Newsday: Despite being far back, Woods won't concede, yet

BY ART SPANDER
Special to Newsday

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Reverie has met reality. Tiger Woods never should be declared out of any golf tournament, particularly a major, but right now, that idea has some serious limitations.

Surely he isn't going to win this Masters.

Not being seven shots out of first with one round to play -- although in 1956, Jack Burke came from eight back to win.

Not with players such as Angel Cabrera, who beat Tiger by a shot to win the 2007 U.S. Open; Jim Furyk, who won the 2003 U.S. Open and Kenny Perry among the nine players ahead of him.

Not the way Tiger has handled, well mishandled, the difficult greens at Augusta National. One of the game's best putters, if not the very best, Woods is 43rd in the field in putting after 54 holes.

After shooting a 70 yesterday, he is tied for 10th at 4-under-par 212, looking up, way up the leaderboard at Cabrera and Perry, who are at 11-under 205.

Tiger could shoot 64 or 65 Sunday, but as Woods, who never makes concession speeches, agreed: "If Kenny and Chad [Campbell] go off and shoot 2, 3, 4 under from where they are, it almost puts it out of reach for us. If they come back a little bit or stay where they are, we've still got a chance."

Campbell and Perry had been tied at 11 under while Cabrera was 10. Then Cabrera and Perry were at 11 under and Campbell was 9. Either way, all three are not going to collapse. One, perhaps, but not all three. And though Furyk (8 under) may not be Tiger, he is one of the world's best.

This Masters was a special test for Woods, only his fourth tournament since returning from ACL surgery on the left knee, only his first major since returning.

He won at Bay Hill two weeks ago, and the pundits declared him not only ready but the favorite.

Saturday, he opened with a double-bogey, whacking his first tee shot into the left trees, getting to the green in three and then three-putting. That he eventually had a decent 2-under 70 with five birdies can be considered impressive, if not successful.

"I fought hard to get it back," Tiger said. "I'm pretty proud of the fact I got myself back in the tournament, considering I didn't hit it as well as I wanted to and had two three-putts."

Since he broke through with his first major title in the 1997 Masters, Tiger has never gone more than three Masters without winning. But he hasn't won since 2005.

He appears out of sorts, Friday displaying considerable anger after bogeying 18 a second straight day. The question was whether Woods was not yet major-tournament ready. The answer was the usual. Self-doubt has never been allowed by Tiger Woods.

"No," he said, "It's not that at all. Not at all. I just didn't hit the ball as precise as I needed to [Saturday] and just fought my -- off to get it back, to shoot a number.

"As I said, I'm very proud of that. After making a double on the first hole, to still get myself in, well it depends on what the leaders do whether I've got a chance or not."

So far, it has depended on what he has done. And he hasn't done enough.

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Scotland Sunday Herald: Quadruple bogey puts paid to the Paddy slam

US Masters: Harrington challenge fades after nine on par-five second hole, writes Art Spander

PADRAIG HARRINGTON'S slim hope of winning a third straight major championship perished on a hole with the benign name of Pink Dogwood. The Irishman, who won both the Open Championship and American PGA Championship in 2008 and was one of the favourites in the Masters, took a quadruple-bogey nine yesterday on the 575-yard par-5 second hole of Augusta National.

That after his misfortune on Friday, when, having grounded his putter on the green of another par-5 hole, the 15th, with a good chance for a birdie, he watched as a swirling wind moved the ball and he was charged a stroke.

But yesterday it was Padraig, not nature's whims, which did him in. The green of the second, after a long drive, often can be reached in two. Harrington, though, reached it in seven.

He pulled his drive deep into the pines but had good lie. The second shot ricocheted off a tree trunk and plopped into a bush, from which Harrington could not extricate himself and therefore took a penalty drop.

His fourth hit the same tree as his second. His fifth barely made it out of the woods. The next shot was short of the green. Then he chipped on and two-putted.





That, however, was the only over-par hole on the front nine for Padraig, if indeed four-over par, and with the help of three birdies, on five, eight and nine, he still managed a one-over 37.

Rory McIlroy, the 19-year-old Ulsterman, had his troubles on Friday, closing with a double-bogey 5 on 16 and a triple-bogey 7 on 18 and then nearly being disqualified over a possible rules breach.

But for the third-round yesterday, McIlroy, in his first Masters, shot a one-under 71 for a 54-hole score of even-par 216. In his agonising second round, McIlroy, temporarily in sixth place, four-putted the par-3 16th. At 18, in the midst of making the triple, he left a shot in a bunker then kicked at the sand with his right foot, which immediately prompted a BBC analyst to wonder whether he had violated a rule prohibiting players from testing the sand.

Brought back to the club around 8.40pm, after a committee of rules officials had viewed a video tape, McIlroy, having already been questioned on the phone, explained in person he had not kicked the sand in anger but only as par of housekeeping.

The Rules of Golf (13-4) allow "the player to smooth sand or soil in the hazard after making a stroke provided that, with regard to his next stroke, nothing is done to improve the position or lie of his ball". McIlroy, whose 72-73-145 was right on the cut line, said he never feared he would be disqualified. "No,'' he told the BBC, "because I was confident that I hadn't done anything wrong. I think they just needed an opinion from myself. I don't think it was that big a deal.'' More than 40 years ago, 1967 to be exactly, Arnold Palmer, then still a force, similarly left a ball in a bunker but in anger slammed his wedge into the sand. Officials were going to assess him a stroke for the action, but Augusta has always been kind to Arnie and officials decided "he was not testing the hazard since he already had taken a swing'', and retracted the penalty.

Sandy Lyle yesterday looked more like the 51-year-old he is, with a one-over 37 on the front nine, than the golfer who on Friday ran off five straight birdies, holes 13 through 17, which gave him a 32 on the back nine and a two-under-par 70. "Even when you play well it is still hard work,'' said Lyle, winner of the 1988 Masters, "and under-par is nerve-wracking. I was hoping to get through Amen Corner and knew I could pick up shots on par-5s, but I didn't expect to finish like I did."

Ross Fisher's ride was interesting if unsteady. The Englishman began with a three-under 69 and then as might be expected in his debut Masters, came back with a four-over 76. He improved a bit yesterday with a 73 but is at two-over 218.

"I gave myself chances," Fisher said of his experience. "You get good looks on the greens, but I just couldn't get the speed." Tiger Woods, a four-time Masters champion, was saying virtually the same thing. But at least, unlike the last couple of years, the weather is pleasant and the roars for birdies noticeable.

Another Englishman, Luke Donald had the honor Friday of playing with Gary Player in the last round of his 52nd and final Masters. The 73-year-old, who stopped and knelt at the edge of the 18th green as he closed out his Masters career, had an 83 for 161. Four years ago, Donald was in the grouping with Jack Nicklaus at St Andrews when Jack bowed out of the Open championship. "I'm not sure why I keep getting picked," said Donald. "Maybe I'm the nice guy." Donald enjoyed himself, even though he just made the cut with an even-par 144.

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Tough love made Kenny Perry a tough golfer

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Cigar
smoke is what Kenny Perry remembers. He was "probably seven," and his father,
intense but not abusive, and determined to make his boy a winner, would sit on a
towel, tee up ball after ball and all the while puff on a cigar.

"I would hit them as
fast as I could," said Perry, "and we did that hour after hour. I still smell
the cigar, the grass. Any time I catch a whiff of all that, my dad instantly
comes to me."

Kenny Perry is tied
for first place two rounds into this 2009 Masters. He shot a 5-under-par 67
Friday and, at 9-under-par 135, shares the lead with Chad Campbell.

His father, Ken Sr.,
85, is back in Kentucky, with two stents in his heart. And though Kenny, who's earned more
money playing golf, $28.1 million, than anyone who's never won a major, says he
would be satisfied if his career never went another day, his father continually
reminds him, "You need to win that green jacket."

Which of course is
what the Masters champion is awarded.

Kenny Perry is 48,
and in 1986 Jack Nicklaus, with his sixth Masters victory, became at age 46 the
oldest ever to win the tournament. Perry said he isn't thinking of making
history.

He is thinking of
finishing first.

After finishing a
year of redemption, countering criticism and playing so beautifully and
meaningfully in the 2008 Ryder Cup in his home state, at the very course,
Valhalla were Perry incurred his most wretched defeat, he and the family have
been named Grand Marshals of the Kentucky Derby parade.

"You know everything
is a bonus now," said Perry. "I'm going through each and every day enjoying
life a little bit. I think I can win. I'm still burning inside, wanting to kick
everybody's butt. I've got a will inside of me. My dad taught me. He beat on me
so bad as a kid in any kind of game or sport, I cried all the time. And then he
would laugh in my face as he was doing it.

"You know, he was a
smart man. And at the Ryder Cup when he came up to me and gave me that hug, I
told him it was the greatest gift I could never have given him. That was pretty
special for us as a father and son."

