Fans Give the A’s a Last Hurrah

By Art Spander

OAKLAND – It was over, but it wasn’t over. Not for the fans, so appreciative, so loud. The Detroit Tigers had won, and were celebrating out there on the A’s mound, on Oakland’s mound. But that didn’t shut down or shut up the fans.
  
“Let’s go Oakland. Let’s go Oakland.’’ The chant kept repeating. Kept reverberating.
   
“Let’s go Oakland.’’ Even though Oakland, the A’s, weren’t going anywhere except to the finish of a season that never will be forgotten.
  
“Let’s go Oakland. Let’s go Oakland.’’ And there went Oakland, there went the A’s, out of the home dugout and onto the field, a last hurrah, a last thank you, waving their hats as the crowd, stubborn, persistent, grateful, waved those yellow rally towels in response.
   
A difficult ending, the Tigers winning 6-0 Thursday in the deciding fifth game of the American League Division Series. Domination by one of the most dominating pitchers in the sport, Justin Verlander, who never gave the A’s a chance. A tough climax to a rewarding season.
   
But in a way a great climax for fans who understood, for fans who wanted to show they understood.
  
“It was great,’’ said Michael Crowley, the A’s president, plopped into a post-game chair in the clubhouse office of equipment chief Steve Vucinich. “And they were all fans of the A’s.’’
   
Absolutely. No traitors in Red Sox or Yankee shirts, who during the regular season turn O.co Coliseum into one of their temporary homes. No Giants partisans who cross the Bay Bridge for the interleague games.

They were all fans of the A’s, all loud, all hopeful, all disappointed, all empathetic.

“They wouldn’t have been doing that in New York or Boston,” said Evan Scribner, who pitched the eighth and ninth for the A’s. No, they wouldn’t have. Not a chance.
   
“These fans are amazing,’’ said Scribner.
   
The word has been overused the last month, an adjective reflecting the surprising run of the A’s as they overtook the Rangers to win the AL West, as they came back from two games down – and two runs down in the ninth on Wednesday – to get equal with the Tigers.
   
They were the miracle workers, the youngest, second-lowest-paid team in the majors, winning games only the faithful dared dream they would win, bringing life to a franchise too long moribund, owned by a man too long determined to move to San Jose.
  
But eventually the slipper becomes a pumpkin. Eventually the miracles run out and a team with a Triple Crown winner, Miguel Cabrera, a team with a Verlander, both an American League MVP and Cy Young winner, a team with a $122-million payroll, more than twice that of the A’s, proves its worth.
    
The longer a series goes, the longer a golf tournament goes, the longer a Super Bowl goes, the greater the odds the favorite will prevail. As in this playoff, which went one game too many for the A’s, Detroit prevailed.
  
How the A’s even got to the fifth game seems remarkable. They had a combined 50 strikeouts – 11 alone Thursday against Verlander – in the five games, an average of 10 a game.
  
They needed that spectacular ninth-inning rally to win Game Four.  
   
They were courageous. They were selfless. They just weren’t quite as good as the Tigers.
  
Oakland, the maligned city, where the police have problems, where the murder rate is high, the blue-collar town with the blue-collar team, the town from which the A’s, the Warriors and maybe even the Raiders want to move, needed this team. This team needed Oakland, needed the whole East Bay, and finally it got it.
   
Suddenly there was hope. Suddenly there was joy. The franchise that in March was supposed to lose 100 games in October got close to winning 100, got close to winning a first-round playoff. That it did not, that it lost, was not lost on the fans, who know the game, who know their team.
  
“We didn’t think it was going to end today,’’ said Bob Melvin, the Oakland manager. “Not for a second.” He’s as special as the club, a Bay Area guy who went to Cal, who used to watch events at the Coliseum.
  
As much as anyone, he grasped the significance of this season of unexpected triumph – and inevitable defeat.
  
“We knew we were going up against a good pitcher,’’ agreed Melvin. “That didn’t mean we didn’t think we were going to win. We’ve gone up against good pitchers this year.
 
“Our crowd was looking for just about anything, a walk, a three-ball count. They were looking for anything to pick us up and try and help us out. We really appreciate it. They stayed there and kind of gave us a curtain call. We really appreciate that. It truly was the 10th man for us.”
  
One man for Detroit was too much for 10 men from Oakland. But that didn’t still the chanting. “Let’s go Oakland. Let’s go Oakland.”

No End to A’s Magic – Or Season

By Art Spander

OAKLAND – Seth Smith said it was nothing but good baseball. It was that – is that – and more.

It’s legerdemain. It’s mystery. It’s triumph conjured up by the most unlikely group of young men this side of Cooperstown.

Most of all, it’s amazing.

There they were, the Oakland Athletics,  three outs from the end of the season. And they were, sprinting around the diamond in unrestrained joy, stunning winners of the game they could not lose, and somehow did not lose.
   
The Detroit Tigers, with their $132-million payroll, were two runs ahead and bringing in super closer Jose Valverde to wrap up the American League Division Series and also wrap up the A’s season. So the rest of us thought.

But not the way the A’s, the $55-million A’s, think.
 
“What it’s done,’’ said Bob Melvin, the magician of a manager about a multiplicity of comebacks, “is give us a sense that we’re never out of it until the last out.”
  
And Wednesday night, that last out never was recorded. Instead, the A’s got a single by Josh Reddick, a double by Josh Donaldson and a single by Smith to tie the game, 3-3, then almost as the sellout crowd of 36,385 sensed it was about to occur, a two-out game-winner by Coco Crisp that sent Smith home to beat the Tigers, 4-3.
  
So, the A’s, destiny’s darlings, after their 15th walkoff victory of a season that even viewed up close seems impossible, have come back from a two-to-none deficit to tie the series at two wins apiece and force a deciding fifth game Thursday night at O.co Coliseum.
  
It was Kirk Gibson in reverse, revenge for a long-ago disappointment, when Gibson came out of the Dodgers dugout in the opener of the 1988 World Series and hit a game-winning home run off the Athletics' then-relief ace, Dennis Eckersley.
  
