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	<title>Sports &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Where sports is on the mind</description>
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		<title>Sports &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com</link>
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		<title>How Phil Mickelson Found More U.S. Open Heartbreak</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/17/how-phil-mickelson-found-more-u-s-open-heartbreak/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/17/how-phil-mickelson-found-more-u-s-open-heartbreak/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean Gregory / Ardmore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Golf]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346743</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Here he comes!&#8221; shouted a golf fan as Phil Mickelson approached the first tee at Merion Golf Club, outside Philadelphia, on Sunday. &#8220;Here he comes!&#8221; The crowd roared as Mickelson walked up the fairway; moments later Mickelson&#8217;s playing partner on this final round of the U.S. Open, fellow American Hunter Mahan, received, oh, about a third of the applause Mickelson got. &#8220;In my line of the work I&#8217;m used to that,&#8221; said another guy in the crowd. &#8220;There&#8217;s him, there&#8217;s me.&#8221; &#8220;Great head of hair Phil,&#8221; screamed another guy, in a thick Philly accent, as Mickelson waited to tee off. Mickelson&#8217;s locks, indeed, flowed out of his KPMG visor. &#8220;Philly loves you, Phil!&#8221; So began one of the great passion plays in all sports: golf fans trying to will Phil Mickelson to a U.S. Open title. Mickelson entered the final round up a stroke, and with Merion torturing the field&#8211;like any good U.S. Open course is wont to do&#8211;he was in prime position to finally win a title. Mickelson had finished second at the Open five times. And after Mickelson jetted from Philly to San Diego earlier this week to attend his daughter&#8217;s eighth grade graduation, before taking a red-eye back to Merion in time for the first round &#8212; he shot a bleary-eyed 67, low score of the day &#8212; a Mickelson win would be fitting Father&#8217;s Day nightcap. Especially in the Northeast, where Mickelson &#8212; a west coaster &#8212; is nonetheless extremely popular. Four of his close U.S. Open calls came in New York, in front of rambunctious pro-Mickelson galleries &#8212; at Bethpage Black twice, in 2002 and 2009, at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, and at Winged Foot in 2006, when he gave the tournament away on the final hole. During the 2011 Open at Congressional, in the Washington D.C.-area, Mickelson was the crowd favorite, even though he never contended. &#8220;All those years he was losing to Tiger, Phil just persevered,&#8221; says Rick Hollawell, a lawyer from Philadelphia was was cheering on Mickelson (Mickelson has won three Masters<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346743&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Golf</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/golf-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/20130616_zaf_m67_061-copy.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Golf 2013 - Rose Wins US Open</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6611ab521be756a66a200bd2b84b5e80?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Sean Gregory</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Great Father&#8217;s Day Moments At The U.S. Open</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/14/great-fathers-day-moments-at-the-u-s-open/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/14/great-fathers-day-moments-at-the-u-s-open/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:45:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tanner Curtis</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Golf]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346715</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As usual, this year&#8217;s U.S. Open will conclude on Father&#8217;s Day &#8212; which often makes the winner even more emotional. TIME takes a look at some tender moments.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346715&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Golf</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/golf-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ap110619042234.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Rory McIlroy hugs his father Gerry on the 18th green after winning the U.S. Open Championship golf tournament in Bethesda, Md., June 19, 2011.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">tannercurtis</media:title>
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		<title>At U.S. Open, The Grass Man Has The Power</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/13/at-u-s-open-the-grass-man-has-the-power/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/13/at-u-s-open-the-grass-man-has-the-power/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean Gregory / Ardmore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Golf]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and the rest of the world&#8217;s best golfers aren&#8217;t the only ones sweating the start of the U.S. Open, which begins at the Merion Golf Club in suburban Philadelphia Thursday morning. For one man at Merion, the tournament is a career culmination, a chance to finally display his craft in a major championship. &#8220;It&#8217;s like you&#8217;ve waited your whole life to play Bobby Fischer in chess,&#8221; says Matt Shaffer, superintendent at Merion. Mike Davis, executive director of the United States Golf Association (USGA), has called the golf course superintendent &#8220;the person that is most important to the success of a U.S. Open.