Allstate: Still an All-Star?
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Non-operating gains help Allstate post a quarterly earnings gain.
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We all have to be beyond being surprised or outraged by the All-Star selections and snubs by now. After all, it happens every year. No matter the selection process, there is always going to be a deserving player who isn't selected and there is always going to be a player with less-than-overwhelming credentials who winds up on the team.
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The 2007 All-Star Game will take place at SBC Park, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday. The Giants and Major League Baseball did not
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Alonzo Mourning's return to the Miami Heat is imminent. The seven-time All-Star center was examined by doctors Tuesday, and Heat president Pat Riley expects Miami's former franchise cornerstone to begin practicing with the team immediately after this weekend's All-Star break.
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Tycho:  Sony hasn't been entirely clear regarding what their 1.92 update for the Playstation 3 actually does, suggesting that it "focuses on some PS3 compatibility and playability issues for select titles," but our own experience with the update has been conclusive.  In the Internet's dark places, aggrieved Lair fans are suggesting that this update improves the game's motion controls, and that each media outlet must rescind their previous scores.  I'm fairly certain this is magical thinking - neither Sony or Factor 5 will say with any specificity, and now that both our PS3s are updated it would be impossible to test.  Typically we don't take the traditional holidays off, nor do we take off non-traditional holidays, such at the Feast of St. Motherfucker - a holy day that I've only just now invented.  Gabe's father was around, though, and golf seemed like a good time investment.  Reading greens and choosing clubs for other people is about as far as I get, so for me the social aspects of the game are paramount.  Standing under the awning at the driving range, it's hard not to see where EA's Tiger series could improve.      This year's lobby system is much improved over last year's, but I'm not sure why the lobby itself couldn't be a driving range.  This is how virtually any actual round of golf starts, with every person hitting the bucket they bought and lamenting their performance.  A few of their minigames would work just fine in this context - don't create a custom game to play them, build all of the basic play into a casual, central experience.  From here, modes, courses, and wagers are established.  When new people pull in, carts can be heard.  Links for the 360 wasn't as complete as Tiger, but it had four player modes first - and it had a means to play Speed Golf that Tiger should loot from its fallen enemy.  Essentially, you play the round as normal.  Everyone else plays the round as normal simultaneously, and shots are keyed to a certain color so that the arc of each person's shot is visible to all other players.  They need to steal this - throw the name of each player on there, use the face, whatever.  This needs to be how it works.  You can play an entire course in a quarter of the time.  The RPG metaphor really worked the first few times I bought the product, but it's really lost its currency with me.  There's a point - and it may be with the '08 version of the product - where the number of courses are such that I don't actually want to pay sixty dollars again just to lose all of my character progression every year.  Gabriel's suggestion is to approach it more like a fighting game, which is to say like Mario Golf - with discrete golfer archetypes that have a suite of skills.  I'm wondering if Guild Wars doesn't have the answer - full priced expansions every year, with a perpetually tracked online experience where your prior purchase actually increases the value of the next.  Let all play - online and off - be a part of the core experience, let all play hone your ability.  Don't wall off online play into some purgatory as it is now, untracked, outside of the normal scheme of advancement.    With these thoughts in my head, excited by the sun-dappled future we had envisioned. we sat down to play a round online the next night.  After determining that one of us couldn't play at all or it would crash the game for everyone - a weird kind of crash where you can't play, but you're able to talk to one another about the crash - we were able to play eight holes, at which point it crashed before a victor could be determined.  They've only just made online Photo Game Face available for Tiger, for the first time since launch, but they had to deactivate online features for two other titles to do it.  So, no.  I don't have high hopes.
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Dan Haren will start the All-Star game for the American League just across the bay from his home ballpark in Oakland. The Athletics' ace was picked by AL manager Jim Leyland on Monday to oppose San Diego's Jake Peavy, who will start for Tony La Russa's National League squad in Tuesday night's game.
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HUDSON -- Being selected to play in an all-star game signifies a player's stellar performance over a season, but the games are often sloppy because of the lack of familiarity among teammates. The pitchers don't know the catchers well and occasionally cross them up, making for some long innings and crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
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ATLANTA -- He has been a fixture at the last three NBA All-Star Games. Will the streak end next month for Paul Pierce ?
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Judging from the current Atlantic Division standings, where a .500 record appears a lofty goal, there will always be time to make a playoff push. It will never be too late for teams rebuilding under new coaches to hope for a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. But right now, the question is this: When does it stop being too ...
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The Sporting News - Questions to ponder while wondering if the hand really is part of the ball (Maybe it depends on the star status of the hand?):
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Scottie Pippen is tired of retirement. He wants to return to the NBA for a chance to win his seventh championship ring. With most of the league's stars and decision-makers gathering at the All-Star weekend festivities in Las Vegas, the 41-year-old Pippen announced he's hoping for a late-season return to a contending team &#151; preferably in a warm-weather city &#151; nearly 2 1/2 years after he left the league.
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New York, NY (Sports Network) - Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets leads all players in the Western Conference, while Shaquille O&#39;Neal of the Miami Heat paces all players in the Eastern Conference after the second returns of votes in the 2005 NBA All-Star
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NEW YORK -- Kevin Garnett stayed put last night. Starting Sunday, look for the offers to resurface for the Timberwolves All-Star. The question has to be asked: Will the Celtics be back in the chase?
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The California All-Stars beat the California All-Stars yesterday. So why wasn't the game in, say, Bakersfield?
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King James is All-Star royalty again. LeBron James threw down a powerful dunk for the go-ahead basket with 55 seconds left, punctuating an MVP performance and helping the Eastern Conference beat the West 134-128 on Sunday night in the All-Star game.
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Kenny Rogers has gone from all-star scourge to All-Star game starter. The Tigers&#039; left-hander, the top winner for the team with the best record in the majors, will be on the mound for the AL on Tuesday night against Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Rogers will be trying to extend a nine-game AL unbeaten streak.
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Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming is the early overall leader in fan voting for the NBA All-Star Game. The Chinese star collected 881,223 votes in the first returns announced Thursday.