The City Game - NYTimes.com Normally, if you have any opinion on who wins the English Premier League, it demonstrates your world view on sports, whether you have one or prefer not to cross borders set up by ESPN. But considering the way Manchester City won the Premier League title, even ESPN had to give a nod in its highlights, and you need not show your passport when opening a conversation today with: "Two goals in stoppage time to win the league? Did you see that? Holy cow. Manchester City fans stormed the field in celebration after the final whistle. For many, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience; City last won the league title in 1968. Because, yes, this kind of holy cow transcends sport, country or whether you knew Manchester had another team. It was a comeback for the ages, with the traditional power Manchester United by the side of a field 150 miles away waiting to accept the Premier League trophy as City trailed, 2-1, to the Queens Park Rangers at the end of regulation time. But those final, mystical minutes called stoppage time, or injury time, or extra time, turned into magical time as City scored two goals. Yes, for those who dislike soccer because they never seem to score any goals, that was two goals in a span of two minutes. As Martin Rogers writes on Yahoo.com, it was a finish for the ages, the dramatic end of Manchester City's 44-year title drought in the most surreal fashion, writes James Martin on ESPN.com. That Edin Dzeko of Bosnia and Sergio Agüero of Argentina scored the fateful goals and the celebration charge was led by an Italian mananger, Roberto Mancini, said a lot about how City has gone about combating the United dynasty. Of course, that's because City is actually owned by Abu Dhabi oil tycoons and spent a fortune assembling this team, but hey, when it's ManU on the other side of that divide, you get to be the underdogs nonetheless. As Daniel Taylor writes in The Guardian, this title had Mancini's stylish fingerprints all over it, while Ferguson was left to gracefully accept defeat. Perhaps City's overcoming its history provided the prologue to Sunday's history-squashing moment in the N.B.A., where the Clippers forgot they were the Clippers and beat Memphis in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series. It wasn't your garden-variety victory, accomplished with the Clippers" stars not particularly sparkling, writes Kevin Arnovitz on ESPN.com, but the Clippers proved tougher in the big moments, writes T. J. Simers of The Los Angeles Times, and no one was more surprised than he was. It also gave Coach Vinny Del Negro, usually a target of derision, a moment to shine, writes Adrian Wojnarowski on Yahoo.com. The Eastern Conference, meanwhile, went ahead with the business of the Heat marching through the playoffs. LeBron James's dominating performance in the Game 1 victory over the Pacers not only showed why he is the league's most valuable player this season, writes Chris Mannix on SI.com, but also why he drives people crazy by not doing this more consistently, writes Eric Adelson on Yahoo.com. The hockey playoffs quickly flipped a switch to the next round also, with Los Angeles taking Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against Phoenix. The Kings even managed to accomplish this despite previously the impenetrable goalie Jonathan Quick giving up a goal from another ZIP code, as they continue to forget they were a No. 8 seed. A big reason to forget they were a No. 8 seed is the play of their captain, Dustin Brown, who, Jay Hart writes on Yahoo.com, has led his team in every imaginable way. That distinction in baseball right now is going to Texas" Josh Hamilton, whose astoundingly hot bat finally broke Sunday and is now headed to the Hall of Fame. Hamilton said that piece of lumber hit eight of his nine home runs in his blazing six-day run. No wonder Scott Miller writes on CBSSports.com that the Rangers are separating themselves as the majors" best team. Other clubs that tried to buy their way into this stratosphere aren't doing nearly so well this season, writes Bob Nightengale in USA Today. In tennis, Roger Federer and Serena Williams separated themselves from the field by not giving in to the distractions that felled players like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open, writes Courtney Nguyen on SI.com, but doesn't explain why Will Smith showed up to give Federer a "Men in Black" suit but not Williams. Hey, Williams would be way more intimidating to aliens than Federer. For a day, though, all the species can sit back and appreciate what Manchester City accomplished, even the antisoccer kind.