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San Francisco 49ers Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Willis was back Monday after missing 22 practices with an ankle and Achilles' injury. Willis, who suffered the injury during a drill, only participated in individual drills as the team's trainers ease him in slowly. Willis said he wanted to return far sooner. 'If it was up to me, I would try to go the next day I hurt it,' Willis said. 'But I didn't want to let my pride and ego hurt the team.

San Francisco 49ers All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis was back Monday after missing 22 practices with an ankle and Achilles injury. Willis, who suffered the injury during a drill, only participated in individual drills as the team's trainers ease him in slowly. Willis said he wanted to return far sooner. 'If it was up to me, I would try to go the next day I hurt it,' Willis said. 'But I didn't want to let my pride and ego hurt the team.

Brett Tomko pitched five scoreless innings to beat the Yankees less than a month after being released by them, winning his debut with the Athletics 3-0 Monday.

GOLD Coast AFL management has drawn another recruiting blank with local talent after Dayne Beams decided to stay with Collingwood.

NEW YORK(AP) Aaron Rowand homered and had four hits, Joe Martinez won close to home and the San Francisco Giants routed a makeshift New York Mets team 10-1 on Monday night to split their four-game series.

The football universe is frantic about the start of the 2009 season and NFL organizations have already started planning for the 2010 NFL Draft. Scout.com's Chris Steuber has the latest and confirms that an NFC South team scouts a local school.

Stephen Strasburg is now a National. Facing a midnight deadline, the team says it has signed the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Jon Heyman reports the deal is worth $15.067 million.

JEFF WILSON Tarrant County was going to be home to Matt Purke at some point in his future.But he had to decide Monday whether he would settle immediately in Fort Worth as a freshman at TCU or in a few years in Arlington as a member of the Texas Rangers? rotation.The native Texan took his time, almost all of it in fact, but he ultimately decided to don purple and white for at least the next two seasons.The Rangers failed to agree to terms with their first-round pick on the final day for major-league teams to finalize contracts with their selections from the First-Year Amateur draft in June. They can no longer negotiate with the left-hander from Klein, who a source said turned down $4 million and instead will enroll at TCU and pitch for the Horned Frogs next year.?I?m not going to sugar coat it: We wanted to sign the guy,? general manager Jon Daniels said. ?But it wasn?t meant to be.?Purke, the 14th overall pick, was selected with the Rangers knowing that he wanted a contract similar to

The Leopards have included Cecil Dumont in the team for the Currie Cup fixture against the Blue Bulls at Loftus.

Veteran Essendon forward Scott Lucas has announced his retirement from AFL football after losing his battle with injury and poor form.