RealClearSports: Roddick Past His Prime But Playing Well

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- He's the best in his sport in America. At one time he was the best in the world. Yet Andy Roddick is no different than the rest of us when someone asks if he has a feeling of what it's like to be Tiger Woods.

"No,'' said Roddick. "Not like that. I'm not going to pretend to understand what it's like to be in that sort of situation. I don't know that any athlete can really relate to what's going on right there.''

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Tiger's back in the swing of things

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It’s not so much how Tiger Woods responds, how he plays when he is again in competitive golf — and yes, the choice of the Masters becomes more sensible by the moment — but how we respond to Tiger Woods.

Already, Sean McManus, the president of CBS news and sports, decreed Tiger’s return “will be the biggest media event other than the Obama inauguration the past 10 or 15 years.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Bay Area schools step into the spotlight

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Montgomery’s supposition was impossible to argue: “No matter how good you think you are,” the Cal coach said, “you’re playing other people who have won games.”

Then again, those other people are playing you, because you’ve also won games.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Hunter's Poor Word Choice Could Bring Change

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He didn't mean it. That's what one of his teammates said of Torii Hunter's remarks. One of his Latin teammates, Bobby Abreu.

"If he said that,'' was Abreu's observation of an unfortunate statement by Torii Hunter dealing with race, "I'm sure he didn't mean it.''

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: The Book on Willie Mays

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- He sits in the clubhouse of the San Francisco Giants' spring headquarters, spectacles pushed atop his head, sometimes playing cards, frequently playing with our memories.

Willie Mays seems his age now, 78, hearing reduced, eyesight inhibited. Yet in the mind's eye he remains forever young.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Monty has helped make Cal relevant again

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

BERKELEY — The Warriors years have been erased. Imagine they never happened. Think of Mike Montgomery going from a successful career at Stanford to a successful career at Cal. That’s what has happened in the Golden Bears’ media guide.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Let's hope there's good reason 49ers want Carr

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Sifting through the tea leaves or the sack numbers, whichever makes more sense, there’s no conclusion yet to be drawn from the arrival of David Carr as the 49ers’ newest quarterback other than the fact Shaun Hill is about to become the 49ers’ newest ex-quarterback.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Will the Milton Bradley Problem Be Solved?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PEORIA, Ariz. - Maybe it works this time. Maybe the presence of someone Milton Bradley so admires he would ask for his autograph makes a difference.

Maybe the anger which has caused a nearly ritual dismissal by team after team does not get in the way of the talent which causes a nearly ritual acquisition by team after team.

Maybe. Just maybe.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: America's Infatuation with Hockey Is Over

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

We've had this infatuation before, after the World Cup was held in the United States in 1994, maybe after the women's World Cup win, in the same stadium where the '99 final was played, the Rose Bowl. America was soccer mad, like Europe and South America, was the wild proclamation.

Not at all. America was merely being America, a nation excited for a time about a special event, a competition that for that day was must-see, like a Super Bowl or a Kentucky Derby. Make it seem important enough and you can sell out anything from log rolling to curling.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Zito anxious to reclaim top role

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — The Z Man. That’s the label. At least the most positive one. Barry Zito has been called a lot of things the last three years, many of them unpleasant, which is the nature of failed expectations.

But in this, his fourth season with the Giants, who knows what to expect from Zito?

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: A's deflect distractions to concentrate on baseball

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — This is about the other team from the Bay — the one which chooses to put faded tarps on a third of the seats of its stadium, the one which makes us remember the way it was and causes us to think it never will be that way again.

This is about the would-be-San-Jose-but-shouldn’t-leave-Oakland A’s.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Say Hey, Mays Thinks Tiger Should Come Back Soon

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. --  Some 15 miles from the Tournament Players Club, Willie Mays sat in the clubhouse of the San Francisco Giants' spring training facility, asking questions and giving opinions about Tiger Woods.

"When's he coming back?" wondered Mays, the baseball Hall of Famer, echoing everyone else.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post

Global Golf Post: Tour Leaves Wild, Wild West in Rear View Mirror

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- And now back to our regular programming. Back to tournaments when marshals hold up one of those "QUIET!" signs and there's a chance somebody might respond. To tournaments when the sun goes down fans start to leave, not continue to arrive.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: The Loudest, Craziest Hole in Golf

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- There's a Red Cross balloon attached to the grandstand. And this is a golf tournament, in a matter of speaking. Or a matter of drinking. Welcome to the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the place where no insult goes unshouted.

It's the bleachers at Fenway with an undulating green, a rock concert mosh pit with bunkers. It's the place where a bad shot is booed. Just like Barry Bonds. Or the Celtics at Staples Center. 

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Tiger begins to rebuild with apology

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — His enrollment in college the fall of 1994 made him part of a group of freshman the New York Times found impressive enough to headline, “Stanford Unveils A Five-Star Lineup.”

They were a gymnast, Dominque Dawes; basketball-volleyball star Kristen Folkl; two tennis champions, Paul Goldstein and Scott Humphries; and a golfer, Tiger Woods.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: And The Winner Is...

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

MARANA, ARIZ. -- In the end, the winner of the Accenture Match Play Championship was Accenture. Ian Poulter was the one holding the trophy. Tiger Woods might have been the one holding golf hostage. But Accenture finished first.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: Els Was on Target With Tiger

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

MARANA, Ariz. -- Ernie Els nailed this one. He was on target. Tiger Woods only would be on cue. Only acting out a carefully staged production.

Only telling us how he made mistakes. And telling us during the golf tournament in which Els was playing before he got eliminated.

Which is why Els nailed this one. And nailed Tiger, figuratively that is. Said on the record what many of Els fellow golf pros were saying in private.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: Despite Controversy, Olympics a Success for NBC

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

That was an interesting report from the Wall Street Journal, the piece which said the luge track for the Olympics, the one where a young man crashed to his death, the one designed to be steeper, faster and narrower than any in the past, would allow racers to reach speeds some officials said were unsafe.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Warriors on the brink of irrelevance

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — So what’s worse news, that the Sharks aren’t playing because of the Olympic break, or that the Warriors are?

Maybe Larry Ellison can sail his zillion-dollar boat right up to Chris Cohan’s doorstep, metaphorically if not literally, and get this sale under way. If there is to be a sale.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company