Different circumstances this time, but a memory is effaced. And another created.
 
“I guess to say the Oakland magic,’’ Smith explained in a calmness belying the moment, “our mentality is just that. I don’t really know how to describe the magic word. But when you go out there and give it your all, more times than not, good results will happen.
  
“Yeah, at some point it’s got to be just good baseball. There’s no magic recipe or anything like that. We go out there, and we play carefree and get the job done.”
   
If in the most dramatic and unsuspecting of ways. The A’s basically couldn’t do anything against numerous Tigers pitchers other than strike out 11 times in eight innings. And Valverde was the guy who was going to finish it off. Except he couldn’t.
  
On Tuesday night, Crisp stole a home run from Prince Fielder, his glove two feet above the fence. On Wednesday night, he helped steal a game, lining a Valverde pitch to right as Smith raced home and everyone else on the A’s raced to swallow Smith in a circle of bodies. This walkoff celebration took place at first, not at home.
   
Moments later, there was Crisp with a face full of whipped cream, the obligatory reward for walkoff heroism, and after that a back and head full of Gatorade, the drink having been dumped on him.
  
“He hits closers,” said Melvin of  Crisp, “and he hits good pitching. He always puts up a great at-bat. We don’t need a homer right there. All we need is a hit. I don’t think there’s anybody we feel better about.”
  
In the postgame interview room, Smith and Crisp sat side-by-side in front of two microphones, and when someone mentioned Melvin’s comment about relying on Crisp, Smith showed mock displeasure.
 
“I don’t know if I should be offended by that or not,” was Smith’s first response. Then he continued, “No, he comes through every time. Or it seems like it in the clutch.”
  
His face wiped clean but his undershirt still damp, Crisp, asked about his performance, fell back on the word now linked to the A’s of 2012, “Amazing.”
   
“Yeah,” Crisp said, “the guys in front of me obviously did a fantastic job of getting on base. Redd (Reddick, obtained from the Red Sox over the winter) came up huge.”
   
He had come to the plate 1-for-13 in the series, with eight strikeouts. “We try to keep his head in the game,” Crisp said. “He’s been battling the whole series. Balls haven’t been falling for him. J.D. (Donaldson) obviously got a bit hit. Smitty's huge hit gave me the opportunity to come up there and do something magical.”
   
Crisp did just that, but as he reminded, he wasn’t alone. He had hits from teammates, great pitching from teammates and, we must admit, a boost from fate.
  
“There’s a confidence,” Melvin insisted. “We’ve done it so many times.”
   
But only one time, this time, when they were three outs from the end of the season.

Newsday (N.Y.): 49ers' Kyle Williams wants to atone for fumbles against Giants

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The words from the 49ers' Kyle Williams had a touch of irony. He was talking about Sunday's game against the Giants at Candlestick Park by referencing the teams' NFC Championship Game there last January.

The game in which Williams had two crucial turnovers that helped the Giants win, 20-17, in overtime.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

For A's, One Game Changes Everything

By Art Spander

OAKLAND – And so they’re back. Back in Oakland, back in the series. It could have been over for the Athletics, but somehow, you knew it wouldn’t be. The season that couldn’t be still is.
  
Because of the way Brett Anderson pitched. Because of the way Coco Crisp soared. Because of the way 37,090 fans screamed, shouted and reminded everyone how loud it can get in the once-silent Oakland Mausoleum.
  
A shutout for Anderson and the relievers, 2-0, over Detroit on Tuesday night. And as we’ve been taught, when the other team doesn’t score, you can’t lose. So after dropping the first two games of this best-of-five American League Division Series, after dropping six straight in the postseason to the Tigers, the A’s didn’t lose.

A remarkable catch by Crisp, who leaped high enough to reach over the centerfield fence some 400 feet from home plate to grab Prince Fielder’s apparent home run.
  
A rebirth by the A’s, who were one defeat from elimination and now, with a certain game Wednesday night and a possible fifth game Thursday, are a mere two games from moving on.
   
That’s the joy of baseball. One game changes everything. Back in Cincinnati, the Giants, awful at home, got one from the Reds, 2-1. Then a few hours later, the A’s followed suit. Gloom by the bay became glee by the bay.

“Well, they pitched and they played a perfect game,’’ said Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager, of the A’s. “Nothing you could do about it. (Anderson) had a good curveball and a very good breaking ball. I think Coco gave them a lot of momentum when he took the home run away . . . I think Coco’s catch really got them into it.”
   
A catch Anderson enjoyed immensely. “It was fun,’’ said the pitcher. “Not to give it up, but to watch it.”
   
Watching is what Anderson had done the past 20 days or so, since incurring a right oblique strain. Who knew what he might do when finally returning to the mound? Well, A’s manager Bob Melvin, a former catcher who had monitored Anderson during bullpen sessions, thought he knew. So did Anderson.
   
“We felt confident that he was simulating (games) enough to go out there and pitch accordingly in a game,’’ said Melvin. “I don’t know how you could expect more than we got out of him tonight.’’
  
What they got was six innings, 80 closely viewed pitches and, after he was about to be relieved having allowed only two hits and struck out six, an argument to be allowed to continue. Which Anderson lost.
  
“He wasn’t aware there was a pitch count,” said Melvin of Anderson. What most A’s fans were aware of is the fact that Anderson had Tommy John elbow surgery and missed 2011. The A’s were taking no extra chances.
 
“Earlier in the game,’’ Melvin agreed, “I don’t think he felt as good as he did later in the game. But 19, 20 days off, we weren’t looking for any more than that.”
 
Indeed, what they were looking for was the victory, and through a combination of fine defense – Yoenis Cespedes made a diving catch in the seventh almost the equal to Crisp’s grab in the second – and just enough offense, a run-scoring single by Cespedes in the first and a home run by Seth Smith in the fifth.
  
Through the three games of the series, the A’s have a cumulative batting average below the infamous Mendoza Line, .198, but they survive.
  
