DOUG PENSINGER / Getty Images Padres center fielder Jody Gerut is welcomed at home plate after belting a three-run homer in the ninth.

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DENVER – Believe it or not, there were members of the Padres yesterday afternoon who arrived at Coors Field hearing opportunity knocking. Eight straight home losses had dimmed their optimism about a 2008 season that many have written off as a lost cause. But it hadn't destroyed it.

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2008 OLYMPICS

EUGENE, Ore. – It has been eight years since Morse High's Monique Henderson set the national prep record in the 400 meters. “I don't think people remember that any more,” she said. The problem was, she did.

If there is any similarity between yesterday's international Court of Arbitration for Sport doping decision against cyclist Floyd Landis and his stunning Alpine breakaway in Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France, it is this: Neither was close.

Imagine San Diego without the Chargers. It was easy enough to do 50 years ago, when the professional football team not only wasn't here, it didn't exist. But it does now, and there's a growing chance it will exist somewhere else very soon – perhaps as early as next year. The Chargers aren't firing this warning shot across our leaky bow. I am. The handwriting, man. It's the size of Texas.

WIMBLEDON, England – Precarious jobs abound in these turbulent economic times, but the most precarious post in sports for the moment must be that of a top-seeded woman at Wimbledon.