Lions postpone talks with Suh until after season

The Detroit Lions are postponing contract talks with All-Pro defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh until after the season.

Suh is entering the final season of his contract, and team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew said before practice Monday that negotiations are being tabled. Lewand and Mayhew both expressed optimism that a deal can eventually be reached.

''He's told me he wants to be here. I have a good relationship with him,'' Mayhew said. ''I know I want him to be here. I don't know what else to tell you.''

Suh talked to reporters after practice, but he didn't want to discuss his contract situation.

''It won't be a distraction to me,'' Suh said. ''I'm just out here playing football and having fun.''

Lewand said Detroit's salary-cap situation isn't the reason for the delay in an agreement.

If the two sides can't reach a deal after the season, the Lions could still keep Suh by using their franchise tag on him.

''I wouldn't close the door on that,'' Mayhew said. ''Every year, we have people concerned about our ability to function under the salary cap, and thus far we've been able to go out in free agency every year and add to our team, make our team better. ... I think the cap is going to go up next year, and probably the year after that too.''

The Lions selected Suh with the second overall pick in 2010, and he has 27 1/2 sacks in his four pro seasons.

''We have a high degree of confidence that we can work out something that'll be mutually satisfactory at the right time, and the goal hasn't changed in the least. But the timing is such that we think the focus needs to be on the field, starting today,'' Lewand said. ''There's no adversarial nature to this decision. ... I think this is what's right for everybody.''

Coach Jim Caldwell, in his first season with the Lions, said he's optimistic a deal will be reached.

''I've been around too many times where I've seen them all get done,'' Caldwell said. ''I think in this particular case, it won't be any different.''

Suh did say he hopes teammates won't have to keep answering questions about his future.

''I'm not going to talk about my contract. We're going to continue to talk about football,'' Suh said. ''I would ask you guys not to bother my teammates about something that they have nothing involved in. For sure, definitely don't want them to have to answer any questions about it.''

Mayhew said contract negotiations during the season can make it harder for a player to stay focused, so it's important to put off any further discussions. He admitted these talks haven't progressed as quickly as he expected.

''At the combine, I probably thought around the start of free agency, possibly,'' Mayhew said. ''After the draft, I thought probably by now. And now I think probably next year.''

The Lions sound prepared to wait until then for a resolution.

''It's been my experience from doing this that when you can get a deal done in five minutes, the player's not very good,'' Mayhew said. ''It takes a little bit of time to get good players signed, and it's a little bit more complicated.''

Rays' Archer: 'Never saw Hank Aaron flip his bat'

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Chris Archer insists he isn't mad at David Ortiz.

A day after Ortiz slung his bat and leisurely trotted around the bases following a home run off him, Archer had more thoughts about Big Papi's style.

''I never saw Hank Aaron flip his bat,'' Archer said Monday. ''I'm not comparing the two, but they're obviously in the same class of players as far what they accomplished.''

''I guess different people have different ways of reacting. That's just who he is,'' he said,

After the Rays' 3-2 loss, Archer reiterated remarks made earlier this year by teammate David Price that the Boston slugger thinks he is bigger than the game.

''Do I regret saying the truth? No,'' Archer said. ''Agitated is not right word. Angry is not the right word. He pimped a home run off me. Not mad, just speak the truth.''

Archer watched the flight of the ball and didn't see Ortiz's reaction until later viewing video.

While talking with reporters before Monday night's game against Milwaukee, Archer saw a report about the Ortiz homer on a nearby clubhouse TV, and jokingly yelled he was mad.

Rays manager Joe Maddon had a thought on the Ortiz show.

''The simple answer is, what if it had happened in the '60s when (Bob) Gibson was pitching, or (Don) Drysdale was pitching?'' Maddon said. ''That answers the question.''

The Red Sox and Rays will meet again for the start of a four-game series Aug. 29 at Tampa Bay.

''I'm proud that our guys have said what they feel,'' Maddon said. ''I dig that a lot, actually. We'll see how it all plays out.''