Ken Perry Sr. was an
insurance agent. His greatest talent, it turns out, was selling his son on how
to make it through life, to steel him for whatever might come, as the fictitious
father of song who named his boy Sue.

Kenny Perry Jr. is a
golfer who didn't have the luxury of a high-priced academy, a pro who has raised a
family – three children, the youngest of whom still is older than 19-year-old
Rory McIlvoy, the Irish golfing phenom – and raised huge sums for charity. Kenny Perry's outlook is different from
that of others.

"Where I came
from," said Perry, "the roots I had and my upbringing, to come from a nine-hole
course in the middle of nowhere ... I didn't have swing coaches. I didn't have
this entourage. I didn't have any money, begging, doing whatever I could,
scratching and clawing to get there."

It was 13 years ago
at Valhalla, the course outside Louisville, 130 miles from the Perry residence
in Franklin, where in the PGA Championship Kenny had his greatest opportunity to
take that major. He finished early the last day and, glib sort that he is, was
persuaded to climb into the TV booth while play continued.

He still was there
when Mark Brooks came in to tie Perry, who not having hit a ball in the
preceding hour, was not ready for the playoff won by Brooks.

"Yeah," he
conceded, "I think about it a lot."

So do others. Perry
was so obsessed with atoning for his failure when Valhalla hosted last
September's Ryder Cup, he didn't even attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open and
then, even though exempt, passed up a spot in the British Open. For that he was
ripped in the media. He didn't care.

"I laid all my cards
on the line that week," he said of the Ryder Cup experience. "I put it all on
the line, being in front of my home crowd. I mean I could have been a dog that
week and gone 0 for 4 or 5 and not won a point. I put all the pressure I could
on myself.

"People remember the
debacle at the PGA, how I screwed that up, and all of Kentucky remembered me for
that. I was going for broke, either was going to hit a home run or get thrown
out. And it went my way. Things went my way."

They haven't stopped
going his way. Having missed the cut five of the previous times he played here,
Perry gleefully declared, "At least I can tell everybody I led the Masters once
in my life."

Some stop to smell the flowers. For Kenny Perry, it's cigar smoke.

Greg Norman's Masters return brings cheers and memories

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It was difficult to tell whether the response to Greg Norman on his return to his beautiful hell, applause and cheering so loud and enthusiastic, was out of admiration or sympathy.

"Everybody wants to live in the past," Norman said Thursday, answering a question about what might have been had he not come apart in that final round of the 1996 Masters, a final round he doesn't want to remember and no one else wants to forget.

So many chances to win this major played out beneath the Georgia pines, golf's tribute to spring and history.

Norman was the man of a decade, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s. Always in contention. Often in frustration.

Jack Nicklaus edged him by a shot in the '86 Masters, then a year later Larry Mize holed a chip to win over Greg in a playoff. Then after we spent seasons taunting Norman with our thoughts and analysis, he constructed a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo with 18 holes remaining.

At last, we believed, there would be redemption. Instead there was more agony. Faldo not only beat Norman, he beat him by five shots.

Greg returned another half-dozen times, even coming in as high as third in 1999, but then his life changed. There were injuries. His marriage was unraveling. He concentrated on his numerous businesses, from turf grass to boat building. The Masters was left in the distance, his last appearance in 2002.

Until now. Until gaining a place in the field through a surprising third-place finish in last July's British Open. At 54, Greg Norman was back to challenge the greens and demons. In the first round, he met that challenge, shooting a 2-under-par 70.

And naturally, someone wondered, euphemistically of course, if Norman had played that awful final day in 1996 as he did this wonderfully reassuring first day in 2009, "what you might have shot on an earlier Augusta National."

Norman was not fooled. He understood the meaning, and he offered his punch line about us living in the past.

It's a different Greg Norman now. He said his marriage to retired tennis star Chris Evert, after a $100 million divorce from his wife of some 25 years, Laura, has proven to be stabilizing.

Chrissie's calm approach, understanding of competition and willingness to accept Greg's hours of practice, have been a balance Norman said had been lacking.

Greg and Chris talk to each other like husband and wife, and athlete and athlete.

"She wishes she could get back out there and play," said Norman, who in contrast has gone back out there and is playing, "because she sees the passion I have, and I'm at the age – we are both at the age – where golf allows me to do it, or my sport allows me to do it for whatever crazy reason."

And Evert, also 54, unable to race about a court as she did three decades past, finds vicarious success in Norman's golf. "She can still hit all the shots," he said. "But she feels, especially now, she loves the competition, wants to make sure everything is right around me. Because she's been there and done that and wants nothing more than to see me just happy playing golf, whatever happens on the course."

What happened Thursday was Norman had three birdies and only one bogey. And at each green and each tee, the crowd was more than gracious, it was excited.

"Hey everybody loves me," joked Norman. Nothing wrong with that is there? Are you guys jealous?"

Greg, with his swashbuckling ways, with his nickname, "The Great White Shark," was forever a favorite. He took chances. He took figurative blows to the jaw.

"No matter where I play in the world, I've been connected to the gallery," said Norman. "I play with my heart on my sleeve, and I've done very well out of the game. And when I come here, people probably feel for me – some of the things that have happened here -- and really enjoy seeing me back here.

"I played my way into this tournament, which very few people can say at age 54, and it's a feather in my cap, to say the least. A seven-year hiatus, and it feels like the very first time I played here."

That was 28 years ago, 1981, and Norman, albeit on a more receptive course not toughened and lengthened, shot a 69, only one stroke better than the last time he played here, Thursday.

Norman, in his 22 Masters, has finished second three times and third three times. So close. And too far.

"Can a 54-old-man win this golf tournament?" a journalist asked Greg Norman in closing.

"We'll have to wait and see," Norman said with a shrug.

Or, knowing what the Masters has done to Greg, wait and hope.

SF Examiner: Tiger injects life into the Masters

AUGUSTA, GA. – One word. One name. Tiger. And it all changes, in golf, in sports. One name, and we’re thinking differently. One name, and we’re paying attention again.

One name, and the game is on.

It’s not a comeback for Tiger Woods. Not at the Masters. He was here in ’08, as in ’07 and the 12 years before that, two as an amateur.

He missed golf for eight months, June to February, recovering from knee surgery. And certainly golf, so dependent on individual stars, missed him.

But here under the Georgia pines, here where Amen Corner lurks, here where history can be found on virtually every magnificently trimmed fairway or hellishly fast green, it’s as if nothing has changed. Because nothing has changed.

Tiger is playing and thus, weeks of rehabbing and months of doubts to the contrary, Tiger is the favorite.

What a great few days in sports, the Final Four, the beginning of baseball season, the Masters. A tradition like no other, CBS tells us. Tiger Woods, a golfer like no other, and nobody needs to tell us.

What the fans tell Tiger, shout it out, is “You’re the man.” Which he is. Golf is dozens of great players, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Norman, returning to his scene of heartbreak. Golf is one person, Tiger Woods.

Does he do it this week, win a fifth Masters, a 15th major? Or does he fail, and his short streak without a Masters victory extend to four, which would be the longest since he turned pro and, with that crushing triumph in 1997, turned golf upside down?

Either way, Tiger becomes the tale, the focus. Either we’re going to say, “How about Tiger?” or “What happened to Tiger?” The world distilled into good and bad, right and wrong, Tiger or not Tiger.

The Giants and A’s have started their long season.

The 49ers and Raiders are trying to figure into the NFL Draft. All of it is interesting, as opposed to Tiger, who is compelling.

Golf, as tennis, is constructed on personalities. Arnie took the game out of the country clubs. Jack Nicklaus awed us with his success. Greg Norman was exciting, sometimes in a negative way. Then along came Tiger, breaking par, breaking barriers, becoming as much a symbol of progress as a champion athlete.

And now here he is, and here the Masters is, and we can’t help but pay attention and perhaps pay obeisance to arguably the finest golfer ever and maybe the best-run tournament ever.

The Masters the last couple of years hasn’t been as exciting as we remembered. The weather was cold. The course had been toughened. The familiar roars of appreciative fans were lacking.

Tiger the last three years wasn’t quite as exciting at the Masters as we preferred, although two third places and a second isn’t exactly a collapse. More a tease.

“The last couple years, my putting has been streaky here,” was Tiger’s explanation before today’s first round. “I got on rolls where I make everything, and I get on rolls where I didn’t make anything.”

For sure, Tiger has made himself impossible to ignore.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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KNBR Radio: Art speaks with Brian Murphy from Augusta

From KNBR.com:

"The guys congratulate golf writer Art Spander on his Lifetime Achievement Award and talk a little Masters."

Listen here

RealClearSports: The Best of Sporting Times and Tigers

By Art Spander

Our Aprils, contrary to the T.S. Eliot poem, never are cruel. In the space of a few days they give us a sporting mixture that is irrepressible, full of baskets, fast balls and here, beneath the pines of Augusta National, 300-yard drives that confirm, no matter what the conditions, spring has arrived.

