His home run merely tied the score in a game the Mets won, 6-5, on Angel Pagan’s 10th-inning home run, but the larger-than-usual crowd seemed to give Beltran’s 15th home run a louder-than-usual round of applause.

How many more Beltran home runs will Mets fans get to cheer?

They have access to Twitter, too, and, as the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline nears, they read of the marked increase in the number of teams reported to be interested in Beltran. Thursday’s 12:10 p.m. series finale against St. Louis could be his final home game with the Mets.

“I’m not really thinking that far ahead,” Beltran said. “I’m approaching every game the same.”

Contenders like the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox are said to be pursuing Beltran, who is batting .293 and leads the majors in doubles (30).

After answering one question about Pagan’s home run, Beltran was peppered with a series of questions about his immediate future. He hears the rumors, too, but he wants to concentrate on baseball. He is hitting .366 in his last 18 games.

“He can play around it,” Manager Terry Collins said. “He gets around it because he’s dealt with it before.”

On June 24, 2004, Beltran was traded from the Kansas City Royals to the Houston Astros.

Before belting a two-run shot that scored Jose Reyes, Beltran had not been having such a good night. He flied out weakly to center field in the first inning and tapped a soft ground ball down the line to first baseman Lance Berkman in the third inning.

In the top of the third, Matt Holliday hit a pitch from R. A. Dickey over Beltran’s head in right field. He caught up to the ball, but it glanced off Beltran in the Modell’s Zone, and Holliday had given the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

St. Louis stretched its lead to 4-0 when Berkman drove home Holliday with a single, but the Mets did not need much time to catch up. They scored two runs in the bottom of the third on three straight hits, the third by Dickey.

Dickey led off the fifth with a looping single off McClellan. Reyes followed with a ground ball to second baseman Skip Schumaker for a forceout on Dickey, but Reyes beat the relay throw to first base. McClellan struck out Justin Turner for the second out. Up came Beltran.

Beltran’s third at-bat of the game almost ended when he popped up in foul territory. But the ball drifted just far enough toward the seats that third baseman David Freese could not hang onto the ball as he collided with a railing. Beltran made the most of his second chance.

“I feel great,” Beltran said. “I feel good at the plate. I guess I’m just having a good time right now.”

When Beltran walked to the plate again, with two outs in the seventh inning of a tie game and Jason Pridie at third, St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa immediately called for an intentional walk, drawing hoots from the crowd of 30,770. Daniel Murphy grounded out.

Jason Isringhausen retired the Cardinals in order in the ninth — striking out Albert Pujols for the third out — giving the Mets a chance to win the game. Turner singled with one out in the bottom half, but St. Louis reliever Fernando Salas got Beltran to hit into a double play. The fans groaned.

They cheered when Pagan hit the first game-ending home run of his career, ripping Fernando Salas’s first pitch into the same patch of seats where Beltran had homered. The Mets rallied for the 19th time this season, and are a game over .500 (49-48).

“The trades and rumors, that’s out of our hands,” Pagan said.

Collins said after the game that Beltran’s “heart wants to be here.” Beltran said he was not assuming that he would be traded — or that he would not be. He likes it here, and he is playing for a team that likes having him around.

Or, rather, that would not like to see him wearing another uniform.

“We at least want to make it hard for our office,” Dickey said, before adding, “I surely don’t want to have to face him.”

INSIDE PITCH

Left fielder Jason Bay left the game in the fourth inning with what the team described as a tight right hamstring. Bay said he had been playing with the injury. “This is more of a proactive than a reactive thing,” he said. … Josh Thole, whose R.B.I. single tied the score in the eighth inning, was back in the Mets’ lineup after being with his wife, Kathyrn, for the delivery of the couple’s first child at 8:41 p.m. Tuesday. Camden Thole weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces, and Thole said he was glad to be there.

Posted by: DAVE CALDWELL

 On Wednesday, Djokovic and Tomic will play for real in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

“You know, I think he has a respect for me; I’ve got a much bigger respect for him,” Tomic said in his low-key baritone drone that bears a certain sonic resemblance to Andy Murray’s.

But like Djokovic (and Murray) before him, Tomic, the young Australian with the unconventional game, is making his mark at the highest level and has now gone further at Wimbledon than either of them at age 18.

