Sports Mix

PHILADELPHIA -- Anna Kournikova last played professional tennis in 2003. From the way she was mobbed by fans and photographers Monday before her St. Louis Aces took on the Philadelphia Freedoms, an outsider might have thought she had just won Wimbledon.
Sidelined with a left-wrist injury suffered three weeks ago, Kournikova will not play World Team Tennis for the Aces this season. However, the 28-year-old Russian will travel with the squad for select matches. At each stop, she will participate in children's clinics, sign autographs, and meet with spectators, media and sponsors.
Monday, before heading off to a steakhouse for a meet-and-greet session, Kournikova conducted a clinic for youngsters on a multicolored court at the Freedoms' 3,000-seat temporary stadium in the King of Prussia Mall.

The recession has claimed yet another casualty: one of college football's more time-honored traditions.
Faced with schools looking to cut costs and a changing media landscape in which newspapers and local television outlets are struggling financially, several college conferences have decided to cancel their annual mid- to late-July football media days.
For years, the conferences have offered journalists the opportunity to sit down face-to-face with head coaches, standout football players and league commissioners for question-and-answer sessions in relatively informal settings. In turn, the journalists would return to their respective organizations with season-preview stories, reporting for in-depth projects and simply stronger working relationships with school officials.
But this summer, Conference USA, the Ohio Valley Conference, the Sun Belt Conference and the Big Sky Conference are doing away with their in-person gatherings. They'll offer reporters forums such as live video streaming or phone teleconferences as a substitute.

PHILADELPHIA -- As Lance Armstrong was climbing steadily to the summit of professional cycling's holiest of Ziggurats -- reeling off two, three, four, five, "six, SEVEN straight wins in the Tour de France during his remarkable comeback from the cancer that nearly killed him -- followers, fanatics and doubters struggled to find an apt historical comparison within the sport.
The handiest and most recent was that of Miguel Indurain, the impassive Spaniard whose five Tour wins, the previous record held by Indurain and three others, were also consecutive. While the domination was similar, the riders were not.

 NORTHBROOK, Ill. -- The Dream Team is still dominating.

The star-studded team that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley and won the gold medal in Barcelona headlines this year's inductees for the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. The class, which also includes Michael Johnson, Picabo Street and Peter Ueberroth, will be formally announced Wednesday morning and inducted Aug. 12 in Chicago.
The other inductees are: Teresa Edwards (basketball); Mary T. Meagher (swimming); and Willye White (athletics); skier Sarah Will (Paralympian); Abie Grossfeld (coach, gymnastics); and Andrea Mead-Lawrence (veteran).

The Oakland TribuneAt one point Friday morning, Michael Jackson accounted for programming in several languages, on no fewer than 18 TV stations.Radio stations? Too many to count.The sudden death of the "King of Pop" sprung editors and station executives into action, filling TV screens with videos, retrospectives and news coverage, while saturating the airwaves with his vast musical catalog.It was a powerful testimony to our intense fascination with someone who was beloved and scorned and mocked -- but had a gift for touching global society that may be unrivaled among entertainers, including sports figures.

Philadelphia Daily NewsFARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Phil Mickelson flew across country Monday night to be with his wife, Amy, and their three children. They'll be starting a family vacation that got pushed back a bit because the 109th U.S. Open kept getting pushed back a bunch. Now, he can go back to being a father and husband again.As well as a best friend.And it will stay that way for the foreseeable future as golf takes a back seat to real life.The second-best golfer of his era finished second in yet another U.S. Open on Monday at Bethpage Black, where he also was runner-up in 2002. It's the fifth time he has had to settle for second-best at this major, breaking the record he'd shared with Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. This was the only major Snead never won. The others combined for nine.