&#8221; The superintendents make sure the greens are fast enough, the rough high enough, to challenge the golfers, while negotiating weather conditions that can wreak havoc on the event (rain has soaked Merion in the days before the Open, and the forecast calls for plenty more). And Shaffer, an affable 60-year-old from a small town south of Altoona, Pa., is one of the best. &#8220;These guys are scientists,&#8221; says Davis. &#8220;They are studying soil samples, trying to figure out how gallons of water per minute to run through the soil, looking at dirt under a microscope. Among superintendents, Matt is a bit of an icon. He&#8217;s someone of lot of these guys look up to.&#8221; (MORE: Why Nike&#8217;s New Tiger Woods Ad Is Terribly Confusing) Golf course superintendents are among the great oddball characters in sports &#8212; the behind-the-scenes obsessives who, if they&#8217;re doing their job correctly, stay out of the public eye (like, say, the chain gang in football, or the official scorekeepers at baseball and basketball games, or the guy who spots the javelin at the Olympics). &#8220;He breathes, eats, and drinks grass and dirt,&#8221; says Shaffer&#8217;s wife, Renna, who calls herself a &#8220;mistress,&#8221; since Matt is married to the course. Matt even insists on tending to a garden at home. &#8220;I tell him all the time, &#8216;you don&#8217;t have time for a garden,&#8217;&#8221; says Renna. &#8220;&#8216;You already spend 100 hours a week<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346727&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Golf</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/golf-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/170384212.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/170384212.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/170384212.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">GOLF-US OPEN</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6611ab521be756a66a200bd2b84b5e80?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Sean Gregory</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>NASCAR Mourns Death of Driver Jason Leffler</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/13/leffler-dies-after-accident-in-dirt-car-event/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/13/leffler-dies-after-accident-in-dirt-car-event/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:27:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Auto Racing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346735</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SWEDESBORO, N.J.) — NASCAR driver Jason Leffler died after an accident in a heat race at a dirt car event at Bridgeport Speedway. The 37-year-old Leffler, a two-time winner on the NASCAR Nationwide Series who had the nickname &#8220;LefTurn&#8221; above the driver&#8217;s side window on his race cars, was pronounced dead Wednesday night shortly after 9 p.m., New Jersey State Police said. &#8220;NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening,&#8221; NASCAR said in a statement. &#8220;For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed.&#8221; Bridgeport Speedway immediately suspended racing for the rest of the night after Leffler&#8217;s accident at the 0.625-mile, high-banked dirt oval. After losing his NASCAR ride, Leffler had been racing dirt car events most of this year, including the 410 Sprint Car race Wednesday that promised a $7,000 prize to the winner. On Sunday, Leffler finished last at Pocono in his lone NASCAR Sprint Cup start of the year. He ran just eight laps in a start-and-park ride. From Long Beach, Calif., Leffler made 423 starts in NASCAR&#8217;s three national series, but won just the two Nationwide races and one Truck Series event in a career that began in 1999. He also made three IndyCar Series starts, finishing 17th in the 2000 Indianapolis 500. (VIDEO: Daytona 500 Carries On Despite Fiery Saturday Crash that Injured 30 Spectators) A statement from Indianapolis Motor Speedway called Leffler &#8220;one of the most versatile race drivers in America, showing his talent by competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his career.&#8221; &#8220;He also displayed the skills that would help him reach the top levels of the sport by winning four USAC national series titles while winning on tracks throughout the Midwest,&#8221; the statement said. Leffler&#8217;s last full NASCAR season was 2011, when he ran the entire Nationwide schedule for Turner Motorsports. He finished sixth in the standings that season and hadn&#8217;t had<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346735&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Auto Racing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/auto-racing-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Boston Evangelicals React To Tim Tebow Signing</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/12/boston-evangelicals-react-to-tim-tebow-signing/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/12/boston-evangelicals-react-to-tim-tebow-signing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:45:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean Gregory</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Football]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346698</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Leave it to Bill Belichick to squelch Tebowmania. After it looked like Tim Tebow&#8216;s NFL career could be coming to an inglorious end, the New England Patriots offered him a lifeline, signing Tebow to a two-year contract (with no guaranteed cash). During the first press conference of New England&#8217;s Tebow-era &#8212; which, naturally, involved a large media throng and an overwhelming number of questions about Tebow &#8212; a typically dour Belichick punted on all Tebow inquiries. USA Today excerpted some of the more thrilling moments: What position will he play? After an awkward pause, Belichick countered: &#8220;What position? We&#8217;re going to do what&#8217;s best for the football team. We&#8217;ll see.