“The first inning was great,” said Melvin, “to be able to score a run and get the fans involved and get some excitement out there.”
   
Oakland doesn’t have a ballpark as impressive as San Francisco's, but it has hardcore fans. When they turn up, as they do in the playoffs, the noise is deafening. Imagine what it might be if those in charge took off the tarps that restrict stadium capacity to under 38,000.
  
“The atmosphere in Detroit,’’ said Leyland, “atmosphere in Oakland. If you look around all the teams have great atmospheres this time of year. (The A’s) played a perfect game. You tip your hat to them.”
  
The question is whether the A’s tipped the balance. So hot after sweeping Texas to win AL West, Oakland was ineffective in Detroit’s Comerica Park. Did the Anderson performance and the victory shift Old Mo, momentum?

“What (Tuesday night does) is gets us to tomorrow,” said Melvin. “We’ll go at in the same fashion as he did tonight. And we’ll go from there.”

They can’t do much else. Then again, the way Anderson pitched and Crisp stole a homer – “I thought I had a hit,’’ sighed Fielder – they didn’t have to do much else.

The season goes on.

A telling loss for the Giants

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO -- One game, but a telling game. A game when the Cincinnati Reds took Matt Cain’s mistakes over the fence. A game when seemingly every time there was a line drive by one of the Giants it was right at someone.

A game when there was a sense of “Dustiny.”

Remember that word? It was coined by a Giants fan back in 2002 when Dusty Baker was the team’s manager and, until the sixth game of the World Series that year, fate was on their side.

Now Dusty is on the other side, managing the Reds, and so is good fortune.

Cincy didn’t win the opener of the National League Division Series, 5-2, Saturday night at AT&T Park because it was lucky. 

The Reds hit two homers off of Cain, who did not give up a run in any postseason game two years ago. The Reds had excellent pitching, especially when starter Johnny Cueto left after one batter because of a back injury. And, yes, the Reds had the breaks.

Cain drove a liner with the bases loaded in the second, but it was caught. Brandon Belt smashed a none-out ball with Hunter Pence on first – and Joey Votto leaped and turned it into a double play. Belt hit one to left in the sixth and Ryan Ludwick made a stumbling catch.

“Our guys never stopped going after the ball,’’ said Cain. “You can’t fault them.’’

Not at all. But this is baseball, and there are no style points. The oldest adage is “hit ’em where they ain’t.’’ The Giants hit ’em where they were.

And Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce hit them into the seats for the Reds, who now need only two more victories in this best-of-five playoff to move to the League Championship Series.

“This is one game,’’ said Bruce Bochy, the Giants manager, stubbornly fighting any feeling of despair, a feeling that except for rare moments – a home run by Buster Posey, a couple of wild pitches in the bottom of the ninth – seemed to affect the sellout crowd of 43,492.

“We have a lot of baseball left,’’ Bochy tacked on.

Giants fans can only hope. For certain, they have Sunday night’s game by the Bay – perhaps the last home game of the season – and Tuesday night’s at Cincinnati. Nothing else is certain.

Especially after Cain, the guy who threw the perfect game back in June, the guy who started for the National League in the All-Star Game, gave up the shot to Phillips leading off the second. The disbelief was nearly palpable. So was the disappointment.

“He wasn’t as sharp as he normally is out there,’’ Bochy said of Cain. “He left a couple of off-speed pitches out there. He was missing spots a little bit.’’

Something the Giants, so dependent on pitching, couldn’t afford. Not when they were getting shut out until Posey homered in the sixth. That jolted the crowd out of its misery and torpor.

If you don’t count sing-alongs to the Bee Gees – the Bee Gees, for heaven’s sake – Journey and Cab Calloway, the people in the seats did little other than merely occupy them. Maybe the Blue Angels’ flyovers earlier in the day were too much.

Clearly the Reds were too much for the Giants, although Bochy kept offering the could-have, should-have explanations.

“We hit balls hard,’’ said Bochy. That they did, with little result. “I felt we had better at bats than what it looked like. We had a tough night with balls. We didn’t have a lot of things going for us.’’

What they had was 11 men left on base, and that can be credited to Reds pitchers – six different ones, including Cueto who had only eight throws to home plate before hobbling off – as well as the Giants’ inability. San Francisco was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

“We nearly had the tying run on in the ninth,’’ said Bochy. True, but nearly doesn’t mean much. “I’m proud of the guys. We found a way to battle back, and we had two pinch hitters up there, and they got some good swings off. But we came up short.”

In the inning before that, with runners on first and second and two out, Gregor Blanco, playing in his first postseason game and having reached base three times, didn’t get a swing off. He watched a Jonathan Broxton pitch for strike three.

“It looked like a borderline pitch, and they got the call,’’ said Bochy. “Blanco thought it was outside, and it’s a tough break. Sometimes you have a great pitch thrown, and you can’t do anything with it.

“This is one game, and you hate to lose the opener, but these guys have been resilient all year, and it’s time for us to wash this off and be ready to be back at it (Sunday).’’

Nothing else they can do.

Improbable Weather, Improbable A’s

By Art Spander

OAKLAND -- It was 87 degrees at the first pitch. On October 2. In Oakland. If that makes sense, then why shouldn’t the A’s? “Nobody saw this coming,’’ both Tim Kurkjian and Terry Francona said on ESPN Tuesday morning about the miracle.

What they and everyone else saw Tuesday evening were the Oakland Athletics tied for first place in the American League West with Texas, and one last game, the biggest game of arguably the most improbable season, a few hours away.

“The fact that we won (Monday),’’ said Bob Melvin, the homegrown A’s manager, “we were in better position (Tuesday). Now both teams have to go out and see what they can do.’’

The story is what the A’s already have done. After the 3-1 win over the Rangers, after 30,660 spectators shouted and screamed, after the drummers out in the bleachers had finished, Oakland was locked with the Rangers at the top of the division.

In three months, they had gained 13 games on Texas. In three months, they had destroyed the theory that in baseball, like in wine and cars, you get what you pay for.

