Ludwick tied a franchise record with a homer in his fifth straight game, only four pitches after Pujols’ grand slam, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-6 on Wednesday.

“The best part about it is we’re winning,” Ludwick said. “I felt like I had the best seat in the house, following Albert. The guy can flat-out hit.”

Pujols’ sixth career grand slam and Ludwick’s drive during a five-run fourth chased Derek Lowe, who gave up eight runs and 13 hits in only 3 1-3 innings. Ludwick was 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Pujols finished 4-for4 with a walk, while insisting being on the same field as Manny Ramirez served as motivation.

“You can have nine Manny Ramirezes out there and I’m still going to go and play my game,” Pujols said. “I don’t have to impress Manny Ramirez or 45,000 people. y job is to play hard and help my team to win.”

Ramirez hit his 513th homer run in the second inning to break a tie with Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews for 20th place on the career list. Ramirez added an RBI single in the third to give the Dodgers an early 3-1 lead, and is batting .600 (12-for-20) with three homers and six RBIs in five games since joining the Dodgers.

The Green Bay Packers reached an agreement Wednesday night to trade their three-time MVP and Super Bowl-winning quarterback to the New York Jets, ending an emotionally grinding month of indecision over Favre’s future.

The move ends a remarkably ugly split between Green Bay and one of its most beloved players, allows the Packers to move forward with new starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers and gives Favre a fresh start—although not exactly the one he wanted, as Favre’s first choice was widely believed to be the Minnesota Vikings.

Terms of the trade weren’t immediately available.

“It is with some sadness that we make this announcement, but also with the desire for certainty that will allow us to move the team and organization forward in the most positive way possible,” Green Bay officials said in a statement.

The seventh seed from Russia easily handled unseeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in a 6-2, 6-1 victory at Uniprix Stadium on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup.

“I came onto the court thinking OK, it’s not going to be an easy match,” Safina said. “I would say I was more experienced in finals and it paid off.

“I hit some good shots and, in the crucial moments, she gave me some good mistakes—that I could say ‘thank you’—and that helped me win in two sets.”

It was a second win in a row for Safina, who beat Flavia Pannetta in the final in Los Angeles last week. With a win earlier this year in Berlin, it was the 22-year-old’s third victory of the year and the eighth of her career.

Safina has reached the final in five of her last six tournaments, including the French Open in May where she lost to compatriot Maria Sharapova.

“It’s just unbelievable—it’s a first-time experience for me,” she said. “Normally, if I win a tournament, the next week I’d always lose in the first round.

“When I won my first match, I thought OK, it’s better than the previous times. Then I just took it one match at a time.”

Safina’s route to the final included wins over ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova and then a three-set victory late Saturday night over 11th-seeded Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals.

She won $196,000 while Cibulkova earned $99,850 at the Tier-1 hardcourt event.

Cibulkova has been knocking off seeded players for most of the season so far and it continued in Montreal, where she eliminated No. 5 Elena Dementieva, No. 12 Nadia Petrova, No. 2 Jelena Jankovic and No. 10 Marion Bartoli on the way to the final.

It all came apart in the final, as she failed to deal with Safina’s serve and made numerous unforced errors.

So when they see players like Mats Sundin or Joe Sakic struggling to make up their minds, they have one simple piece of advice.

“If there’s any doubt and guys aren’t sure, I think they should be playing,” Yzerman told The Canadian Press on Friday. “You can be retired for the rest of your life. You’ll know when you’re done.

“If you’re not 100 per cent certain that you don’t want to play anymore, then the decision is that you should be playing.”

Added Nieuwendyk: “People always told me: ‘Play as long as you can.’ I think these guys you’re talking about still have some good years left in them.”

The Rockets will give up guard Bobby Jackson, who played for the Kings from 2000-05, and another player—likely rookie forward Donte Greene, according to two NBA people who confirmed the deal, but spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.

The Houston Chronicle first reported details of the trade on its Web site on Tuesday night.

Artest’s long-anticipated move out of Sacramento probably can’t be announced yet because Greene, acquired by the Rockets on draft night last month, signed a contract with Houston on July 14. A player can’t be traded within 30 days of signing a contract, according to league rules.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey did not immediately return a phone message. Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis said Morey was traveling out of the country and unavailable for comment. Morey planned to attend the Olympics next month.

