PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- Major League Baseball owners and the players union remain at work on drafting a rule that would ban home-plate collisions. MLB Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred said Thursday that owners "fully expect" to have a rule in place, hopefully this season, but that talks are ongoing. Joe Torre, MLBs executive vice-president for baseball operations, said that the rule, in essence, will "make sure a baserunner cant purposely bowl over" a catcher. Torre says the mentality of runners rounding third and wanting to score at any cost will have to change. "Theres going to be some inadvertent contact that youre not going to be able to avoid," Torre said, "only because the catcher has to go catch the ball." Players association Tony Clark anticipates approval of the rule for this season. A former catcher, manager and broadcaster, Torre said he was approached about a possible rule change in 2011 by San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy after Giants catcher Buster Posey sustained a severe, season-ending ankle injury in a home-plate collision. "I talked to Bruce Bochy because he was very concerned," Torre said. "At the time, I said anything that makes sense Ill look at it, but I really didnt see anything that made sense to make sure it doesnt affect our game in a negative manner." But as time passed and more injuries occurred, the idea of a rule change grew more plausible, Torre said. "Weve had minor league injuries," he said. "Ive had letters from parents about what happened to their youngsters." Torre spoke with a series of managers, including St. Louis Mike Matheny, a former catcher. "We all know he had to give up the playing part of it because of the concussions, the number he sustained," Torre said. "Theres an 18-month period of his life that he cant recollect. You have to pay attention to that." Saucony Jazz Original Mens . The 30-year-old Texas native was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2001 amateur draft. Duke spent six years in Pittsburgh and also had stints with Arizona, Washington and Cincinnati. Saucony Originals Shadow Original . As for regular Olympic spectators, theyre being warned that most travel insurance policies wont cover acts of terrorism or war. The Games in southern Russia, which run from Feb. 7-23, are being staged amid unprecedented security and under global warnings of danger. http://www.iviloan.com/saucony-sneakers-...hadow-6000.html. -- Arkansas didnt need a spectacular dunk to beat No. Womens Saucony Jazz Original Retro Sneakers Green White . The league announced Thursday that Tom Higgins is leaving that post effective immediately. Nike Free Rn Flyknit Cheap .Before a raucous sellout crowd, the Hawks won for the 29th time in 31 games to extend their Eastern-best record to 36-8.As usual, pretty much everyone chipped in.Four starters were in double figures and backup point guard Dennis Schroder led a spurt at the start of the fourth quarter that helped the Hawks pull away.NEW ORLEANS -- Between Jamal Crawfords long-range shooting, Chris Pauls timely playmaking and Blake Griffins presence in the paint, the Los Angeles Clippers have been too much for most teams to handle the past couple days. The struggling New Orleans Pelicans were simply overmatched. Crawford hit seven 3s on his way to 24 points, and the Clippers beat the Pelicans 123-110 on Monday night. "We understand what we do well. If we all do what we do well, well make our team stronger," Crawford said. "My teammates did a good job finding me, Coach was drawing up great plays and I got the easy part, just knocking down the shots." Crawford picked up where he left off in Oklahoma City a day earlier, when he hit five three-pointers and scored 36 points in the Clippers victory over the Thunder. He even converted a four-point play when he hit a three while being fouled by Eric Gordon. Paul, who had 19 points and 13 assists in his latest return to New Orleans, raved about the Clippers recent success shooting from outside. "Its been great and its just our ball movement," Paul said. "Were getting great looks and at times where playing at the right tempo, but we got to figure out how to keep putting it together." Anthony Davis had 26 points and 11 rebounds for New Orleans. Alexis Ajinca set career highs with 19 points and 12 rebounds. "We played hard, but we just got to do a better job on defence," Davis said. Griffin added 22 points, while DeAndre Jordan had 14 points to go along with 16 rebounds. Paul cited the play of Griffin and Jordan as "the reason why we get those open 3s." All five Clippers starters and two reserves scored in double figures. Matt Barnes, Darren Collison and Hedo Turkoglu each scored 12. "The ball movement on our team is terrific," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "When you play that unselfish with that many good players, a lot of good things are going to happen." Los Angeles hit 16 threes on 28 attempts (57.1 per cent). New Orleans made only 7 of 18 (38.9 per cent) from long range. "There were a lot of shots that we had a hand up and they threw it up in the sky and it came down and went in the bucket," Pelicans coach Monty Williams said of the Clippers 51.dddddddddddd8 per cent shooting overall. "What I didnt like was there were times when they made shots and I thought that we allowed our spirit to get down. ... We just allowed their offence to dictate our spirit." Anthony Morrow scored 13 points and Al-Farouq Aminu 12 for New Orleans, which has lost four straight. Gordon and Austin Rivers each scored 10. The Clippers were in control from the outset against a Pelicans team that has been struggling all season defensively. Los Angeles opened a nine-point lead in the first quarter on Jordans alley-oop dunk of Turkoglus lob. The lead grew to 15 in the second quarter, when Griffins dunk, set up by a feed from Paul, made it 54-39. "At the start, I thought the execution was close to flawless," Rivers said. The Pelicans clawed back within single digits by halftime after Ajincas dunk made it 61-53. The Clippers dominated the third quarter, however, breaking the game open with a 15-2 run that started with Crawfords three and featured nine points by Griffin, including a layup as he was fouled and an alley-oop dunk reminiscent of the dunk fest he brought to the Big Easy during the All-Star game. Los Angeles took its largest lead when Pauls 11-foot jumper made it 88-69. New Orleans showed only one more sign of threatening after that, pulling to 10 points on Jeff Witheys putback with 7:39 left. But Rivers called timeout, during which he instructed Paul to set up Crawford for a 3. It worked, and New Orleans never got closer than 13 again. NOTES: The Clippers are 25-0 when they make at least nine 3-pointers and 19-1 when shooting 50 per cent or better. ... Morrow entered the game making an NBA-leading 48.1 per cent of his 3-pointers. He improved that slightly by hitting 2 of 4 against the Clippers. ... Pelicans G Tyreke Evans made only 4 of his 13 attempts and is 9 of 34 (26.5 per cent) from the field in his last three games. ... The Clippers have scored 120 or more points 11 times this season, including two games in a row. ' ' '