Because compared to other franchises, the people who run the A’s – owner Lew Wolff and GM Billy Beane (and can you imagine his inner smile?) – paid almost nothing for the players on the roster and, no matter what happens Wednesday, have received everything.

“We’ve had a nice run,’’ said Melvin, in the understatement of the year. BoMel, as he is known, wants to stay as low-key as imaginable for the express purpose of keeping his young athletes just as low-key.

If, after the sparkling wine spritzing on Monday night when the A’s clinched at least a wild card place, if after a celebration that back in March – hell, back in May when Oakland lost nine in a row – seemed as unlikely as 87-degree night in October.

Night baseball by the bay is supposed to be cold, and in Oakland this season it was supposed to be bad. “People said the A’s might lose 100 games,’’ said Ray Fosse, their former catcher and current TV analyst.

The question in spring was whether the Angels, who spent $240 million for Albert Pujols and another $77 million for pitcher C.J. Wilson, could overtake the Rangers, the 2011 and 2010 American League champions. But it was the A’s who caught the Angels, after going 56-26 since June 30 -- which was a day Oakland lost to Texas -- while the Rangers went 43-39.

On Monday night, Melvin found it difficult to speak, overtaken by emotion, doused in bubbly, and thinking about the past.

Melvin will be 51 in another month. He grew up on the Peninsula, went to Menlo-Atherton High, then played at Cal, then after a bit with the Detroit Tigers came for a while to the Giants. You can’t get more local than that. Or more connected to the region.

“What I was thinking of,’’ Melvin explained later, “was the times I had been to the Coliseum, the rock concerts – The Who – the postseason games the A’s played in the early 70s when I was a kid. It all was coming back."

Lew Wolff, the A’s owner, the man who desperately is trying to move the team to San Jose some 30 miles down the freeway, has been a despised figure in Oakland. But suddenly, the image has changed, as that of his ball club.

Wolff properly was part of the Monday jubilation, and he said to a television camera, wonderfully candid, “I didn’t think we’d be here.’’ He meant in the playoffs. Maybe he also meant in Oakland.

That war between Wolff and the cross-bay San Francisco Giants, who won’t relinquish their territorial rights on San Jose to the A’s, is at a temporary truce. The battles will be on the diamonds, the Giants and A’s both in the postseason in what most be the giddiest time in years for Bay Area baseball lovers.

The Giants’ success was expected. Needless to add, the A’s was not. Tuesday night, they got the victory using four pitchers, two of whom, starter Travis Blackley and closer Grant Balfour, are Australian. But why not? Baseball has been called the national pastime, but the nation was never specified.

Blackley, picked up from the Giants off waivers in May, went two innings against the Yankees and one inning against the Rangers in his previous two games. Tuesday night, he pitched six innings, allowing three hits and a run. Balfour came in for the ninth and in order retired Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz, the heart of the order.

That’s a baseball term. The order for the A’s is one with plenty of heart.

“We got better as the year went along,’’ said Melvin. Nobody saw it coming.

Global Golf Post: Second To None

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS — It was a song by Sinatra. Our kind of town, Chicago was. A poem by Sandburg. The City of Big Shoulders indeed.

Chicago, specifically the suburb of Medinah, got its hands and its passion on the 39th Ryder Cup and turned it into a huge, noisy, joyful carnival of sport.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

Newsday (N.Y.): Jets should keep in mind: Niners QB Alex Smith is a survivor

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

The man has taken a beating, physically and mentally. Since the beginning of last season, 49ers quarterback Alex Smith has been sacked 54 times, the most in the NFL. Since the beginning of his career -- he was the first player picked in the 2005 draft -- he's been booed, criticized and briefly set free.

"But he's got a lot of fight in him," said Alex Boone, who as right guard has the responsibility of protecting Smith. "I love that about him."

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Despite low budget, A's battling for wild card

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Athletics' tough and important 10-game trip took a positive turn Thursday after a much-needed 12-4 win over the Tigers in Detroit that averted a three-game sweep.

The next stop for the surprising A's is the Bronx Friday night for the start of a three-game series against the Yankees. Then it's on  to Texas to play the American League West-leading Rangers.

Seth Smith homered, doubled and drove in four runs yesterday. The trip did not get off to a good start for Oakland. Lefthander Brett Anderson went down Wednesday with a right oblique strain in the third inning of a 6-2 defeat. Manager Bob Melvin said Anderson will miss the rest of the regular season and that he doesn't know if he would be available for the playoffs -- if the A's get there.

That added to the recent woes of the starting rotation. Brandon McCarthy suffered a fractured skull when he was hit by a line drive Sept. 5. Now Anderson.

But the A's and Orioles, another unforeseen success, are still the leaders in the wild- card race with records of 85-64. Both have small payrolls and great hopes.

The odds in March on the A's reaching the World Series were as high as 200-1. They had traded their only three All-Stars, all pitchers -- Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Andrew  Bailey -- over the winter. "Hard to let guys like that go," Melvin said.

But the guys they got in return, supposedly players who would not help Oakland until 2013 or 2014 -- if they weren't traded -- and the young players  already on the roster developed quickly.

Tommy Milone came from Washington with several  others in exchange for Gonzalez. He's 13-10, the winningest rookie pitcher for  the A's in the 45 seasons they have been in Oakland.

A 26-year-old Cuban, Yoenis Cespedes, signed in February for $36 million for four years, seemingly an outrageous sum for a team with the second-lowest payroll in the majors. It appears to have been money well spent, because Cespedes is batting .293 and is second to Angels phenom Mike Trout among AL rookies  in runs (59), hits (122), doubles (22), homers (19) and RBIs (73).

"I think everybody's outdone what the baseball world's expectations would be," said Melvin, who took control of the A's in June 2011 and is having a ball. Melvin, 50, grew up across the Bay in Menlo Park and played at Cal in Berkeley, a few miles north of the O.Co Coliseum. He went to games and rock concerts at the stadium. He played for the Giants, among other teams, and  managed for Seattle and Arizona.

He says this is special.

