Winner takes all
With the English Premier League crown seemingly destined for Stamford Bridge - assuming Chelsea can close out the deal in what appears a formality next Sunday - fans looking to sustain interest in the domestic season will turn their attention to Wednesday's clash at the City of Manchester Stadium. Fourth-place Tottenham Hotspur will face Manchester City in what is surely a winner-takes-all showdown for the fourth and final Champions League berth. For City, anything other than punching their passport would be a major blow to their aims of world domination.
Taking a cue from the English
As if bettering the English at their own games in rugby and cricket - and improving in soccer by the day - wasn't enough, Australia is now threatening to make of mockery of England's sense of superiority in another area of national pride - snooker. Neil Robertson, a.k.a. the (predictably named) Thunder from Down Under, is aiming to become the first non-British or Irish winner of the world snooker championship since Victoria's own Cliff Thorburn in 1980, and heads into today's final sessions needing just nine more frames to wrap up the title.
A Fenway exorcism
After an off-season of reflection, Jonathan Papelbon may finally get a chance to exorcise his demons this week. For the first time since self-destructing in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, the Red Sox closer will face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, against which he blew a 5-2 lead on the way to a 7-6 loss and elimination last fall. Papelbon says he's watched the tape of his struggles to get those last four outs "100 times in my weight room" as motivation. Hopefully he saw that you need more than one effective pitch to succeed in the postseason.
Improving their Cavalier attitude
With the series-opening win and a second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player trophy secured, LeBron James will hope for more of the same as he leads his Cavaliers into action tonight as they attempt to take a 2-0 lead over the Celtics. Still smarting from their upset loss to Orlando in the 2009 Eastern Conference Final, Cleveland finally seems to be picking up the slack around James - which even resulted in 6-foot-1 Mo Williams throwing down a dunk for the first time in his two-year Cavalier career - and giving fans confidence that this could even be their year.