No more than 11 players from this year's free-agent class were asked to speak with George Mitchell as part of his investigation into performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, a union official told agents this week. Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel, made the statement Wednesday to agents attending a meeting in New York, two people with knowledge of the session said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the remarks were intended to remain private.

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Byron Ritchie notched his first goal of the season against his former team, Roberto Luongo made 35 saves and the Vancouver Canucks hung on for a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night. Scoreless after the first period, Vancouver took control in the second, scoring three times in less than six minutes. Brendan Morrison opened the scoring on a power play at 2:32, neatly completing a tic-tac-toe passing play with Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

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Former NHL MVP Eric Lindros officially announced his retirement on Thursday in his hometown in Ontario. He scored 372 goals and had 865 points and 1,398 penalty minutes in 760 games for Philadelphia, Toronto, the New York Rangers and Dallas. He won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 1995 and was part of the Canadian Olympic team that won gold in 2002. He also won silver for Canada at the 1992 games.

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Freshman Blake Griffin, lauded as Oklahoma's best basketball recruit in more than two decades, had 18 points and 13 rebounds Thursday night in the Sooners' 71-55 victory over San Francisco in the first round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. Oklahoma (1-0) advanced to face Denver, which held off Division II East Central 76-75 in overtime, in the second round on Friday. The winner of the Norman regional will play No. 3 Memphis on Nov. 15 in the tournament semifinals.

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A.J. Price had a career-high 24 points Thursday as Connecticut routed Buffalo 82-57 in the second round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. Stanley Robinson added 10 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Jeff Adrien had 11 points and eight rebounds. Connecticut (2-0), trailed by five early, but scored 17 consecutive points, part of a 24-6 run to close out the first half of what had been a back-and-forth game.

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New Orleans Saints sacks leader Brian Young had arthroscopic surgery for left knee swelling and will miss Sunday's home game against the St. Louis Rams. "We'll see a time frame on his rehab, but it got to a point where we felt like this was the best thing to do," head coach Sean Payton said after practice Thursday. "It will be a week-by-week thing based on what they're telling me from a medical standpoint. Hopefully it's sooner than later that we have him back.

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