"The pride factor of being at home, managing a team you grew up watching," Melvin said, "I don't think you can put a price on that. On top of that, the younger players have made it exciting."

Among them is lefthanded reliever Sean Doolittle, almost 26, who although a pitching star at the University of Virginia was a first-round pick in 2007 by Oakland as a first baseman. After he suffered a knee injury, the A's switched him back to pitcher, where his professional debut came only last fall in the Instructional League.

On July 21 Doolittle (1-0, 3.35 ERA) came in to pitch the ninth against the Yankees. He gave up a hit to Alex Rodriguez, then struck out Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira and Andruw Jones to save a 2-1 win in Oakland.

"How would you expect a guy like Doolittle to come up and do what he's done?" Melvin asked rhetorically.

Pitching has been the key for Oakland, even with the loss of Bartolo Colon, suspended for 50 games in late August for testing positive for testosterone. The A's ERA is 3.50, second to Tampa in the AL. That's a good thing because the A's batting average is .236. Only Seattle is worse.

The A's were 26-35 after games of June 10. Then they had the best July in the majors, 19-5.

"We do have good pitching," Melvin said, "whether starters or the bullpen, and that's been the most consistent part of our team over the course of the season."

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/despite-low-budget-a-s-battling-for-wild-card-1.4023425

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Giants are heads, and hats, above the rest of the West

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO – Hats off. No, hats on. Alex Smith of the 49ers wearing one from the Giants, a dastardly, fineable act according to the uniform police of the NFL. And, in response, Bruce Bochy sitting pre-game in the Giants’ dugout topped by a 49er hat.

Tit for tat. Or, literally, hat for hat.

"Our way of saying thanks,’’ Bochy would point out. “And we’re 1-0 with that hat.’’

The Giants were sending a message. Specifically, two messages: One, we’ve got your back, 49ers. (Or should that be we’ve got your hat?) And two, we’ve almost got the division, Dodgers.

It’s over, the National League West race, even though technically it’s not, and so even if the Giants absolutely couldn’t blow it, they’re saying all the right things about not easing up.

More significantly, they’re doing all the right things to prove they’re not easing up. Instead, they’re revving up.   

They clubbed the Colorado Rockies, 9-2, Thursday afternoon at AT&T Park, a sweep of the four-game series, an eighth win in the last nine games.

These are party days at the ballpark, from the pre-game organ solos – just like in the 1950s – to Pablo Sandoval rediscovering the home run to the seventh-inning Beatles’ recording of “Twist and Shout,’’ one of the great rock songs anywhere, anytime.

"Every single day, 41,000 people excited for us,’’ said Sandoval a short while after the one single day in his career in which he hit home runs both righthanded (in the first with no one on) and lefthanded (in the fourth with two on).

"We play hard for them.”

They’re playing hard and well and entertainingly. The unassailable idea that sport is intended to be tumultuous merriment is carried to the max every game at AT&T, where there’s laughter in the dugout and rejoicing in the stands.

At the so-called old man’s game, the crowds are young and joyful, singing, dancing, cheering.

"We are happy, not satisfied,’’ said Sandoval, the Panda. Until Wednesday, he hadn’t hit a home run in weeks, 161 at bats going back to July. Now he’s hit three in two games.

"We are loose and having fun.’’  He stopped momentarily. “But it’s not over yet.’’

Yes it is. Before the Dodgers played the Nationals, Thursday night, the Giants’ magic number was four, meaning any combo of four Giants wins and Dodgers losses would make San Francisco champions of the West. You think that’s not going to happen?

Bochy, managing his hat off – or on – was asked if he would watch the Dodgers-Nats game.

"No,’’ he answered. “I’m probably going to have dinner, to be honest with you.’’

There’s a man with perspective. A man with intelligence, not that we weren’t previously aware. A night off in the City by the Bay — why waste it watching a ball game?

He’d already been involved in a rewarding one.

Already had seen Barry Zito pitch well enough often enough to get the victory and, when he was removed in the sixth – “He hates it when I come out there,’’ said Bochy -- to get a standing ovation.

Had seen Marco Scutaro, the pickup of the year, at age 36 set a career season mark with his 175th hit (he added another) and raise his batting average to .301.

Had seen the Giants bat around and score six runs in the fourth, when Sandoval and Buster Posey hit back-to-back home runs and Zito had a fine sacrifice bunt that drew an appreciative cheer from a turnout as into the nuances of baseball as it was the taste of the garlic fries.

"The mood, tempo and spirit of the club are very good,’’ said Bochy. “That’s the way it’s been for a couple months. We did a great job on the road. Now we’re playing well here. This club has a lot of character. We’re having fun, keeping it loose.’’

Why be uptight when Matt Cain is zooming along, when Tim Lincecum appears to finding his immediate past, when Buster Posey, the presumptive MVP, is batting .335, when the Panda has found his stroke, when Barry Zito, the man the public despised, has a 13-8 record and receives standing o’s?

"The crowd and that enthusiasm,’’ Bochy said. “The adrenaline. We run on it. These guys feed off that. They’re (the fans) as happy for our success as we are.”

You need to win in sports, and the Giants the past few years have been winning. But there’s more. There’s the realization by management that people want to have a good time, and in the majors’ best ballpark, they must. Or there wouldn’t have been 159 consecutive announced sellouts.

You have to tip your hat to them, no matter if it says 49ers or Giants.

Serena's Just Here – And in the Final

By Art Spander

NEW YORK — She's just here. Serena Williams said that about herself. Said it before she destroyed bewildered Sara Errani in their U.S. Open semifinal.

Serena wasn’t considering the other three times she had crushed Errani. Or how well she had played during the Open before the Friday semi.

"I don’t even think about that. I don’t know," was her noncommittal response. "I’m just here."

In truth she’s there, about as far away from the rest of women’s tennis as is possible.

In truth, as John McEnroe and so many others have told us, Serena probably is the best women’s player of all time, and never mind the records. We don’t got to show you no stinking records, we just have to show you Serena on court.