The NCAA Final Four, with its oversized crowds came first, and were followed by the baseball openers teasing the long season to come. Now, at a site as legendary as the men who have competed here, the Masters.

Now Amen Corner, Hogan Bridge and the man whose very presence has transformed golf into more than a weekend pastime, Tiger Woods.

Have we come down from North Carolina’s brilliant victory over Michigan State? Or Francisco Rodriguez’ excellent relief performance in his first chance for the Mets? It is time to get up once more, to follow Phil and Padraig and particularly, Tiger. Time to pay attention to the 12th hole, called by some the most difficult par-3 in golf, and to greens that as Dan Jenkins once wrote, are as slick as the top of Sam Snead’s bald head.

There is a special fascination with the Masters as the first major tournament of every year. The name itself lends a cachet not found anywhere else in sport.

Golfers last a lifetime. Jack Nicklaus won a Masters at age 46 and was playing the tournament well into his 60s. Greg Norman is back this time, and even the most callous of individuals finds sympathy for a man in his 50s known less for success than for his failures, including that 1996 Masters, when he blew a six-shot lead the last day.

We are familiar with so many of them -- last year’s winner Trevor Immelman, and Vijay Singh and names which persist like the blooms of the dogwood trees.

We remember when Tom Weiskopf took a 12 on that 13th hole, and when Mickelson made that winning putt on the 18th and jumped, what, all of three inches? And we remember when, in 1997, Tiger crushed the scoring record, sending a signal that golf would never be the same, as he became the first African-American to win the Masters.

Since then, it’s been all about Tiger, and this year -- the year of the great return -- the focus is even greater. From his first shot in Thursday’s opening round to his last, he will be the focus, and perhaps the champion. He was gone eight months after surgery on that anterior cruciate ligament and legitimately or not, because we should be wary of doubting the great ones, there were questions of whether he would be his old self. They were answered quickly enough.

Tiger stood over that 15-foot putt nine days ago on the 72nd hole at Arnold Palmer’s tournament and seemingly as if predestined, knocked the ball into the cup to win. The way he had done before the layoff. The way he always will do.

“I really wanted to get into contention,” Woods said Tuesday of his victory, “and feel the rush again on the back nine. I was not in it at Doral; I was on the periphery. The past week at Bay Hill was great to feel that, and to see how my body would react again. It’s been a while and a lot of uncertainty over the months upon months of rehab. And it felt great to hit shots.”

Uncertainty? With Tiger Woods? Deep down, he knew. So did the rest of us. He was going to win again. It was inevitable. That he needed only three tournaments was maybe a surprise. Or was it?

I learned not too long ago, never to be unsure of Tiger. It was the 1996 U.S. Amateur, his last before turning pro a few days later. He was 5-down in the final, at match play, and on a radio broadcast I declared his reign, after winning the previous two years, was at an end.

Not at all. Woods caught Steve Scott and won on the second extra hole, the 38th. Scott could only sigh, “Against Tiger Woods no lead is safe.”

A couple days later, Willie McCovey, the Hall of Fame baseball player, confronted me and said, “How could you give up on Tiger? I don’t care how far teams and players get behind, when they’re good you have to believe in them.”

I believe. Tiger may not win this Masters, but who wants to pick against him? In these wonderful few days of April 2009, not me.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: North Carolina is a Quick Winner

By Art Spander

This was one in which reality crushed reverie, power overwhelmed hopefulness. This was one in which the best college basketball team in the land proved it was the best college basketball team in the land, and the experts knew exactly what they are talking about.

Over the weekend, we had been immersed in the tale of Michigan State, and how its ascent was being felt by this city that once was the proud hub of a flourishing auto industry, but now reflects all the problems of America’s stumbling economy. It was going to be so glorious, so uplifting when the Spartans came through. But they could not. North Carolina never gave them a chance. The Tar Heels ran and jumped and harassed. And Michigan State was in a state of bewilderment.

In the end, Carolina won 89-72, took its fifth NCAA basketball championship, finished as the Final One of the Final Four, verified that indeed as in October’s preseason polls and now in April’s glory, the Tar Heels are an unquestioned No. 1

They hit quickly and hard, stunning not only Michigan State, but a record crowd of 72,922 at Ford Field, the majority of which naturally was cheering for the Spartans. Carolina was up 22-7 within six minutes gone; then 34-11 with 9:44 to play in the half.

Would the Tar Heels score 100? Maybe they should have. Would they beat State worse than in December, when Carolina, in the very same building, the home of the NFL Detroit Lions, dismantled the Spartans, 98-63? Maybe they could have.

“They’ve kind of given us our lunch, haven’t they?" Tom Izzo, the Michigan State coach asked with great prescience the day before the game. “But that’s because they’re a great program."

The greatest going this season.

Sunday night, Roy Williams, the Carolina coach, dined on fried lobster at the Detroit Fish Market for the second time in 48 hours. “I’m not superstitious," Williams said when confronted as he left the restaurant, “but I ate here Friday night and I didn’t want to take any chances."

With the team he put on the court, there were no chances to be taken. Carolina forced a supposedly disciplined State team into 21 turnovers. “Fourteen in the first half," said Izzo. “We couldn’t do anything. I was disappointed. I also thought we missed some good shots early. I thought we looked either shell-shocked or worn down."

The championship was a reward for Carolina players such as Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green, who ignored opportunities to join the NBA and came back for a senior season of not so much retribution as relish.

The 6-foot-9 Hansbrough, last season’s Player of the Year, was castigated because he did not lead Carolina to a title. When Williams was asked if that would diminish Tyler’s career, he was adamant in his denial. “Ernie Banks never won a World Series," Williams reminded.

But now Hansbrough has won an NCAA, and when the final seconds ticked off and the confetti was shot from those special air guns, he was a little kid beside himself, belying a reputation for a lack of emotion.

“This was the best way to go out," Hansbrough shouted into a CBS television microphone, “after what we had been through. We climbed all the way." Hansbrough had 18 points, behind Ty Lawson’s 21 and Wayne Ellington’s 19. Center Goran Suton scored 17 in his last game for Michigan State.

“We couldn’t stop Hansbrough inside,” said Izzo, “and we couldn’t stop Lawson from getting to the line.” Lawson got 18 free throws and made 15 as he drove inside and drew foul after foul.

“All I know,” said Williams, who has led Carolina to two championships in his six years after moving there from Kansas, “is I’m the luckiest coach in America. I am so proud of this team. We overcame a lot during the season."

They also scored a lot. Eight times Carolina reached 100 points or more, and when the Heels led Michigan State 55-34 at intermission, it appeared inevitable they would do it a ninth time. But Carolina got a bit loose and sloppy, and so the rout became merely a one-sided victory.

Magic Johnson, the Michigan State alum, and Larry Bird were in the building on what was the 30th anniversary of their memorable battle in the 1979 NCAA championship, won by the Spartans over Bird and Indiana State. And Michael Jordan, a Heel, David Robinson, Vivien Stringer and John Stockton made an appearance as part of being voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Quite a night for greatness. And North Carolina was a major part of that, much to the frustration of the state of Michigan and Michigan State.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

Roy Williams, the country boy who became a monarch

DETROIT – He’s smooth, smart and demanding, a melding of the country boy he used to be and the dominant basketball coach he has become. Roy Williams describes himself as corny, a word that if used in the same context could also be applied to King Henry VIII.
Thanks to Kevin813 at Flickr


Williams’ North Carolina team faces Michigan State on Monday night for the NCAA Championship, and Roy, at 58, having been there and done that, is approaching the game with his usual refined arrogance and bewildering wistfulness.



The other school is the story, and Williams well understands that, although favored Carolina is quite likely to be the winner.




Michigan State, located 92 miles away, has been anointed as the savior of an economically depressed region of Middle America. Carolina is merely attempting to fulfill the role it was given back in November, which was to finish as the best team in the land.




College basketball is a coaches’ game, an obvious statement even before Kentucky broke the bank to hire Rick Pitino a few days ago.








In the NBA, the people on court, Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, are in charge. They get the ball and the big salaries. But in the undergraduate division, the attention belongs to the coaches.




They recruit, they strategize, they keep the media entertained or outraged. Or in some cases, both.




Williams can be defensive, although through the seasons, at Kansas and then his alma mater, Carolina, his teams have been recognized for offense. But rather than confront, Williams persuades. Or derides something as “hogwash,” a term virtually guaranteed to elicit a chuckle instead of a sneer.


Roy makesjournalists feel accepted — unlike, say, Bobby Knight — but Williams also lets themknow who’s boss. Right away Sunday, Williams, in his white golf shirt and babyblue Carolina sleeveless sweater, opened an interview by remarking, “If I’mdoing this now, don’t expect me to stay around 30 minutes after (the players)leave. I have more important things to do than stand around here and makefun.”


