Freddy Garcia, Yankees Reportedly Agree to Minor League Deal

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Freddy GarciaNEW YORK (AP) -- Free agent pitcher Freddy Garcia and the New York Yankees have reached agreement on a minor league deal, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not officially been announced. The contract could be worth up to $5.1 million, and it also lets Garcia opt out by March 29.

The 35-year-old Garcia went 12-6 with a 4.64 ERA in 28 starts last season for the Chicago White Sox. The righty is a two-time All-Star and has a career record of 133-87 in 12 seasons with Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit and the White Sox.

Spring training starts for the Yankees in two weeks in Tampa, Fla., and their rotation is still unsettled.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/01/freddy-garcia-yankees-reportedly-agree-to-minor-league-deal/

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Martin Kaymer Grows Lead to Five Strokes at Abu Dhabi Championship

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Martin KaymerABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Defending champion Martin Kaymer extended his lead at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship to five strokes over Rory McIlroy after shooting a 6-under 66 in the third round on Saturday.

Kaymer, the 2010 PGA Championship winner, birdied three of his last four holes to total 18-under 198 at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

"The great thing is I've made only one bogey so far, and that was the first day," Kaymer said. "I played very consistently. I've made a lot of birdies the last three days."

McIlroy finished birdie-eagle for a 65 to move into second place.

David Lynn of England (67) is at 204, two strokes ahead of Race to Dubai leader Charl Schwartzel of South Africa (71) and Alexander Noren of Sweden (67).

U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell struggled with putting and finished with a 71. Paul Casey of England (67) made a hole-in-one at the 12th.

Four-time major winner Phil Mickelson was 3 under at the turn, only to make four bogeys on the back nine. He shot a 72 and trails the leader by 15 strokes. Top-ranked Lee Westwood had a 73 and is tied for 65th.

Kaymer beat McIlroy by two shots in last year's tournament, and the Northern Irishman is aware he faces a challenge on Sunday.

"Kaymer is very, very good on this golf course," McIlroy said. "He's always good when leading from the front as well, so I'm going to have a difficult time to try and catch him."

 

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/22/martin-kaymer-grows-lead-at-abu-dhabi/

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Point/Counterpoint: Arnold Palmer Flies; John Daly Complains

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Arnold PalmerFanHouse Golf Writer Mick Elliott runs through a point/counterpoint on the last week of happenings in golf:

Fact: A man who allegedly took a woman hostage during a Friday bank robbery in suburban Washington, D.C., was shot and killed by authorities.

Observation: Good.

Fact: Playing in the opening round of last week's European Tour event in Bahrain, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez angrily broke his putter in two, picked up his wedge to use on the greens and made three straight birdies.

Observation: Would you expect anything less from the Most Interesting Man In The World?

Fact: Flying enthusiast Arnold Palmer (right) piloted his first aircraft in 1956. On Sunday, now 81, the golf legend made what he proclaimed his final flight as a pilot. With his license now expired, he will not seek to have it renewed.

Observation: Wait a minute. Arnold Palmer needs an airplane to fly?

 

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/02/01/point-counterpoint-arnold-palmer-flies-john-daly-complains/

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Ricky Gervais Says Golden Globes Invited Him Back For 2012

HFPA and some celebrities were upset with the comedian's jokes at this year's awards show.
By Gil Kaufman


Ricky Gervais
Photo: Getty Images

When you flip over the tables, spill wine on the red carpet and set the dog on fire, you're typically not invited back to your boss' house for dinner. Unless, of course, your name is Ricky Gervais and you happen to be a world-beatingly witty and funny guy.

Nearly a month after upsetting a number of major Hollywood stars, not to mention the Hollywood Foreign Press Association organizers who hired him, British comedian Gervais revealed that he was actually asked to return for a third Golden Globes hosting gig next year.

