RealClearSports: Palmer Gets 'a Little Piece of the Action'

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Carson Palmer called the week surrealistic, an appropriate word when one begins by getting on a plane in one city and ends by throwing three interceptions in another.

Maybe Palmer indeed will prove the quarterback savior the Oakland Raiders thought was so desperately needed they sent off a couple of first-round draft picks to wedge him loose from the Cincinnati Bengals and the inactivity he had imposed on himself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh is doing it his way

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Who cares about decorum? If the people running the 49ers — meaning Jed York — cared about decorum, protocol or manners, they might have hired someone who knew how to shake hands.

Instead, they hired someone who knows how to win football games. Shake that.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: For Raiders, Future Is Now Or Never

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

ALAMEDA, Calif. – Of course it’s a smart move. Maybe it wouldn’t have been for the New England Patriots or Green Bay Packers, but these are the Oakland Raiders, who went out and traded a couple of first-round picks for Carson Palmer.

The Oakland Raiders who suddenly are grabbing at brass rings, grabbing headlines and most of all grabbing games.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Raiders Audacious, Resilient, Winning

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. - Something's happening here on the east shore of San Francisco Bay. Something strange, something emotional, something that has brought together an audacious coach, resilient players and an relenting belief in the spirit of a man whose basic concept of sport as in life could be reduced to three words: "Just win, baby."

Just win. Al Davis said that a thousand times.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 RealClearSports

RealClearSports: USC Not Stopped by Sanctions, Cal

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The gulls showed up as always, drawn by the leftovers and the lights. Not an Alfred Hitchcock movie, although it made you think of one.

Cal football at a baseball park, at AT&T, where a year ago the Giants were in the postseason and right now Cal is in a funk. The Bears' own stadium across the bay in Berkeley is being renovated. The Bears' season looks like it could use some renovation of its own.

Read the full story here.


© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Al Davis had lasting impact on 49ers, Raiders coaches

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The man knew football. Also football coaches. Al Davis gave Jim Harbaugh his first pro coaching position. Al Davis gave Hue Jackson his first pro head coaching position.

Davis had his well-reported faults, but consider his virtues. Those two gentlemen always will.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Jury Still Out On Woods' Game

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

SAN MARTIN, CALIFORNIA — He still can play golf. Still can break 70. Tiger Woods may not be what he was two years ago but seemingly neither is Tiger what he was two months ago.

The tournament he needed may not have been exactly the reassurance golf needed but it was progress.

Anybody but Tiger and a golfer returning from a two-month layoff...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 Global Golf Post

Newsday (N.Y.): Fan throws hot dog at Tiger Woods

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN MARTIN, Calif. -- Tiger Woods got the competition he wanted and almost got a gift he didn't want: a hot dog hurled at him by a fan at the seventh green.

It was part of a wild Sunday at the Frys.com Open in which Woods recorded a third straight 68 and, no less significantly, Briny Baird recorded his 348th tournament without a victory.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Al Davis: Great, Devious, Imperious

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He believed in white suits -- double-knit -- and lawsuits. In late-night phone calls and early-morning training camp cutdowns. In loyalty and intimidation and, as he made clear, more than anything, Al Davis believed in winning.

Davis died Saturday at 82 in Oakland, Calif., a surprise, although he had been ailing. Al seemed if not immortal then indefatigable, a lone individual refusing to bend or buckle, clinging to his ways and even to life itself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger starts to get his mojo back

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN MARTIN, Calif. -- He said he's figured out the course, which he never had seen until Wednesday. More importantly, Tiger Woods said he's figured out himself.

In going forward, Woods in effect moved back toward the Tiger that golf once knew.

Woods shot a second straight 3-under...

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Poor putting plagues Tiger Woods at Frys.com Open

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The mantra of golf is “It ain’t how, it’s how many.” Style points aren’t counted, strokes are. And the most important are those on the greens, which can save a round, or for Tiger Woods on Thursday, ruin one.