Or pay lip serviceto the suggestion that a Michigan State victory would benefit the local territory,ravaged by the decline and fall of the U.S. auto industry. Roy wants to see thecar business thrive once more. He also wants to see Carolina win its secondtitle in his six seasons as the headman.


“If we’re playingagainst the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan,” said Williams of theidea that the majority of the 70,000-plus people at Ford Field will be cheering forMichigan State, “they outnumber us. We don’t have a good chance at that one … I do realize they have a cause. Well, we also have a cause.


“We want to win anational championship. Period. The end. And if you tell me if Michigan Statewins it’s going to satisfy the nation’s economy, then I’d say, ‘Hell! Let’s staypoor for a little while longer.’”


Williams thenpointed out that he only would be concerned if the workers of America “come down andstart guarding my butt on the bench.”


What Carolina mighthave to guard against is complacency, not that it’s likely. The start ofDecember, in the very same building, Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions perfectedtheir imperfection, North Carolina defeated Michigan State, 98-63.


Michigan State,tired and injured at that time, is a far, far better team four months later.Then again, so is Carolina. And who cares about 70,000 people supporting theother guy?


“You know, to me,”said Williams, “it’s not nuclear science. We’re coaching basketball. We’replaying basketball. I go out on the court (Saturday night for the semifinal, inwhich Carolina beat Villanova, 83-69) and look up, trying to figure where is theguy with the worst seat in the house. ‘Wonder what he’s thinking right now?’ I said, ‘OK.’ Then that wasit. I mean you’re focused on the task.”


Which is winning fora group of seniors, including last season’s Player of the Year, TylerHansbrough, and Danny Green, who returned for a last fling instead of enteringthe pro draft.


“You know,”Williams told us, “I’m corny. There’s no question about it. I’m emotional. Thissenior class has been really, really important to me. These guys came in afterthe (2005) championship year. We didn’t have a lot coming back. They competedfrom the first day … The classes I’ve recruited in 21 years (15 at Kansas),this is the one that’s special.”


This is the gamethat’s special, the game that because of the size of the facility, in whichSaturday a record 72,456 were in attendance, could be intimidating but toWilliams is not.


“I like playing onthe road,” said Williams of what technically is a neutral side, yet is anythingbut. “I like going to some other place and having my team so focused that we can shut the crowd up. Now this will be the maximum test.”


Roy Williams and his team are well prepared.

A joy ride for Izzo and Michigan State

DETROIT -- They're 92 miles away. Ninety-two miles and one game. The team
from the state of Michigan, the state of euphoria, Michigan State, is riding to
where the road ends, an underdog under full head of steam and believing in a
dream.

The script is joyful
and remarkable. The not-so-little team that, as coach Tom Izzo points out, is
playing for the university, for itself, for this city of Detroit 92 miles from
campus at East Lansing, indeed all of Michigan, a state struck hard by the
economic downtown, comes through when needed.

One weekend it
knocks off the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, Louisville, and then, with all
sorts of subplots weaving their magic – not to be confused with alumnus Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who was present and accounted for – the Spartans give a
virtual repeat performance.

On Saturday night,
before the largest crowd in NCAA tournament history, 72,456 at Ford Field, MSU
literally runs past Connecticut, 82-73, to reach the Monday night final against North Carolina.

And Izzo, who knows
full well the problems of the American auto industry, Detroit's failing engine
as it were, stands on the court and through the screams and cheers shares the
appreciation of a region that knows well the pain and pleasure of a job well
done.

"We're a blue-collar
team," said Izzo, "and this is the blue-collar city. It was amazing, amazing to
walk out that tunnel. Give the people of Detroit, the Ford Field people,
credit.

"Yes, there were a
lot of Michigan State fans. I'm appreciative for all the people. I hope we were
a ray of sunshine, distraction for them, a diversion ... We're not done
yet."

Two Big East teams
in a row, Louisville and Connecticut, victims of Michigan State's tenacity. And
depth. "We want to run," said
Izzo. "I thought we could wear them down a bit. I thought depth worked on our
side. We knew that going in."

The Spartans used 11
players, belying the basic rule a team can't function with more than eight or
nine regulars. Connecticut had its eight. And its troubles. Michigan State's
bench outscored Connecticut's 33-7.

"That's the type of
player (Izzo) recruits," said Magic Johnson, hard-nosed, hardworking. Thirty years ago, in that memorable game
against Larry Bird and Indiana State, the game some believe was the birth of college
basketball interest, the Magic man led the Spartans to the NCAA
championship.

Saturday night, in
his green-and-white pullover, the one with "State" across the front, he sat in
the fourth row behind the Michigan
State bench and cheered. After visiting the pre-game Spartan locker
room.

Magic; former San
Francisco 49er coach Steve Mariucci, Izzo's boyhood pal; and Minnesota Vikings
assistant Pat Morris, another Spartan, were in the MSU locker room pre-game,
extolling, advising.

"A couple of
football guys, a big basketball guy (told) our team that it's going to be a
football game, so you might as well get ready for one," Izzo said. "I thought they were the
most physical team we played all year."

Just before
halftime, Connecticut's Jeff Adrian grabbed a rebound under the MSU basket and
was grabbed by the Spartans' Travis Walton, trying to extricate the ball. There
was grappling and shoving and glaring. But the officials stepped in, and the end
result was a couple of free throws for Adrian, who unlike some of his teammates
actually made them.

"Our league is
physical," said Izzo of the Big Ten. "Our league is tough. Our league is good
defensively. That helped prepare us for this tournament."

Izzo, whose team won
the title in 2000, who is coaching his fifth Final Four, helped prepare his
team. His tactics were brilliant, his substituting astute. Kalin Lucas, the
sophomore guard, had 21 points and five assists for Michigan State. Raymar
Morgan, with a broken nose and other ailments and seemingly as depressed as the
auto industry, awoke for 18 points, nine rebounds and impressive defense against
anyone Izzo chose.

"Sometimes it's hard
for me to find the right buttons," Izzo said of provoking Morgan. "Today the
button was, 'Ray I need you.' All but get down on my knees and beg. And it
worked pretty good."

Everything's working
for the Spartans.

"You know, after the
Louisville game," said Izzo, "I got to admit, I felt joy. I felt joy for the
university, our team, our conference, our city, our state. It's just a
once-in-a-lifetime thing. Those other Final Fours have been great, but boy, when
people you really care about can go right around the corner and see you play,
that's a special time, a special feeling.

"After the game, it
was surreal, impressive. Now it all turns to whoever we play and to see if we
can make the dream, the miracle, everything, come true one more
time."

Around here, they believe in Magic. And Tom Izzo.

RealClearSports: Road Ends Where It Once Began

By Art Spander

The slogan is both appropriate and ironic. “The Road Ends Here.”
That's what the NCAA is telling us. Here, in Motown, the city where if
the American road literally didn't begin, America's freedom of movement
did by using all that Detroit Iron.

It's the last weekend of the college basketball season, the Final
Four, as others contemplate a last hurrah of an industry that
metaphorically is 10 points down with 20 seconds to go. Wheels, that's
what Detroit thought about. And now for a few days, it's thinking
hoops, basketball, the NCAA championship, and the end of the road.

Now for a few days Detroit is offered an escape from the headlines,
from the economy, from the collapse of the automobile business. Or so
we're told.

So much has been made of Michigan State, which faces Connecticut on
Saturday evening in the first semifinal, becoming a savior, creating an
opportunity for Detroit, Southeastern Michigan, to find the pride and
satisfaction once found in building Chevys and Fords. You wonder. Even
if the Spartans win, the potholes will remain on the beat-up highways.
Even if the Spartans win, the jobless rate will remain much too high.
Even if the Spartans win it won't counter the loss of citizens,
460,000, which obligated the Detroit News to banner, "Eight-year population exodus staggers state."

And by most estimates, the Spartans won't win. The forecasters say
Connecticut will beat Michigan State and in Monday's final, play North
Carolina, which in the other semi meets Villanova. But who knows?
Predictions can be unreliable, maybe even those the last few days
insisting the auto business here is finished.

Tom Izzo, the Michigan State coach, is from the state, the Upper
Peninsula, one of the guys known as "Yupers." He and boyhood pal Steve
Mariucci, the football coach, grew up having to prove themselves.
Izzo's Spartans play basketball with that same chip-on-the-shoulder
mentality.

"I think players play," was Izzo's observation of the competition, "and the toughest players win."

In a region of mills, factories, and unemployment, the tough survive. The tough are admired.

Michigan State, as perhaps Detroit, gets too little respect. There was an interesting quote the other day in the Washington Post from Larry Alexander, president and chief executive of the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"America thinks we are dying," said Alexander. "Unfortunately, when
you say 'Motor City,' they think that's all we have to offer. People
assume that if the auto industry is dying, Detroit is dying. But give
us a break. If Wall Street is dying, you don't say 'New York is dying.'"

