The Game

CHICAGO - Dating used to be largely a matter of spending time with a love interest, discovering the good, the bad and the ugly in person. If you were lucky, friends helped fill in some of the blanks.

345988.2. Forfeit the game! The Lakers record will be tainted, the blazers get the best odds, and Paul Allen is fined the largest amount in sports history.

Lions rattle Cougars early 
Rather than letting Friday’s lopsided loss to McKinney discourage him, The Colony baseball coach Martin Dean is throwing the game out. It stands as an appropriate metaphor after the Cougars were chewed up by the relentless Lion bats.

Plano heads to third round 
GARLAND–Though clouds loomed all night, it wasnt until the second half when lightning struck. Games across the Metroplex were delayed or rescheduled and in some cases, such little time remained on the clock that officials asked the coaches if they wanted to end the game.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT JAY-Z DENIES THE BABY RUMORS! So, there has been much talk about Jay-Z and his baby moms & her son from Triniweeellllll, Jay-Z says all this is just frivolous talk! Rumors!

Forbes Comments On McMahon, Ross Blog Note, More 
- Jim Ross is back with another b-log today. You can check it out at JrsBarBq.com. - Tonight during the opening segment of a Mets game, they showed Oliver Perezs highlights from Game 7 of last year. The video package they put together featured Lex Lugers WCW music.

Windows Live Messenger Hits Xbox 360 
Microsoft has revealed details of their upcoming Xbox 360 spring update which includes Windows Live Messenger, allowing users to communicated from their 360, PC or Windows Mobile.

Woods lives in Florida now, but he grew up in Orange County playing the courses of Southern California. He describes how the experience helped him become the dominant force in the game.

Peter Cullen And Frank Welker Reprise Roles Of Optimus Prime And Megatron In TransFormers: The Game 
New TransFormers Xbox 360 Screenshots Inside

Sakic reaches milestone as Avs finish season with win 
The game wasn’t significant in terms of the NHL standings or upcoming playoffs, but the Avalanche was determined to finish off a disappointing season on a positive note.

NHL: Edmonton 3, Calgary 2 
Patrick Thoresen’s third-period goal turned out to be the game winner Saturday night, as the Edmonton Oilers beat Calgary, 3-2.

During my approximately 13 years as a newspaper reporter I had many highs and lows. I learned everything from how to manufacture a meth lab - a defendant argued, from the witness stand, that she could not have caused the meth lab fire that claimed the lives of her kids, because she was too skilled at what she did, as she spelled it out step by step - to why writing music criticism is not my …

Video Games 
Players upgrade Jill’s kitchen with state-of-the-art baking equipment in “Cake Mania” (DS). know when to hold and fold before playing “World Championship Poker: All In” (Wii).

Music Review: Naked Rhythm Frequency  
Generally speaking, techno dance music is not the first solution that comes to mind when debating global strife. Frequency , the full-length debut album by Naked Rhythm, proposes just that as a possible first step to achieving world unity. According to founders Alex Spurkel and Avi Sills, “We are trying to get people to open up and think outside of their own cultural reference point, to be more …

LOS ANGELES Anze Kopitar (AN’-zee KOH’-pih-tahr) ends his rookie season with 20 goals after providing the game-winner in the Los Angeles Kings’ 3-to-2 triumph over Phoenix.

Zambrano looks solid; Sheets back to earth 
Carlos Zambrano allowed three runs in seven innings and hit an RBI single to help the Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 on Saturday. Zambrano (1-1) struck out four of the first six batters he faced and cruised through three perfect innings to start the game before allowing a solo home run to Rickie Weeks to lead off the fourth. After giving up the home run to Weeks, Zambrano pitched out …

The Game’s Got Jimmy Henchman’s Back, Jay-Z’s Alleged Baby Momma Surfaces, 50 Cent & Cam’ron Show Some “Curtis-y” 
In this week’s Pulse Report the streets are buzzing about The Game breaking his truce with G-Unit, Jay-Z possibly having a kid and 50 Cent and Cam’ron’s continuing feud. Visit SOHH.com for the complete story.

