CINCINNATI -- It looks as if Ben Zobrist might be rounding into postseason form, just in time for the Chicago Cubs.Zobrist homered twice and drove in three runs, helping Chicago beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-3 on Friday night.Im feeling a lot better than I felt in June, July and August, said Zobrist, who helped Kansas City win the World Series last year. Hopefully, that translates into October.The Cubs have the majors best record and clinched the NL Central title with plenty of time to spare, giving Joe Maddon the luxury of resting his regulars. The 35-year-old Zobrist didnt play on Monday or Thursday, and he is 11 for 22 with two homers and eight RBI in his last seven games.Hes rested, Maddon said. With guys like that, thats why you want time off, and (Friday) is what it can look like.Jake Buchanan (1-0) pitched five shutout innings as Chicago improved to 14-3 against Cincinnati this season with two games to play. The right-hander allowed two hits in his first start since 2014 with Houston.Outstanding, wasnt he? Maddon said. He controlled his emotions and threw strikes. He was very efficient. He threw strikes. We caught the ball -- a typical formula for us.It was Buchanans first appearance since he pitched one inning on Sept. 5. He didnt know what to expect when he took the mound.Once I got past the first batter, it felt really good to be back in a ballgame, Buchanan said. I was just hoping to throw strikes and compete.Anthony Rizzo also drove in two runs for Chicago, which was coming off a rare tie in Pittsburgh due to rain.Joey Votto hit a two-run homer in the ninth for last-place Cincinnati, which announced before the game that manager Bryan Price would return next season. Josh Smith (3-3) was charged with two runs and three hits in five-plus innings.Price and the Reds agreed to a one-year contract with a team option. The entire coaching staff also has been offered contracts for 2017.There is a mutual desire to stay connected, Price said. For me, its an unbelievable opportunity. It is a storied franchise. I have really enjoyed my coaches and my team.The Cubs, headed for the playoffs for the second straight year, announced contract extensions for general manager Jed Hoyer and player development director Jason McLeod. Their new deals run through the 2021 season, mirroring president of baseball operations Theo Epsteins contract announced on Wednesday.Smith retired his first 12 batters before Zobrist led off the fifth with a drive to right for his first homer since Sept. 12. The All-Star also connected for a two-run shot in Chicagos four-run eighth, No. 17 on the year.It was good, Smith said. I challenged hitters early and got a lot of early contact to pitch pretty deep in the game. The ball to Zobrist, I missed my spot.Chicagos first three batters reached in the sixth, chasing Smith, and Addison Russells RBI double made it 3-1.HISTORIC HOMERSZobrists homers were Chicagos 38th and 39th against the Reds this season, the most by one team against Cincinnati pitching in one season. The 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers and 1957 Milwaukee Braves previously shared the record with 38.FRIENDLY CONFINESKris Bryants eighth-inning single gave him a least one hit in each of Chicagos eight games at Great American Ball Park so far this season.EARLY WARNINGVotto, who left Thursdays game at St. Louis in the eighth inning with a cut on his chin that required seven stitches, texted Price at 3 a.m. Friday saying that he would be ready to play.TRAINERS ROOMCubs: OF Jorge Soler (discomfort on his right side) will be re-evaluated on Saturday, Maddon said.Reds: 2B Brandon Phillips, sidelined by soreness in his left wrist and hand, was being examined Friday by members of the Reds medical staff, Price said.UP NEXTCubs: LHP Jon Lester (19-4) seeks his first career 20-win season in his last start. He is 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA in four starts against Cincinnati this season.Reds: RHP Tim Adleman (3-4), who set a career high with seven innings in his last start on Monday, will try to close out his season with back-to-back wins. Cheap Jordan 11 Free Shipping .Y. - Nelson Mandela will be honoured by the New York Yankees with a plaque in Monument Park. Jordan 11 For Sale Cheap .C. -- Glenn Howard needed an extra end to move into the Masters Grand Slam of Curling final. http://www.cheapairjordan11.com/ . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. Lombardi, the grandson of former Green Bay Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, has been an offensive assistant on Sean Paytons New Orleans staff since 2007. Cheap Jordan 11 Retro . Pedro scored from a pass by Lionel Messi in the 33rd minute and added two more goals in the 47th and 72nd after Valdes saved his second penalty in four days following his stop in Wednesdays 4-0 over Ajax in the Champions League. Cheap Air Jordan 11 For Sale . -- Jimmy Walkers first PGA Tour trophy came with a special gift tucked inside. Happiness. How do we get it? Are there instructions? Can we proactively and tactically approach something that is an emotion within our daunting, complex brains? Or is it all genetics, luck and circumstance?I think we can all agree that attitude has a big effect on how successful most people become. And a good attitude starts with happiness. Its why as a parent, teacher or hockey coach, we should know by now that using happiness as a starting point for teaching is the best way for a child to achieve at home, at school and on the fields of play.Dont coach to win.Dont teach for grades.Coach for players to be happy and to love practice and the games. Improvement and wins will follow.Dont teach for grades. Teach students to be happy to learn and be creative. Grades and growth will follow.Wayne Gretzky was the best of his era because no one loved the game more. No one loved and enjoyed competition more than Jack Nicklaus. Gretzky and Nicklaus had great parents and upbringings, which made it easier for them to be optimistic. They were and are basically happy people by combining their immense talent with loving families. That didnt guarantee happiness, but it helped them succeed. There are plenty of stories of people from broken homes who ended up being big successes; the odds are in your favor when you have love and support and are happy.As life goes on and we collect disappointments, we have to learn how to coach our brains to remain as optimistic and happy as possible when faced with adversity. Thats when the game begins. Everybody hurts sometimes.The military teaches its soldiers that mental toughness comes from being optimistic. It wants soldiers not to think catastrophically and not to think of the worst outcome. It wants them to be grateful and generous. There is a reason so many soldiers seem and are so impressive. They are optimistic, giving people.Optimistic people are happier, and happier people are more successful.If you struggle with optimism, here are a few things to remember. Bad things are temporary (just kill the penalty). There are specific causes for things that happen -- not universal truths that you cant define (I suck!). Some days are just not your day (yes, some days it is your day), and youll be fine tomorrow. Dont beat yourself up. Be more like Tigger and less like Eeyore.Ive always told my kids, Quietly try to be your biggest fan.In Daniel J. Siegels book The Mindful Brain, he writes that we can stimulate emotional circuits in the brain by meditating or thinking good thoughts, and we can give the often negative, left side of our brain a crosscheck to the grill. We can coach our brains to think better and more optimistically.Choose your thoughts.In Alex Korbs book The Upward Spiral, he explains that the antidepressant Wellbutrin boosts the neurotransmitter dopamine, as does gratitude. Prozac boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin, and so does gratitude. Gratitude acts like a drug. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence, is something we all should remember. Be grateful, and be generous. It will make you happy. You will be healthier, have more friends and be more successful. Maybe thats why hockey gives out two assists.We love hockey because it makes us happy. The speed, power, grace, sacrifice, agility, toughness and competitiveness all make the heart beat and the dopamine flow. Why do you think youre never in a bad mood 15 minutes before the opening faceoff? The dopamine is wheeling like Connor McDavid.This season, we have an extra two weeks of hockey to kick-start some late summer/early fall hockey dopamine. The World Cup of Hockey is here.Training camps opened this week, and pre-tournament action begins Thursday. The tournament will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 in Toronto. Eight teams will compete: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, USA, Europe and North America. Each roster has 23 players: 20 skaters and three goaltenders.This will be the third World Cup of Hockey. The United States won the first in 1996, and Canada won in 2004. A previous version of this tournament was known as the Canada Cup and was contested five times between 1976 and 1991.The 2016 World Cup will be played exclusively on