For most of the summer, Joe Torre indicated that he was planning on retiring from managing after his contract with the Dodgers expires in 2010. Both he and people who have followed his career closely noted that he's made similar statements in the past, and he's still in the dugout. Accordingly, Torre admitted to T.J. Simers on Sunday that he's considering negotiating a contract extension with the Dodgers that would keep him in L.A. beyond the 2010 season.

In his two years with the Dodgers, Torre's taken the team to the NLCS twice, but failed to get past the Phillies both times. Dating back to his years with the Yankees, he's taken his team to a playoff spot in 14 consecutive seasons. Unsurprisingly, Dodgers GM Ned Colletti indicates in the same story that he'd be happy to negotiate with Torre, should he want an extension.

With all due respect to the Yankees for winning their 27th world championship, last week's most astounding accomplishment goes to Elizabeth Lambert.

She succeeded where Pele, Beckham, Posh Spice and the United Nations and others failed. Lambert made Americans care about soccer.

Not just soccer, but women's soccer. And she didn't have to take off her shirt to do it.

The guidelines provided to the Associated Press voters are fairly simple. One, I've particularly taken to heart lately: "Don't hesitate to make significant changes in your ballot from week to week."

And that's exactly what I did in this week's ballot, voting Alabama as my new No. 1. The Crimson Tide defeated LSU 24-15 Saturday, their fourth victory against a Top 25 ranked team this season.

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As if the slumping Redskins needed any more bad news, running back Clinton Portis left Washington's game in the first quarter after suffering a concussion.

Portis took a couple of hard shots on a running play, with Atlanta's Chevis Jackson and Thomas DeCoud each landing blows -- at least one of which appeared to be helmet-to-helmet. No penalty was called on the play.

Portis stayed down on the field at the end of the play, then walked unsteadily to the sideline. He sat on the Redskins' sideline with a towel over his head while backup running back Ladell Betts replaced him. Jason Campbell threw an interception on the next play that was returned by the Falcons' Tye Hill for a touchdown.

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Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris was ejected from Sunday's Chicago-Arizona game after throwing a punch to the face of Cardinals guard Deuce Lutui.

The incident occurred just four plays into the contest. Lutui, who was blocking Harris on a running play, was lying face down on the Soldier Field turf when Harris grabbed him, lifted him slightly and landed an uppercut to Lutui's facemask.

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Although golf season never truly sleeps, the completion of Sunday's WGC-HSBC Championship in Shanghai, China, does, for all meaningful purposes, give fans the OK to nod off until at least January when the PGA Tour starts all over again.

With the exception of this week's final tour stop at Disney World, where the story is a scramble for a spot among the season's top 125 money winners and exempt playing status for next season, nothing remains on the calendar that could significantly alter the memory of 2009.

That means two interesting and late-developing trends will carry over to 2010, providing golf an unaccustomed offseason water-cooler subject to debate.

The early ratings are in for CBS's Saturday night MMA show, and although the numbers aren't as good as the network did last year with Kimbo Slice, CBS executive Kelly Kahl tells FanHouse he's encouraged that CBS improved on its usual Saturday night ratings among the coveted young male demographic.

Now the question is whether MMA will improve to CBS in 2010. Kahl said it's too soon to say about that, but that a significant improvement in the targeted demographic means CBS accomplished its first goal. Kahl noted that MMA on CBS beat college football on ABC in the demographic.

Oh Twitter, you glorious and brilliant avenue for information and trouble.

Following the Montreal Canadiens' 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, a game that saw Carey Price take the loss after giving up three goals on 21 shots, Allan Walsh, the agent for Canadiens backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak, created some havoc and controversy on his Twitter account when he pointed out Price's record in his past 42 starts.

Predictably, things went quite well.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

If you're not a close follower of the NBA, then just six games or so into the season, we can't necessarily hold it against you if the name Tyreke Evans doesn't ring a bell. Besides being a rookie, Evans plays for the Sacramento Kings, a team that won just 17 games a season ago, and figured to be about as bad this year with stud scorer Kevin Martin sidelined indefinitely with an injury.

But after what Evans did to Deron Williams in leading his undermanned team to a road win in Utah on Saturday, he won't remain anonymous to basketball fans for much longer.

Not only did the Detroit Red Wings suffer a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, ending a three-game winning streak, they also lost yet another forward when offseason acquisition Jason Williams slid awkwardly into the end boards and fractured his right fibula.

According to head coach Mike Babcock, he could be out for as long as eight weeks, joining forwards Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula who are also out of the lineup with injuries.

When it rains, it pours.

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