Coaching icons raise the bar in NCAA title game 
When Boston College and Michigan State drop the puck Saturday night in the NCAA Division I men’s hockey championship game, standing behind each bench will be one of the game’s coaching icons, two men whose career arcs have run along parallel paths for more than three decades.

This intro clip from 2k’s upcoming Darkness is a little different from most. There is nary a heart eating monster in sight and instead we get a little glimpse at the mafiosos who also inhabit the game.

JV Notebook 
The boys’ freshman baseball team started off this week on a good note against Carmel High School, winning a close game 9-8. Although the Mustangs have had some trouble batting in runs this season, they managed to pull the game out helped by the offensive exploits of Matt Elston and Cory Snyder.

Dodgers Notebook: Patience at plate is not their forte 
SAN FRANCISCO — Immediately after their Opening Day loss to Milwaukee on Monday, when they had just let Brewers right-hander Ben Sheets complete the game after throwing only 104 pitches, several Dodgers players said they had to be ready to swing early in counts against Sheets because he was throwing so many strikes.

Angels 5, Athletics 2 
Francisco Rodriguez cannot restrain his enthusiasm after striking out the game’s final hitter in an Angels’ 5-2 win over Oakland.

When going to any themed event or venue, you expect it to be authentic. You also expect it to be accessible. If you can’t make it both, you might want to rethink your game plan. Unfortunately, that’s the word for Flashback, 8th and Q streets. Flashback, a club specializing in music and dance from the 1970s to today, is heavy on the authentic and way too light on the accessible.

EA, MTV, Harmonix in pact to level up music games 
Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. on Monday said it is teaming with Viacom Inc.’s MTV and “Guitar Hero” developer Harmonix to deliver “Rock Band,” a new music game, late this year.

Be there do that 
UPDATED: 07 :48 a.m. EDT, April 05, 2007 Plain Dealer punster Chuck Yarborough gets rebounds during his stint as a ball boy at the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game.

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR KEVIN DUTCHER Kevin Dutcher thought it was a shot in the dark. Dutcher, the music director for Twins games — he picks all the songs you hear from pre- through post-game — sent an e-mail several months ago to the website for The Hold Steady. He knew the band members — particularly frontman Craig Finn — were big Twins fans, and Dutcher wanted to know if they were …

GO! Early 
STOP, WHISTLE AND SHOOT: The Harlem Globetrotters are in town. Game time is 7 p.m. today at the World Arena, 3185 Venetucci Blvd. Tickets are $11-$67; 576-2626.

Nationals party like they won pennant 
Robert Fick sprinted across the diamond to wrap his arms around Dmitri Young. Then Young sought out Manny Acta for a hearty embrace. Most of the Washington Nationals gathered near the mound to hug, high-five and hop in unison. Then they raced to the clubhouse, where the music blared and the champagne flowed.

Rivals tune in as EMI digital experiment starts 
EMI is taking a risk in becoming the first music major to ditch anti-piracy software on its digital music, but its larger rivals could be better placed to ultimately reap any rewards.

Report: Games, Tech Increasingly Common In Over-100s 
Care provider Evercare has revealed the results of the organization’s second annual survey of those turning a hundred or older this year, revealing that one in seven of the aging respondents has played video games. Particularly interesting about this finding is that these individuals were born on or before 1907, over 60 years before the first commercially available video game. Pong, while not …

Troy Tulowitzki doubled in the tying run and scored the game-winner on third baseman Alberto Callaspo’s error in the 11th inning, and the Colorado Rockies rallied for a 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

Retro Corner II: Gunforce II  
The Game Irems M92 arcade hardware is a vastly underrated piece of gaming history. It housed 12 games total, and theres barely a dud in the batch. Theres a particular lost and ignored classic buried here, though; one that somehow slipped through unnoticed during the final days of the arcade. Gunforce II is that title. A 1994 release, Gunforce II is simply one of the greatest …