After winning three rounds in the qualifying tournament, Tomic has now won four rounds in the main event, defeating well-established veterans in every match, including the former top-10 player Nikolay Davydenko and the No. 5 seed, Robin Soderling. Tomic’s latest victim Monday was Xavier Malisse, an unseeded 30-year-old Belgian who reached the semifinals here in 2002.

“It’s bizarre to play him,” Malisse said. “He has a game that’s a bit like Murray. He kind of lulls you to sleep and then suddenly he hits a big backhand down the line. I think his game is superb for grass. He’s a good player. For me, he’s a player who has it all, but for hardcourts and clay courts it’s going to be a bit tougher.”

It has become tougher for phenoms, however gifted, to break through to the highest level in the men’s game. There were no teenagers in the top 100 at one stage last year, But Tomic, ranked 158th at the moment, is expected to soar into the top 80 after this run. He is also in grand company. Only three younger men have reached the quarterfinals here in the Open era: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Boris Becker.

“I have nice words for Bernard,” Djokovic said after beating the French veteran Michael Llodra, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, on Monday. “I think he has a great potential, a great talent. He’s showing it right now.”

Murray was in impressive form, too. Facing a tricky opponent on Centre Court, Richard Gasquet of France, Murray won, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2, and finished with a bow in the direction of the royal box, where the newly married royal couple Prince William and Princess Catherine were in attendance for the first time during the tournament.

“Sort of off the cuff,” Murray said of his bow. “Didn’t think too much about it. If it was funny, that’s fine, but I wasn’t intending it to be funny.”

Murray, seeded fourth and trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, will face the unseeded Feliciano López in the quarterfinals. López, a left-handed Spaniard, rallied from two sets down to defeat Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (7), 7-5, 7-5.

Mardy Fish, the last American remaining in either singles draw, also advanced, upsetting Tomas Berdych, a finalist here last year, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4, to reach his first Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Posted by: CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

The intrigue was enough to keep some dejected Heat fans rooted to their American Airlines Arena seats after the Mavericks’ title-clinching 105-95 victory in Game 6. Would the congratulatory moment contain all the warmth of a Bill Belichick midfield handshake with Eric Mangini?

In one final series twist, Cuban moved aside to let Don Carter, the Mavericks’ original owner, accept the trophy from Stern. Those few steps back by Cuban represented one giant leap forward for his public image.

The Mavericks’ star player, Dirk Nowitzki, used this postseason to shine and buff his reputation and legacy and, so, too, did Cuban. Gone were the petulant outbursts that cost him $250,000 in fines for acts of misconduct during the 2006 finals between the Mavericks and the Heat.

Cuban remained in the background this time around, content to let the spotlight shine on his players. After declining to give interviews throughout the postseason, he sat for a news conference in the wee hours of Monday wearing an N.B.A. champions cap that was a size too big and an XL smile.

“Obviously, it feels great,” Cuban said. “But I’m happiest for Dirk, J-Kidd, Jason Terry, Donald Carter, Mavs fans, the city of Dallas. Hopefully I’ll have more cracks at it. These are the guys that laid it out every single day.”

Asked about the vow of silence he took during the playoffs, Cuban grinned and said: “The quieter I got, the more we won. I didn’t want to break the karma.”

The Mavericks’ road to the championship was a veritable minefield for Cuban. In the second round, they faced the Los Angeles Lakers, whose coach, Phil Jackson, was one of his main sparring partners in the news media. In the Western Conference finals, Dallas faced Oklahoma City, a team whose relocation from Seattle he had tried to prevent in an ownership vote.

And then there was the finals matchup against the Heat, which dispatched the Mavericks in six games in the 2006 finals. Cuban provided one of the indelible snapshots of the series when he stormed onto the court after the fifth game to lash out at a referee and then stared and screamed in the direction of Stern, whose office assessed him over $1.4 million in fines from 2000 to 2006.

“What I’ve learned in these 11 years,” Cuban said, “is you just got to stay focused and believe in yourself and trust your own ability and judgment.”

The Mavericks’ championship was heralded as a validation of old-school team building over shortcuts. The face of the Heat was LeBron James, who last summer left the Cleveland franchise that drafted him because he was tired of not winning a championship. He came to Miami to be part of a superstar ensemble that included Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The face of the Mavericks was Nowitzki, who last summer chose to stay with his original team even though he, too, was tired of not winning a championship.

