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08/23/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion mare Zenyatta sits comfortably in first-place atop the latest NTRA National Thoroughbred Poll. The undefeated female has a 24 point lead over Blame.
Trained by John Shirreffs, Zenyatta again received 14 first-place votes for racing action through August 22. Perfect this year in four starts, the six- year-old garnered a total of 190 points, 16 more than a week ago.
Whitney Handicap champ Blame added a first-place vote to last week's four and has 166 points. Trained by Al Stall, Jr., the four-year-old is being pointed toward the Jockey Club Gold Cup in October at Belmont Park.
Quality Road (133 points), Lookin At Lucky (130) and 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra (113) remained in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Three-year-old filly Blind Luck, coming off Saturday's Alabama win, moved up one spot to sixth. Co-owned and trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Blind Luck received 87 points, an increase of 45.
Three-year-old colt Paddy O'Prado won Saturday's Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park and enters the poll in seventh-place. The turf runner picked up 34 points and has won four of eight starts this year.
Two-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti dropped from sixth to eighth after being upset in Saturday's Arlington Million. Caught at the wire by Debussy, Gio Ponti lost half his point total to 24.
Five-year-old mare Proviso remains in ninth with 22 points. She has won three of four starts this year.
Delaware Handicap winner Life At Ten is back in the top 10 with 20 points. The five-year-old mare will meet Rachel Alexandra in Sunday's Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.
<< Tigers recall OF Wells
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers recalled outfielder Casper
Wells from Triple-A Toledo on Monday.
The 25-year-old had a previous stint with the major league club this season
and batted .222 (2-for-9) with two runs batte
<< Redskins ink S Carter, FB Davis
Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Redskins announced the signings
of safety Tyrone Carter and fullback Carey Davis on Monday.
The moves were necessary with Kareem Moore and Mike Sellers injured.
Carter spent the last six ye
<< Cincinnati Bengals 2010 Season Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals have earned a negative reputation in
two distinct areas, one of which the team will be determined to change during
the 2010 season.
They've been doing their best to uphold the other.
The Bengals h
<< Pirates place 1B Clement on DL
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Pirates have placed first
baseman Jeff Clement on the 15-day disabled list with left knee irritation.
The move is retroactive to August 21.
Clement is batting .201 with seven home ru
Woods and Nordegren officially divorced >>
Panama City, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren have
divorced.
They will share custody of their two children, acording to a release posted
Monday on the golfer's website.
Lawyers for both sides confirmed th
Wozniacki tops Zvonareva in Montreal finale >>
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki
defeated Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva to capture the title at the rain-
plagued $2 million Rogers Cup event.
The second-seeded Wozniacki whipped the eight
Cubs activate C Soto from DL among several moves >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs activated catcher Geovany
Soto from the 15-day disabled list among several roster moves on Monday.
The 27-year-old backstop was put on the DL on August 10 with a sprained right
shoulder
Collins signs with Bears at QB >>
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) -The Chicago Bears have added a lot of experience at quarterback with one moveThe Bears have signed 38-year-old Todd Collins, who's played for Washington, Kansas City and Buffalo. He is expected to battle the injured Caleb Han
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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