Except New York is more than Wall Street. Detroit for decades hasn't been much more than cars.

The media hotel for this weekend, the Marriott, is in the GM
headquarters building, the Renaissance Center. The ground floor looks like
an auto showroom, with shiny new models here and there. The hallway
walls are embellished with photos of 1953 Cadillacs and 1957 Chevrolets.

The Michigan State players mostly are homeboys, from towns such as
Saginaw, Flint, Rochester, kids whose fathers, and often whose mothers,
built engines or attached axles. They have an understanding of what has
happened, over the years in the factories, the last few weeks on the
basketball courts.

"Detroit has been struggling," said Kalin Lucas, the excellent
sophomore point guard. He is from Sterling Heights, a suburb north of
the city. "A lot of people have been getting laid off and stuff like
that. So us playing here in the final, us being a Michigan team
playing, it can bring a smile to everybody in the city of Detroit."

The Final Four, with a Michigan team. Will this be any more
uplifting than the Stanley Cup, won by a Detroit team, the Red Wings?
Or the 2004 NBA finals, won by the Pistons, a Detroit team? Or the 2006
World Series, in which a Detroit team, the Tigers, was beaten by the
St. Louis Cardinals? Sections of old Tiger Stadium still stand,
resisting dismantling, now that the baseball team has shifted to new
Comerica Park. The NFL Lions last season, resisting dismantling, went an
unprecedented 0-16. Sporting history is never far away in Detroit.

More will be made. Maybe by Michigan State, which as skill and fate would have it, is in a Final Four in its home territory.

The auto industry clings to life. The state of Michigan clings to
Michigan State. So far the Spartans have taken every correct turn on a
road about to end here.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports
history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his
long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has
earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has
recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of
America for 2009.

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http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/04/michigan-states-road-end-where-it-once-began.html
© RealClearSports 2009

Newsday: Prahalis showing everyone her game is huge

BY ART SPANDER
Special to Newsday

BERKELEY,
Calif. -- If she had something to prove, as Sammy Prahalis believed she
did, it has been proven. At 5-7, she looks up to most of the women in
college basketball. Then again, as her first season draws to a close,
nobody symbolically looks down on Sammy.

"It doesn't affect me that much," Prahalis -- the former Commack star who now plays point guard for Ohio State -- said of her size. "I go out to play. But I guess, because I am the
smallest, I had something to prove because everyone else is so big."

Prahalis is the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and she and Big Ten
Player of the Year Jantel Lavender led Ohio State to victory in the
first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Prahalis had a career-high 23 points to go with seven assists in a
first-round victory over Sacred Heart. Ohio State met second-seeded
Stanford late last night in a regional semifinal.

Prahalis, a two-time Long Island Player of the Year and second-team Parade All-American, averaged 30.1
points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game as a senior for Commack
and finished with 2,373 points, second in Suffolk history. Now she has
become the quintessential point guard, making all the pieces fit for
Ohio State.

"Three times I've been in similar situations where freshmen were given the ball," said Jim Foster, who became the Buckeyes'
coach in 2003 after long stints at Vanderbilt and St. Joseph's. "In all
three situations, it was a byproduct of their intensity and how hard
they played.

"Samantha is an absolutely terrific athlete that
people enjoy watching play. She plays the same way at practice as she
does in games. There is no saving herself ... Size is just one aspect
of basketball. I think Samantha [may be] the smallest player on the
court, but I think people will enjoy watching her."

Foster
enjoys utilizing Prahalis' multiple skills. She led the Big Ten in
assists with 5.79 per game and was first in assist-turnover ratio,
seventh in steals and 23rd in scoring at 10.0 points per game.

"I definitely like fast-paced basketball," Prahalis said, and no one
who has seen her would ever argue with that. Her New York accent has
been quite noticeable in Ohio, too. "Yes," she said with a smile, "they
kid me about it."

Nobody chides Prahalis about her style:
aggressive and determined. College ball has been rewarding, especially
since Ohio State won the Big Ten championship.

"High intensity
and a lot of fun," Prahalis said of conference play, which culminated
in a 67-66 win over Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament final March 8.
"But that's what basketball has always been for me. Coming from
Commack, it has been a bit of a change, but not too much."

Prahalis has an attitude, a requisite for anyone who's in command. "You
have to play with one," she agreed when told that Stanford coach Tara
VanDerveer said she is "cocky, in a good way."

"You have to
play with a winning attitude," Prahalis said. "If we play with passion
and confidence, we will be just as good as any team."

Prahalis went up against Stanford freshman Nnemkadi Ogwumike last night. She was Prahalis' roommate last summer on the U.S. team that went 5-0 at the FIBA Championships in Argentina.

"I haven't talked to my teammates about her," Prahalis said of the 6-2
Ogwumike. "She is a really good player. She is long and can run and
very versatile."

For Prahalis, two out of three ain't bad. She
can run and is incredibly versatile. She ranked in virtually every team
statistical category except rebounds.

"It's always been in my head, 'Work hard,"' Prahalis said. "If you work out every day, it will all come out in the end."

No matter the final score of last night's game, it was only the beginning of Prahalis' college career.

"This is something I've been waiting for my entire life - to play in
the NCAAs," Prahalis had said before her first tournament game.

When you're not even 20, an entire life doesn't consist of all that
much - but in her case, it's a tease on how great she eventually can be. team that went 5-0 at the FIBA Championships in Argentina.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-spsammy296087905mar29,0,4398814.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

The city that can't stop hurting

OAKLAND – This is
the city that can't stop hurting. The city that can't stop weeping.

Once, Oakland was
known as the home of the Raiders, the Athletics, the Golden State Warriors. Once
the questions were about Al Davis' disconnect or Billy Beane's “Moneylessball.’’

Now they're about
death, about the killing of four policemen by a parolee who should never have
been let free.

Now the area that proudly labeled itself the "City of Champions" is a chump, an
embarrassment.

This is my city, Oakland, where I live, where I've worked, where I've watched the sporting heroes come and go, where I saw
Reggie Jackson and Jim Plunkett and Rick Barry lead franchises to
titles.

This is where
Catfish Hunter pitched a perfect game, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw and Bob Brown
blocked their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sleepy Floyd scored a record
29 points in the fourth quarter, 51 overall, in the NBA playoffs against the
Lakers.

This is the town to
which sports gave an identity, the town that no longer needed a postscript to
note it was across the Bay from San Francisco.

Now it's the town
that has lost its way and its soul, a town infamous for a crime instead of
famous for any team.

So shocking. So
disturbing. So jarring.

Here we were
wondering if the A's would have pitching, or if the San Francisco Giants would
have any hitting. Whether JaMarcus Russell would take his role as Raiders
quarterback seriously enough to stay in shape. Whether Warriors management was
interested in anything except the large crowds, which persistently supported a
perennially losing team.

The city turned out
en masse for the funeral Friday. Law enforcement officers from throughout the
land came to services held at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors play. What a
strange linkage, a reflection of grief in a building designed for
enjoyment.

You may have read. Two of the murdered policemen spent time assisting the
local teams at Oracle or the McAfee Coliseum next door. They were known by the
athletes, appreciated by management. By all counts, they were good guys.

By all counts Oakland is a good city. Or was. Now its already tarnished
reputation is stained even more. Now rather than debate whether Al Davis ought
to sell the Raiders – he won't – or if Lew Wolff's intent in buying the A's was
to move them to San Jose, people will talk about lawlessness and
pain.

Talk of terror rather than elation. Of residents saying they no longer can tolerate living here.

Cities struggle to get on the front pages. But not this way. They want
tourists, new businesses, satisfied citizens. They want teams that bring
spectators to the arenas or stadiums. Not situations that bring
disgrace.

It's going to be a difficult
road back. This isn't like a few toughs throwing flashlight batteries at a
leftfielder at the Coliseum, or members of the Black Hole harassing a spectator
at a Raiders game. This is virtually beyond comprehension, but it is all too
real.

Plaques in the so-called Court of Champions, the concourse between Oracle
and the Coliseum, call attention to winners, the A's World Series titles, the
Raiders Super Bowl victories, the Warriors 1975 NBA crown. In another part of
town, the names of the four slain policemen already have been etched onto a
granite wall.

Who dared imagine we would be compelled to remember this tragedy the way
we do the triumphs?   

Oakland is forever tainted. There is no escape. Journalists do not
forget, even when writing about sports. Oakland, a story about the A's will
remind us, is the city where four policemen were shot and killed. It's
unavoidable. It's understandable.

The A's, Warriors and Raiders sent their condolences, showed their
support. The teams that shared in the elation of better times properly shared in
the sadness of this terrible time.

Oakland, on the landfall the Spanish settlers originally called the
contra costa, or the other shore, the one on the east side of the water, has
suffered in comparison to San Francisco.