“Let me just say, it wasn’t quite like people imagined,” Cuban said, his lips curling into an impish grin. “We were going to go out and get our big three. Dirk did a lot of recruiting. He went out and got Brian Cardinal. He got Ian Mahinmi. Dirk is like that. He’ll take one for the team. So he took a little less money so we could afford Ian and Brian.”

The mention of Cardinal and Mahinmi, two journeymen, showed that Cuban can still be his old self. Then there was the answer he gave in response to a question concerning his prediction months ago that the Heat’s path to a championship might not be an express lane.

“I could care less about the Heat,” Cuban said. “That’s their problem. We played a great game. The Heat is a great team. They did their thing, we did ours. We scored more points. That’s all that matters.”

His news conference ended well past midnight but Cuban was just getting started. Overnight his Twitter account, which had gone into hibernation, sprang to life.

He thanked the Mavericks’ fans for their support, divulged that he was sharing a bed with the Larry O’Brien trophy, expressed his respect for the Heat’s owner Micky Arison and the team president Pat Riley, and posted a photograph that showed Cuban, with a cigar dangling from his mouth, seated on the team plane next to the trophy.

In the news conference, Cuban had said jokingly that he might not shower for six months. Why would he want to wash away the golden glow of success?

“My biggest fear is that I can’t remember every little part of it, every emotion, every feeling that I went through as the clock was winding down.” He added: “As the clock started winding down and we were up by 9 or whatever with a minute to go, it dawned on me, this is really going to happen. I was just hoping I could just do an emotional videotape of myself and just keep it.”

Posted by: Karen Crouse

Woods, who has been trying to rehabilitate his left knee and Achilles’ tendon, both of which were injured when he hit a shot during the third round of the Masters, said the injuries have not sufficiently improved.

“I am extremely disappointed that I won’t be playing in the U.S. Open,” Woods said in a statement posted on his Web site. “But it’s time for me to listen to my doctors and focus on the future. I was hopeful that I could play, but if I did, I risk further damage to my left leg.

“My knee and Achilles’ tendon are not fully healed,” he added. “I hope to be ready for the AT&T National, the next two majors and the rest of the year.”

Woods originally was diagnosed as having a Grade 1 sprain to the medial collateral ligament in his left knee — on which he has had four surgeries, most recently to reconstruct his anterior cruciate ligament. A mild strain to his left Achilles’ tendon, which also had been injured previously, also was found.

The injuries occurred when Woods hit his second shot at the 17th hole of his third round at the Masters in April. His ball was on the pine straw beneath the Eisenhower tree left of the fairway, and his foot slipped during a vigorous swing that required him to substantially bend both knees.

He missed the Wells Fargo Championship four weeks later, then withdrew after nine holes of the Players Championship the next week. He said at that time that reports about the severity of the injury were exaggerated, and that he expected to be ready for the United States Open.

“It’s been a frustrating and difficult year, but I’m committed to my long-term health,” Woods said. “I want to thank the fans for their encouragement and support. I am truly grateful and will be back playing when I can.”

Obtained by: Larry Dorman

But this wasn’t Wednesday night, when Collins did something similar, berating his team, after a 9-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and then barely controlling his anger as he answered questions from the news media.

This happened April 13, after a tough loss to the Colorado Rockies that left the Mets with a three-game losing streak. He was hoping his fiery words would inspire his players, but they did not. Instead, the Mets were swept in a doubleheader the next day, making a mockery of everything Collins intended.

The Mets also lost another doubleheader two days later, leaving them with seven losses in a row and a 4-11 record. Who knows how often during those two doubleheaders Collins wanted to storm back into the clubhouse and blow his stack again? But he couldn’t because his players might start tuning him out the way some did in Houston and Anaheim in his previous incarnations as a major league manager.

But the 62-year-old Collins cannot completely suppress the characteristics that make him who he is: an intense, combative, sometimes hot-headed and always hypercompetitive baseball man.

“Let me tell you something, I am who I am,” he said Thursday morning, less than 12 hours after he had put aside restraint and blistered his players again, after a late-inning implosion against the Pirates.

