Olympics, at the 1948 London Games, where they went 0-5 -- but this tournament could create a breakthrough. They've never been represented by any player as talented as Bulls All-Star small forward Luol Deng, whose commitment was revealed by his decision to postpone wrist surgery in order to play in the Olympics. Great Britain went a competitive 2-3 at EuroBasket last summer in Lithuania. If the hosts finish fourth in Group B, they will face a likely quarterfinal against the U.S. that could generate unprecedented interest in the team and the sport.
[Alex Wolff: Deng's unwavering commitment to Great Britain]

Fun Facts

• The U.S. is 122-5 with 13 gold medals in 16 Olympic appearances, including 37-3 with teams anchored by NBA players.
• All teams will be playing every other day, a taxing schedule for NBA players after the grind of the lockout season.
• Basketball debuted at the Olympics in 1936 at Berlin, where games were played outdoors on lawn tennis courts and James Naismith tossed the ball for the opening tip of the first game. In London, basketball will be played at two venues: the North Greenwich Arena (known otherwise as the NBA-ready O2 Arena, though facility sponsorships are not recognized by the IOC), and The Basketball Arena, a 12,000-seat temporary building. After the Olympics, The Basketball Arena will be moved to Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Key Dates

• Sunday, July 29: Basketball tournament begins with six games, including USA-France at 9:30 a.m. ET.
• Wednesday, Aug. 8: Quarterfinals
• Friday, Aug. 10: Semifinals
• Sunday, Aug. 12: Gold-medal game and bronze-medal game

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/ian_thomsen/07/25/london-olympics-mens-basketball-preview/index.html#ixzz21ghuw4ei

British Open Final Round at Lytham and St. Annes

2012-07-24T12:09:00.000+08:00

Waiting for 10 years..........................................

秘書長

SWEEP ! The Lakers' season ended Sunday with a 103-82 loss to the Spurs in Game 4.

What was the single biggest issue for the Lakers this season?

Does Mike D'Antoni deserve to return as coach?

Ang Li - Life of Pi

第85屆奧斯卡得獎名單

正妹就是這樣啦!

錢德勒肘擊 林書豪：他沒惡意

What Happen to Derek Jeter?

What is this word? very popular agenda in Taiwan

bumbler Ma

beauty

Giants beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings for sweep 舊金山巨人隊橫掃底特律老虎隊 - 棒打老虎

Giants beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings for sweep

Tigers rout Yankees 8-1 for 4-game ALCS sweep

Tigers rout Yankees 8-1 for 4-game ALCS sweep

Party to the Max: Tigers sweep way to Series

Behind Scherzer, four homers, Detroit claims 11th AL pennant

Jeter out for 2012postseason

陳偉殷大聯盟季後賽首勝3:2擊敗洋基隊

王建民復活!

BoSox send Gonzalez, Beckett, Crawford to Dodgers

Amid 40th anniversary of Title IX, women set new standard in London

Battle-tested team returns U.S. to the top with second straight gold

Durant, James lead U.S. past Spain 107-100 for hoops gold medal

After another record-setting rout at PGA, McIlroy may be ready to assume the throne

It's beyond dispute: Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time

懊惱沒優質先發 殷仔退場才知創紀錄

2012 London Olympic

More Olympics

Yankees' Rodriguez breaks hand

Dream Team still resonates long after dominating 1992 Olympics

Helen Lindes

Spain, Brazil among Team USA's toughest challengers at Olympics

1. Spain

2. Brazil

3. Argentina

4. France

5. Russia

USA Men's Olympic basketball preview

U.S. Prospects

Athletes To Watch

Dream Matchups

Underdog Tale

Fun Facts

Key Dates

British Open Final Round at Lytham and St. Annes

錢德勒肘擊林書豪：他沒惡意

懊惱沒優質先發殷仔退場才知創紀錄