Biedrins averaged career-highs with 10.5 points and 9.8 rebounds with the Warriors last season, his fourth with the club that drafted him with the 11th overall pick in 2004. He also led the NBA in field-goal percentage, making 62.6 percent of his shots.

After fielding interest from at least one Russian club this summer, the Latvian center elected to rejoin Monta Ellis, another restricted free agent who signed a six-year, $66 million deal to return to Golden State last Thursday.

“We’re extremely happy to have Andris under contract for many years to come,” said Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ top basketball executive. “He is clearly one of the top young centers in the NBA, and much like (Ellis), he has continued to improve every season. It’s not easy to find quality young big men in this league, but we certainly think we have one of them, and he’s only 22 years old.”

Biedrins has improved his scoring average in each of his seasons with Golden State, developing from a skinny rebounding specialist into an all-around player and a low-post scorer for the uptempo Warriors.

“The organization and fans have been terrific to me over the last four years, and I’m looking forward to building on some of the success that we’ve had in the last couple of years,” Biedrins said.

The Warriors’ latest signing might finally finish one of the busiest offseasons in club history. Golden State added three free agents and retaining three more in the four weeks since Baron Davis announced his plan to spurn the club by signing a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Golden State countered by signing swingman Corey Maggette away from the Clippers and grabbing forward Ronny Turiaf from the Lakers with an offer sheet. Meanwhile, forwards Mickael Pietrus (Orlando) and Matt Barnes (Phoenix) went elsewhere.

I will.

I will watch because, like you, I am a boxing fan and always welcome video footage of vintage Tyson knocking someone out. I know it sounds cruel, but I know I am not alone here. Secondly, I am searching for answers to the following question: “what on earth was he thinking?” Specifically, what was going through Tyson’s mind when he bit Evander Holyfield’s ears; while he sat “zombie-like” next to Robin Givens as she humiliated him on the Barbara Walters show nearly twenty years ago, or what drove him to bite Lennox Lewis’s leg at a pre-fight press conference? I do not know about you, but I would hope this film sheds some light.

From witnessing him destroy a petrified Michael Spinks in 91 seconds for the unified heavyweight title or watching him participate in WrestleMania, Mike Tyson has always had an uncanny ability get me to pay attention to what he is saying or doing. He was once quoted as saying that, “more people would watch me relieve myself than watch Lennox Lewis fight.” As ridiculous as the statement sounds, you get the point. For better or for worse, I’ll be ordering the documentary Tyson once it’s available on Netflix. I have a sneaking suspicion that you will too.

The Sampdoria forward, on loan from Real Madrid, has had a superb season but also served a five-match ban for verbally abusing a referee and throwing his shirt towards him.

“Antonio Cassano is just a lad, don’t make him into an alien,” the coach told a news conference on the first day of Italy training ahead of Friday’s final friendly with Belgium.

“I believe after that heavy suspension in the league he has understood what it means to be in a group.”

Team mates including full back Gianluca Zambrotta have also backed the talented frontman.

“I am not surprised to see Cassano with the national team,” Zambrotta said. “He’s had a good season and I don’t believe he needs particular advice. We are not talking about a 16-year-old boy.”

“Because it is supposed to be random and the players are not supposed to know,” Garland said at the BMW PGA Championship. “So it could be any time after July 1.”

The European and U.S. Tours are acting together to implement the policy.

Garland said several anti-doping seminars had been held during tournaments since late last year, with between 20 and 30 players attending each one.

“One is enough for each player,” he said. “I think we’ve got our message out there.”

Garland said players were already contacting the tour doctor over medical supplements and medications, such as treatments for hay fever.

Sella’s CSF-Navigare teammate, Domenico Pozzovivo, finished second, followed by Riccardo Ricco of the Saunier Duval team, both of whom were about 2 minutes back.

Contador, who won last year’s Tour de France, has a 33-second lead over Ricco in the overall standings.

The Giro continues Monday with an 8-mile uphill time trial from San Vigilio di Marebbe to Plan De Corones.