Torontos NHL-sized rink (200 feet by 85 feet) at the Air Canada Centre using NHL rules and NHL officials. Shootouts will be used to decide tie games after 65 minutes in group play, and sudden-death OT will be used in the semifinalls and finals.ddddddddddddThe eight teams are split into Group A and Group B for the preliminary round, in which each team will play its three group opponents once in a round-robin format.Placed in Group A are Team Canada, Czech Republic and USA, plus Team Europe, a pan-European roster of players from birth countries outside the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden. The four teams in Group B are Finland, Russia, Sweden and Team North America, a selection of the top players from Canada and the United States who will be 23 or under as of Oct. 1, 2016.The top two finishers in each group will advance to the semifinals (Sept. 24-25), in which the first-place team from each group will face an elimination game against the second-place team from the other group. The two semifinal winners will meet in the finals, a best-of-three series on Sept. 27, Sept. 29 and, if necessary, Oct. 1.Pretty standard, really (Dr. Evil voice).But this will be more than just a hockey tournament. If you are within driving distance of Toronto, this is a great opportunity for a long weekend for you and your hockey-playing son or daughter to take in and prepare for the long season ahead. I cant think of a better pep rally/pump-up jam to attend to get you and your hockey-playing child fired up. Even if you dont go to a game, it will be a fun couple of days. But if you have a chance to see an international tournament, especially in Canada, do it.The activities (fanfest, concerts by Green Day and the Killers, among others) surrounding the hockey in the beautiful city of Toronto (home to the Hockey Hall of Fame) will be much bigger than an All-Star Game. Of course, there will be more than just one game (two a day at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET for the first week), and the intensity will be very high. Also, there will be excellent September weather. If you can, come experience this event.As Im sure youve heard by now, the family of ESPN networks will broadcast the entire tournament. One broadcast team will be Steve Levy and Barry Melrose with in-between-benches help from Kevin Weekes and Darren Pang. I will be doing six games during the first week of doubleheaders, joined by a combination of Weekesy and Panger.Weekes and I will also be doing two pre-tournament games later this week: Europe vs. North America (23-and-under) at 8 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2 and Canada vs. USA at 7 p.m. Friday on ESPNU.Linda Cohn and Adnan Virk will be sharing anchoring in the studio with Brett Hull and Chris Chelios?the first week, before I assume the studio duties during the second week of the tournament with Hull and Chelly.Without NHL games since 2004, it is surreal that we at ESPN once again are broadcasting a hockey event of this magnitude involving NHL players. Ill try not to mess it up. We are pumped up and will go all-out to bring you a great broadcast. And, of course, we are bringing the old ESPN hockey music back!I was raised a hockey fan by my crazed, sports-fan father, Ed. He was a high school goalie without a mask in the late 1940s and was a sports carnivore. As a child growing up, we didnt have cable TV, so I was largely raised on radio when it came to hockey. We could get Bob Wilson and the Boston Bruins on WBZ Radio, the Pittsburgh Penguins on KDKA with Mike Lange, Dan Kelly and the St. Louis Blues on KMOX, and occasionally,?Chicago Blackhawks games as well.Hockey on the radio was a magical way for a young boy to experience sports. It was theater, a passion play, bloody and frightening and exhilarating. When you rooted for Bobby Orr, well, optimism came easily. If you lost, well, the zen of a Zamboni meticulously washed away the sins, and optimism returned. It was a clean sheet to begin again.Your own imagination was the director of the game on the radio, as well as the casting director. I was Max in Where the Wild Things Are, who grew up among beasts such as John Wensink, Battleship Bob Kelly and Dave Schultz. This gave hockey a mysterious, visceral quality other sports I followed did not have. The flavor of dopamine was different, good to the last drop. You never forget it, and you never run out. Once hockey grabs you, it doesnt let go.Now, as luck and good fortune would have it, I get to do some play-by-play for the greatest hockey players on planet Earth. In Canada. On ESPN.That makes me happy. ' ' '