Jackson Free Press

New Orleans got their first win of the season against San Diego right before heading into their bye week. A week off set off a new round of bounty gate but that doesn't matter because all the players appealed their suspensions and will be allowed to play this week and keep playing until their appeal hearing has taken place.

The state Department of Health has withheld nearly $600,000 from domestic-violence shelters over the past two years.

As TV singing competition "American Idol" wraps its 15th and final season, we look at the contestants representing Mississippi in the final three.

Mississippi State traveled to Gainesville, Fla. to square off against one of the top teams in the SEC. In a series between two highly ranked teams, the Bulldogs seemed to face an uphill climb, as the University of Florida hadn’t lost at home this season and were on a 28-home game winning streak.

Florida struck down MSU in the first game 8-2 on Friday night, April 8, pushing the team's winning streak to 29 straight home wins. The Bulldogs bounced back Saturday for a 10-4 win, breaking that streak.

That left a rubber game to win the series on Sunday and the first time all season the Bulldogs needed to win the final game so they could win an SEC series this season. MSU battled its way to a 2-1 win to take the series from the Gators, who in some polls were ranked No. 1 in the country.

The series win for the Diamond Dogs was the first at Florida since 2007. MSU improved to 23-9-1 on overall and 8-4 in SEC play.

By defeating Florida, the Bulldogs have now won four straight SEC series at the beginning of conference play. MSU started the week with a 14-0 win over the University of Tennessee at Martin.

In conference play, MSU leads Texas A&M University (7-5) by a game in the SEC West standings as the Aggies come to Starkville for Super Bulldog Weekend. MSU leads Louisiana State University (6-6), the University of Alabama (6-6) and the University of Mississippi (6-6) by two games.

Overall in the SEC, MSU is tied with Florida and the University of Kentucky at 8-4 in conference play. The University of South Carolina has the best record in the conference at 10-2 and doesn’t play the Bulldogs this season.

The national polls noticed the Bulldogs' series win over the weekend.

Mississippi State moved up two spots from No. 10 to No. 8 in the USA Today Baseball Top 25 Coaches Poll.

Perfectgame.org moved them up from No. 8 to No. 3 in its poll.

Baseball America and D1Baseball.com pushed MSU from No. 5 all the way to No. 2 in their new polls.

While the new rankings are great for the Bulldogs, players, coaches and fans need to remember that baseball is a marathon and not a sprint. MSU still has some big games and series left this season.

For starters, the Bulldogs play Texas A&M this weekend and then go to LSU the next weekend. MSU meets UM at Trustmark Park for the Governor's Cup on April 26.

The Bulldogs hit the road to battle Alabama after meeting the Rebels in the middle of the week. MSU finishes the SEC part of the schedule with a home series against the University of Missouri, a road series against Auburn University and at home against the University of Arkansas.

While it is tempting to look …

If you didn’t know, the Copa América Centenario started last week. Here is a brief history of the tournament and some background on why this Copa América is so special.

This is the first time in the history of the Copa América that it has taken place outside of South America. Normally, the tournament takes place on that continent and crowns a champion in CONMEBOL, which is the governing body of South American soccer.

The first Copa América was held in 1916, making this the oldest international continental soccer tournament. CONMEBOL has 10 members and has invited only two teams outside of it to take part in the competition since 1993.

The 10 CONMEBOL members are: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Most of the time, CONMEBOL invites teams from CONCACAF, the governing body of which the United States is a member, but has invited Japan to play in the tournament. The US has played in the 1993, 1997 and 2007 Copa América.

Eight of the 10 CONMEBOL countries have won the tournament, with Ecuador and Venezuela being the only countries yet to win. Uruguay has the most titles with 15, but Chile is the reigning champion.

Since this is the 100th year of the tournament, this installment is a mega event with 16 teams instead of the normal 12 teams. The US is hosting the event for the first time, and five other CONCACAF teams—Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Haiti and Panama—have joined in.

The USA is in Group A with Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay. This might be the toughest group of the tournament with all four teams having strong squads.

Colombia, already the favorite to win the group, confirmed that thought after the team’s 2-0 win over USA. That leaves the US, Costa Rica and Paraguay fighting for the second spot to advance. Costa Rica and Paraguay played to a 0-0 draw in their first group game.

In the first game of the tournament, Colombia made a spectacular goal off a corner kick. The US keeper had no chance of making the save. The second Colombian goal was off a penalty kick for a USA player’s handball in the box. The call was iffy at best and didn’t look like the American athlete made the action deliberately, but it is a subjective call.

Even before the opening loss, many didn't expect much from USA after the team struggled in matches at the Gold Cup and in World Cup qualifying.

The best player in Group A is Colombia's James Rodriguez, who was the breakout star of the last World Cup. Rodriguez made the penalty but left the game with a shoulder injury, which could affect the group if he is going to be out of action.

Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones and 12 other 2014 World Cup players on this squad will need to show leadership after the loss. It seems almost …

Somebody is going to break a championship drought this year in the MLB playoffs. Every team left hasn’t won a title in 20 or more years.

The Cleveland Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948. That is a drought of 68 years, but the Indians did reach the World Series in 1954, 1995 and 1997. Cleveland’s only other World Series win came in 1920.

In 1954, the New York Giants swept the Indians, winning the title. The Atlanta Braves won their only title during their 1990s dominance of the National League, but sputtered in the World Series against Cleveland. The Indians’ last World Series loss came in 1997 when the Florida Marlins, now the Miami Marlins, won the championship.

Cleveland dispatched the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 in the American League Championship Series and reached this year’s World Series. This is just the sixth AL pennant the Indians have won as a franchise.

Toronto’s title drought will now stretch to 24 years when next season starts. The Blue Jays won back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.

Title droughts are also part of the National League Championship Series. The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are tied 2-2 in their best of seven series.

It now comes down to which team can win two out of three games to face Cleveland. Both the Cubs and Dodgers are currently in title droughts.

Los Angeles hasn’t won the World Series since 1988, when the team defeated the Oakland Athletics. That World Series is memorable for the Dodgers Kirk Gibson limping around the bases after hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning and winning game one.

That 1988 World Series is also known for the Los Angeles pitcher Orel Hershiser’s pitching dominance. In game five of the series, Hershiser pitched a complete game that finished off the A’s for the title.

But it has been 28 years since that World Series win, and the Dodgers haven’t won or even been back to a Fall Classic. Los Angeles is looking for its 22nd NL pennant and a possible seventh World Series win.

Nearly everyone knows that Chicago hasn’t won a World Series since 1908. The Cubs only have two World Series titles won back-to-back in 1907 and 1908. That is a drought of 108 years.

And the “lovable loser” Cubs haven’t been to a World Series since 1945. That’s 71 years since they even reached the World Series.

Chicago is looking for its 17th pennant and possible third World Series win. This could be the year that everything lines up for this “cursed” franchise.

More than likely, most fans, both casual and hardcore, would love to see the Indians and the Cubs in the World Series—two tortured franchises with heart-breaking losses in the postseason that can lead to years of therapy for any fan.

Who fans will root for is interesting in and of itself. Cleveland just …

If something seems familiar about this year’s NFL Playoffs, you would be right. Rematches seem to be a theme in the first two rounds.

There were three rematches on Wild Card weekend, and the only game that wasn’t a rematch was the Seattle Seahawks’ 26-6 win over the Detroit Lions.

The Houston Texans avenged a 27-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders with a 27-14 win. The Pittsburgh Steelers made up for a 30-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins, turning the tables for a 30-6 victory. Green Bay beat the New York Giants in the regular season 23-16 and bounced New York from the playoffs with a 38-13 win.

All four games this weekend, which is the Divisional Round, are rematches of regular-season matchups. That means seven of the eight playoff games so far will be rematches of teams that meet during the regular season.

In week three, New England destroyed the Houston Texans 27-0 in a game that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn’t even play in, as he was suspended. Week four saw the Steelers blow out the Kansas City Chiefs 43-14. The playoffs have two rematches from week six: the Dallas Cowboys against the Packers (The Cowboys beat them 30-16) and Seattle and Atlanta (the Seahawks beat the Falcons 26-24).

The regular season scores matter little since all the games took place in the first half of the season. All these teams have changed over the course as players have returned from injuries or suspensions or teams have lost players to injury or suspension. Each team has seen improvements in play since these teams first met early in the season.

Teams that lost in the regular season meeting went 2-1 in the Wild Card round. The only team to repeat its regular season performance was Green Bay, and if that holds for the Packers, it is good news for the Cowboys.

Rookie quarterback Dak Prescott threw his first career interception against the Packers, but the Cowboys forced four turnovers. Prescott had a fumble in the game as well. Dallas took control of the game with its 191 rushing yards.

Pittsburgh and Houston flipped the script on their regular-season foes, but both teams faced backup quarterbacks in the rematch. Houston couldn’t defeat New England without Brady, and Brady is back and on fire.

The Steelers did beat Chiefs starting quarterback Alex Smith, but Kansas City has speedy return man Tyreek Hill and is better in pass coverage. The most important part of this rematch is that it is at home for the Chiefs.

Seattle and Atlanta’s first meeting ended in controversy. The final play that mattered in the game looked like Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman interfered with Falcon wide receiver Julio Jones.

It will be interesting to see if Sherman is on Jones and how closely the officials call that matchup. These two superstar players could decide this game.

Another interesting tidbit is that …