The bombshell was included at the end of a Globes diary the creator of the British version of "The Office" wrote for Heat magazine. After chronicling the week leading up to his second go-round as Globes host, Gervais wrote, "I did exactly what I went to do. Improve on last year's and have a laugh. The response was staggering. It was discussed on every news channel and chat show for weeks. The weird thing is the question is always, 'Did Ricky go too far?' And the answer is always, 'No.' I have yet to find anyone who was actually offended by it."

He added, "The ratings went up again, and the organizers asked me to consider a third year. I don't think I should. I don't know what I could do better. I certainly couldn't get more press for them, that's for sure."

Gervais, known for skewering sacred cows in his standup and for his irreverent take on celebrity, brought that take-no-prisoners approach to the Globes hosting gig this year, launching broadsides against such megastars as Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr. and even the president of the HFPA. While taking the stage mid-show, a dour Downey called the performance "hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones," but Gervais has claimed all along that nobody complained to him and the atmosphere backstage and at the afterparty was "great."

"Ricky will not be invited back to host the show next year, for sure," an unidentified HFPA member told AOL's Popeater a few days after the event. "For sure any movie he makes he can forget about getting nominated. He humiliated the organization last night and went too far with several celebrities whose representatives have already called to complain."

A spokesperson for the HFPA could not be reached for comment at press time, but if Gervais is telling the truth, it seems that a twist on the old Hollywood adage is true: funny + good ratings/ tons of press = forgiveness.

Then again, as he noted at the end of the Heat story, "You know me. Two seasons is enough," alluding to his two-year stints on the original "Office" as well as "Extras."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657016/ricky-gervais-golden-globes-invited-him-back-2012.jhtml

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Usher, Ke$ha And More Help Dance Music Go Pop In 2010

But is it here to stay? Our music-industry experts weigh in.
By Akshay Bhansali


Ke$ha
Photo: Andreas Rentz/ Getty Images

In 2010, pop princesses, R&B icons and chart-dominating newcomers all danced to the same beat. Not only did dance music go pop, but pop music caught the club-music bug.

Between Katy Perry's "Firework," Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)," Enrique Iglesias' "I Like It," Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "OMG" and countless other singles, established artists definitely looked to dance beats for surefire hits. And two of this year's biggest success stories in music were Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz; could there be a soul left in this country who hasn't heard "Dynamite" or "In My Head"?

The love went both ways, with dance music's biggest stars finding mainstream success this year. Dance-music maestro deadmau5 took up house-artist duties at this year's VMAs, and Swedish House Mafia and Usher teamed up for a medley of their gems at the American Music Awards.

So how did this happen? We caught up with some music-industry experts to get their takes.

"You definitely saw tempos go up this year," Jon Caramanica of The New York Times told MTV News. "And I think what you had are a lot of producers who are really familiar with nightclub stuff. They are familiar with Europe. Things are happening on a more global scale now."

"I think everything from Europe, and sometimes even Asia, it comes to America, and we just adopt things a little bit slower," said Jared Eng of JustJared.com. "I think it was just a change. People like different types of music at different times. And dance was of this moment."

Noah Callahan of Complex magazine added: "I think 2010 saw the merging of the pop and dance genres. Pop artists realized that there were best practices that could be borrowed from dance music. And, ultimately, [all] pop music that has been made in the past 20 years had ended up being remixed for the club by dance artists. I think they basically just cut out the middleman and went straight there."

Dance music being introduced into the hip-hop and R&B realms was particularly notable this year.

"I think David Guetta kind of at the end of last year and the beginning of this year spearheaded it," said freelance writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. "He produced a lot of tracks. I think as trends go, people revile 'unst-unst.' But it's just coming back around. Big-room techno was a way for people to get decadent in a year that no one could get decadent."

"You have someone like will.i.am, who's like, 'Well, I spent all this time in Ibiza, and this is what they are doing,' and he wants to find a way to bring that into his music," Caramanica said of the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. "R&B especially became dance music. And especially with your Jason Derülos, Taio Cruzes. Guys like that would have literally been blocked at the border two years ago. That would not have made it through customs. And now all of a sudden they have #1 songs. I think will.i.am had a lot to do with that last year."

