Yep, Busbee's picking this guy. — GQSo in an attempt to inject a bit more life and interest into tournaments, and because we're all inveterate gamblers who are one bad card from being out on the streets, Jay Busbee and I are playing a golf version of a football suicide pool: We each pick one golfer per tournament and see how they do against each other, straight up. Victory over the other guy gets one point, victory in the tournament gets three points, and a tie between two of the three lands you half a point. (Double for the majors.) And when we burn a golfer, he's done for the year. We turn our attention to the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Busbee: Okay, so, picking Rory McIlroy didn't work out so well for me. But hey, you've got to figure a world No. 1 will miss the cut in one of the biggest tournaments of the year, right? Of course. Anyway, this time I'm taking Adam Scott, who's quietly putting together a very strong year. His best finish this year is a T8 at the Masters, and I'm betting he'll at least do that well down in Texas.

Wall: It looks like we're going to have an Aussie showdown this week, because I'm rolling with Jason Day. He's had a rough go of things this season, but I think he's going to have a strong showing at the Nelson. He won the tournament in 2010 and finished T-9 a couple weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Championship. Plus, the guy used to live in the area and played the course on a regular basis, so I'm hoping a little local knowledge gives me the edge over another former champ.

Last week: Busbee pulled out one of his big guns last week ... and he failed to even make the weekend. Whoops! Wall picked Lee Westwood and he finished T-61 last week, which isn't all that impressive. But at least he made the cut to pick up the win.

Current Score: Wall - 2.5, Busbee - 1.5.

(AP)

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks just split a two-game set, which means the boys in blue still hold a big 8 1/2-game lead over the defending NL West champions. Considering that margin, D-backs manager Kirk Gibson probably didn't have much in the way of the comeback department in his conversation with Orel Hershiser and Tommy Lasorda on Tuesday night.

As an aside, seeing this picture just reminded me that next year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Dodgers' title team. Time really isn't messing around any more, is it?

So have at it, amateur Internet copy editors of the world. How should this caption read?

Follow the jump for winners from the last C-a-C featuring Elvis Andrus and a suspicious sneaker:

Larry Bird gives us a bit of that midwestern cheer (Getty Images)

It is, perhaps, the strangest award the NBA hands out. The Executive of the Year award will go to Indiana Pacers boss Larry Bird this year, with his team seemingly in the midst of a rebuilding process and a good leap or two away from winning a championship. The honor rarely makes sense on the NBA's timetable, because unlike individual player awards, the Executive of the Year award is essentially a team honor; and it's a bit like handing a "Team of the Year" award to a group without the benefit of a championship to go off of.

This shouldn't take away from Bird's accomplishments, as his Pacers have wrested home court advantage away from the Miami Heat in the bustle of a season that saw Indiana grab the third seed in the East just two years removed from four seasons spent in the lottery. It just remains an odd recognition, considering the fact that NBA executives don't live on single-year plans. Unless they hire Larry Brown to coach.

Bird has done well, considering that one-year term. In January of last season he fired Pacer coach Jim O'Brien, and leaned on well-regarded but untested assistant Frank Vogel to make sense of Indiana's talented but inconsistent roster. Vogel flourished, winning 20 out of 38 games with a group that O'Brien went 17-27 with, leading to a run through the lockout season that resulted in a winning percentage that would have given the Pacers 53 wins had they played the full 82 game schedule.

Roy Hodgson lays it down. (Getty)

Roy Hodgson announced his 23-man England roster for Euro 12 and, of course, there has already been criticism. When pressed on why he selected 18-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, his justification was a bit curious. From Fox:

"He's a very, very exciting player," Hodgson said.

"He's given one or two performances which have made quite an impression upon me, not least when Arsenal played Milan at the Emirates Stadium. I was there and saw how well he dealt with (Andrea) Pirlo and (Massimo) Ambrosini at the centre of midfield."

The problem? Andrea Pirlo plays for Juventus and Ambrosini wasn't even available to play that day.

Given that, here are Hodgson's justifications for the rest of his squad inclusions...

The 18th hole at TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas / Getty ImagesIt's tournament time! The Lonestar State takes center stage for the next couple of weeks, as the PGA Tour does the Texas two-step through Dallas and Fort Worth. We kick things off at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Here's a tournament primer to get you prepared for the week.

The course: TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas is a Jekyll and Hyde golf course. At 7,166 yards, the par-70 layout isn't long by PGA Tour standards, but when the wind kicks up -- as it did last year -- it can turn the track into an absolute beast. With the exception of PGA National, TPC Four Seasons was the second-most difficult (non-major) course on tour last year, playing to a stroke average of +2.354 shots over par. If there two holes on the course that could make or break a round this week, it's the par-4 third, and the par-4 15th. At 524 and 508 yards, respectively, they can almost play like par-5s on a windy day. Both were ranked as two of the tour's most difficult holes last year -- third hole (No. 13); 15th hole (No. 7) -- so you need to bring your A-game when you step on the tee box.