Dodgers acquire 2B Barney in trade with Cubs

The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired second baseman Darwin Barney in a trade with the Chicago Cubs.

Barney won a Gold Glove in 2012 after tying the major league single-season record with 141 consecutive errorless games. But he was designated for assignment last Tuesday after hitting .230 with 16 RBIs in 72 games this season.

The last-place Cubs sent Barney and cash to NL West-leading Los Angeles for a player to be named. The trade was announced on Monday.

Barney, who turns 29 in November, is a .244 career hitter with 18 homers and 146 RBIs in 542 games.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY - JULY 28TH

1929 - Chicago Cardinals become 1st NFL team to train out of state (Mich).

1940 - Yankee Charlie Keller hits 3 HRs to beat White Sox 10-9.

1942 - Marty Brennaman, American sportscaster is born.
1943 - Bill Bradley, Crystal City Ms, Basketball player

(NY Knicks), Democratic US Senator (1979-1997) is born.

1949 - Vida Blue, major-league pitcher (Cy Young & AL MVP 1971) is born.
1952 - Rogers Hornsby replaces Luke Sewell as Cincinnati Reds manager.

1958 - Terry Fox [Terrance Stanley], Winnipeg, Manitoba,

Canadian one-legged marathoner (1980 Marathon of Hope) is born.

1976 - White Sox John Odom (5 inn) & Francisco Barrios (4 inn) no-hits A's.

1977 - Manu Ginóbili, San Antonio Spurs basketball player is born.

1983 - George Brett's 2 run HR against Yanks on July 24 (pine tar game).

1991 - Buffalo Bills beat Philadelphia Eagles, 17-13 in American Bowl in Wembley.
1991 - Dennis Martinez pitches the 13th perfect game in baseball history.

1994 - Texas Ranger Kenny Rogers pitches baseball's 14th perfect game.

1996 - NY Yankee Darryl Strawberry hits his 300th HR..

1997 - NY Ranger center Mark Messier signs with Vancouver for $20M for 3 yr.

2009 - Jim Johnson, NFL Assistant Coach, Eagles Defensive

Coordinator from 1999-2009 (b.1941) dies of melanoma cancer..

Baseball Hall enshrines 6 new members

Frank Thomas choked back tears, Joe Torre apologized for leaving people out of his speech and Tony La Russa said he felt uneasy.

Being enshrined in the Hall of Fame can have those effects, even on the greats.

Thomas, pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, and managers Bobby Cox, Torre and La Russa were inducted into the baseball shrine Sunday, and all paid special tribute to their families before an adoring crowd of nearly 50,000.

''I'm speechless. Thanks for having me in your club,'' Thomas said, getting emotional as he remembered his late father. ''Frank Sr., I know you're watching. Without you, I know 100 percent I wouldn't be here in Cooperstown today. You always preached to me, 'You can be someone special if you really work at it.' I took that to heart, Pop.''

''Mom, I thank you for all the motherly love and support. I know it wasn't easy.''

The 46-year old Thomas, the first player elected to the Hall who spent more than half of his time as a designated hitter, batted .301 with 521 home runs and 1,704 RBIs in a 19-year career mostly with the Chicago White Sox. He's the only player in major league history to log seven straight seasons with a .300 average, 20 homers, 100 RBIs and 100 walks.

Ever the diplomat as a manager, Torre somehow managed to assuage the most demanding of owners in George Steinbrenner, maintaining his coolness amid all the Bronx craziness while keeping all those egos in check after taking over in 1996. The result: 10 division titles, six AL pennants and four World Series triumphs in 12 years as he helped restore the luster to baseball's most successful franchise and resurrected his own career after three firings.

Torre, the only man to amass more than 2,000 hits (2,342) and win more than 2,000 games as a manager, was last to speak, and in closing delivered a familiar message.

''Baseball is a game of life. It's not perfect, but it feels like it is,'' said the 74-year-old Torre, who apologized afterward for forgetting to include the Steinbrenner family in his speech. ''That's the magic of it. We are responsible for giving it the respect it deserves. Our sport is part of the American soul, and it's ours to borrow - just for a while.''