&#8221; &#8230;. Did offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who drafted and coached Tebow with the Denver Broncos, have anything to do with this signing? &#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221; &#8230;&#8230; This one, because it was a peach, we&#8217;ll quote word-for-word: &#8220;Coach, will you have any objections to Tim kneeling down and praying after he makes a big play, Tebowing as it&#8217;s come to be known?&#8221; &#8220;I think we&#8217;ve already talked enough about him. I think I&#8217;ve covered it. Anything else?&#8221; There were no declarations that Tebow could play 20 snaps a game, or that &#8220;you can never have too much Tebow,&#8221; like we saw in New York, with the Jets. As this introductory press conference makes clear, Belichick will do everything he can do shut down the Tebow circus. Belichick loves the quirks of football, and Tebow is a toy: Belichick may use him as a backfield decoy, to help block on punt formations, to do a drop kick like Doug Flutie. Belichick may cut Tebow before training camp is over. Belichick never shows his hand, and rarely shows any emotion while toying with reporters. But Belichick&#8217;s sourpuss attitude won&#8217;t stop some New Englanders from getting stoked about Tebow, especially in the Evangelical Christian community. I called up Boston&#8217;s Park Street Church to gauge the reaction, and when I started to explain that I was a sports reporter, I didn&#8217;t need to continue. &#8220;Yeeaahhh,&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346698&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Football</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/football/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/timtebowpats.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">New England Patriots Minicamp</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6611ab521be756a66a200bd2b84b5e80?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Sean Gregory</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Tebow Signs With Patriots</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/11/tebow-signs-with-patriots/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/11/tebow-signs-with-patriots/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:53:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Howard Ulman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Football]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(FOXBOROUGH, Mass.) — Tim Tebow finally has a new team. The New England Patriots announced the signing of the polarizing quarterback with the poor throwing motion on Tuesday, six weeks after he was cut by the New York Jets and just in time for the start of the three-day minicamp that runs through Thursday. Tebow, 25, is being reunited with Josh McDaniels, the Patriots offensive coordinator who was Denver&#8217;s head coach when the Broncos traded into the first round to take him with the 25th draft pick in 2010. There is no guarantee that Tebow will still be with the Patriots when training camp begins next month, but if the Patriots keep him, he would have time to develop as a quarterback since Tom Brady holds that job. Tebow even could be tried at tight end, where the status of Rob Gronkowski is uncertain after he had his fourth operation on his broken left forearm on May 20 and faces back surgery this month. Tebow&#8217;s NFL career appeared to be over when the Jets released him on April 29 and no team rushed to sign him. But Patriots coach Bill Belichick decided to bring in the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner who led Florida to two national championships. The last time Tebow threw a pass in Foxborough, Denver lost in the divisional playoff round to the Patriots 45-10 in the 2011 season. He completed 9 of 26 passes for 136 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and five sacks in that game and gained 13 yards on five rushes. (MORE: Ex-USC Football Player: How My Coach Called Me A “Motherf—-r” for Going to Class) When he was traded to the Jets with great fanfare in March 2012, there was speculation he might replace Mark Sanchez as the starting quarterback. But when Sanchez struggled, he was replaced by Greg McElroy late in the season. Tebow threw only eight passes all year and played primarily as the protector for the Jets&#8217; punter. Tebow&#8217;s presence on the team and absence from the field fed a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346694&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Football</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/football/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/patriots-tebow-footba_yang.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/patriots-tebow-footba_yang.