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ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Cardinals signed free-agent second baseman Mark Ellis to a one-year, $5.25 million contract, giving them insurance for rookie Kolten Wong. In a conference call after the deal was announced Monday, the 36-year-old Ellis said he had some multiyear offers but chose the Cardinals because he wants to win a World Series. Ellis played for the Dodgers in the NL championship series last fall against St. Louis, which won the Series in 2011 and lost in six games to the Red Sox in 2013. "I am fully fine with one-year deals at this point in my career," Ellis said. "There were some good opportunities, very good teams and very good organizations. I felt like this was the perfect place for myself and my family." The contract calls for an additional $125,000 at 250 plate appearances and for every 25 plate appearances after that up to 475 plate appearances. "Nothing was promised," Ellis said. "Ive pretty much been an everyday player my whole career. Im going to prepare this off-season like Im going to play 162 games." Ellis is a lifetime .265 hitter for three teams. He hit .270 with six home runs and 48 RBIs for the Dodgers last season, and is considered a strong defensive second baseman. Hes had only spot duty at other infield positions during his career, but was open to that option, noting he played third base two years in college and was a shortstop growing up. "Im not so stubborn I have a huge ego that I have to be the second baseman," Ellis said. "I dont care. I want to do whatever it takes to win a World Series." Wong, a first-round pick in 2011, made his major league debut last year and is expected to get the starting shot at second base in 2014. Matt Carpenter moves to third base following the trade of David Freese to the Angels and Ellis provides a right-handed hitting option, plus hes open to a mentor role. Before learning of Carpenters position switch, Ellis hadnt thought the Cardinals would be a good fit. "Mark is a player we identified early-on as being an ideal fit for our team," general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. "His experience and steadiness, both in the field and at the plate, certainly enhances our overall roster makeup." Ellis has appeared in 22 post-season games and batted .240 in the NLCS last fall with a double, triple and stolen base. Ellis has hit 20 or more doubles nine of the past 10 years and is a career .276 hitter with a .348 on-base percentage against left-handed pitching. He was a ninth round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1999. Donte Jackson Jersey .Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been neck and neck all season, with 17 points separating the rivals and double points on offer for the race.Tensions between them have spilled over during the campaign and the pairs fragile relationship was evident during Thursdays pre-race news conference, when Rosberg goaded Hamilton by advising him to race cleanly. Greg Olsen Jersey . And while taking highly-touted Simon Fraser offensive lineman Matthias Goossen second overall on Tuesday night will definitely help in an area of need for the club, it was a swap of draft picks that may prove to be his most shrewd move. "When Jesse Briggs started to fall a little bit, you could just see Kyle perk up in his chair. http://www.officialcarolinapanthersfootball.com/authentic-vernon-butler-jersey-womens . "I honestly dont know," he said. Try this: 20 points, nine assists and seven rebounds by Rajon Rondo, a 62-37 rebounding advantage by the Celtics and a horrible 4-for-30 shooting performance on 3-pointers by the Nets. David Mayo Jersey . According to a release sent by the league, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were the only team to exceed the cap. Their total salary expenditure of $4,417,975 was $17,975 over the salary cap of $4. Daryl Williams Jersey . "Opinion: Womens World Cup is the best Soccer of the year," Hanks tweeted to his 8.73 million followers on Friday. "Hey FIFA, they deserve real grass. Put in sod.Celtic all-but wrapped up their fifth successive Scottish Premiership title with a resounding 3-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle. A composed finish from Colin Kazim-Richards gave the Hoops a half-time advantage, which was cancelled out by Abiola Dauda on 57 minutes, before Patrick Roberts and Leigh Griffiths secured the three points for the champions.The win left Celtic nine points clear of Aberdeen, who defeated Motherwell 4-1 later in the afternoon, but with the Hoops goal-difference of plus-55, it would take a seismic event for the Dons to snatch the title as they can only equal Celtics current points-tally by winning all their remaining three fixtures, while Ronny Deilas side would also have to lose all three of their matches by significant margins. Leigh Griffiths wrapped up a 3-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle Celtic were on the front foot from the start and had the ball in the net after 12 minutes when Roberts weaved his way into the box and tested Neil Alexander with a low drive which the goalkeeper could only parry, and Callum McGregor followed up to knock the ball over the line, only to be wrongly flagged offside.Two minutes later Nir Bitton threaded a pass to Roberts who again placed his shot to the keepers right from inside the box and was thwarted by Alexander, who then got up to tip the rebound from Griffiths over the bar. Reaction from both camps after Celtic all-but wrapped up their fifth succcessive Scottish Premiership title with a 3-1 victory over Hearts But Celtic made the breakthrough on 17 minutes with a move which started on the left side of the halfway line before the ball was worked to the right side of the Hearts box where Mlkael Lustig delivered a chip to the back post where Kazim-Richards controlled the ball on his chest and crashed his shot under Alexander from six yards.ddddddddddddGriffiths had a great chance to double the lead five minutes before the break when Prince Buabens shot was blocked by Bitton and the ball spun to the Celtic striker who raced forward from the halfway line and dispatched a shot from 20 yards which Alexander diverted wide with his legs. Callum McGregor had a goal wrongly disallowed at Tynecastle Hearts almost levelled the game three minutes after the break when Arnaud Djoum strode forward and hit a shot from 20 yards which deflected off Sviatchenko, and with the ball heading for the bottom left corner of Craig Gordons net the former Hearts stopper made a fingertip save.But Hearts continued to press and were rewarded when Dauda (57) collected the ball 10 yards inside the Celtic half before turning to drive through the visitors defence and send his low drive past Gordon from the edge of the box. Patrick Roberts restores Celtics lead in the 3-1 victory over Hearts Ten minutes later Lustig headed over the target from five yards with his back to goal after Sviatchenko flicked on a corner from Roberts as Celtic tried to regain the lead.And they did so 90 seconds later as Hearts dithered in defence with Alim Ozturk and Perry Kitchen playing poor passes before Roberts nicked the ball off John Souttar and showed terrific poise to slide his shot through the legs of the advancing Alexander.Celtic came close again when Kieran Tierney cut the ball back to Tom Rogic and he swept his first-time shot over the bar from 16 yards within a minute of appearing as a substitute.And Griffiths secured the victory five minutes from the end when he closed down a clearance from Soutter and then nutmegged the Hearts defender before beating Alexander at his near post with a low drive for his 30th league goal of the season. 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