''If all of us who love baseball and are doing our jobs, then those who get the game from us will be as proud to be a part of it as we were. And we are. This game is a gift, and I am humbled, very humbled, to accept its greatest honor.''

The day was a reunion of sorts for the city of Atlanta. Glavine, Maddux and Cox were part of a remarkable run of success by the Braves. They won an unprecedented 14 straight division titles and made 15 playoff appearances, winning the city's lone major professional sports title.

''I'm truly humbled to stand here before you,'' Cox said. ''To Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, and I have to mention the third member of the big three - John Smoltz - I can honestly say I would not be standing here if it weren't for you guys.''

Smoltz, part of the MLB Network telecast of the event and eligible for induction next year, flashed a smile in return for the compliment.

Glavine was on the mound when the Braves won Game 6 to clinch the 1995 World Series, pitching one-hit ball over eight innings in a 1-0 victory over Cleveland. And the slender lefty was one of those rare athletes, drafted by the Braves and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League.

''I had a difficult choice to make, and as a left-handed pitcher I thought that was the thing that would set me apart and make baseball the smartest decision,'' Glavine said. ''Of course, I always wondered what would have happened had I taken up hockey.''

''In my mind, since I was drafted ahead of two Hall of Famers in Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull, that obviously means I would have been a Hall of Famer in hockey, too,'' Glavine chuckled as the crowd cheered. ''But I'm positive I made the right choice.''

The 48-year-old Maddux went 355-227 with a career ERA of 3.16 in 23 seasons with the Braves, Cubs, Padres and Dodgers and ranks eighth on the career wins list. He won four straight Cy Young Awards in the 1990s and won 15 or more games for 17 straight seasons with his pinpoint control.

''I spent 12 years in Chicago, 11 in Atlanta, and both places are very special,'' Maddux said. ''Without the experiences in both cities, I would not be standing here today.''

La Russa, who ranks third in career victories as a manager with 2,728, behind only Connie Mack and John McGraw, was chosen manager of the year four times and won 12 division titles, six pennants and three World Series titles in stints with the White Sox, Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals.

La Russa spoke from the heart. There was no written speech.

''It's uncomfortable because I didn't make it as a player. Not even close,'' said La Russa, who made his big league debut as a teenage infielder with the 1963 Kansas City Athletics and appeared in just 132 games over six seasons, hitting .199 with no home runs. ''Since December, I have not been comfortable with it. There's no way to mention everybody, and that bothers me.''

''From managing parts of two years in the minor leagues, after thinking about all the other young managers who paid a lot of dues in the minor leagues and I get a chance and then I go into the big leagues with three organizations,'' he said. ''All that equates to me is I'm very, very fortunate. I've never put my arms around the fact that being really lucky is a Hall of Fame credential.''

It's 'Jeff Gordon Day' at Indy for record 5th time

With a tinge of gray hair at his temples, his hat on backward and his two young children by his side, Jeff Gordon celebrated as if he was 23 years old again.

Gordon won a NASCAR-record fifth Brickyard 400 on Sunday, eight days before his 43rd birthday and on the weekend Indianapolis Motor Speedway celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first Brickyard victory.

Gordon's first win came before the celebratory kissing of the Yard of Bricks was en vogue, before he became a household name, while Sprint Cup Series rookies Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon were still in diapers. Now a family man with an aching back, Gordon used Sunday to show he's still at the top of his game.

''If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere,'' said Gordon, who has led the Sprint Cup Series standings for 13 of the last 14 weeks. ''It's certainly going to be a huge confidence boost for this team. We recognize the significance of this.

''We saw we were points leaders, we won at Kansas, but I don't know if we believed we were capable of winning this championship this year. We do now.''

To prove it to himself, to his Hendrick Motorsports team and to his ardent fan base, Gordon needed a vintage close to Sunday's race.

Hendrick teammate Kasey Kahne led a race-high 70 laps and seemed only to be racing against his gas tank when a late caution put the race back into Gordon's hands. He'd have one shot at passing Kahne, on a dreaded restart, and nobody was sure if ol' ''Four-Time'' had it in him.

