*United is on firmer footing after missing the MLS playoffs four consecutive years, but with several injuries and a heavy schedule, the next 11 days will reveal a lot about this improving club.

Kurt Busch lost his temper in a race over the weekend and the driver, who has had anger-management problems, has been fined $50,000 and placed on probation by NASCAR for recklessly driving through Ryan Newman’s pit stall and nearly hitting crew members at Darlington Raceway.

Pankey is the third Maryland player to depart the team in recent weeks. Mychal Parker announced his intention to transfer in April, and then he and guard Terrell Stoglin were suspended for the upcoming season late last month for violating the university’s student-athlete code of conduct. Stoglin then announced his intention to play professionally.

McNabb is losing weight, working out and studying with quarterback guru George Whitfield, whose students have included Andrew Luck and Cam Newton, as he tries to return “to this game we call football.”

Now, all of a sudden, the rest of the NBA is realizing just how vital the third member of Miami’s “Big Three” is to the team’s championship aspirations.

After becoming only the second No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in a best-of-seven series, the Spurs’ title window appeared to be closing as quickly as the hairs were disappearing from the top of Manu Ginobili’s head.

“I’m not against gay people,” Pacquiao, the champion boxer and Filipino legislator said in a statement, written by trainer and writer Keith Terceira, on his website. “I have a relative who is also gay. We can’t help it if they were born that way. What I’m critical of are actions that violate the word of God. I only gave out my opinion that same-sex marriage is against the law of God.”

Chirping over a questionable strike call usually results in an early shower. That was the case for Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, but before he left the diamond, he went a little bit crazy.

The Kentucky Derby winner has settled in at Pimlico while his trainer faces some questions — both easy and tough.

I’ll Have Another is working out well, according to trainer Doug O’Neill, in preparation for Saturday’s running of the Preakness. The horse is a champion, one O’Neill compares to another thoroughbred.

That was, of course, a misnomer. No one was getting castrated on this day. It was just a bunch of baseball fans, gathered on their lunch breaks or whatnot to cut the head off a rubber chicken.

Signed to help anchor the fourth line and take key faceoffs, Halpern did precisely that for the bulk of the regular season but by March he was on the outside looking in as the Capitals tried to push toward the playoffs. Halpern was a healthy scratch for 12 of the final 15 regular season games. He continued to sit throughout the playoffs and only got in the lineup after Jay Beagle broke his foot in Game 5 of the second round.