The schedule: The tournament runs Thursday-Sunday. It'll be broadcast on the Golf Channel from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday; and on CBS from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday

The field: Phil Mickelson makes his first HP Byron Nelson Championship start in five years and is easily the biggest name in the field. But he's not the only star showing up this year. Matt Kuchar, Carl Pettersson, Keegan Bradley (defending champion), Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Day and Adam Scott give the tournament its strongest field in years.

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• YikesAnd at right, we have a photo of Marc-Andre Fleury from 1997. [Reddit Hockey]

• One man's journey from New York Rangers' fandom to New Jersey Devils' fandom. [Star-Ledger]

• Martin Hanzal faces a hearing for boarding Dustin Brown. [USA Today]

• Mike Smith's slash on Dustin Brown, however, is just impressive. The beauty is in the form! It's like the Mona Lisa of slashes! [Backhand Shelf]

• Michael Farber, on John Tortorella's press conferences: "The question-and-answer sessions are hockey's version of Kabuki theater, elaborately stylized and weirdly dramatic." [Sports Illustrated]

• You will likely enjoy this collection of John Tortorella's greatest hits. [SI Red Light]

• Unless you're the media, who find Tortorella's walkouts more than a little frustrating. Is it time for the media to walk out on John Tortorella? [Dean Brown]

• State lawmakers weight the liquor license request for the Winter Classic in Detroit. [Detroit News]

• Here's a cool study from some Finnish researchers on the effects and effectiveness of the various boards used in hockey arenas. "The results show that the maximum impact force of a body check against a support post was up to 70% higher than the maximum impact force of a similar body check against a protective shield. They also found that the posts were up to five times more rigid than a plastic shield. 'By replacing the widely used tempered glass with a plastic shield, the impact force on players being body-checked against the boards is considerably reduced,' said Professor Janne Avela and researcher Piritta Poutiainen." [Cordis]

• This post on the 5 worst Chicago Blackhawks trades gets extra points for the hockey card graphics. [The Hockey Writers]

Paul Pierce passes out of a double-team in Saturday's Game 1 against the 76ers (Getty Images)

The truth is plain to see, as is The Truth. Boston Celtic legend Paul Pierce has not moved well at all since suffering a sprained knee in Game 4 of his team's first-round series against Atlanta. He suffered a sprained MCL, in fact, and though his next two outings against the Hawks were passable (17 points a contest on 43 percent shooting) his first two games against the Philadelphia 76ers have been downright awful.

Battling both the MCL sprain and all-world Sixer defender Andre Iguodala, Pierce has contributed just 21 points in two games while playing from the comforts of home. Worse, he's shooting just 25 percent from the floor, and he's turned it over seven times in two games. Worse than that is the way Pierce looks — stilted, clearly hobbled, seemingly incapable of making a difference for a Celtics team that has for over a decade relied on his step-back jumper and ability to get to the free-throw line. Much, much worse is the way the Celtics have ceded home-court advantage to the Sixers, and allowed Philadelphia insight into how to stop the Boston attack. As noted by 76er veteran Tony Battie, as quoted by ESPN's Jackie MacMullan:

"I know he's hurt," Battie said, "but Paul's definitely not going to ever admit that to anyone. You can see it. His shot is a little flat. His knee is bothering him, and he's had some foot problems, and his lift isn't 100 percent. But he's still the heart and soul of that team. We know Paul. We know he can get it going. I don't put it past him to come out with a Willis Reed-type Herculean effort in the next game."

(Courtesy of USC Athletics)

When Matt Barkley decided to come back for his senior season at USC, he wanted a last hurrah with his close friends and to leave a legacy for younger players to carry on.

And neither goal had anything to do with the football field.

Earlier this year, Barkley, punter Kyle Negrete and center Khaled Holmes started planning a trip to Haiti to help build homes for the victims of the 2010 earthquake. But once word got out, more people wanted to join and soon, 16 USC football players were headed on a trip that could potentially change their outlook heading into one of the most anticipated USC football seasons in almost a decade.

"This is an opportunity to serve as well for our teammates to kind of grow and gain perspective and try to do one last thing before my life gets crazy, before all of our lives kind of separate after USC and this is like the perfect opportunity," Barkley told Yahoo! Sports.

"It's going to be a neat opportunity for these guys to have their eyes opened to true poverty and true struggle that's going on in the world rather than the so-called struggles that we have here in Southern California. I think seeing the young guys hop on board and guys you wouldn't expect go on a mission trip like this and want to go full force, it's encouraging to know that you might be having an impact on them."