Australia will be one of the top draws and favorites at this weekend's IRB HSBC Sevens World Series stop in Las Vegas. The Sevens Wallabies are currently a surprising seventh...

Fans of the New York Yankees have made Jim Hendry jokes for years. The longtime general manager of the Chicago Cubs could never replicate the success of the Yankees. But now, the joke is on the Yankees fans because the team has hired Hendry to be an assistant general manager.

According to reports, Hendry was given a multi-year contract and his job duties will mostly deal with aiding Brian Cashman, the GM of the Yankees.

A lot of critics blamed Ron Washington for the Texas Rangers not winning the 2011 World Series. If you ask me, that's totally unfair. Washington has guided the Rangers to two recent World Series and has done so by allowing his teams to peak at the right time.

The Rangers seem to agree that Washington is not the problem and have decided to give him a two-year extension.

First seen during Australia Dubai and South Africa stops of the 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series, the Fji home and away Rugby Sevens Seviin 2012 jerseys have been launched and...

First seen during Australia Dubai and South Africa stops of the 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series, the Samoa home and away Rugby Sevens Seviin 2012 jerseys have been launched and...

The last time we saw Darren Oliver, he was blowing a save in the World Series for the Texas Rangers. The old wily veteran won't be returning to Texas. Instead, he has signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. The contract also includes a team option for a second season.

The 41-year-old is still a very effective pitcher.

The South Africa Rugby Sevens team is hosting the latest stop on the HSBC Sevens World Series in the form of the inaugural Nelson Mandela Bay South Africa Sevens in Port Elizabeth on Friday and Saturday. Currently tied for third place in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings after two stops in the annual circuit, [.

Here's my Hat Trick:

1. Well, yesterday was certainly interesting in UEFA Champions League qualifying. Both mighty Manchester teams suffered quite the disgrace in failing to move into the final round of 16 in the Champions League. Manchester City, despite an obscenely rich owner, will now have to look to the Europa League for some hardware.

The Boston Red Sox crumbled in September as rumors ran rampant that manager Terry Francona had let the lockerroom become too wild. Beer drinking and fried chicken eating reportedly took place in the lockerroom. That led to Terry Francona's firing.

With discipline in mind, the Red Sox hired Bobby Valentine.

Here I sit watching television and waiting for coverage of the 2011 MLS Cup to start. I am hoping that Americans have a pregame show to watch. TSN2 is showing a heart wrenching documentary about a former basketball player who battles serious addiction problems. A worthy show I am sure, but hardly designed to get your mind into a "big game" mode.

After failing to advance past the Pool Stage of the Rugby World Cup for the first time ever during the 2011 edition of the tournament, the Scotland rugby team returns to competitive action on November 25th at the HSBC Sevens World Series 2011/12. The Scots will join the likes of hosts Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, [.

In a surprising twist, Tony La Russa has retired. The St. Louis Cardinals manager certainly went out with a bang by leading his team to a 2011 World Seris championship. The 67-year-old manager retires with the third most wins in Major League Baseball history.

La Russa made the announcment at Busch Stadium during a news conference on Monday morning.

So impressed that The St Louis Cardinals won the world series. To go from scraping a ropey last-gasp wildcard berth to winning a seven game world series is amazing.

Don't worry though, I have my pink Everton shirt on underneath. Come on you Blues

In one of the most amazing comebacks of all-time, the St. Louis Cardinals have won the 2011 World Series. Once 10.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race, and down to their final strike in two different innings of the World Series, the Cardinals are now champions.

Game 7 actually didn't start out very well for the Cardinals.

Matt Holliday can't be happy right now. The superstar for the St. Louis Cardinals will miss Game 7 of the World Series due to a wrist injury. Instead of Holliday, the Cardinals will turn to Allen Craig in left field.

Usually being without Holliday would be a huge loss but he's been struggling with injuries throughout the playoffs and has struggled recently.

Just a quick note:

The University of South Florida is actually in Central Florida. A Canadian team once won back-to-back American League championships. Duke basketball has played in the NCAA's West Region five times and its Midwest Region four times. Neither the New York Giants nor New York Jets play in New York, and the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington.

Bad news for the Texas Rangers. Not only do they have to recover from choking in Game 6, they have to bounce back against Chris Carpenter. The St. Louis Cardinals ace has been in a ton of big games and has a proven track record of stepping up big.

For proof, you just have to look back to the Cardinals series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Quick Recap:

The Colorado Rapids come out looking strong and ready to defend their championship. The Columbus Crew looked like they were running around trying to put chewing gum on a leaky dike. In the end the better team won, Colorado wins 1-0.

First Half:

Colorado came out and really looked like they were the defending champions for the first time in a while.

Twice the Texas Rangers were within one strike of winning their franchise's first World Series championship. Both times the St. Louis Cardinals weren't ready to die. After coming back from two runs in both the ninth and tenth innings, the Cardinals won Game 6 on a David Freese walkoff homer in the 11th.

One think you forget about regarding these St. Louis Cardinals is that arguably their best pitcher has missed the entire season. Adam Wainwright, who was 20-11 last year with a 2.42 ERA, has thrown a pitch in 2011. Even without him, the Cardinals are two wins away from a World Series championship.

The weather might be the MVP of the 2011 baseball playoffs. It seems like every series has been affected by rain and the World Series is no different. Baseball was forced to postpone Game 6 and play it on Thursday night.