In one of the most misunderstood of observations, Gertrude Stein,
returning to her razed childhood home in Oakland, said, "There is no there,
there." The line became a mantra.

Kicked around, razzed, chided, Oakland battled image and derision
to gain its sense of self through sports. To those who never knew where the city
was located, the success of its teams figuratively put Oakland on the
map.

It's still there, under an ocean of teardrops.

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© RealClearSports 2009

Newsday: Ichiro comes through as Japan wins WBC title

By Art Spander

Special to Newsday



LOS ANGELES -- There have been some
memorable games at Dodger Stadium, Sandy Koufax's no-hitters, Kirk
Gibson's stunning pinch-hit homer in the 1988 World Series. And now the
final of the 2009 World Baseball Championship has wedged itself into
the group.



It was a game that had seemed
destined to go on forever, and the boisterous record crowd of 54,846,
with probably more Koreans than Japanese, certainly wouldn't have
minded.



But Japan, after 10 innings and four
hours, finally was the 5-3 winner Monday night, defending the
championship it won in the first WBC three years ago and setting off a
celebration highlighted with the Japanese players circling the field
under a mammoth flag of their home country.



Ichiro Suzuki, who playing for the
Seattle Mariners is as well known on this side of the Pacific as the
other, broke a 3-3 tie with his third straight hit and fourth in six
at-bats.



The Japanese, leaving 14 men on
base, should have won easily, but unlike the semifinal win over the
United States on Sunday night Japan couldn't hit with runners on. Until
Suzuki came through.



Daisuke Matsuzaka, who pitched the
win over the U.S., was named tournament most valuable player, but
Monday night's starting pitcher for Japan, Hisashi Iwakuma, very well
could have earned the award. He retired the first 11 Korean batters and
allowed only two runs and four hits before being relieved with two outs
in the eighth.



The huge turnout of fans, the
Koreans banging their Thundersticks incesstantly and repetitively
chanting "Dae Han Min Guk,'' which is another way of saying Korea,
verified the WBC has a place on the sporting calendar. Even without an
American team in the finals.



In 39 games throughout the world,
Asia, Latin America, Canada, the United States, the WBC drew a total of
801,408. The two semis had attendance of more than 43,000 each, and
Monday night's crowd was a virtual sellout.



Venezuela, with a ton of major
leaguers, and the Dominican Republic, also with numerous stars from the
American and National League, were the pre-tournament favorites, but it
should be apparent Japan and Korea, with their discipline and
mistake-free play, have become the dominant teams in international
competition.



Korea won the gold medal at last year's Beijing Olympics, and now Japan takes its second WBC title.



"I believe we were the two best
teams in the world,'' said Jungkeum Bong, Korea's starting pitcher.
"Asia is the best in the world, and Korea and Japan were able to fight
until the end. It was great glory for all of us.''



Japan had three major leaguers in
the lineup, Ichiro, Kenji Johjima of the Mariners and Akinori Iwamura
of the Tampa Bay Rays. Korea's only big leaguer on the roster, Shin Soo
Choo of the Cleveland Indians, was the one who ended Iwakuma's shutout
when he homered in the fifth to tie the game temporarily, 1-1.



The two teams had played four times
previously in the tournament, splitting the games. "That we were able
to come up to the stage together, I really feel great respect for the
Koreans,'' said Tatsunori Hari, the Japan manager.



"And at the same time I feel like this was the game of the century.''



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http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spwbc0324,0,2661697.story

Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

Newsday: U.S. dominance appears to be fading

By Art Spander

Special to Newsday



LOS ANGELES -- Each time an American team fails to win in international
competition, as in the Ryder Cup before 2008 and the World Baseball
Classic, which concluded last night, there are periods of bewilderment
and even anger.



It is as if the United States collectively has failed, as if dropping a
ballgame or not being able to drop a putt is a reflection of society
rather than a sporting event.



There's no rule that says America is guaranteed a win, not when in this
ever-changing world, other nations are producing athletes good enough
to play in the United States as well as against the United States.



The NBA has Latvians, Croats, Brazilians and, of course, Chinese, dare
anyone forget Yao Ming. An Australian, Trevor Immelman, won the
Masters. An Irishman, Padraig Harrington, won the British Open and PGA
Championship. And as we learned Sunday night in the WBC semifinals,
Japan -- which defeated the U.S., 9-4 -- has a roster of excellent
athletes, some of whom are in the big leagues.



Anyone familiar with Ichiro Suzuki or Daisuke Matsuzaka shouldn't be surprised by the Japanese.



It's been said pitching and defense wins. Japan -- which fefeated South
Korea Monday night for the WBC title; the two finalists split four
previous 2009 WBC games -- had an ERA of 1.57 after the semifinals. The
U.S. had an ERA above 6.



The Asian teams, which began training in January, admittedly might be
ahead of the United States. And the United States had injuries to Kevin
Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Ryan Braun, Chipper Jones and Matt Lindstrom.



Manager Davey Johnson, who led the Mets to the 1986 world championship
and the United States to a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics, took flak
Monday for leaving starting pitcher Roy Oswalt in the semifinal game
too long.



"I thought he was throwing the ball all right,'' Johnson said of
Oswalt, who gave up five runs and five hits in the fourth. "I tried to
get [John] Grabow up. I didn't think it would take him so long.''



He added, "It took him longer in the cool weather to get loose. But I
thought Oswalt was throwing good enough to stay in the game.''



Said Brian Roberts, who homered on Matsuzaka's second pitch of the
game: "Baseball may be the national pastime of the United States, but
it is played all around the world. And as you can see, it's played very
well all over the world.''



Said Jimmy Rollins, who was 4-for-4 in the loss: "We had a lot of fun
being an underdog, knowing that we were at somewhat of a disadvantage
as far as having time to prepare. It shows the support and passion
these other countries have for baseball. In America, we have many
sports, so our attention is at whichever sport season is going on."



Mark DeRosa's two-run double in the top of the eighth got the United
States within 6-4, but Japan scored three runs in the bottom of the
inning on Derek Jeter's two-out throwing error, Suzuki's RBI single and
Hiroyuki Nakajima's RBI double that rightfielder Adam Dunn appeared to
lose in the lights.



Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda took it pretty hard. He said
during Sunday night's game: "Can you believe this? Look at the score. I
feel so bad about this. I'm very, very disappointed. We had high hopes.
This is the second time we were supposed to win. We taught these people
the game."



And now the students are schooling the teachers.



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http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spwbc2412578274mar24,0,507049.story

Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

Newsday: Team USA loses to Japan, 9-4, in WBC semifinals

By Art Spander

Special to Newsday



LOS ANGELES -- It was just one ballgame, and it didn't prove that Asian
baseball is better than American baseball. That was the observation of
United States manager Davey Johnson.



Just one ballgame, but it was one that put Japan into the World
Baseball Classic final against South Korea and left America wondering
about the sport it calls its national pastime.



Defending champion Japan, hitting balls in the gaps and getting its
usual effective pitching, defeated the United States, 9-4, last night
before a chilled but enthusiastic crowd of 43,630 in their WBC
semifinal at Dodger Stadium.



So tonight it will be South Korea, a 10-2 winner over deflated
Venezuela on Saturday night, against Japan in the final. And the
response should be huge, with Los Angeles being home to large Korean
and Japanese communities among its 3.2 million citizens.



"It was just one game,'' said Johnson, who managed the Mets to the 1986
world championship and years ago played in Japan. He was responding to
a question about whether Asian baseball has surpassed baseball in the
United States.



"They played good ball,'' Johnson said of the Japanese. "They got hits
with runners in scoring position. We didn't pitch when we had to.''



The Astros' Roy Oswalt was Team USA's starter, and whether it was the
cold -- it seemed more like a World Series game in Philadelphia than a
spring game in L.A. -- or because he still isn't ready for the
major-league season, he got pounded in the fourth, giving up five runs
and five hits.



Japan's Daisuke Matsuzaka -- "Dice-K'' of the Red Sox -- basically was
in control after giving up a home run to Brian Roberts on the game's
second pitch. As were the other Japan pitchers in this competition.
They entered with a 1.20 ERA, compared to the Americans' 6.18.



"When we walked the first hitter,'' Johnson said, "those guys usually
scored. And we weren't as sharp in the field as we usually are.''



"They are a fundamentally sound team,'' Team USA designated hitter
Jimmy Rollins said. "They don't try to drive every pitch out of the
park. And they play with passion. We play with passion, but they wear
their passion on their sleeves.''



The U.S. beat Japan for the bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics, but
once this game got to the fourth inning, it became obvious that the
Americans were in trouble.



"We did want to come here and play Japan,'' Johnson said before the
first pitch. "That's one of the goals we had. I think every player on
this team expects to win tonight.''



But expectations and results are two different things.



The Americans, wearing gray road uniforms, started quickly enough on Roberts' homer.