“I think I’ve matured through the years in being able to control things a little better,” he said. “But make no mistake about it, if we play Ping-Pong, I’m going to try to kick your butt. That competitiveness is still there, my desire to win, what I expect of my teams, is still there. That fire still burns inside, or I wouldn’t be here.”

His players seem to understand that, and as long as Collins limits his outbursts, say, to once every seven weeks, he should be fine. If Collins did not get it before, he understands it now. Nothing is worse for a manager than too many team meetings and too many clubhouse scoldings.

“We’re not going to have them often because they’ll end up turning you off and getting tired of hearing what you have to say,” Collins said of his players, and, in effect, all players. “Last night, they better understand it came from the heart.”

In this instance, his 25 Mets responded much better than they did in April, rallying from an early 7-0 deficit to beat the Pirates, 9-8, Thursday afternoon in their biggest comeback victory of the season.

In his angry address Wednesday night, he told his players they had to play better. He then marched into his news conference, vented his frustrations with the Mets’ recent fortunes, in which they repeatedly handed away late-game leads, and claimed changes would come.

The biggest indication that Collins was speaking out of sheer frustration was his declaration to reporters that he was “running out of ideas.” No manager readily admits that. And after he finished venting, he met with General Manager Sandy Alderson, and they discussed the very limited options either has to make the team better.

“He knew I was unhappy,” Collins said of Alderson on Thursday. “We talk so much. I think he was probably glad I let some of it out. He didn’t say that. We kind of talked about how to fix the team, more than anything.”

Perhaps the only thing that is going to fix the Mets is time. The Mets have been playing without the injured Ike Davis and David Wright for weeks now. Angel Pagan was out for a month. Johan Santana is still not close to returning. Chris Young is gone for the season. The Mets’ talent level did not scare their rivals before the season began, and injuries have only made things worse.

To fill the gaps, the Mets have turned to Willie Harris, Jason Pridie and Justin Turner. To Dillon Gee and Ruben Tejada and Nick Evans. Collins does not want anyone to make the excuse that a chunk of the Mets’ roster began the season at Class AAA Buffalo. These are, he might point out, the same players who beat the Yankees, 2-1, in the Bronx on May 20.

But Collins indicated Thursday that he was getting the sense that some of his recruits might have started wondering if they are over their heads in the majors. He said he also looked into the faces of some players and felt a sense of resignation.

“You walk out to the mound to take the pitcher out and you look at the faces around you and you can see that, ‘Oh God, here we go,’ ” Collins said. “That’s what I want to stop. That’s the second meeting I’ve had to stop that. We’ve got to stop that.”

During his diatribe with reporters on Wednesday, Collins singled out Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen as an example of someone playing hard and doing things right.

On Thursday, McCutchen said he had heard that Collins referred to him, and said he was proud to be noticed.

But McCutchen said he took no enjoyment from the fact he was a catalyst for another manager’s outburst.

“We’ve been there before, plenty of times,” he said of his own club. “It happens to all of us.”

So far, it has happened to the 2011 Mets once every seven weeks, which, for a streaky team four games under .500, is just about right.

Published by: DAVID WALDSTEIN

The lopsided defeat will only increase debate about Wozniacki’s worthiness for the top spot, and it came a day after Kim Clijsters, her closest pursuer in the rankings, was eliminated in the second round after inexplicably losing her way against Arantxa Rus, the world’s 114th-ranked player.

“Since we’re No. 1 and No. 2, it means we must be doing something right; it’s just unfortunate to lose in a Grand Slam,” Wozniacki said.

Earlier Friday, the No. 8 seed, Samantha Stosur, a big-hitting Australian who reached the final here last year, also lost, to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.

This is the first time since the Open era began in 1968 that the Nos. 1 and 2 women’s seeds have failed to reach the Round of 16 at a Grand Slam, and the tournament could very easily have been without the No. 3 seed, too.

Vera Zvonareva, seeded third, had to save a match point and overcome a 2-5 deficit before defeating Sabine Lisicki of Germany on Wednesday. For now, the only member of the top four who has not struggled here is fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who despite injuring her elbow earlier this month has dropped just seven games in her first two matches.

But Azarenka’s good friend Wozniacki was nowhere near as effective against Hantuchova, a smooth-moving Slovakian veteran who was once ranked as high as No. 5 but who is seeded 28th here this year.