Elliott Wilson of RapRadar.com added: "It's actually even affected hip-hop. I was talking to Q-Tip, and his next record, I feel like that's gonna kind of go in that vein. I know that was also Jay-Z's thought process with Blueprint 3 at first, that he wanted to make a little bit more of a world music [vibe], a little more dancey. I think the kids today want to go to the clubs. They wanna have a good time. They wanna dance. So I think the artists of today are trying to kind of feed that audience."

"I think it's caught on this year because the people who've done it have been successful," offered Clover Hope of Vibe magazine. "Like 'OMG,' with usher, he didn't have success until he made a dance record. He had 'There Goes My Baby' and these really, like, adult-contemporary records that didn't really catch on. And then once you see that everybody is doing it and that people are liking it, they are like, 'OK, let me just try this out.' It's like Auto-Tune. Like, 'Let me see what I sound like on a record by David Guetta.' They end up liking it and doing more of it."

So does the club-music trend have staying power. According to our tastemakers, not so much.

"I do think it's a blip," Caramanica said. "I don't think that's gonna be something that lasts in America. I think this is gonna be a moment we'll all look back on and go, 'Wasn't that weird when Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz had #1 records?"

"At some point, these R&B artists will get kind of sick of it and be like, 'Let me go back to my soul background,' " Hope said. "When you actually have to say something, dance doesn't really lend itself to substance. And I think that R&B artists, they really want to talk about love and in a deep way, and to do that, you need to do, like, a soul or a traditional R&B record. I want to say that it's kind of a fad."

"I think music is very cyclical," Eng offered. "So I think dance music might be here for a little bit, but I'm sure it will phase out at some point."

Wilson called dance music "the sound of today. I think that people want more aggressive, faster beats, and I think that that probably has legs until at least next summer."

What do you think? Is dance music here to stay? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655031/usher-keha-more-help-dance-music-go-pop-2010.jhtml

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Manny Ramirez Not Relaxing This Winter

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Manny RamirezManny Ramirez entered the offseason without a team and the 38-year-old slugger knew a major pay cut was on the horizon well before he was signed to a one-year, $2 million deal by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Not that it affected his workouts over the last several weeks, one of the lead trainers at Phoenix-based Athletes' Performance told FanHouse.

"This year he seemed to be very, very focused," said Craig Friedman, who leads the elite gym's innovation team. "I'm not saying he wasn't in past years because he's always been very professional in his approach. He really enjoys the opportunity to make himself better in the offseason."

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/01/manny-ramirez-not-relaxing-this-winter/

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Scottie Reynolds Reinvents Himself as Pass-First Point Guard

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Scottie ReynoldsFor a lot of players, the NBA D-League is more of an exposure league, a place where someone goes to put up big statistics while trying to get noticed by an NBA team.

Scottie Reynolds, the first NCAA All-American since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 not be taken in the NBA Draft, has a different outlook on what he's trying to do while playing for the D-League's Springfield Armor.

Instead of scoring the basketball -- something he showed every NBA scout he can do during his four-year career at Villanova -- Reynolds has recently decided to focus more on getting his teammates involved in hopes of showing talent evaluators he can be counted on to play the point guard position at the next level.

"I've scored enough points," Reynolds told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "In fact, I'm sick of scoring."

That certainly wasn't the case early on this season when Reynolds averaged 23.2 points and just 3.8 assists in the month of November, but Armor coach -- and former NBA player -- Dee Brown has challenged Reynolds to be more of a facilitator of the offense. To his credit, the smooth-scoring guard responded well.

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/31/scottie-reynolds-reinvents-himself-as-pass-first-point-guard/

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Michael Jackson Doctor Conrad Murray Gets His Day In Court

Jackson's choreographer Kenny Ortega is expected to testify at the preliminary hearing in Los Angeles.
By Gil Kaufman


Dr. Conrad Murray (file)
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images

More than a year and a half after the shocking death of Michael Jackson, the only person charged in the singer's death, his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray, will finally get his day in court.