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Tim Tebow</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Why Nike&#8217;s New Tiger Woods Ad Is Terribly Confusing</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/11/why-nikes-new-tiger-woods-ad-is-terribly-confusing/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/11/why-nikes-new-tiger-woods-ad-is-terribly-confusing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean Gregory</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Golf]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tiger Woods, like many superstar athletes, has a pretty banal Twitter feed. It&#8217;s full of the usual product propaganda, carefully crafted responses to media firestorms and prom pictures with an Olympic gold medalist. So I was caught a bit off guard when Woods fired off this missive to his nearly 3.4 million Twitter followers on Monday, just three days before the start of this year&#8217;s U.S. Open: Golf is a sport. #TW14 youtu.be/oDcb3eAAK1s&#8212; Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) June 10, 2013 Whoa. So golf is a sport? I wasn&#8217;t aware of some pressing debate that it wasn&#8217;t. Sure, people are still quick to point out that chubby chain smokers like John Daly and Ángel Cabrera can win major championships. But a younger generation of golfers have followed Woods into the weight room: this year&#8217;s Masters champ, Aussie Adam Scott, looks like he&#8217;d rather smash a slice of pizza with a 9-iron than actually eat it. Golfers have worked hard to break the fat-guy-in-bad-pants stereotype. Still, here was Woods, vouching for golf&#8217;s bona fides in a new Nike ad. And I couldn&#8217;t help but think that it backfired. (MORE: Great Scott. An Australian Finally Wins the Masters) I found the ad oh so confusing. At about the nine-second mark, Woods tees off, as dramatic music plays in the background. But in this &#8220;golf is a sport&#8221; world, a race starter stands beside the tee, says &#8220;on your marks,&#8221; then fires a gun before Woods swings. So this ad seems to be implying that if golf were an actual sport, not just a figment of Nike and Woods&#8217; imagination, a starter would fire a gun. But since there is no &#8220;on your marks,&#8221; is the ad actually implying golf isn&#8217;t a sport? Is the ad making a subtle pitch to the PGA Tour? Hey, guys, start firing guns at the first tee. Such a move, by the way, would make golf way more fun and exciting. In the next part of the clip, Woods barely misses a putt, and falls to the ground in agony. A boxing<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346685&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/11/why-nikes-new-tiger-woods-ad-is-terribly-confusing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Golf</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/golf-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Sean Gregory</media:title>
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		<title>The Spectacular and the Sublime: LeBron&#8217;s Block and Mauer&#8217;s Grab</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/10/the-spectacular-and-the-sublime-lebrons-block-and-mauers-grab/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/10/the-spectacular-and-the-sublime-lebrons-block-and-mauers-grab/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:07:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Dodds</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Athletes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Mauer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lebron james]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Miami Heat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minnesota Twins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Antonio Spurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington Nationals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346675</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s a good bet at this point that most sports fans have already seen Lebron James&#8217; defiant block of the Spurs&#8217; Tiago Splitter during the fourth quarter of Miami&#8216;s 103-84 blowout of San Antonio in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. It wasn&#8217;t a spike-the-ball-into-the-stands-and-scream type of block, but it was remarkable for how thoroughly it stonewalled what could have been an easy dunk if the world&#8217;s best basketball player wasn&#8217;t standing the way. Have a look: What you may have missed over the weekend was an equally impressive athletic feat from Twins catcher Joe Mauer in the 5th inning of Minnesota&#8216;s 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday. Simply saying that Mauer caught a ball without looking after it ricocheted off the brick wall behind home plate doesn&#8217;t really do it justice. Here&#8217;s video: It would be easy to say both of these plays are impressive and remarkable, but this is the Internet, so we need to decide which is BETTER, because being better is what the Internet (and sports, for that matter) is all about. Let&#8217;s break it down. SETTING LeBron: Game 2 of the NBA Finals, at home, already down 1-0 in the series, on national television. Mauer: Second game of an early-June doubleheader between two teams more than 7 games out of first place. Oh, and the catch was made after the ball had already been fouled off. Advantage: LeBron, by a fairly sizable margin (though it&#8217;s worth mentioning that Mauer&#8217;s effort did come in a one-run game while LeBron&#8217;s Heat were already up by 19). ATHLETICISM LeBron: At first, there&#8217;s the immediate &#8220;Holy S**t!&#8221; reaction to a clean, head-on block of a seven-footer&#8217;s dunk attempt. But then you might step back and think to yourself, &#8220;Well, all he&#8217;s really doing is jumping up and sticking his hand in the air.&#8221; That analysis really undersells the athleticism involved in the block though. It requires a tremendous amount of body control to get all ball while avoiding any contact—especially when the dunker is a solid three<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346675&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Athletes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/athletes-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/lebron-block-cropped.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">San Antonio Spurs v Miami Heat - Game Two</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">edodds19</media:title>