“She played very, very well today, better than me for sure,” said Wozniacki, 20. “She knew what she was going to go out there and do. She was just too good. I just need to get back on the court and practice and come back stronger.”

Wozniacki had not dropped a set against Hantuchova in their previous three matches, but she dropped the first in a hurry on the Suzanne Lenglen Court, the second biggest show court at Roland Garros and the scene of many major upsets over the years.

Wozniacki then fell behind, 0-4, in the second set before rallying to 3-4. But Hantuchova, often shaky under pressure, recovered and finished off the victory, with Wozniacki making unforced errors on the final two points.

Clay is not Wozniacki’s favorite surface. She grew up in Denmark playing mostly on hardcourts.

“Most of the time you would play tournaments in juniors on hardcourts, and I would train indoors on hardcourts,” she said in an interview last week. “I think my movement is better on hardcourts. There is no doubt about it, but at the same time I think it’s still great that I can improve on clay and every year I believe I can even do better.”

But her result Friday does not amount to improvement at Roland Garros. Last year she reached the quarterfinals for the first time in Paris despite playing with an injury she had sustained earlier in the clay court season. This year she could not make it to the second week.

“The No. 1 player usually has huge intangibles, but not right now,” said Pam Shriver, the commentator and former player.

Shriver pointed to Hantuchova’s ability to attack down the line and her more aggressive approach as the differences.

“Last year at Wimbledon after being crushed by Petra Kvitova, Caroline responded well and had a great hardcourt season,” Shriver said. “She needs to respond well again or Wimbledon could be an early exit as well.”

Wozniacki , who won the title in Brussels on clay Saturday, is not alone among reigning No. 1s in recent years to be without a Grand Slam singles title. Others include Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic, who have yet to win one, and Clijsters and Amélie Mauresmo, who eventually did.

Wozniacki reached the 2009 United States Open final as a teenager and also reached the semifinals there in 2010 and at this year’s Australian Open. At 20, she has time on her side, but her game, built around consistency and outstanding defensive skills, can clearly lapse into defensiveness.

She had eight winners to Hantuchova’s 26 Friday, and did have a winner in the opening set.

“I don’t feel the pressure,” Wozniacki said. “The only one I feel pressure from is myself to go and give my all for every match,” she said. “I’m a competitor. I love winning. I don’t like losing and sometimes it’s like this in the game, and you cannot do anything. Right now I cannot do anything about the loss other than just get back on the practice court and improve and be better for next time.”

Posted by: Christopher Clarey

PGA Tour officials do not wear striped shirts or blow whistles, throw flags, single out players who commit fouls, sweep dirt off home plate or go nose to nose with angry athletes or red-faced coaches.

They do much more. They rise well before the sun to double-check weather forecasts, set hole locations, outline water and other hazards with red paint, explain and enforce the rules of the game on a playing field spread out over hundreds of acres of hills and 18 holes measuring nearly five miles through forests and glens.

All the while tolerating occasional verbal abuse from disgruntled players with equanimity and, at times, dispensing advice and counsel to those same players.

“There is almost never a dull moment,” said Slugger White, the former touring pro and a veteran of 30 years as a tour official.

That might come as news to the game’s detractors. But to the eight regular PGA Tour officials charged with making it all work for the 156 players in the field at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, the occasional hair-raising moment is expected at the Quail Hollow Club.

And if those moments are caused by birdie and eagle roars from thousands of spectators and not an occasional complaint from performers inside the ropes, that would suit the officials just fine.

Dillard Pruitt, a rules official who played the tour from the mid-to-late 1990s, said that a vast majority of tour pros understand what he and other officials are trying to do when they set up a course, and that he and his colleagues take outbursts in stride.

“We should always be able to take criticism, as long as it’s constructive,” said Pruitt, who set Thursday’s back-nine hole positions on Wednesday. “You can’t let it bother you. You’ve got to lace ’em up and go again.”

He acknowledged that a few players have asked, “What were you thinking?” about a particular hole position, but said the remarks were usually made “in the heat of the moment, usually after a player has had a difficult time.”

One rules official described an exchange several years ago between another official, since retired, who was asked by a player who had just been fined for uttering an obscenity, “Can I be fined for what I’m thinking?” The official said no. The player quickly replied, “Good, then I think you are a no-good” and he finished his sentence with an obscenity. He was fined again.

