LONDON – Yin Alvarez doesn't ever think the game is over.

Even when it's the bottom of the ninth inning, down by 11 runs, two outs and two strikes – "and the guy who's batting is the pitcher" – he lives and dies by that famous Yogi Berra line no matter how crazy you think he is, no matter how impossible the predicament.

"My wife gets mad at me," Alvarez said. "She says, 'It's impossible to win.' I say, 'We're going to win.' "

At the Olympic men's gymnastics all-around final on Wednesday, Alvarez watched his stepson and prized pupil Danell Leyva, America's top medal hopeful, fall into what figured to be an insurmountable deficit. Leyva lost his strength on his pommel-horse dismount, and the price for his suddenly weakened arms resulted in a nine-tenths deduction and a score of 13.500 – a disastrous result for someone hoping to challenge for the gold medal.

What followed was the most

Read More »from Fresh Take: Danell Leyva buoyed to bronze by his never-say-die stepfather

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The confetti had fallen on the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials on a Sunday night that began with Elvis-lookalike acrobats providing the pregame entertainment. Fittingly, deep inside HP Pavilion, the show was still going on.

The U.S. women have the talent to win gold. (Reuters)Bela Karolyi was holding court. And the legendary coach and famously animated TV analyst was providing all kinds of sound bites for the collection of microphones and cameras in front of him.

"I don't know what the hell they are doing," he said of the Russians. "They're getting beaten by Romania by more than eight points at the European Championship, and then they go home and say they're going to win the Olympic Games? I don't know what that is about.

"Did you watch her ankles? Did you watch those ankles?" he later asked to no one in particular about the lower-body strength of Jordyn Wieber, the reigning all-around world champion. "That's Nadia [Comaneci] ankles. … She's coming off the vault on one leg. Anybody else would be carried

Read More »from Karolyi predicts U.S. will win Olympic team gold

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The U.S. Olympic team has its "Fab Five" in women's gymnastics for the London Games.

Gabby Douglas was a fan favorite in San Jose. (Getty Images)

The four-day Olympic Trials concluded Sunday with the final night of women's competition before a standing-room-only crowd at HP Pavilion. Leading the U.S. into London will be:

• Gabby Douglas, the crowd-pleasing all-arounder from Virginia Beach, Va.
• McKayla Maroney, the reigning vault world champion from Long Beach, Calif.
• Aly Raisman, the national champion in floor exercise and balance beam from Needham, Mass.
• Kyla Ross, the uneven bars silver medalist at the national championships from Aliso Viejo, Calif.
• Jordyn Wieber, the reigning all-around world champion from DeWitt, Mich.

The three alternates are:

• Sarah Finnegan, a beam/floor specialist from St. Louis.
• Anna Li, a specialist in the uneven bars from Aurora, Ill.
• Elizabeth Price, the biggest surprise of the Trials from Coopersburg, Pa.

The team was determined after the final routine, making for a

Read More »from Five chosen for U.S. women's gymnastics to compete in London Games

SAN JOSE – The U.S. Olympic team has its "Fab Five" in women's gymnastics for the London Games.

The four-day Olympic Trials concluded Sunday with the final night of women's competition before a standing-room-only crowd at HP Pavilion. Leading the U.S. into London will be:

• Gabby Douglas, the crowd-pleasing all-arounder from Virginia Beach, Va.
• Jordyn Wieber, the reigning all-around world champion from DeWitt, Mich.
• Aly Raisman, the national champion in floor exercise and balance beam from Needham, Mass.
• McKayla Maroney, the reigning vault world champion from Long Beach, Calif.
• Kyla Ross, the uneven bars silver medalist at the national championships from Aliso Viejo, Calif.

The three alternates are:

• Sarah Finnegan, a beam/floor specialist from St. Louis.
• Anna Li, a specialist in the uneven bars from Aurora, Ill.
• Elizabeth Price, the biggest surprise of the Trials from Coopersburg, Pa.

The race for the automatic spot came down to the final rotation with Douglas

Read More »from Five chosen for U.S. women's gymnastics team

RUSTENBURG, South Africa – With the public back home tuning into the rarest of American sporting events – a must-see futbol game – U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati openly hoped for a "water cooler" moment to boost the profile of his sport. Gulati didn't get the upset victory in USA's World Cup opener, but first-time viewers will at least say this about Saturday's 1-1 draw with England on Monday morning:

That England goalkeeper is really bad.

And that U.S. goalkeeper is really good.

Tim Howard anchored an American defense that rebounded from a goal just four minutes into the game and frustrated England's powerful attack the rest of the way, making save after save to earn Man of the Match honors. The seven-save performance had to remind the U.S. viewing public of another superb goalie the last time they tuned into a big national team game – Ryan Miller, the MVP of the Winter Olympic silver medal-winning men's hockey team in Vancouver.

"I think a lot of people will understand how good

Read More »from Howard shows how keepers should play

CARSON, Calif. – The show would've gone on with or without David Beckham, and let's be honest: Saturday's festivities at the Home Depot Center were nothing but a made-for-TV production for Major League Soccer, the Los Angeles Galaxy and their $32.5 million man.

The fact that one of the world's top soccer clubs – English Premier League powerhouse Chelsea – was the opponent for this friendly was a mere footnote for many watching the nationally televised broadcast replete with a one-hour pregame special ("David Beckham: The American Dream") and Super Bowl-like camera coverage.

Yes, Beckham would've been better off watching from the bench and resting his sore left ankle, especially with games of significance looming in the newly formed SuperLiga (North America's attempt at a Champions League-type tournament). But this soccer-only stadium about 20 miles south of Los Angeles had been transformed into the Ivy, what with his wife and aspiring reality TV show queen Victoria (aka Posh Spice),

Read More »from The show had to go on

OAKLAND, Calif. – This was the dirty little truth that none of the Golden State Warriors nor their yellow-clad and believing fans wanted to talk about during this most unbelievable of playoff runs.

When the Warriors sink three-pointers from all over the court, Don Nelson's small ball is a sight to behold, the most fun seen on a basketball court this side of Steve Nash and Meadowlark Lemon's Globetrotters.

But when those threes aren't dropping at an astonishing rate (40.8 percent against Utah, 38.2 overall in the postseason), well, um, the wheels begin to wobble on Nellie's built-for-speed machine.

Which brings us to Game 4 against the Utah Jazz on Sunday. Golden State came out firing as usual, hitting five of its nine three-pointers in the first quarter, but the percentages finally caught up to the Warriors as they missed 23 of their next 30 threes in a deflating 115-101 loss to the Jazz.

Golden State never embarked on its typical three-point flurry to whip the Oracle Arena crowd into

Read More »from Three's not the magic number

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Well before he successfully played "Beat the Shot Clock" twice during a slump-busting 24-point performance in UCLA's 68-55 win over Kansas on Saturday, time was running out on Arron Afflalo.

The junior guard needed to rediscover the jump shot that helped him earn Pac-10 Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors, then suddenly eluded him at the end of the regular season.

His shooting problems were dismissed as an off game when he managed just three points in a shocking loss to California in the Pac-10 tournament. But after a brief pause in a NCAA tournament-opening blowout of Weber State, his offensive struggles became a daily topic of conversation with the media when he suffered back-to-back brickfests against Indiana (2 for 11) and Pittsburgh (3 for 11).

Afflalo kept missing. And the Bruins kept winning. Certainly, there was no way that equation could add up to a Final Four for UCLA if its leading scorer continued to miss regularly from the field, not

Read More »from Just in time