WASHINGTON (AP) The question was simple enough: Why put 19-year-old Bryce Harper, the youngest player in the major leagues, in the No. 3 spot in the lineup already, only five games into his career with the Washington Nationals? Manager Davey Johnson's answer, delivered with as straight a face as can be, was simple, too: ''Why not?'' ''I mean, he's swinging the bat good. He's had quality at-bats. It's what you do. I don't care if his name's Harper or whatever. Or how old he is,'' Johnson said before Washington hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night. ''He looks like a pretty good choice to me.'' Well, that sure didn't take long. Harper is an outfielder who's been hitting seventh since being called up from Triple-A ... Continue reading →

Mardy Fish unsure when he'll return to tennis tour By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Tennis Writer – 9 minutes ago Weeks after waking up in the middle of the night feeling ill, Mardy Fish is not certain when he'll return to the tennis tour and says he could miss the French Open.The highest-ranked American is also still trying to figure out exactly why he felt the way he did."I'm doing OK. We're doing lots of tests to try to figure out what's going on and what went wrong," Fish said Tuesday in a telephone interview from California with The Associated Press. "It's sort of unclear as to how or why it happened yet, but we're trying to figure it out. It's not something I'm super comfortable ... Continue reading →

APNewsBreak: Former Lions, 'Webster' star Karras joins ex-players suing NFL on concussions Karras of Lions, 'Webster' joins players suing NFL By HOWARD FENDRICH | Associated Press | 6 minutes ago in Alex Karras, the former Detroit Lions defensive tackle and TV and movie actor, is the lead plaintiff in the latest lawsuit brought against the NFL by ex-players who say the league didn't properly protect them from concussions. Karras and his wife, Susan Clark, are the first two of 119 plaintiffs in the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, where dozens such cases are pending.Clark, who also played the wife of Karras' character on the 1980s sitcom "Webster," says in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the 76-year-old Karras was ... Continue reading →