Officials say their main goal each week is to provide a level playing field for all the contestants by ensuring they play within the sport’s 34 Rules (and several thousand interpretations of those rules) while keeping the field playing at reasonably brisk pace. That is not easy to do.

“When we’re trying to get 156 players this week, which means there is going to be 26 groups on 18 holes,” White said. “You’re going to wait. Play is going to be slow. Those are the facts. People say we aren’t doing our job?”

Cracked Mickey Bradley, who was riding in White’s cart: “Twenty-six groups on 18 holes? That’s an eight-pound ham in a five-pound can.

“If you sat in cart with me, you’d see — all day long, we’re talking about where this group is, where that group is.”

That can make it a little difficult for the officials to realize their primary objective for each week, which White described as “72 holes by Sunday.”

Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it does not. Two years ago at the Viking Classic in Madison, Miss., where, after a year of preparation, with sponsorships sold and sky boxes erected, torrential rains fell on the Annandale Golf Club. The fairways turned into quagmires.

Posted by: LARRY DORMAN

But now they are. The muscles are particularly important to baseball players, who use them to rotate their bodies as hard as possible to throw a ball and swing a bat, and increasingly those muscles are being injured and putting players like Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria on the disabled list.

Why this is happening is not really clear, but happening it is. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ head trainer, Stan Conte, was so intrigued that he stayed up through the night last week going line by line through a list he has assembled of the roughly 7,000 players who have gone on the disabled list since 1991.

“I had to do that because those injuries weren’t always called obliques,” said Conte, who has spent several years trying to build mathematical formulas to predict the physical problems that players may encounter. “Until the late 1990s, they were called rib cage injuries or abdominal injuries or lower chest injuries. As M.R.I. technology got better, the diagnosis became more particular and we began to see them called oblique injuries.”

For continuity, Conte then grouped everything — what used to be called rib cage or abdominal injuries two decades ago but are now called an oblique — under the term “core injuries.”

And what he found was that four players had gone on the D.L. with core, or oblique, injuries at this point a year ago. But in 2011, the total is already 14 — 12 players at the start of the season and 2 more since then. It is a small sample, Conte acknowledged, but he said it was significant nonetheless because the increase was in contrast to the general pattern since 1991.

That pattern, Conte said, showed that the number of oblique injuries had risen slightly in the last two decades. But over the last eight years, Conte said, the number had actually remained flat, leading to an obvious question: Why is there such a big increase this year?

“One theory I have is that players are transferring more quickly from the off-season to spring training games and to more competitive regular-season games, and the muscles aren’t holding up to the increased strain and force the players are putting on them in competition,” Conte said in a telephone interview.

Conte said that for some players, there might be a shorter period of time between when they report to spring training and when they actually start playing exhibition games. In fact, since 1991 a third of all oblique injuries have occurred in April. (Spring training injuries are counted under an April heading because the disabled list is not used before the season starts). The number decreases throughout the season, with just 1 percent of oblique injuries occurring in September.

Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson was among four Yankees who injured their obliques during spring training this year.

“One of the first questions I was asked was whether I was taking more or less batting practice,” Granderson said. “I felt like I had been doing about the same amount from last year to this year.”

Granderson, who injured his oblique toward the end of spring training but started in center field for the Yankees on opening day, said that a player who might be swinging more might be more likely to injure his oblique.

“But I didn’t feel like anything I was doing was anything drastically different to anything I was doing before,” he said. “I had the same warm-up I was doing before, nothing that gave a sign that hey, it’s a little sore or anything like that. It was literally one swing. It was a funny swing, it was an out-in-front swing where I swung and didn’t square it up.”

Last season, pitchers who injured their obliques and went on the disabled list typically took about 43 days before returning to play compared with 31 days for position players.

Another theory in baseball for the rise of oblique injuries is that players are putting too much emphasis on strengthening their abdominal muscles.

“Personally I don’t think that’s true because I can’t imagine a stronger, more flexible, muscle that has more endurance being a bad thing,” Conte said. He noted that “nobody did these exercises” back in 1991 and that the number of injuries then was similar to the numbers in recent years, although 2011 is clearly different.

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, who watched one player after another sustain oblique injuries this spring, said the whole thing remained a mystery to him.