Where she’ll be again Saturday evening, attempting to win a fourth Open when she faces Victoria (Vika) Azarenka in the final. Azarenka, first in the rankings, first in the seeding, defeated Maria Sharapova, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. 

Errani ain’t bad. In fact, she’s quite good. Earlier this year she made it to the finals of the French Open, losing to Maria Sharapova. But Saturday in the late afternoon sunshine at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Errani, the first Italian to get to the semis of the U.S. Open, was swept away, 6-1, 6-2.

In 1 hour and 4 minutes. An entire match between the No. 4 seed, Williams, and the No. 10 seed, Errani, in just over an hour.

Thursday night, in a men’s quarter, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin took 1 hour 24 minutes just to play the second set. That was tennis. This was an embarrassment.

This was Serena Williams imposing her will.

"I just try everything I could,’’ said Errani. “I think maybe she’s the best. For me, I think she is incredible. When she play like this, I think she is the best player in the world.’’

When someone employed an American phrase and asked the 25-year-old Errani if she were "out of your league," she shook her head and sighed, "I don’t understand nothing. Sorry."

When an explanation was provided, Errani said, "Big difference. She played a good match. She’s a great player."

A player who has won 14 Grand Slam titles, including in July, Wimbledon, where she beat Agnieszka Radwanska. A few weeks later, she took gold in the Olympic women’s singles. Now she’s on the verge of a triple.

"I think it will probably be the best summer I've ever had,’’ said Williams.

"Let me think," said with a hint of a smile. “Maybe not. It will be up there. Yeah, up there, because if you win the Olympics and Wimbledon and this, it would be kinda cool."

If she doesn’t win this, it would be kind of strange. Although Azarenka is No. 1, and is a stronger player than poor Errani, Vika has only defeated Serena once in 10 matches, or should that be 10 mismatches?   

"I don't have anything to lose," said Williams, trying to act the underdog. "I feel like I'm going up against ‑‑ I personally think ‑‑ the most consistent and the best player this year, being Victoria Azarenka. It will be a good challenge for me."

Then someone fired a question at her the way she fired those relentless serves at Errani: How can Serena not think she’s the best player in the world at the moment?

"I said this year," Williams answered. "I always believe that I'm the best obviously. I mean, on paper I think she's been more consistent, going much deeper in the slams than I have and being pretty consistent."

A year ago, Serena made it to the finals, had a meltdown and was a loser to Samantha Stosur. There won’t be a repeat. In 2011, because of the rain, Williams’ semifinal went late into the night and she didn’t get to bed until 4 a.m. on the Saturday she would face Stosur.   

"This year, I know it sounds weird," offered Williams, "but I have more experience than I did last year."

When she was still recovering from a slashed foot, a blood clot in her lung and a hematoma. In 2012, she’s been healthy. And battering opponents, who look like girls against an Amazon of a woman.

"My goal," said Williams, only half joking, "was to not get in any fights, But something happens, then, I try to count to 10. Hopefully I can make it."

Against Stosur, Serena screamed at the chair umpire and was issued a code violation. It was in 2009 when Williams spouted obscenities and threatened smash her racquet over the head of a lineswoman who had the gall to call a foot fault on Williams.

There’s been no reason to go ballistic in this Open, not when she wins, 6-0, 6-0, the infamous double bagel, over Andrea Hlavackova in the fourth round, 6-0, 6-4 over former Wimbledon winner Ana Ivanovic in the quarters and takes the first five games and 12 of 15 overall against Errani.

"She’s such a good hope for Italy," said Williams of Errani. "She’s s such a good fighter."

Unfortunately, she was on the same court as Serena Williams, who is just here.

Tears and cheers for Roddick's last match

By Art Spander

NEW YORK -- The end had arrived, and Andy Roddick, tears in his eyes, love in his heart, was blowing kisses to a cheering, standing crowd whose desperate cries of support couldn't hold off inevitability any more than Roddick on this fateful afternoon could hold off Juan Martin del Potro.

In the seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Roddick's wife, the model Brooklyn Decker, was weeping openly on the shoulder of Roddick's longtime trainer, Doug Spreen. To the side of the court, Del Potro was clapping on the strings of his racquet.

Emotion was mixing with history.

A match that had started Tuesday night before the rain swept across the Billie Jean King Tennis Center concluded on a sunny but grim afternoon when Del Potro, younger, quicker, beat Roddick, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

Last Thursday on his 30th birthday, Roddick, who won the Open in 2003, announced when he was out of the tournament this time, he was out of competitive tennis.  

He was retiring, conceding as much to injuries as age. He made it through three previous matches. But not through this one.

And as the forehands flew past and the deficit grew larger, Roddick began to think what the rest of us were thinking about, that this 55^th match in the Open would be his very last anywhere.

That his journey as a tennis pro was moments from the finish line.

"Playing the last five games was pretty hard," agreed Roddick. "Once I got down a break, I could barely look at my box."

At his bride. At Spreen. At Larry Stefanki, his coach, the onetime Cal star. Or at his parents, Jim and Blanche, whose presence called down echoes of when Andy and his brothers were kids and being shuttled from tournament to tournament by their mom.

"This was all new to me," said Roddick later. "You try to keep it as best you can. I had seen most things that this game had to offer, and this was entirely new . . .  It was fun. This week I felt like I was 12 years old and playing in a park. It was extremely innocent."

It was extremely revealing. Roddick said a week ago he could no longer practice as he must and play as he wanted. "I never wanted to coast," was his reminder. And he never did, not even in this grand finale.

The last point was a shot wide by Roddick, who walked bravely to the net where Del Potro, who will be 24 in a few days, embraced him in a brief goodbye.

"It was a tough moment for me," said Del Potro. "And for him also. Last point of his life."

Del Potro, the Argentine, won the title here in 2009 then had to undergo surgery on his right wrist, knocking him out of the sport for a while. In his next match, the quarterfinals, Del Potro faces the defending Open champion, Novak Djokovic.

"The crowd was amazing for both players," emphasized Del Potro. "I really enjoyed it that way, but it wasn't easy for me. I was nervous, but he made some misses. But anyway, it was an unbelievable match."

