Don't feel too sorry for the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates. Losing has been profitable. Pittsburgh Pirates - Pittsburgh Steelers - sport - Baseball - Major League

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Financial records show Pirates still win

Surely the Olympic rings were turned on their sides this past week. Two giants of their respective sports suffered rare defeats when Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps each lost races.

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Phelps and Bolt suffer rare defeats

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Juan Pablo Montoya once again had victory within reach at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Then questionable strategy cost him first the lead, and ultimately the race.

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McMurray makes history at Brickyard

Bob Sheppard gave voice to a building. He transformed all that concrete and steel of Yankee Stadium into a trusted old friend because, well, that voice was reliable, it was unhurried and it was always there

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Tom Verducci: Fulfilling the request of the man who gave voice to Yankee Stadium

During an interview with the New Yorker's Avi Zenilman a few months ago, Bill Simmons, an ESPN columnist/author and a man who doubtless dashed off 3,000 words this morning before I managed to get the brown sugar and banana on my oatmeal, was asked about the paucity of great basketball books. See, when you write about the NBA, as Simmons does and I have done for many years, you are generally ...

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Jack McCallum: Rich season for basketball books (Sports Illustrated)

Excerpted from "The Art of the Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA", by Chris Ballard.

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Chris Ballard: Shaq's larger-than-life presence transcends the game (Sports Illustrated)

NEW YORK -- If there has been one downside to what has been an otherwise improbably impressive year for Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, it came a couple of weeks ago when best-selling author John Grisham was in Arlington for a game and Washington didn't get to meet him.

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Ted Keith: Rebuilt Rangers heading in right direction for postseason (Sports Illustrated)

ROME (AP) -- The winner draped himself triumphantly on the lane rope, thrusting his right hand in the air to celebrate a world record.

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Phelps suffers rare loss in 200 free (Sports Illustrated)

It didn't take long for the letters to start rolling in about the dismissal of Chicago Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon. Let's take a look at that hot topic, and a few more that showed up repeatedly in the mailbag.

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Allan Muir: The Dale Tallon conspiracy theory and other hot mailbag topics (Sports Illustrated)

The Nuggets didn't waste any time in taking care of their top offseason priority.

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Denver Nuggets Team Report (USA Today)