2012 May at LinesMaker

Fujita, Hargrove and Smith File ‘Reservation of Rights’ With League

NEW ORLEANS (NFL/Wyche) — While Saints line­backer Jonathan Vilma filed a let­ter stat­ing his intent to appeal his season-long sus­pen­sion Mon­day, three other play­ers sus­pended in the Saints bounty scan­dal, jointly filed, through the NFLPA, a “reser­va­tion of rights” let­ter to the NFL. Scott Fujita, Anthony Har­grove and Will Smith, filed notice that they reserve the right to appeal after a griev­ance filed by the NFLPA on their behalf chal­leng­ing com­mis­sioner Roger Goodell’s author­ity regard­ing these sus­pen­sions is heard. The NFLPA states that no... 

Arkansas Adjusts to Smith’s Coaching Style

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (CFB/Newsfeed) — Knile Davis unin­ten­tion­ally offered the deep­est insight into how the per­son­al­ity of the Arkansas foot­ball team has changed in the weeks since Bobby Petrino’s fir­ing and John L. Smith’s hir­ing as his replacement. Davis, the star Razor­backs run­ning back, was com­par­ing the dif­fer­ences in coach­ing styles between the con­trol­ling, busi­nesslike Petrino and the hug­gable Smith when he men­tioned that Smith has a demand­ing side to his per­son­al­ity as well. “John, he has a seri­ous side,” Davis said. “You... 

Azarenka, Sharapova Advance to 2nd Round in Madrid

MADRID (WTA/Newsfeed) –Top-ranked Vic­to­ria Azarenka and second-seeded Maria Shara­pova advanced to the sec­ond round of the Madrid Open with straight-set wins Sun­day on the event’s new blue-clay court. Azarenka beat Svet­lana Kuznetsova of Rus­sia 7–6 (5), 6–4 in a tough open­ing match. The Aus­tralian Open cham­pion and Kuznetsova traded breaks in the first set. Just when it looked as if the sec­ond set was going to end in another tiebreaker, Azarenka broke again to close out the match. “It was a really close match, so I was just happy that I won because they were dif­fi­cult... 

McNamee to Testify This Week in Clemens Trial

WASHINGTON (MLB/Newsfeed) — The government’s case against Roger Clemens reaches a cru­cial junc­ture as the fourth week of the for­mer star pitcher’s fed­eral per­jury trial begins Monday. Brian McNamee, the strength trainer who told Con­gress he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs on numer­ous occa­sions and saved evi­dence he and the gov­ern­ment con­tend proves it, is due on the stand early in the week for what is expected to be the most dra­matic tes­ti­mony of the trial. With the defense poised to attack McNamee’s cred­i­bil­ity, deci­sions about... 

Smith, Horford Return for Atlanta in Game 4

BOSTON (NBA/Newsfeed) — Cen­ter Josh Smith and for­ward Al Hor­ford are back for Game 4 of the Atlanta Hawks’ first-round play­off series against the Boston Celtics. Smith missed Game 3 with a strained ten­don in his left knee but was in the start­ing lineup. Hor­ford, who had not played since Jan. 11 with a torn left pec­toral mus­cle, came off the bench. The Celtics had Ray Allen back for the sec­ond straight game after he missed almost a month with bone spurs in his right ankle. Guard Avery Bradley was in the start­ing lineup one game after dis­lo­cat­ing his shoulder. BetLM's sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services.... 

Earnhardt Jr. Steps Up His Performance

RICHMOND, Va. (NASCAR/Newsfeed) — Dale Earn­hardt Jr. has been creep­ing up on his first Sprint Cup Series win in four sea­sons, and he might have taken a giant step Sat­ur­day night at Rich­mond Inter­na­tional Raceway. The best part, both crew chief Steve Letarte and Earn­hardt said, was that the team fin­ished bet­ter, sec­ond to Kyle Busch in the Cap­i­tal City 400, than what the car should have — even if Earn­hardt didn’t get Hen­drick Motor­sports’ 200th Cup victory. Earn­hardt Jr. at Hendrick Rich­mond results Year Start Fin­ish 2012 10 2 2011 (fall) 27 16 2011... 

Unusual Heatwave Wins Snow Chief Stakes

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (HORSES/Newsfeed) — Unusual Heat­wave col­lared Stoney Fleece in the clos­ing yards to win the $ 300,000 Snow Chief Stakes by a half-length on Cal­i­for­nia Gold Rush day at Bet­fair Hol­ly­wood Park on Sat­ur­day, with jockey Rafael Bejarano win­ning five races includ­ing three stakes a day after being sworn in as a U.S. citizen. The 29-year-old Peru-born rider also rode five win­ners on Gold Rush Day in 2009. Bejarano has won five stakes through the first three days of the track’s spring-summer meet. Unusual Heat­wave ran 1 1–8 miles in 1:51.63 and paid... 

O’Brien’s PSU Caravan Set to Begin in Philadelphia

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CFB/Newsfeed) — Com­ing soon to a city near you: Penn State coach Bill O’Brien! The Nit­tany Lions’ new leader is embark­ing on a nine-day, 18-stop bus tour spread out over the next three weeks. It’s an exten­sive meet-and-greet road trip through seven states with an itin­er­ary that might make a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date blush. First stop: Philadel­phia on Monday. “I’m really look­ing for­ward to meet­ing every­body out on the road — the alumni, the fans — and really talk­ing to peo­ple about my vision of the foot­ball pro­gram,” O’Brien... 

Busch Capitalizes on Caution for Richmond Win

RICHMOND, Va. (NASCAR/Newsfeed) — Pulling away from Dale Earn­hardt Jr. after a restart with eight laps left in Sat­ur­day night’s Cap­i­tal City 400 at Rich­mond Inter­na­tional Race­way, Kyle Busch streaked to his fourth con­sec­u­tive vic­tory in the spring race at the .75-mile track. The win was Busch’s first of the sea­son and the 24th of his career, tying him with his brother, 2004 Sprint Cup cham­pion Kurt Busch, for 26th all-time. Tony Stew­art, the race leader before the fifth and final cau­tion for debris in Turn 2, lost ground on the restart and fin­ished third.... 

Coach O’Brien Kicks Off Penn State Caravan Tour

PHILADELPHIA (CFB/Newsfeed) — Dressed in a navy blue suit with a dark tie and a Penn State but­ton pinned near his heart, new Nit­tany Lions foot­ball coach Bill O’Brien kicked off the first leg of a nine-day, 18-stop bus tour in Philadel­phia on Monday. Joined by head men’s bas­ket­ball coach Pat Cham­bers and field hockey coach Char­lene Morett, O’Brien received an enthu­si­as­tic wel­come from about 250 alumni, for­mer play­ers and sup­port­ers who attended the lun­cheon at the Dou­ble­tree Hotel. “I know it’s a very spe­cial place,” O’Brien said. “What...