Sports Shorts

(Newser) - Two of the NHL's oldest franchises got together for some old-school outdoors hockey today, with the Detroit Red Wings beating the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4, the Chicago Tribune reports. The league's second annual Winter Classic, staged in a converted Wrigley Field, threw the players plenty of curveballs, from chilly temperatures to last-minute ice repair. “Holy Cow. It’s Cold,” one sign read, a nod to Cubs announcer Harry Caray. More »

(Newser) - Every fan has favorite storylines from the year in sports, but a few were universally intriguing, Reid Cherner and Tom Weir write in USA Today : Michael Phelps' eight golds in the 08/08/08 Olympics gave America a reason to root. Our favorite hoodied villain, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, finally got his comeuppance in Super Bowl XLII. More »

(Newser) - Power problems had fans hoping to catch the baseball playoffs and the NFL on TV this weekend howling, the AP reports, with a malfunction at TBS headquarters keeping the first 20 minutes of Tampa Bay’s Game 6 loss to visiting Boston off the airwaves Saturday. Yesterday, balloons snagged a transformer and cut power CBS needed to broadcast most of the first half of Chargers-Bills from Buffalo. More »

(Newser) - The improbable has happened. The Tampa Bay Rays have ousted the defending champion Red Sox. Sportswriters, start your fawning: The Rays won this thing with “talent, talent, talent,” which trumps experience every time, writes Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe . “The best team in the American League is going to the World Series.” Besides, the Rays played like grizzled veterans, writes George Vecsey of the New York Times , thanks to a “lineup full of heroes doing the big things and the small things.” More »

(Newser) - The worst-to-first Tampa Bay Rays completed a stunning run to their first World Series, holding off the defending champion Boston Red Sox, 3-1, last night behind Matt Garza's masterful pitching in Game 7 of the ALCS. "It's unbelievable," center fielder BJ Upton said. "We battled a lot of adversity this year. We stuck together as a team." More »

(AP) - The Boston Red Sox, playing like the defending champs they are, came out swinging and beat Tampa Bay 4-2 last night to force a seventh game in an American League championship series that the Rays had all but wrapped up two days ago. "We went out there and played like it was our last game,” said Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis. “It was awesome." More »

(Newser) - Red Sox nation is secretly grieving. Sure, the Sox pulled off one of the most incredible comebacks ever on Thursday, but precious few were actually watching. Many among the Fenway Faithful didn’t exactly live up to their name, the Boston Globe reports. “It was 7-0,” laments one fan who left the park early. “I feel this incredible guilt, like letting an old friend down.” More »

(Newser) - While the world suffers through financial meltdown, some of the world’s wealthiest money managers are easing the mood by competing in one of Wall Street’s most exclusive boys clubs: A $1 million fantasy-football league. Hedge-fund titans predominate among owners, who pay $100,000 annually for their teams—and there’s a waiting list to score one of the 10 squads, the Journal reports. More »

(Newser) - Standard football rules allow the team on offense five eligible receivers downfield. But what if opponents and officials can't tell which five until the center snaps the ball? Hundreds of high schools run the controversial "A-11" offense, which relies on confusion instead of brawn. The New York Times checks out the X's and O's.