As a rookie a few months ago, goaltender Antti Niemi shut down the San Jose Sharks, helping the Blackhawks to a sweep of the Western Conference Finals on their way to becoming Stanley Cup champions. Because of salary cap drama, the Sharks were able to sign Niemi to a one-year, $2 million contract on Thursday. Earlier in the offseason an arbitrator said the Blackhawks should give the Finnish goaltender $2.75 million for next season, but the team chose to go for cheaper veteran Marty Turco instead.

The Sharks had already parted ways with goalie Evgeni Nabokov and signed another Finnish goalie, Antero Niittymaki.  Niitymaki has played six NHL seasons, previously with the Flyers and Lightning. “Our goal this summer was to create the best goaltending unit we could and we feel we have successfully done that,” said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson. “Antti’s play last season speaks for itself.”

Soon, US Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin will announce his four wild card selections to round out his team’s 12-man roster. The big question is will Tiger Woods be one of those four picks. If Pavin bases his pick on career achievements. there’s no way he doesn’t take Tiger.  But Pavin has given hints he wants to treat all golfers equally, so what if he were to try to reduce everything to impersonal numbers?

One way to do it would be to add Ryder Cup points rankings, official world rankings, and FedExCup rankings.  With eight men already on the team — Phil Mickelson (ranked #2 in the world), Steve Stricker (#4), Jim Furyk (#6), Matt Kuchar (#10) Hunter Mahan (#13), Dustin Johnson (#24), Bubba Watson (#25), and Jeff Overton (#46) — here’s how the best Americans left would rank:

• 1. Zach Johnson 11, 17, 15

A week or so after stripping Matt Leinart of his starting quarterback job, the Arizona Cardinals are openly shopping the former first round pick. Three teams have been mentioned as possible trading partners — the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, and New York Giants — but all three have publicly said they’re not interested. The Cardinals are also considering simply cutting Leinart before Saturday’s roster deadline.

There’s a few reasons nobody’s thrilled about picking up Leinart, who’s entering his fifth season in the pros.  He not only seems to be an underachieving malcontent who doesn’t think he should be anybody’s backup, he’s also slated to make over $7 million next year. Plus, why give up anything to the Cardinals in a trade when they may cut him?

With September upon us and just over a month left in the regular season, it’s time to take a look at team’s magic numbers, chances of making the playoffs and odds to win the pennants and World Series.  Only eight teams will make the postseason, but Vegas is still offering futures odds on six teams from the American League and seven from the National League. Let’s take a closer look:

AL EAST

New York Yankees (83-50)

• Magic Number to win the division: 29
• Magic Number to make the playoffs: 22
• BP odds of winning division: 56%
• BP odds of winning wild card: 41%
• Vegas odds of winning AL pennant: 3/2
• Vegas odds of winning World Series: 5/2

Tampa Bay Devil Rays (82-51)

• Magic Number to make the playoffs: 23
• BP odds of winning division: 43%

England looking for fast start against Bulgaria in Euro qualifiers

When England takes to the field on Sept. 3rd at Wembley Stadium in London for their Group G Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria, the team won’t have as many changes in it as many fans had hoped for. Even though it appears manager Fabio Capello has more or less gone back to the old guard after experimenting a little bit in a 2-1 friendly over Hungary last month only 13 players of the 23-man World Cup squad remain.

Granted, Chelsea’s John Terry and Frank Lampard are missing from the fold, as is striker Peter Crouch of Spurs, but that’s due to injuries. Goalkeeper David James, striker Emile Heskey, and defender Wes Brown all retired from international duty after England’s woeful world Cup this summer. Keeper Paul Robinson did the same after Capello called him up for the game against Hungary and Paul Scholes has made it known he won’t make a comeback with England. Jermain Defoe is in the squad after the Spurs striker shelved plans for groin surgery until another time.