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Albany, NY – Well speaking at a joint news conference yesterday with NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL is now open for business...
"Well it's been a long time coming, (but) football is back and that's the great news for everybody," said Goodell. "I want to thank Dee (DeMaurice Smith), all of the players for their leadership and for securing the long-term future of the game."
The players voted to approve the 10-year labor deal, bringing an end to the four and a half month-old lockout. Club facilities open to players today. Team's can also begin signing 2011 draft picks and rookie free agents today, and begin talking to veteran free agents. Training camps for some teams begin as early as tomorrow.
To baseball, last night in the Bronx, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira each homered and knocked in three, as the Yankees knocked around hapless Seattle 10-3. The Mariners have lost 16 straight.
At Fenway, Eric Hosmer doubled and scored on a suicide squeeze in the 14th inning, as Kansas City edged Boston 3-1. The Red Sox lead in the East is just two games now over the Yankees.
Elsewhere in the AL, Texas roughed up Minnesota 20-6, the White Sox doubled up Detroit 6-3, Cleveland clipped the Angels 3-2, and Oakland outlasted Tampa Bay 7-5.
Over to the NL, in Cincinnati, Daniel Murphy's two-run double highlighted a four-run seventh, as the Mets dumped the Reds 4-2.
Elsewhere, St. Louis ripped Houston 10-5, San Diego got past Philadelphia 5-4, and the Dodgers dropped Colorado 8-5.
In NHL news, the brother of Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard made his first court appearance yesterday, on charges stemming from his brother's overdose death in May. Twenty-four-year-old Aaron Boogaard allegedly gave his brother an un-prescribed oxycodone pill at the start of a night of partying in Minneapolis, that resulted in his death.
And Britain's Olympics Minister says the country has already prepared for attacks by "lone wolves" on the 2012 London Games, but will re-examine security plans after the attacks in Norway.
I'm Tristan O'Neill, WAMC News.