Murray, who has been charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter, will be in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday (January 4) for the first day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a full trial. The hearing, in front of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, is expected to last two weeks and feature testimony from more than two dozen witnesses, most of whom are medical experts.

Prosecutors will attempt to show that Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, was responsible for the singer's death from an overdose of prescription drugs on June 25, 2009. Murray's lawyers have said the doctor did inject the 50-year-old pop icon with the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol in an attempt to combat Jackson's chronic insomnia, but that the dose "should have" not been enough to kill him.

TMZ reported on Tuesday that one of the star witnesses during the preliminary hearing will be Jackson's "This is It" choreographer Kenny Ortega. Citing an unnamed source, TMZ said that Ortega is expected to testify that the week before Jackson died, the singer complained that he felt cold, had the shakes and could not perform, which resulted in a canceled rehearsal.

On the next day, June 20, 2009, an emergency meeting was reportedly called at Jackson's rented Los Angeles mansion between the pop star, Ortega, several executives from concert promotion giant AEG Live and Murray. The meeting was described as "intense, loud and argumentative" and Ortega is said to have laid into Jackson, imploring the singer to take better care of himself in the lead-up to what was intended to be his live swan song.

According to TMZ, Ortega is expected to testify that Murray said some "terrible things" during the meeting and displayed a lack of concern and respect for his patient, comments that could be "damaging" to Murray.

Last week, one of the prosecutors in the case claimed that Murray's lawyers were planning to claim that Jackson killed himself when he self-administered a lethal dose of propofol after waking up in a panic from a bout of fitful sleep.

Ortega is also reportedly set to testify that in the two days before his death, Jackson was a changed man, impressing his backup dancers with his upbeat singing and dancing. The testimony could be key to the prosecutors' case, since it could paint a portrait of Jackson as being healthy and energetic before Murray administered the cocktail of sedatives and propofol that allegedly resulted in the singer's death.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655231/michael-jackson-doctor-conrad-murray-gets-his-day-court.jhtml

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Zdeno Chara, Alex Ovechkin Shine in NHL SuperSkills Competition

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Zdeno Chara
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Team Staal dominated Saturday's NHL SuperSkills, an event highlighted by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara's fourth consecutive victory in the hardest shot competition with a record-setting volley of 105.9 mph and another win by Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin in the breakaway challenge.

Team Staal earned a 33-22 victory -- winning five of the six events -- over Team Lidstrom at RBC Center, a prelude to Sunday's NHL All-Star Game.

Chara defeated Nashville's Shea Weber, who had an impressive shot of his own that was clocked at 103.4 mph.

"It was tough," Chara said. "The guys were shooting really, really hard. They really pushed me."

Ovechkin, who broke a few sticks during the hardest shot challenge and tripped over a camera cord during the exhibition, said he was "surprised" the fans voted him the winner. He was chosen ahead of Montreal rookie defenseman P.K. Subban in the text message poll.

"Subban did a great job, but I would have voted for Corey Perry," Ovechkin said.

Fastest skater
Michael Grabner (Team Staal), New York Islanders, 14.238 seconds def. Taylor Hall (Team Lidstrom), Edmonton, 14.715.

Breakaway challenge (Fans voted via text message)
1. Alex Ovechkin (Team Staal), Washington , 38.5%
2. P.K. Subban (Team Staal), Washington, 21.3%
3. Loui Eriksson (Team Lidstrom), Dallas, 13.4%

Accuracy shooting
Daniel Sedin (Team Staal), Vancouver, def. Patrick Kane (Team Lidstrom), Chicago, in finals with time of 8.9 seconds.

Skills challenge relay
Team Lidstrom (2:09) def. Team Staal (2:18)

Hardest shot
1. Zdeno Chara (Team Staal), Boston, 105.9 mph
2. Shea Weber (Team Lidstrom), Nashville, 104.8

Elimination shoot out
Corey Perrry (Team Staal), Anaheim, 3-for-3

 

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2011/01/29/nhl-superskills-competition-results/

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