Restarts are his Achilles heel, and he's struggled with them for several years. And Kahne, who is winless on the season, desperately needed the victory to grab a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field.

''The restart is going to be the race, really,'' Gordon's crew chief, Alan Gustafson, conceded in a television interview moments before the field went green with 17 laps remaining.

Kahne picked the lower, inside lane for the restart, and Gordon found himself on the outside and exactly where he wanted to be. Gordon tried to set a quick pace as they headed to the flag, and Kahne tried to slow it down in the restart zone.

Gordon shifted into fourth gear and surged past Kahne on the outside, and Gordon kicked it into cruise control as he sailed away for the win.

''I think we both knew that was for the win,'' Gordon said of Kahne. ''Out of nowhere, I have the restart of my life at the most important moment that you could ask for in a race, in a season, at a race like this. That was just awesome.''

The win came on the 20th anniversary celebration of Gordon's win in the inaugural Brickyard 400, and on ''Jeff Gordon Day'' as declared by the Mayor of Indianapolis. The win moved Gordon into a tie with Michael Schumacher, whose five Formula One victories at Indy had been the gold standard.

''I told him this morning that this was his day,'' said team owner Rick Hendrick.

Kahne plummeted to fifth after the restart, then ran out of gas on the final lap and had to nurse his car home to a sixth-place finish. He said he erred in picking the inside line for the restart.

''I should have chosen the top (lane), obviously,'' he said. ''I pretty much let Jeff control that last restart. I thought I made the right decision.''

Hendrick said he had no favorite in that situation, and hoped only that Gordon and Kahne did not wreck each other.

''I know Kasey, he needed a win, and he ran awful good today,'' Hendrick said. ''But Jeff had the dominant car, so it all worked out.''

Kyle Busch finished second, 2.325 seconds behind Gordon, and was followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. After the race, NASCAR said Hamlin's car had failed post-race inspection and the parts in question would be taken to North Carolina for another look.

Joey Logano was fifth in the highest-finishing car from Team Penske, which brought Juan Pablo Montoya to the race in an effort to get the win. Roger Penske has won a record 15 Indianapolis 500s, but is winless in the Brickyard. Montoya was never a factor and finished 23rd.

Larson, who grew up a Gordon fan, finished seventh and likened Gordon's win on Sunday to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season-opening win in the Daytona 500.

''To see Jeff Gordon win is pretty special - it's kind of like Junior winning the 500 this year,'' Larson said.

Kevin Harvick, the polesitter and the driver with the car most everyone thought would be tough to beat, was eighth and followed by Earnhardt and rookie Austin Dillon.

Carl Edwards finished 15th hours after Roush-Fenway Racing finally confirmed he was leaving the team at the end of the season.

In addition to his 1994 victory, Gordon also won at the track in 1998, 2001 and 2004.

He has 90 Cup wins, third on the career list.

He said it took extreme focus over the final 10 laps not to prematurely celebrate and cough away the win. It meant tuning out the crowd, which was on its feet and cheering him to the finish.

''I was trying not to let it get to me and not think about it too much,'' he said. ''And yet you can't help it. It's such a big place and such an important victory and a crucial moment in the season and the championship, and those emotions take over.

''This one is for all those fans throughout the years and all weekend long - they're saying 'We believe you can get (championship) number five.' We got (Brickyard) No. 5!''

LeBron deep-sixes number; will be No. 23 with Cavs

LeBron James will go back to wearing jersey No. 23 in his return to Cleveland.

James tweeted ''23 it is! It's only right I go back. 23(equals)6 We still family 6.'' The tweet included an Instagram post with photos of James holding his No. 23 Cavaliers jersey on draft night, him later in a new version of the Cavs' jersey and a one of him in his high school jersey.

James wore No. 6 in four seasons with Miami and with the U.S. Olympic team. He used No. 23 in high school and during seven seasons in Cleveland.

About 10 days ago, James turned to social media to help him choose which number he'll wear next season with the Cavaliers. James wrote ''6 or 23....'' on his Twitter account.