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		<title>Ex-USC Football Player: How My Coach Called Me A &#8220;Motherf&#8212;-r&#8221; for Going to Class</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/10/ex-usc-football-player-how-my-coach-called-me-a-m-r-for-going-to-class/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/10/ex-usc-football-player-how-my-coach-called-me-a-m-r-for-going-to-class/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean Gregory</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[College Sports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Bob DeMars was a football player at mighty USC back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he wanted to major in the school&#8217;s prestigious cinema program. Since some of the prerequisite classes interfered with football practice time, however, DeMars says that the athletic department wouldn&#8217;t allow it. So he majored in business instead. In order to show up on time for a required statistics course one semester, he says he had to leave spring practice twenty minutes early, once a week. His defensive line coach, Ed Orgeron, wasn&#8217;t happy. You motherf&#8212;-r, DeMars remembers Orgeron, who went on to become head coach at Ole Miss from 2005 to 2007, and is now back at USC as assistant head coach, shouting at him. &#8220;He M-F&#8217;d me all over the place,&#8221; says DeMars. &#8220;He made me feel like a bad person for going to class.&#8221; USC did not make Orgeron available for comment. “While the alleged events happened before my time as athletic director at USC,&#8221; school athletic director Pat Haden said in an email statement, &#8220;I can say that all our football practices have been open to the media and players&#8217; families since before Bob was here, and have been open to the public for most of that time as well. The transparency of practice would have brought to light this type of alleged inappropriate behavior. We also have high standards for our coaches and monitor and evaluate them as we would any of our employees.&#8221; &#8220;Additionally, we have always been proud to support our student-athletes in a full range of academic pursuits. Majors represented in 2012 among football alone included Theatre, Business Administration, Psychology, Communications, Economics, Chemical Engineering and Political Science.&#8221; With the news coming out of Rutgers this spring &#8212; Mike Rice hurling balls and homophobic slurs at players, new athletic director Julie Hermann allegedly verbally abusing players while coaching volleyball at Tennessee in the 1990s &#8212; coaching behavior is under intense scrutiny. DeMars calls Orgeron &#8220;one of the most brilliant defensive line coaches in the country.&#8221; He acknowledges<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346613&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>College Sports</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/college-sports-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/157009869.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/157009869.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timekeepingscore.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/157009869.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Notre Dame v USC</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6611ab521be756a66a200bd2b84b5e80?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Sean Gregory</media:title>
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		<title>Nadal Wins 8th French Title by Beating Ferrer</title>
		<link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/09/nadal-wins-8th-french-title-by-beating-ferrer/</link>
		<comments>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/06/09/nadal-wins-8th-french-title-by-beating-ferrer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:44:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tennis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/?p=2346667</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(PARIS) — Rafael Nadal has become the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the French Open final, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Nadal broke the men&#8217;s record for match wins at Roland Garros, where he improved to 59-1, with his lone defeat against Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009. For fans enthralled by Nadal&#8217;s semifinal victory over top-ranked Novak Djokovic, Sunday&#8217;s final may have seemed anticlimactic. But not for the champion, who hit a fallaway forehand winner on championship point, then tumbled to the clay he loves and covered his face to hide his emotions. Nadal&#8217;s path to the Roland Garros title was more arduous than usual, and he fell behind in each of his first three matches.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=keepingscore.blogs.time.com&#038;blog=33268979&#038;post=2346667&#038;subd=timekeepingscore&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Tennis</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/category/tennis-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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