For Roddick, once No. 1 in the rankings, in 2003, before Roger Federer, before the injuries, before the tough defeats, it was a satisfying match, a match that he understood would be played over the years in his head.

Since the departures of first Pete Sampras and then Andre Agassi, Roddick was ordained to carry the torch for American men's tennis. It was the most difficult assignment imaginable. And ironically, he was the last American man in this Open.

"I would rather not have it that way," he said about his status this year, if not over the years. "I would have loved for a lot more of us to have still been in.

"But I never shied from the burden. It just is what it is. I understand we come from a place, which probably had more success than any other tennis country, where there are certain expectations. I feel right back at the end of the generation, so that was the way the cards were dealt. But as tough a situation as it is, in the grand scheme of things it's a dream. It’s something you want. That’s not hard.’’

Perspective. That's a word hurled around a bit in the world of sport. Roddick always had it. Why grumble about a life millions of others would relish? There's nothing worse than to hear an athlete griping about late hours and cross-country trips and signing autographs.

"I hear people who have some success," Roddick pointed out, "and complain about it sometimes. I don't get it. For every one negative, there are 10 positives. I don't think that's ever not been the case."

Roddick will go home to Austin, Texas, will help run his foundation and will pick up a racquet if only to recall the good times and great player he once was.

"There were a lot of tough moments but unbelievable moments. I mean, who gets to play in the Wimbledon finals, and who gets to play in an Open, and who gets to be part of a winning (Davis Cup) team? I said it a million times, but I realize the opportunities I had."

The opportunity we had, for more than a decade, and particularly Thursday, was to watch Andy Roddick play the sort of tennis that makes a nation proud.

Roddick can't beat the rain

By Art Spander

NEW YORK -- What a great headline: "ROBINSON CANNOT." It was in the Post, an allusion to the Yankees' Robinson Cano, who didn't dive for a ground ball out of his reach. That was Monday. On Tuesday, it was A-Rod who could not, the other A-Rod now in this town, Andy Roddick.

Somehow, some way, it always rains here around Labor Day, during the U.S. Open tennis championships. One year it's a storm from off the coast. Another year it's the remnants of a hurricane. If you can slog it here, you can slog it anywhere.

Unless you're playing tennis, outdoors, which is what Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro did for a while, as Roddick, in his farewell, battled into the second week and the fourth round. ESPN was all over the match,  Chris Fowler, John McEnroe, the Bay Area's Brad Gilbert.

Would it be the last hurrah for the 30-year-old Roddick, Open champion in 2003, who stunningly announced on his birthday, last Thursday, that when he's out of this tournament he's out of competitive tennis? Or would Roddick continue the 130-mph serves and the drama going into the fifth round?

Neither, it turned out. An hour into the Tuesday night match, which started late, play was suspended by rain, with the match at 6-6 in the first set and Roddick ahead, 1-0, in the tiebreak.

The plan was to restart Wednesday, but thunderstorms are forecast. In the previous four years, the Open has finished on a Monday, a probability this time. When Roddick will finish is anybody's guess. He's not supposed to get past Del Potro, the No. 7 seed – Roddick, once the world's No. 1, is seeded No. 20. And should Andy defy logic, almost surely the great Novak Djokovic would be his next opponent.

But Roddick is enjoying these moments. He knows the end is near, and he is at peace with the player and the person he has become.

In this town, he's the other A-Rod, along with the Yanks' Alex Rodriguez, and that puts him in an esteemed class. The Post, the Daily News and Newsday are tabloids, the few, the proud, with sports headlines on the back page no less powerful or meaningful than those news headlines on the front page.

There’s an intensity fueled by those headlines. Every day, all 365 of them, there has to be a subject to get the fans excited, even when in truth there's nothing. The Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow issue is the stuff of dreams for the tabs. The other day in the Post, Sanchez was on the back cover and, because he apparently is dating Eva Longoria, additionally on the front. Hey, it was a holiday weekend and killings and political corruption just weren't that important.

Rodriguez, coming back to the Yankees after rehab – he had not played with New York since breaking his hand on July 24 – took the Post back cover. "IT'S UP TO A-ROD," according to the headline.

In a way, at the U.S. Open across the East River, that was also the situation. If it were not for Roddick and the awesome Serena Williams, who Monday beat the Czech brewer's daughter, Andrea Hlavackova, 6-0, 6-0 – the double-bagel as it's known – American tennis would be absent from the American Open.

Roddick, certainly, is as much a curiosity as a personality. How long can he last? Even Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who previous to Andy announced this would be her last competitive event, was in a prime seat at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where early most of the seats in the 23,000-capacity arena – prime or not – were empty.

The weather had been bad throughout the day. Maria Sharapova and Marion Bartoli only made it through four games (all of them won by Bartoli) before that match was postponed. So spectators properly were hesitant to show up, arriving late as they do for dinner in Manhattan.

The crowd was decidedly pro-Roddick, understandably when he was a homeboy against the Argentine Del Potro, and when Andy broke serve in the sixth game to lead 4-2, the biased cheers were apparent.

So was the oppressive weather, 77 degrees with 86 percent humidity, a dampness that had Del Potro – the 2009 champion – grumbling to the umpire, contending the court was slippery and then grabbing a towel to wipe the lines for emphasis.

Del Potro broke back, and so they were in a tiebreaker, but not for long as the rain returned. One point, to Roddick, and that was it.

Top-seed Roger Federer, who on Monday reached his 34th consecutive quarterfinal in a Grand Slam tournament, said of Roddick: "I’m thankful for everything he's done for the game, especially here for tennis in America.

"It's not been easy after Agassi and Sampras, Courier, Chang, Connors, McEnroe, you name it."

It hasn't been easy, but what is easy in New York, a town where Cano cannot but both A-Rods still are trying to show they can.

No End to Andy Roddick’s September Song

By Art Spander

NEW YORK -- Andy Roddick’s September song remains a melody without end. The days grow short, but at the 2012 U.S. Open, his last tennis tournament of a huge career, autumn remains somewhere beyond the backcourt line.