With darkness still far off -- the game began at 5:09 p.m. PDT -- and
the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance as a perfect backdrop for a
California setting, a Hollywood-type ending seemed imminent. Especially
after the Mets' David Wright doubled in the third to give the U.S. a
2-1 lead.



But Japan's batters lined a couple of balls into open spaces to begin
the fourth off Oswalt, to be followed by an error from Roberts on a
hard shot by Kosuke Fukudome. The Mariners' Kenji Johjima recorded his
second sacrifice fly, and Japan was in front.



Akinori Iwamura, a star for Tampa Bay in the World Series, tripled.
Finally, after a couple more hits, Johnson replaced Oswalt with John
Grabow. It seemed certain that the U.S. would not replace Japan as
champion.



Matsuzaka allowed two runs and five hits in 42/3 innings and was pulled
when he reached 98 pitches. Matsuzaka is 3-0 in this year's WBC, having
allowed 14 hits and four runs in 142/3 innings. He went 3-0 and was
selected tournament MVP three years ago.



Team USA, of course, was without Boston's Dustin Pedroia and Kevin
Youkilis, both injured along the way. They didn't get to face Red Sox
teammate Matsuzaka. "Before Pedroia left,'' Johnson said of last year's
American League Most Valuable Player, "he said one thing he wanted to
do was play the Japanese and beat them so he didn't have to listen to
Dice-K all year long.''



No such luck. Matsuzaka struck out four, including the final batter he
faced, Wright, who was mesmerized by a sharp breaking ball.



The Yankees' Derek Jeter and the Mets' Wright each went 1-for-5 and
committed an error in the semifinal. Wright finished at 9-for-32 (.281)
and Jeter was 8-for-29 (.276).



Johnson, 66, played in Japan, for the Yomiuri Giants and was asked his
opinion of Asian baseball now as compared to when he was involved.



"In the '70s,'' Johnson said, "I thought quite a few players would come
to the United States. I was kind of surprised they didn't. But now
their stars come over and become stars in the United States in the big
leagues.



"So I think their baseball program has grown. Their catchers are
better. The running game is not as prominent. But they'll try to run
and play little ball.''



Japan has 77 hits in the Classic, 61 of which have been singles, and only four home runs.



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http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spwbc2312575374mar23,0,6278814.story

Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

Newsday: U.S. faces familiar face in Japan's Dice-K

BY ART SPANDER
Special to Newsday

LOS ANGELES -- The argument is that the World Baseball Classic doesn't count for much,
at least in America, the country where baseball was invented. That like
the Olympics, it's an event for the rest of the globe, for Latin
America, for Asia.


But what makes sport is personalties, names, reputations. What makes
tonight's WBC semifinal fascinating is that instead of Japan against
the United States at Dodger Stadium, it could be Boston against New
York.


Japan is starting Red Sox righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka. And, of
course, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and Mets third baseman David
Wright are in the Team USA lineup.


(Oddly, Dice-K would have been facing Red Sox teammates Dustin Pedroia
and Kevin Youkilis if they hadn't gotten hurt earlier in the WBC.)


"We face him all the time," Jeter said of Dice-K, who joined the Red
Sox in 2007. "Playing Boston 20 games a year, we see him all the time,
so I'm familiar with what he throws. I think at this point in the
season, pitching is usually a little ahead of the hitters. So it's
going to be a challenge for us."


Wright - whose walk-off two-run single in the bottom of the ninth
against Puerto Rico that sent the United States to the semifinals still
resonates - said he and other National Leaguers will depend on U.S.
players from the other league for advice on Matsuzaka.


"I think we'll be leaning on the AL East guys a lot," Wright said of
the team's approach. "I've never had the opportunity of facing him.
Having some AL East guys is going to help; go over scouting reports and
tendencies."


Whatever happens, the beauty of Wright's game-winner on Tuesday night will stay with the Mets' third baseman a long while.


"I don't think I've ever had so many phone calls and messages after a
game," Wright said. It was his affirmation that some people in this
country do care about this competition.


"That's something, no matter what team you play for or who your
favorite team is in the big leagues, you're talking about representing
your country and putting this uniform on and going out there and being
able to do that. That would be a memory that lasts a lifetime."


Astros righthander Roy Oswalt has a chance to make memories of his own.
He's the U.S. starter against defending WBC champion Japan.


"They told me they wanted me to go first and Jake [Peavy] second," said
Oswalt, alluding to tomorrow's championship game against South Korea or
Venezuela - if Team USA can get past the semifinals.


Then, echoing the thoughts of his teammates, Oswalt added, "Hopefully, he gets to go second."


If he doesn't, if Japan wins, the Team USA players will return a bit
earlier to their major-league teams for two more weeks of spring
training.


"The reason I'm here this time," said Jeter - who competed in the 2006
WBC, in which the United States didn't make it past the second round -
"is you realized what an honor it was to represent your country and win
a championship."


This time the Americans still have the chance.


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http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-spusa226079217mar22,0,7413449.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

RealClearSports: The $40 Million Man Comes Back

By Art Spander

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The pain is gone. The one in his shoulder that
is. And Alex Smith says the figurative one, that of being called a
failure, of being described as a $40 million bust, also has
disappeared. His second act is about to begin.

So much glory. So much disappointment. Alex Smith was the No. 1 pick
in the 2005 draft, a placement he seemingly began to appreciate less
and less as the months passed and the criticism grew.

The San Francisco 49ers threw the dice, if you will, but as we know
the NFL draft is more scientific than that. Then again, their new head
coach at the time, Mike Nolan, now deposed and departed, gave a few
weird reasons for grabbing Smith. Especially when in the Bay Area the
popular choice would have been another quarterback, Aaron Rodgers of
Cal.

We're a strange breed, the sporting community. Management makes the
selections, but if and when those selections do not meet expectations,
outlandish or legitimate, we take out our anger on the athlete.

Nobody booed Mike Nolan, whose future was tied to Smith. A great many booed Alex. Before they pitied him.

The Niners, through perception or luck, were a team of quarterbacks,
great quarterbacks, from Frankie Albert in the 1950s through John
Brodie, to the Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Steve Young, and then
after that, Jeff Garcia.

This wasn't three yards and a cloud of mud territory; it was a place
for the wide-open game, a style as irrepressible as the region in which
it was utilized, the place of cable cars, protest marches and residents
who sometimes seemed as interested in the tailgate party as the final
score.

Alex Smith, then only 20, was anointed the hero in waiting. Poor
lad. It's a theory that quarterbacks from unorthodox college offenses, the
spread, the run-and-shoot, don't adapt well to the NFL, where the
defenders are bigger, faster and smarter. And we are presented names
such as David Klingler or Andre Ware as examples.

At Utah, Smith played in the spread of Urban Meyer. OK. But Nolan
seemed less concerned with the how and what than with Smith's agility
and reaction time. Nolan ran Smith through some strange tests, not on
how far he could hurl a football but on how quickly he could jump a
rope.

That said, Northern California, having lost most of its sports
icons, Montana, Young, Jerry Rice, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and
shortly to lose Barry Bonds, was desperate for a new star. Alex was
shoved into the starting lineup, probably before he was ready.

He was injured while trying to run, not pass. The Niners changed
offensive coordinators, bringing in Norv Turner, and in 2006 Smith
showed progress.

But the Niners in 2007 changed offensive coordinators again. Smith
was injured again, more severely. Nolan publicly questioned Smith's
toughness. The Niners in 2008 changed offensive coordinators again, to
Mike Martz. Smith was injured again, the same shoulder, and was placed
on the injured reserve list, with a dispassionate Nolan adding, “No
specifics. All I need to know is if he'll be back on this football
team."

After a restructuring of that enormous contract, Smith is. Nolan,
however, is not. He was fired two months into the '08 season, replaced
by Mike Singletary. Shaun Hill became Singletary's quarterback, but
maybe Alex Smith could return to where he once was, without the baggage.

“That draft pick, all of that is not what I think about," said
Smith. The 49ers on Friday began a weekend mini-camp, a re-introduction
of Alex Smith, a newlywed with a new vision.

“My focus after the last two years is getting healthy and being out
on the field," Smith emphasized. "Kind of being with my teammates. It
was so difficult last year and the year before to sit on the sidelines
and watch or be in the training room. You're part of the team, but
you're not. You don't travel, aren't really there, have no
accountability to teammates. I want to get that back. It's something I
really missed. My goal is to be the player I can be."

What kind of player is that? A quarterback who has particularly
small hands and therefore fumbled an inordinate amount when he did play?

A quarterback whose legs are no less significant than his arm and could keep defenses off balance?

Smith wants to be a quarterback who, despite working under a fifth
offensive coordinator in five years, Jimmy Raye, has the adaptability
and perception to do what is required, most of all win games for a
franchise that had lost its way along with a great many games.

“What I learned through all this," Smith said, reflecting on his
mess of a career, “is to stop worrying about the stuff you can't
control. Early on, when you're a young player, it's easy to be
distracted. I want to focus on things on which I can really make a
difference."