“This is probably the worst putting round I’ve ever had,” Woods said. Maybe an exaggeration. Maybe not.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Tiger Needs Low Score, Not Validation

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN MARTIN, Calif. — It's not about validation. Tiger Woods made that point. What he didn't make were putts. He's back, playing again, but the return hardly looked like he's back as a dominant golfer. Or even a challenging golfer.

Day One of the rest of Tiger's career took place Thursday at the Frys.com Open at CordeValle Golf Club, a charming but difficult little course carved into the coastal foothills 80 miles south of San Francisco. It's not far from Mission San Juan Bautista, which Alfred Hitchcock used as a setting in "Vertigo."

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Tiger Woods changes dynamic of Bay Area golf event

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

One man, and the dynamics changed. One man, and a golf tournament not everyone noticed a year ago is receiving star treatment. Tiger Woods arrives, and suddenly the Frys.com Open has arrived.

He needed some game action, as it were, competition. The Frys, opposite pro and college football and the baseball playoffs, needed a boost. Both sides are delighted.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Raiders Not Equal of Patriots Yet

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — Team efficiency showed up again. One game's mistakes for the New England Patriots became the next game's corrections, the way the Oakland Raiders became the Pats' victims Sunday.

And, no, the balance of power in the NFL is not about to change.

Whatever this matchup proved...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Snakebitten from the start, San Francisco Giants had few high points

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What happened to the Giants? The better question is, what didn’t happen to the Giants?

From Opening Day, when they were beaten by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw — and Buster Posey was still healthy — there was a sense this year might be as frustrating as last year was elating.



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Should Raiders Be Taken Seriously?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — Echoes of the past are reverberating. Like a 4.5 Richter Scale reading on the Hayward Fault, which runs along the hills not far from the O.co Coliseum, there is a rumbling large enough to create interest but not quite large enough to create concern.



What to think of the Raiders, where Al Davis seemingly has done what was needed after years of hiring coaches and firing coaches and trying virtually every living soul at quarterback?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Fitting farewell for San Francisco Giants in season finale

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

This is the way it ends, with a lot of cheers, a few tears and, once again, if not an unused ticket in a ballpark sold out from first game to last, certainly a lot of unfulfilled hopes.

In this season of 2011, the year after the World Series, the Giants broke their all-time attendance record, luring 3,387,303 fans. Yet in their attempt to repeat as Series champions, they couldn’t even get to the playoffs, breaking a great many hearts.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Stanford's Luck Mixing Passes and Classes

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — The should-have-been No. 1 pick of last spring’s NFL draft, the quarterback who stayed to finish things as student and athlete, was asked now that Stanford has started its academic year, what it was like again mixing classes and passes.

“I love not having school,’’ said Andrew Luck, to which a journalist blurted, “You never had to take a class again.’’ When the laughter subsided, Luck, said, “I guess that’s true. The joke’s on me, right?’’

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

Newsday (N.Y.): Cromartie's day gets all fouled up

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Antonio Cromartie was headed to the hospital. "He won't be talking," a Jets spokesman told several reporters waiting at his locker. True to the cliche, Cromartie's actions, the ones on the field, had spoken louder than any words Sunday.

Twice Cromartie, a cornerback and return man, was called for pass interference. Twice Cromartie was called for defensive holding. Once he muffed a kickoff, at the end of the third quarter, allowing Oakland to recover the ball at the Jets' 13, only seconds after the Raiders scored to break a tie at 17.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): McFadden paying dividends for Raiders

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Maybe the Raiders shouldn't have taken Darren McFadden in the 2008 draft. They needed defensive linemen -- they still do -- not a running back.

Maybe the Jets would have chosen McFadden. The rumors were they tried to get him, but the Jets were in the sixth slot, two behind the Raiders, and Raiders owner Al Davis, always infatuated with speed, was enamored with McFadden.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.