“We’ve had two appendectomies, which I wouldn’t have really bet on,” he said referring to Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox and Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals, both of whom underwent that procedure earlier this month.

As for the oblique injuries, Girardi said, “I can’t really tell you why it’s happened.”

“Players are strong now and they take swings,” he said. But why that might lead to more oblique injuries, Girardi was not willing to say. “It used to be the hammy,” he said of the hamstring pulls that once dominated injury discussions. And no one, Girardi said, seemed to know why that was the case, either.

A day after the Knicks completed a blockbuster trade for Carmelo Anthony, the Nets responded by acquiring Deron Williams — one of the N.B.A.’s top point guards — from the Utah Jazz.

A player agent on Wednesday confirmed multiple reports in the news media that the Nets would acquire Williams, 26, in exchange for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and two first-round picks — a package similar to what the Nets had offered Denver for Anthony.

The trade is a huge boost for the Nets, who need a franchise star to build around as they prepare to move to Brooklyn for the 2012-13 season.

Williams is a two-time All-Star who has led the Jazz to the playoffs for four straight years, including a trip to the Western Conference finals in 2007.

Williams has been among the top three in assists per game for the last five seasons and is widely considered one of the top two point guards in the league. He is averaging 21.3 points, a career high, and 9.7 assists this season.

In a separate trade, the Nets will send Troy Murphy to the Golden State Warriors, in exchange for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric. The trades were first reported by The Record of Woodland Park, N.J.

Utah is trading Williams just two weeks after the team’s legendary coach, Jerry Sloan, retired amid reports of a rift with Williams. Although Williams has voiced his discontent at times with Utah’s direction, there was no hint that the Jazz was about to trade him.

The N.B.A.’s trading deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m.

The Nets had been Anthony’s most aggressive suitors since last summer, but his reluctance to sign an extension with New Jersey compelled the Nuggets to trade him to the Knicks.

Williams is signed through 2013 but can opt out of the deal in 2012. His potential free agency could become a stress point for the Nets, and an opportunity for the Knicks, who already had Williams as a 2012 target.

The Nets would obviously want to lock up Williams now, but he is not eligible for a contract extension until July, after the current collective bargaining agreement expires. The new labor deal could make it easier to keep Williams, if it includes a franchise tag or new financial incentives for free agents to stay with their teams. Both concepts have been discussed.

If, as expected, the new labor deal is more restrictive, it could also motivate Williams not to opt out of his contract. He is due to earn $17.8 million in 2012-13.

If Williams is off the market, the Knicks would turn their attention to Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets.

The Nets-Knicks rivalry was stoked anew by the chase for Anthony and will intensify with Williams’s arrival. By the time the Nets are ready to move to Brooklyn, the city’s two franchises could be battling for the next elite player. Dwight Howard can become a free agent in 2012.

Posted by: nytimes

The San Antonio coach selected Spurs star Tim Duncan to replace Yao Ming in the lineup for Sunday’s game at Staples Center, staying in his own locker room instead of picking Clippers star Blake Griffin playing in his home arena or Timberwolves double-double machine Kevin Love.

“I think it’s totally appropriate and obvious that he should be the starter,” Popovich said before the Spurs faced the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night. “I don’t have any problem with it.”

Griffin, Love and Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki all have better numbers than Duncan, who is averaging a career-low 13.4 points and 9.2 rebounds. But San Antonio (46-9) carried the NBA’s best record into the matchup with the Bulls and the Spurs are closely monitoring the 34-year-old Duncan’s minutes, a factor in the lower averages.

Houston center Yao was voted in by the fans but is injured.

This will be Duncan’s 12th consecutive All-Star start and his 13th appearance overall. He was the co-MVP of the 2000 game with Shaquille O’Neal and is one of five active players with at least 10 All-Star appearances.

Guard Manu Ginobili also is going to Los Angeles to represent San Antonio.

Duncan’s insertion into the starting lineup may be the biggest All-Star decision for Popovich, who said he is planning on doing no coaching during the game.

“Just thinking about walking into that locker room is a humbling and awesome experience,” he said. “Just to know you’re in the same room with those kinds of players, the best on the planet, it almost makes you want to laugh. You really have to pinch yourself to know that you’re in that room, and I think it would be quite forward on my part to try to coach those guys.”

Posted by: sportingnews