He has the chance. Four years after he had it a first time.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports
history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his
long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has
earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has
recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of
America for 2009.

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http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/03/40-million-man-comes-back.html
© RealClearSports 2009

Baron comes back, and so do the questions

OAKLAND – He was back, if as a bittersweet
reminder, and so were our questions. So were the "What ifs?" So was the
unavoidable reality that the team that lost Baron Davis hasn't done a
thing without him, and the team that lured him away for an oil sheik's
fortune has done even less.



Baron was out there in the red uniform of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Baron on the floor at Oracle Arena, where he had been a star for the
Warriors.

 

Who lost him last summer, because of a $65 million contract.

    

Or maybe because of their own negligence.

    

Or maybe because they believed they didn't need a 10-year veteran who seemed to be hurt as much as he was healthy.

    

Baron has taken some shots lately in L.A. The figurative kind. There
were those injuries – with Baron, always there are those injuries – and
an apparent lackadaisical attitude.

    

For $65 million, in his hometown, in the place where he went to school, UCLA, Baron was supposed to be a savior.

     

But can anybody ever save the Clippers, the NBA franchise that couldn't and never will?

    

Baron, having missed 15 games, has not been able.

   

Against his old team Tuesday night, Davis had 29 points and seven
assists, but that couldn't stop the Warriors from a 127-120 win.

    

One Los Angeles Times columnist, T.J. Simers, called Baron a
dog. Another, Kurt Streeter, a bit kinder, induced Davis to concede,
"This has been the worst year of my NBA career and the least fun I've
ever had."

  

The basketball cognoscenti might have predicted as much. The Clippers
are not only the second team in a one-team town, virtually undetectable
beyond the Lakers, they are historically inept, a symbol of sporting
incompetence, a punch line of Jay Leno jokes.

   

It's awful for Baron and the Clips (they now have a 16-51 record). It's
not so great for the Warriors either. They've had their own failings,
their own ailments. Management foresaw Monta Ellis as the quite
adequate replacement for Davis, but he missed weeks after that
cockamamie moped accident.

    

What if Baron had stayed? The idea is tossed at Davis, who steps
lightly on a line between diplomacy and disrespect. "I don't know," he
begins. "I'm a real optimistic person. I figured we came off a 48-win
season (in 2008), winning more games each year we were playing
together, so who knows what would have happened.

  

"But I definitely know we would have been in playoff contention and a good team to be reckoned with."

  

Coaches and teammates are different from fans. They judge on individual
merit. The paying customers consider the uniform, "the laundry," as
someone once said.

  

An athlete leaves as a free agent, if free ever should be a reference
when $65 million is concerned, and the people who buy the tickets
consider him a traitor to the cause.

   

Warriors coach Don Nelson said he would be "disappointed" if Baron were
booed in pregame introductions. After all, Nelson contended Baron was
"one of my favorite players" and along with Steve Nash, who Nellie had
at Dallas, the best of the point guards he'd been permitted to coach.

  

Davis was less demanding. "There probably will be a mixed reaction,"
Baron said. "I'll take whatever I can get. I'll be appreciative of the
cheers I do get. It just shows class, the level of mutual respect I
have for the fans and the fans for my time here."

 

Indeed the reaction was mixed but more positive than negative, some
fans, recalling that "We Believe" playoff fantasy of two seasons past,
when Baron indeed was royalty, even offering a standing ovation.

  

In L.A. there is but one basketball hero, Kobe Bryant. Baron was
brought in not so much to counter Kobe the Unconquerable, as create a
presence and – we turn our heads and chuckle in private –  make
the Clips a contender.

  

Baron has been noticed, if not as hoped. But he says what others,
particularly journalists, think of him is not taken personally. Just as
was the occasional jeer Tuesday when he handled the ball.

 

"I let things run off my shoulders," was his response. "I have big
shoulders. I'm here to do one thing, that's to win, to get this team
where it needs to be. That's my mission. So if I'm criticized or
ridiculed, I accept it and use it as motivation to continue to get
better."

   

If that bears a resemblance to one of those Hollywood script speeches,
well, Baron is peripherally involved in the movie business, one of the
reasons we're advised he deserted the Warriors after three and a half
seasons.

 

Baron would speak no ill. Monta Ellis, Davis thinks, "is a great
player," and now powerless general manager Chris Mullin "a legend, a
Hall of Famer, someone who's always going to be in my corner and I'm
going to be in his."

    

Baron's in another sort of corner these days, but the memories are
sustaining. "I have admiration for these fans, the people in the Bay
Area. That playoff run, the fact it brought the whole community
together I'll always have. I'll always be able to cherish."

  

It was great, but it's gone. And unlike Baron, it may not return for a long while.

Shaq and the NBA's good old days

OAKLAND -- Call him what you will --
Diesel, the Big Socrates, or by his name, Shaq. It doesn't matter, if
you don't call him finished. Which people were doing a few months back
in describing Shaquille O'Neal.



Finished? "I've been watching him since he was 15," said Alvin Gentry. "He's never been finished. You saw what he can do."



And what the Phoenix Suns can do. Which is what the critics said they never could do with Shaq in the lineup: run.

   

Turn a basketball game into a track meet. As the Suns did Sunday night,
beating the Golden State Warriors, 154-130. Without any overtimes.

  

It was like the good old days when the NBA was a league of grace, glory
and points, like the days before the game became one of shoving and
bumping and scores in the 90s or the 80s, something more resembling
wrestling than basketball.

   

Phoenix picked up Shaq in a trade just about a year ago, intending to
add muscle to speed. When the plan didn't work, the critics sneered.

    

Shaq and Steve Nash? That's like trying to blend Santa Claus and Tinkerbell.

   

"He's a proud guy," Gentry said of O’Neal. "Everybody felt he was done.
But as you can see, he's still a huge factor. He gives us the best of
both worlds. We can run or we can set up. If you don't double-team him,
he goes inside. If you do, he passes off. Arguably, he's the best big
man who ever played in this league."

   

Against the Warriors, in his second game in two nights – Saturday the
Suns were home against Oklahoma City – 37-year-old Shaq O'Neal,
7-foot-1, 325 pounds, played a few seconds less than 24 minutes and had
26 points. He was 11-of-13 from the field, 4-of-9 from the free throw
line.

   

"I accept all challenges," said O'Neal.

    

He is sitting in front of his locker, looking bemused. The man has a
great sense of humor. Also of timing. As we saw when he danced at the
opening of the All-Star Game program before he became the co-MVP with
Kobe Bryant.

 

"People have been saying I can't do this, can't do that," said O'Neal.
"I have four championships. I would like to get two or three more."

  

The Warriors couldn't match up against Shaq, not with their 7-footer,
Andris Biedrins, recovering from a sprained ankle. The Warriors
couldn't match up against the Suns. Phoenix had 120 points at the end
of three quarters. Say all you want about defense, but offense like
this is delightful.

  

The late Wilt Chamberlain told us again and again, "Nobody roots for
Goliath," and it's true there's a tendency to favor a smaller guy
against a bigger one. But Shaq is lovable, a jester, and for the heck
of it he has a master's degree. He's easy to cheer for.

   

Years ago, in the same building where the Suns crushed the Warriors,
Shaq, then with the Los Angeles Lakers, was telling about his life's
objectives during a break from a late-morning practice.

  

"I'd like to be somebody like Larry Ellison," said O'Neal, alluding to
the head of Oracle, the dot-com giant located down the highway in
Silicon Valley. "Now there's a man with real money."

   

Maybe someday, Shaq responded when reminded of the comment. That still
was a goal. If not quite as realistic as again scoring 40 points, which
he did against Toronto, becoming the third in NBA history to do it in
the uniform of four different teams.

 

A year ago, Shaq averaged 12.9 points in the 28 games he played for the
Suns. "A lot of people thought I lost it," he conceded. "I was injured.
It's kind of funny, when people say I'm injured nobody really believes
me. This is my 17th season, but I've really only played about 13
seasons because of the injuries. I have years left."

   

Earlier in March, one of Shaq's numerous former coaches, Stan Van Gundy
of Miami, whined about O’Neal "flopping" in the lane to draw a foul.
Shaq, the gentle giant, was less than gentle in his reaction.

 

"I heard his comment," Shaq said of Van Gundy. "Flopping to me is doing
it more than one time, and I realized when I tried to take the charge
as I went down, I realized that play reminded me of his whole coaching
career."

 

O'Neal had a better relationship with Warriors coach Don Nelson, for
whom he played on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team. "He was my sixth man,"
said Nelson. "He asked me if he could come off the bench. I said fine.
I love him to death."

  

If Nelson, who eventually was ejected Sunday night with a couple of
quick technical fouls, didn't love what Shaq did to his team. Finished?
Shaquille O'Neal's only just begun.



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© RealClearSports 2009