The A’s take a step — a huge one
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Athletics called it a step. And they were correct. It was a step from agony to relief, a step from disappointment to contentment.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
The A’s play like the team they’re supposed to be
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — Don’t pack away the bunting. Or the hopes. The Athletics’ season goes on. September may have ended Wednesday, but baseball in Oakland continues.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
For A’s, a stadium empty of fans but full of bad memories
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — An empty stadium, but too full of memories. Virtually nobody in the stands, except workers, but plenty of villains in the mind.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
For winning 49ers, issue isn’t who’s not starting but who is
By Art Spander
The beginning of the game was full of warnings on TV. “Not starting today,” said the note under the picture, then it listed players — Nick Bosa and Jimmy Garoppolo prominent among them — and their injuries.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
For the 49ers, bad turf and bad vibes
By Art Spander
Their quarterback surely will be out a game or two. Their best defensive lineman will be out for the season. Bad luck or, as some of the 49ers contend, a bad field?
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Phil implied there would be trouble — and there was
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
Golf is different. In team sports, when those in charge no longer believe you are ineffective, that you’re too old, they put you on waivers or drop you — as the San Francisco Giants did recently with longtime favorites Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
With Safeway win, Cink provides validation he didn’t need
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — He said it would be a validation, one that Stewart Cink contends he didn’t need. “Hey,” he told us, “I know I’ve got enough game to compete out here, I really do.”
Copyright 2020, The Maven
After the Safeway, Phil gets a last Open chance at Winged Foot
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — Phil Mickelson knows, as we all know. The tournament this week, the Safeway Open, here in the smoke and haze at Silverado, is a trifle. A warm-up, if you will.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Is Safeway a bridge to nowhere for Spieth?
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — The round was better, two under par, three shots lower than the previous day. Yet it wasn’t good enough to get Jordan Spieth to the weekend.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
For Stewart Cink, still no regrets about that British win
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — Sometimes fortune is more important than results. Sometimes it isn’t exactly what you do but indeed when you do it.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Sergio still has something to say
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — His talent made him fascinating. So did his personality. "The problem is, I'm one of the guys that has to say something,” Sergio Garcia once told us. "A lot of people think about it but don't want to say anything."
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Shane Lowry away from home — and in the Safeway Open
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — The U.S. Open is next week at Winged Foot just outside New York City. Which is the reason Shane Lowry this week is at the Safeway Open in Napa.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Giants: No runs in two games, but maybe a barrier crossed
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
No runs for the Giants, but maybe progress for society. Two games without anyone from San Francisco crossing the plate. One brief series in which young athletes may have crossed a barrier.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Basketball stopped — to make us aware the shooting must stop
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
The NBA stopped. But only to make us aware that the killing must stop. If we weren’t aware already.
Black men keep getting shot — this time in Kenosha, Wis. — and other black men again did what they could to peacefully show their outrage and fear.
Copyright 2020 The Maven
For the A’s, smoke in the outfield and a loss to the Angels
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — These are unnerving times. One minute you’re worried about virus droplets, the next about everything going up in flames. If the Oakland Athletics on Saturday seemed to have more on their minds than picking up a ground ball, well, even good teams have their bad games.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Warriors’ lottery slip is no big deal in a year without a Kareem or LeBron
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
This isn’t like 1969, when the first pick in the NBA draft was Lew Alcindor, who soon would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the second pick was Neal Walk.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Morikawa’s putts, A’s punches: not a bad weekend
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — Not a bad weekend for the old bay. On one, side Collin Morikawa was sinking putts. On the other, members of the A’s and Astros threatened to sink a few punches.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Tiger and Morikawa: A difference of 21 years and 12 strokes
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — The finish was acceptable, an under-par round, even if didn’t mean much except to the man himself, Tiger Woods, and his fans.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
PGA leader Li: A man of rescued putters and TikTok bans
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — He wears a hat promoting a messaging service that President Trump is determined to ban. He once flung a putter into a lake in France, and his mother retrieved it, only to discover the club was broken.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
Tiger, Rory, Justin — and nothing but silence
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — As the late great Herb Caen, Mr. San Francisco, used to write, “You had to be there.” Except because of restrictions imposed for the COVID-19 epidemic, you couldn’t be there.
Copyright 2020, The Maven