RealClearSports: Questions About Tebow's Actions On and Off the Field

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

How do you look at Tim Tebow? As the quarterback trying to impress the scouts at Senior Bowl practice? Or as the spokesman for what critics contend is an anti-abortion ad to be broadcast by CBS-TV during the Super Bowl?

At the moment, he's both. It's odd. And awkward. One instant he's being quizzed about reading defenses. The next, someone alludes to him reading the bible.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Giants win this round against NY

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s usually the Giants or A’s who are left standing with their mouths open and checkbooks closed. Especially when a team from New York is involved.

That’s why re-signing Bengie Molina was of itself a small triumph. The guy can barely hobble down to first base. We know that.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Analysis: When Hope Is Hopeless

in ,
By Art Spander

LA QUINTA, CALIF. -- There was a time, before ESPN, before an NHL team showed up in Tampa, before the major leagues went to Denver and Phoenix, that sport was different.

We were happy for small favors, pleased when people such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope gave us golf tournaments that were as much about entertainment as competition.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: Tiger News Won't Die Down

in , ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- The back cover of the tabloid New York Post was what we would expect, a photo of a Jets running back. The team's biggest game in years is Sunday against the Colts. Overkill is permissible. Jets, Jets Jets.

But that's the back cover.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: Yogi, Wisest Fool of the Past 50 Years

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- Steroids? "I don't even know what steroids look like,'' said Yogi Berra. But he knows what baseball looks like. And life looks like. And success looks like.

Lawrence Peter Berra, 84, master of the malaprop, genuine good guy, genuinely great ballplayer, full of stories but not of himself, was talking about everyone from Bob Hope to Mark McGwire.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Chargers no strangers to falling short in postseason

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

This is the conundrum for sports fans: Is it better to have a bad or mediocre team — the Raiders and 49ers immediately come to mind — that numbs you into a state of indifference, or one like the San Diego Chargers that raises hopes and then inevitably collapses?

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): Revis again shows he can handle tall task

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO -- That stuff about a good little man not being able to handle a good big man? The size is relative, of course, but for Darrelle Revis, considered small at 5-11, all the talk is just so much talk.

Read the full story here (subscription only).

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Sanchez transformed from spectator to winning QB

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO -- The eye black hadn't been removed. Neither had the feeling that everything in his career was going absolutely perfectly. The fates brought Mark Sanchez to Qualcomm Stadium again, but this time it was as a player, not just a spectator.

Read the full story here (subscription only).

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: There Are No Morals in These Stories

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Was sport always this crazy? Did basketball players 30 years ago think they needed a bigger arsenal than Wyatt Earp?

Did football coaches leave town faster than a guy being chased by a sheriff and then get a royal welcome the next place they put down their clipboard?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: At USC, Coach Isn't a Job, It's a Role

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

At the University of Southern California, football coach is less a job than a role. A man must know his X's and O's certainly, but as importantly in the movie capital, where there's no business like show business, he must know how to shake a hand and tell a joke.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Bay Area stars pioneered steroid era

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — A few sniffles from Mark McGwire. Did someone say there’s no crying in baseball? Of course there is. Our pal, Barry Bonds, cried long ago on the Roy Firestone show.

And you thought the suspected (and, for one, acknowledged) use of steroids was the only thing that linked the home run kings.

Obviously, it’s the Bay Area influence. Not for teardrops, but for substance abuse.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Colt Is the Real McCoy

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- This is southern California at its luxurious best, the Marriott Hotel on a bluff, the Pacific in the distance, the outside temperature in the mid 70s.

Except the kid wearing the white jersey with No. 12 on the front is inside, and his view is of cameras, microphones and prying journalists.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: New year doesn't bring much hope for Bay Area sports

in , , , ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — This is a happy new year? The 49ers reveling because they didn’t lose more games than they won. The Raiders groping because they did lose more games than they won. The Warriors making us wish it were baseball season. The Giants and A’s making us wonder why we should wish it were baseball season.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Terrelle Pryor Proves He's a Quarterback

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA -­- Isn't this what he was supposed to do? Wasn't Terrelle Pryor rated the best prep football player in the land a couple of seasons ago? Didn't everyone contend when Ohio State picked up Pryor it picked up a national championship? Or at the least a BCS bowl game win?

It hadn't worked that way. Until Friday night. Until the first evening of 2010.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: Texas Tech Mess Perfect End to Decade

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

How appropriate this decade of sporting tragic-comedy, these 10 years of tainted home runs and personal scandal, when a lab in Northern California became infamous for steroids and a golfer in Florida became famous for immorality, would come to a close with a football coach and a school wallowing in embarrassment.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010