He got a good start on his wish Sunday with a win in the Aramco Houston Half Marathon with a personal-best time of 1 hour, 1 minute, 25 seconds.

Last year, Keflezighi was battling a hip injury so painful there were a handful of days when he couldn’t walk. Now, he is holding a golden belt buckle and taking home a $12,000 purse.

“Last year was such a rough year,” said Keflezighi, 33, a naturalized American citizen from Eritrea. “I spent so much time just trying to get healthy, trying to be able to walk every day, so to be here today and be able to run is very special.”

Not only did Keflezighi win, he dominated, finishing a full 10 seconds in front of second-place Dathan Ritzenheim. Keflezighi pulled out in front of the other runners between the second and third miles and stayed there for the remainder of the race, at times leading by more than 100 yards.

“I felt good today,” he said.

Keflezighi, the silver medalist in the marathon at the Athens Olympics in 2004, has run in Houston three times. In 2007, he finished third in the half-marathon on a day Ryan Hall set the American record in 59:33.

Third time’s a charm?

“I guess it was for this race,” he said.

Source and More : www.chron.com

Chris Minard and Tyler Kennedy also scored for Pittsburgh, as Fleury posted his second shutout of the season and the 13th of his career.

“The guys did a great job of not giving them too many scoring chances, and we got some turnovers,” Fleury said. “We got some goals early, so that was a big game for us.”

The Penguins have won three of their last four games and moved back into playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

Crosby was back in the lineup after sitting out a game with what appeared to be a knee injury sustained in a loss to Washington on Wednesday. He missed a penalty shot early in the second period and had his five-game scoring streak end.

“The leg felt pretty good,” he said. “Hopefully it’s better, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

Source and More : NyTimes.com

“This team is never ceasing to surprise us with their resiliency and toughness,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had several challenges — six or seven big challenges this year — and we’ve been able to step up. Guys seem to like those situations and be able to really focus and understand what’s at stake. This is a big character win.”

Wade set the tone with an early scoring flurry and then dismantled Oklahoma City’s defense with a series of passes to his teammates to thwart a fourth-quarter rally. The Heat head home after a 4-3 trip and will host Boston on Wednesday night in their first home game since Jan. 5.

“Any time you come out west and you leave with a winning record, it’s always good,” Wade said.

Source and More : USATODAY

Ex-hot shot Pie dealt to Orioles

He was once the can’t-miss jewel of the Cubs’ minor-league system, but outfielder Felix Pie went the way of Corey Patterson and other top prospects before him when he was traded Sunday to the Baltimore Orioles for two young pitchers.

Pie, 23, long touted as a five-tool player as he rose through the Cubs’ system, never showed he could hit at the major-league level and quickly frustrated new manager Lou Piniella after breaking into the big leagues in 2007 during a time of renewed urgency to win.

The Cubs got left-hander Garrett Olson, 25, who is expected to be in the battle for a spot in the rotation or a starter-reliever swingman role, and Class A right-hander Henry Williamson, 23.

A Pie-Olson swap looked at one point this winter as if it would be part of a multiteam deal that would result in the Cubs getting San Diego Padres ace Jake Peavy. The Padres still are believed to like Olson, and the deal adds to a growing inventory of pitching prospects that could help the Cubs eventually get Peavy or another veteran — if new ownership is settled soon and signs off on more spending.

Pie’s departure was hastened because he was out of contract options and would have been a long shot to make the big-league roster this spring. The Cubs would not have been able to send him to the minors without exposing him to waivers. His fate appeared sealed when the Cubs signed speedy outfielder Joey Gathright last month.

Pitcher Rich Hill and infielder Ronny Cedeno also are out of options and face the strong possibility of being traded before the season.

”Felix has a lot of good qualities,” general manager Jim Hendry said. ”At his age, even if he was the fifth outfielder, it’s hard to paint a scenario where he would have gotten enough at-bats to finish off his development. It’s part of the game. If he had an option left, we probably wouldn’t be moving him.”

Source and More : www.suntimes.com

That’s what we’ve got in two weeks, a Super Bowl matchup littered with NFL incest and historical intrigue. The Arizona-Pittsburgh cross-pollination goes back to the winter of ’06. When Bill Cowher called it a career in Pittsburgh after 16 years as head coach, the media all but assumed offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or longtime offensive line coach Russ Grimm would take the reins. Keep it in-house, and continue the Steeler tradition.

Alas, the media were wrong. Mike Tomlin, a defensive coordinator with the Vikings for just one year, got the gig instead. An outsider, but a fresh face. Whisenhunt took the news (and rejection) in stride, eventually taking over for Dennis Green in Arizona as the new coach of the Cardinals. He brought Grimm — also feeling the sting of rejection — with him as his offensive line coach and assistant head coach. It would be “Steelers West” in Glendale.

Here we are, less than two years later, and coaches Wiz and Grimm are up against Mike Tomlin and the Steelers. Though some of the offensive personnel Whisenhunt and Grimm helped lead to a Super Bowl title in 2005 has changed over the past three years, the core — Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Hines Ward, Heath Miller — still remain. If any two men know those guys and their strengths and weaknesses — it’s Whisenhunt and Grimm.

If Raiders-Bucs was the Gruden Bowl, then Cardinals-Steelers is undoubtedly the Wiz Bowl. Giddy up.

Who’s got the edge in Super Bowl XLIII? Let’s do a VERY EARLY breakdown.

The last time they played

Last season, a 3-0 Steelers team made the trip out to Glendale for the first “Wiz Bowl.” A true turning point of the Whisenhunt-era Cardinals took place in the third quarter of this one, as Kurt Warner replaced a struggling Matt Leinart early in the second half. Warner led the troops back, connecting with Jerheme Urban on a crucial 6-yard TD pass to tie the game at 7. Leinart would eventually return and help lead the Cardinals to their second win of the season. A quirky 21-14 win, it showed Arizona fans two things: One, the Cardinals could compete with the big boys, and two, Kurt Warner still had a little something left in that rocket arm of his. How much stock do you take in a Week 4 game that was played over a year ago? I’d say not much, but if you’re in that Cardinals locker room, you at least know you can line up with the big dogs. Heck, you’ve done it before. And you’ve won.

The passing game

Who’s got the edge at QB in this one? That’s a tough one. Both Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger have won Super Bowls and enter this year’s showdown playing at the top of their games. By leading Arizona to a conference championship and its first Super Bowl berth, Kurt Warner becomes the third quarterback to play in Super Bowls at least seven years apart (Craig Morton and John Elway are the other too). He’s 7-2 in postseason games. So is Roethlisberger. As strong a few weeks as Big Ben’s had, Warner’s in an altogether different zone. It will take a Herculean effort from the Pittsburgh D to put the clamps on him and Larry Fitzgerald. Of course, if any unit can put one together, it’s Dick Lebeau’s Steel Curtain D.
EDGE: ARIZONA

Source and More : http://msn.foxsports.com