Roddick held off his announced retirement one more match on a humid Sunday at Flushing Meadow, playing to a crowd he said was as loud as he could remember and also playing to his own sense of purpose.

After his three-hour, 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, third-round victory over Italy’s Fabio Fognini, Roddick appeared almost as surprised as he was satisfied.

"I don’t have a lot of questions of how, why or when," Roddick told the packed house of more than 21,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. "I’m just trying to play point to point, keep my emotions together and appreciate this tournament."

The appreciation comes from the fans.

For a decade, Roddick, who turned 30 on Thursday, has been the male face of American tennis, outspoken, occasionally outrageous and always in touch.

After Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, there was Roddick, with the Open title in 2003, and appearances in four other finals, one at the Open, three at Wimbledon. There was Roddick in commercials. There was Roddick on the Davis Cup team.

So, when, stunningly, Roddick, beset by injuries, called a press conference on his birthday to say this tournament would be his last competition, the news was emotional, maybe as much for those who follow American tennis as much as it was for Roddick.

Each match could be his final match. In classic Roddick style, he’s keeping us in suspense by keeping himself in the Open. Maybe not much longer. His next opponent, Tuesday night, is Juan Martin del Potro, the number 7 seed and the 2009 champion. Still, sport has a way of defying logic.

"I’m normally good about putting my thoughts (forward), able to articulate," he said. "But this whole process, I’m trying not to overthink it, trying I guess to be as simplistic as possible. I’m trying to enjoy the process and, when I get out there, trying to compete also.’’

He’s competed. He’s succeeded.

Tennis and golf are different. There are no hometown teams. There are home-country heroes. Maybe Roger Federer belongs as much to the world as he does to Switzerland, but Americans -- “U-S-A, U-S-A’’ -- are partial toward Americans.

Since the early part of the 21^st century, Roddick has been their man. Our man.

Now, as Roddick pointed out, as it is his time to say goodbye to the venues and the pals, it’s the U.S. Open spectators’ time to say goodbye to Roddick. And they’re doing it in with clamorous joy.

"I’ve been surprised by the support," Roddick conceded. "I thought inside our world it would be something, but I don’t know that I expected all this and the crowd to react the way it has. It’s been a special experience for me. It’s been a lot of fun."

The first set, when the upper reaches of the stadium were mostly empty, Roddick was in front 5 games to 3. Then, as so often happens in tennis, a reversal and it was 5-5. The fans, almost out of desperation, shouted and screamed. Roddick responded.

The 25-year-old Fognini, who hugged Roddick at the net when the match ended, eventually would come to the locker room and ask for a signed Roddick tennis shirt, the LaCoste brand with the little crocodile on the front.

"Like one of the jerseys," said Roddick, "it’s customary to exchange in football (soccer matches)."

Fognini appeared to be overtaking Roddick after winning the third set, but Andy regained control.

"He has no pressure now," Fognini said of Roddick’s play. "He was really aggressive. He has nothing to lose."

Not quite true. He has a career to lose. He has fans to lose.

Following the on-court interview, Roddick was hauled up to the CBS-TV outdoor booth overlooking the plaza, the gathering point for the all-day party that is U.S. Open tennis. After removing his headset, Roddick was assaulted with booming cheers.

There will be more. For the ninth time, he is in the Open’s round of 16. For someone who failed to get past the third round this year at the Australian, French and Wimbledon, that is a great way to pull the curtain down.

"I love this place," he told the fans, blowing kisses and waving. "I love all of you."

Later, to the press, Roddick said, "I’ve been walking around with a smile on my face for three days. All of a sudden you’re kind of smiling, humming, whistling, walking around, and you feel pretty good about it."

Roddick came to this Open as a spectator in 1991. He will leave as a legend in 2012.

"I’d be an idiot not to use the crowd right now," he said about the biased cheers. "It’s a huge advantage. Each match is almost like it’s another memory."

When each match may be your final match, what else would it be?

RealClearSports: Roddick Surrenders to Father Time

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK — He was the kid who grew into a man, the guy with the big serve who never gave in or rarely gave out. Andy Roddick beat them all through the years except Father Time. And so for American tennis, it is now game, set and matchless.

On his 30th birthday, Thursday, Roddick announced he would retire after this U.S. Open. After he plays one more match, Friday night against Bernard Tomic of Australia. Or if he wins, and who wouldn’t hope he wins, a match or three after that.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Roddick Bids Farewell to His 20s

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- What does age matter in the great scheme? One day you're 29. The next you're 30. Maybe the brief step is difficult to accept psychologically, although for Andy Roddick that would seem improbable.

But it doesn't make much difference how you play the game, on the court or off.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Of Suspensions and Racing Yachts

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — What do expect? We've got Napa Valley to the north and Silicon Valley to the south. We've got a billionaire, Larry Ellison, who couldn't buy the Golden State Warriors, so he bought the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

Are you surprised it seems like virtually everybody who plays ball around here has been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Augusta Makes The Inevitable Decision

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

At its core, golf is one of the clearest and fairest of sports. Each swing counts a stroke. No umpire is needed as in baseball, no referee as in football.

The problem wasn't the game but rather the surroundings, the bigotry, the exclusion at certain courses because of race or religion. Or, as at Augusta National, gender.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports.com: Giants Will Collapse Without Cabrera

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Nobody died. The terse adage is offered frequently as perspective for sporting disappointment. And for the San Francisco Giants and their disillusioned fans, that's true.

If you don't count dreams. Or hopes, both of which have expired.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Debate Rages Over Strasburg Shutdown

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — So in a while, a couple of weeks probably, Stephen Strasburg won't be allowed to pitch. But that's the future. For the present, he's still active, and today he's going for the Nationals against the Giants.

That's why Tuesday night's win by the Giants over Washington was important. "Huge,'' said Bruce Bochy, San Francisco's manager. The Nats were 4-0 against the Giants. And Monday night, they crushed San Francisco, 14-2.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012