If the Texas Rangers win on Thursday, they will be the World Series champions.

The Texas Rangers are one win away from making history. After winning Game 5 of the 2011 World Series by a final count of 4-2 over the St. Louis Cardinals, the Rangers need one more victory to claim the franchise's first championship.

However, the news isn't all bad for the Cardinals. Game 6 and Game 7 are both going to be played in St.

The St. Louis Cardinals appeared ready to take a big 2-0 lead in the 2011 World Series. Leading 1-0 in the ninth inning, the Cardinals turned to Jason Motte to close out the Texas Rangers. But after two hits, great baserunning and a pair of sacrifice flies, the Rangers were able to escape with a 2-1 victory and tied the World Series at 1-1.

By Eric Beard

"He's been waiting for this moment his entire life. He's just minutes away from hoisting up the trophy of his dreams. Holland has stayed up all night to watch their beloved Dutch maestro make history. They said it was impossible. Hell, I said it was impossible.

About a month ago, it looked like the St. Louis Cardinals were dead in the water. But now, not only did they find a way to make it to the 2011 baseball playoffs, the Cardinals are headed to the World Series!

In Game 6 against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cardinals got up early and then pounded their way to a 12-6 victory.

After a 7-3 victory in Game 4 of the 2011 ALCS, the Texas Rangers are one win away from reaching the World Series for the second year in a row. The Detroit Tigers, on the other had, face the daunting task of winning three straight games to avoid elimination.

In Game 4, the Tigers got on the board first when Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run double in the bottom of the third inning.

In February 2008, Philadelphia was officially awarded a MLS franchise. Only a few months earlier, the Philadelphia Eagles had finished at the bottom of their division. The Phillies were still licking their wounds after being unceremoniously swept out of the MLB playoffs by a surging Rockies team that would make it to the World Series before crumbling.

Liverpool owner John W Henry has been hospitalized after an accident on his yacht.
The incident, in Boston, occurred on Friday evening and he was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in an ambulance.
Henry, who also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team, was seen leaving the $32m (£25.5m) yacht wearing a neck brace and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

After winning two World Series championship with the Boston Red Sox, you'd think Terry Francona would get a free pass for a decade or two. However, that is apparently not the case. Multiple online reports say that Terry Francona was fired as the manager of the Red Sox on Friday.

Terry Francona led the Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

The 2011 baseball playoffs begin tomorrow. Yesterday was one of the most exciting days in baseball history. Can the 2011 baseball playoffs match that level of excitement? Probably not ... but you never know.

Here are our 2011 baseball postseason predictions:

American League
Texas Rangers Defeat Tampa Bay Rays (3-2)
New York Yankees Defeat Detroit Tigers (3-1)
Texas Rangers Defeat New York Yankees (4-2)

National League
Milwaukee Brewers Defeat Arizona Diamondbacks (3-2)
Philadelphia Phillies Defeat St.

Wow. The Atlanta Braves looked assured of a spot in the 2011 baseball playoffs just a few weeks ago. But after losing on Wednesday, the Braves completed a tumble all the way out of the playoffs. Their 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in 13 innings handed the postseason spot to Chris Carpenter and the St.

Ozzie Guillen is managing his last game on Monday for the Chicago White Sox, according to various online reports. Once separated from the White Sox, Guillen is expected to become the manager of the Florida Marlins. Who will coach the White Sox in their final two regular seasons game is not known at this point.

The San Francisco Giants are desperate to find their footing in time to reach the 2011 baseball postseason. As it stands, the 2010 World Series champions are six games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. Their latest move was to release a pair of veterans in Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada.

The California Little League squad needed a clutch hit to win the 2011 Little League World Series championship over Japan. With the score tied 1-1, Nick Pratto became the hero with a two-out hit to drive in the winning run. California won their seventh Little League World Series championship and denied Japan back-to-back titles.

Call them showboats or call them fluff, call them arrogant or call them hype. It doesn't matter because these athletes produced. Andre Agassi, Dennis Rodman and Deion Sanders gave the sporting public some of the best drama of all time.

Even though Samoa has a population of less than 200,000, the Samoan rugby team (also called Manu Samoa) is currently ranked 10th in the world by the International Rugby Board (IRB) and was the IRB Sevens World Series champions in 2010. Here is a look at the Samoa Kooga Rugby World Cup 2011 home and alternate [.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner says the club will continue to spend big in order to bring success back to Anfield.
The Reds have embarked upon one of its busiest ever periods in the transfer market since being taken over by the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) back in October of last year, after a torrid few years under previous owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

Editor's Note: We've published several op-eds on the Free Beer Movement site, but with no real distinction between what is news and what is opinion. Our editorials are now going to come with the feature tag "Making the Case", well, because its an awesome beer pun, and we love those.

ESPN has a few programming updates related to the Wednesday night match against Mexico. You can still watch the game live on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com, but make sure to also tune in for thee pre-game festivities:
ESPN's SportsNation will be taping live from Lincoln Financial Field at 4 p.m. Those of you attending tonight's game should certainly get there early and be as loud as possible in the background of their shot!

The Boston Red Sox have been searching high and low for a starting pitcher to add to their rotation. They almost traded for Rich Harden, however that deal fell apart at the last second. On Sunday, the Red Sox made their moving by trading for Erik Bedard of the Seattle Mariners in a three-team deal.