2011 December at LinesMaker

Packers TE Finley Believes He Can Play Through Sore Left Knee

Green Bay Pack­ers tight end Jer­michael Fin­ley didn’t prac­tice Wednes­day after wak­ing up with a sore left knee, but he believes he can play in the regular-season finale against the Detroit Lions. Fin­ley said his knee isn’t a major con­cern, but he seemed to agree it might be smart for him to sit out Sunday’s game. “Would it be smart? Of course it would be smart; every­body thinks that,” Fin­ley said, accord­ing to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “But I ain’t the head coach or the GM, so I’m going to leave that up to them.” Pack­ers coach Mike McCarthy said he found... 

Ash Leads Texas Over Cal in Holiday Bowl

SAN DIEGO — The next time Texas coach Mack Brown sees Joey Har­ring­ton, the mem­ory shouldn’t be quite so painful. David Ash added his name to the list of quar­ter­backs who’ve caught a touch­down pass in the Hol­i­day Bowl and he also threw for one score to lead Texas to a 21–10 vic­tory against Cal­i­for­nia on Wednes­day night. Ash caught a 4-yard pass from wide receiver Jaxon Ship­ley in the sec­ond quar­ter to join BYU’s Steve Young, Texas A&M’s Bucky Richard­son and Oregon’s Har­ring­ton as quar­ter­backs who’ve caught touch­down passes in the Hol­i­day Bowl. The... 

Thirsty on the Course? Summon the Beer Cart With Wave of Your Phone

Maybe you like a beer (or two) dur­ing a round, but don’t like wait­ing for the beer cart to come back around. Or maybe you just don’t want to wait until the turn to pick up a bev­er­age or a snack. Or maybe you’re just thirsty right now and can’t wait any longer for service. But, darn it, the bev­er­age cart is all the way on the other side of the course! Sorry, you’ll just have to wait. Or do you? A new com­pany says no; scan4beer says you can sum­mon that bev­er­age cart sim­ply by wav­ing your smart­phone over a bar­code that the golf course has pro­vided for you. Scan4beer... 

Report: A-Rod Tries Treatment in Germany

Updated Dec 28, 2011 10:02 AM ET Kobe Bryant can be cred­ited with an assist to Alex Rodriguez. Accord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources, the Yan­kees third base­man recently fol­lowed a rec­om­men­da­tion from Bryant, the Los Ange­les Lak­ers star, and trav­eled to Ger­many for an exper­i­men­tal ther­apy called Orthokine on his both­er­some right knee. The inno­v­a­tive pro­ce­dure was per­formed on Rodriguez — with the Yan­kees’ bless­ing — within the last month, accord­ing to one source. The Yan­kees first cleared the pro­ce­dure with the commissioner’s... 

Who Will Close Next Season in Oakland?

Who will close next sea­son in Oakland? Drew Silva Dec 28, 2011, 9:28 PM EST Leave a comment The A’s dealt closer Andrew Bai­ley to the Red Sox on Wednes­day evening as part of a five-player swap. The trade has all sorts of impli­ca­tions, many of which we’ll ana­lyze over the next few months lead­ing into the start of spring train­ing. But let’s start sim­ple, with a look at the back end of the Oak­land bullpen. A’s assis­tant GM David Forst told Jane Lee of MLB.com soon after the Bai­ley trade was offi­cially announced that there are three pri­mary can­di­dates... 

Red Sox Acquire Closer Andrew Bailey

FOX Sports KEN ROSENTHAL AND JON PAUL MOROSI, KEN ROSENTHAL AND JON PAUL MOROSI Updated Dec 28, 2011 6:41 PM ET The Boston Red Sox have found a replace­ment for closer Jonathan Papelbon. His name: Andrew Bailey. The Sox have acquired Bai­ley from the Oak­land Ath­let­ics in a multi-player deal. The Red Sox also obtained out­fielder Ryan Sweeney, while giv­ing up cov­eted out­fielder Josh Red­dick, third-base prospect Miles Head and pitch­ing prospect Raul Alcantera. Bai­ley, 27, is enter­ing his first arbi­tra­tion year and remains under club con­trol for three more sea­sons.... 

Sweden Tops Switzerland 4–3 in Shootout at WJC

Switzer­land over­came a two-goal deficit in the third period to get to a shootout, but Swe­den got goals by Sebas­t­ian Coll­berg and Max Friberg in the tiebreaker for a 4–3 win Wednes­day night in their Group A preliminary-round game at the World Junior Cham­pi­onship in Calgary. Swe­den appeared to be in com­mand when Lud­vig Rens­feldt scored 1:56 into the third period to make it 3–1. But despite being out­shot 54–27, the Swiss per­se­vered and made it a one-goal game with seven min­utes left when Joel Ver­min scored his sec­ond of the game dur­ing a 5-on-3 power play.... 

‘Jordan Rule’ Applies to Jets CB Revis, Dolphins’ Marshall Says

New York Jets cor­ner­back Dar­relle Revis receives plenty of acclaim for his play. But Miami Dol­phins wide receiver Bran­don Mar­shall believes Revis’ super­star stand­ing has started to yield him favor­able calls on ques­tion­able plays. Mar­shall, still upset over Revis’ inter­cep­tion returned 100 yards for a touch­down in the Dol­phins’ 24–6 loss to the Jets in Week 6, said offi­cials allowed the cor­ner­back to play by his own set of rules. “My tech­nique could have been bet­ter, but at the same time, I think they gave him the Jor­dan Rule,” Mar­shall... 

Titans’ Munchak: I Won’t Go to Penn St.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mike Mun­chak says he is not head­ing to Penn State as coach. The Titans coach says Wednes­day he’s flat­tered to be men­tioned for his alma mater, but insists he loves what he’s doing in Tennessee. “You all know Penn State means a lot to me. I obvi­ously went to school there and I’m real con­cerned for what they’ve gone through the last cou­ple of months. I’m flat­tered that peo­ple think I’d be a great fit for the coach there,” Mun­chak said Wednes­day after practice. “They have not con­tacted me in any way or talked to me about the pos­si­bil­ity... 

Patriots QB Brady Not Seen at Start of Wednesday’s Practice

New Eng­land Patri­ots quar­ter­back Tom Brady wasn’t seen on the field dur­ing the por­tion of Wednesday’s prac­tice avail­able to the media, accord­ing to the Boston Herald. It’s unclear what caused Brady to be absent at the start of prac­tice. The Pro Bowl quar­ter­back landed hard on his left, non-throwing shoul­der late dur­ing last Saturday’s come­back win over the Miami Dol­phins, but there’s also a chance the Patri­ots decided to give the 12-year vet­eran a day off before prepar­ing for Sunday’s sea­son finale against the Buf­falo Bills. Com­cast Sport­sNet...