Todd Pletcher says his Breeders’ Cup brigade is ready to hit the Jersey Shore following final tuneups at Belmont Park on Sunday. “It was an excellent morning,” the trainer said outside his barn after watching a dozen of his pre-entries work, including Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders Any Given Saturday and Lawyer Ron.
By Bruce Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor
Shav Glick, who covered the Indianapolis 500 and a variety of other races during 37 years writing about motorsports for the Los Angeles Times, has died. He was 87. Glick died Saturday at his Pasadena home of complications from melanoma, the newspaper confirmed Sunday. He retired at 85 last year. By the time he was assigned the auto racing beat at the Times, Glick was 48 and had already spent 34 years…
With all eyes on Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon and their domination of Martinsville Speedway, suddenly there was Ryan Newman on Sunday, duking it out with both at the end.
Mikko Koivu just keeps getting better and the Minnesota Wild just keep on winning. With overtime looming just more three minutes away, Koivu made an athletic move to get to the net and score the game winner to help the Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Sunday night. “It happened so fast,” Koivu said.
Don’t expect Matt Holliday and the Colorado Rockies to be intimidated by the Green Monster. Back in June, long before their historic surge to an unlikely NL pennant, the baby-faced Rockies roared into Fenway Park and took two of three from the Red Sox. They handed Josh Beckett his first loss, got a grand slam from Garrett Atkins and a nice outing from Jeff Francis.
Daisuke Matsuzaka, Dustin Pedroia and these Boston Red Sox are taking a sweet streak into the World Series, too. Boston charged to its third straight win, completing yet another October comeback by overpowering the Cleveland Indians 11-2 Sunday night in Game 7 of the AL championship series behind a new pair of rookie Sox.
Josh Beckett needs a bigger trophy case: Now he has an AL championship series Most Valuable Player Award to go along with his 2003 World Series MVP. Unflappable and close to unhittable, Beckett shut down Cleveland twice, including a victory in Game 5 that started Boston’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series.
With Kenny Lofton racing around third, Cleveland’s comeback — and a season stuffed with them — came to an abrupt halt. More heartache, decade upon decade of it, persists for the Indians. Months of surprises, whipped-cream pies in the kisser, late-inning rallies and an unexpected jaunt through October ended short of a World Series title for Cleveland, which lost 11-2 to the Boston Red Sox on…
