RealClearSports: Greatness on a Monday Night

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It was Jimmy Cannon who wrote that it all comes down to man being great at something. He was referring specifically to Joe Namath, but the words are inclusive in sports, and the idea must be expanded to include women.

In the end, after the scandals and the embarrassments, the games and those who play them at the highest levels are what keep us from turning away, from giving up. We’re stubborn and maybe stupid. We’re also dreamers.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Serena Makes a Mess of Everything

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK – She was outplayed, and Serena Williams came close to making that concession in as many words. So in a way the other words, including the pointed, bitter ones she spewed at the chair umpire during the match, could be considered incidental.

Except nothing Serena does, from the way she sports those shredded shoulder T-shirts after matches to the manner she avoids direct answers to most questions is incidental.



Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: In the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11, we've grown stronger

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It was supposed to be the men’s singles final today, but fate and the weather have upset the schedule. On this painful anniversary, on a court in a complex only a few miles from ground zero, it will be the ladies who take the stage at the U.S. Open.

Aside the Long Island Expressway from Manhattan to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, a route contestants, officials and media travel, there is a billboard with only three words: “Honor. Remember. Unite.”



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Roddick Takes Step Down in Venue, Steps Up His Play

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK — When you're used to the red carpet, what happens when you have to get your feet wet?



Symbolism is as much a part of sport as everything else in life, or, to borrow that military reminder, rank has its privileges. Tennis, it follows, has its courts.

The stars get the best venues, which they expect ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: 49ers could feel some growing pains this season

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Perspective is a word fans do not like and often don’t understand. They are looking for wins and championships, not explanations or reference points. Yet for the 49ers, in what surely will be a transition season, perspective may become the saving grace.

Jim Harbaugh has arrived ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Pac-12 commissioner Scott just staying competitive in NCAA

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The way Larry Scott is remolding the Pac-10 — err Pac-12, um, Pac-16 — is no surprise to those here in New York at the U.S. Open. They saw the way he reworked what once was called the Women’s Tennis Association but now goes only by the initials WTA.

Scott was the demon of change when he served for six years as the chairman and CEO of the tour.



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: The (Too) Long Nights at the Open

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK – “In a real dark night of the soul, it’s always 3 o’clock in the morning.” That’s from F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it came to mind during a changeover and between yawns as Roger Federer battled Juan Monaco.



New York is the city that never sleeps. Nobody wrote it’s the city where it never rains, because Tuesday the U.S. Open Tennis Championships were washed out and there was no play. Well, there was, for 1 hour, 12 minutes.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: American Revolution at U.S. Open

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Andy Roddick called it a healthy jealousy. It looks more like an American revolution. The country that couldn't do anything right in tennis has done very little wrong for the last few days. At last, the U.S. Open is no longer closed to U.S. male players.

The sport still belongs to those from across the Atlantic - Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer - until proved differently. But here we are into the second week of the Open, and four of the 16 men remaining are Americans.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: At Stanford, it all starts with with Luck

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

"Athletes at Stanford are not heroes." A sociology professor at the university, one Sanford Dorenbusch, said that to Sports Illustrated in 1972 when the mood in America, trying to extricate itself from Vietnam, was very unheroic and the mood at Stanford was not much different than it is now.

The school takes itself seriously, selects its students carefully and deals with athletic success in a blend of pride and embarrassment ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Serena Gives a Bravura Performance

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK — It won't be a sister act for a while. So call it a Serena solo. And it's quite a show. Across the river on Broadway, they'd describe the performance as bravura. On Arthur Ashe Court at the U.S. Open, it was just a good old rout.



The day after Venus Williams announced she was withdrawing from the tournament because of a fatiguing disease called Sjogren's syndrome, Serena in effect announced she was very much a possibility to win another championship.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Disease Puts Venus' Career in Jeopardy

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK — There is always skepticism about the Williams sisters, some of it unjustified, some of it very logical.



The questionable injuries, such as when Venus pulled out four minutes before a scheduled semifinal against Serena at Indian Wells because of tendinitis.

The often expressed belief, especially among other players ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Sun appears to be setting on Giants' season, Venus Williams’ career

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It was here in the Big Apple 60 years ago that Chuck Dressen, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, declared in a statement that some English teachers defended on the grounds a team is a collective noun, “The Giants is dead.”

The New York Giants weren’t — coming back from a 13½-game August deficit to force a playoff with the Dodgers, which resulted in the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” by Bobby Thomson.



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Manning's Presence Defines the Colts

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

This is similar to the way it started for Joe Montana, an injury that didn't seem like much, an elbow injury in August 1991 that didn't heal for two years.

An elbow injury that stopped his career with the San Francisco 49ers, who were fortunate enough to have Steve Young in reserve and after those two years grudgingly traded Montana to Kansas City.

Maybe the neck problem for Peyton Manning isn't that serious ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Optimism remains for Giants despite season rife with issues

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The headline wasn’t wrong. "Injuries Leave Big Holes for the Giants to Patch." That was in the New York Times. About the New York football Giants, not to be confused with the San Francisco baseball Giants, who have as many big holes because of injuries and virtually no time to patch them.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Ailing Al Davis Still Calling Shots

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND — You asked if Al Davis still was calling the shots for the Oakland Raiders? Now you know. Terrelle Pryor is your answer, even if he never becomes the answer to the team's future quarterback questions.

Who cares if Terrelle's a disappointment — the word 'bust' is reserved for JaMarcus Russell — when Pryor gets you to the top of the USA Today sports section as he did Tuesday.



Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: San Francisco's Candlestick Park turns into combat zone

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

So now what do we tell L.A.? That we have as many thugs at our sporting events as they do? That Candlestick Park is every bit as dangerous as Dodger Stadium? That the scofflaws and punks have imposed their will on society, just like in Southern California?

Fans entering NFL games are patted down. As if it does any good. Fights — brawls, really ...



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Will Jackson's Enthusiasm Win for Raiders?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NAPA, Calif. — He is behind a temporary podium facing the setting sun. Not a comfortable position for Hue Jackson, but neither is his new job, head coach of the Oakland Raiders, the franchise that used to be.

America knows this city and valley, some 40 miles north of San Francisco. The country's wine capital. Grapes not of wrath but of potency and fame.

America knew the Raiders as the demons of the NFL. "The autumn wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun ..."

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Quarterback questions loom for Bay Area football teams

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Yes, as Jim Harbaugh pointed out, we love talking about the quarterback position. Why wouldn’t we? Arguably, it’s the most important in any team sport. It’s the position that wins games. Or loses them.

We know quarterbacks. We’ve watched Joe Montana and Steve Young and Jim Plunkett. What we don’t know, after six seasons, is whether Alex Smith...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: What's Next for Tiger? Anything?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

A year ago to call Ryan Vogelsong a journeyman would have been an exaggeration. More accurately, he was a bust who had pitched poorly on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and at age 33, just released by a Triple-A team, appeared finished in baseball.

Appeared. Sunday, with the San Francisco Giants, who last winter gave him a second chance as a non-roster invitee, Vogelsong improved his season record to 10-2.

This bit of history is provided for those who think Tiger Woods is done as a champion ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

Global Golf Post: Torment + Triple-Bogeys Equal PGA Championship

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

JOHNS CREEK, GEORGIA — During a week it seemed PGA stood for Professional Golfers Anonymous, the year's final major, to paraphrase the promotional slogan, indeed became glory's last shot. To the ribs.

The 93rd PGA Championship was not so much a tournament as a torment ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 Global Golf Post