RealClearSports: Sports Permanence in Twitter Generation

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Was it always this way, American sports and the 10-second attention span? Did we ever stay focused on anyone or anything before the next news cycle? Another Tweet, another change of subjects.

The end of last football season someone discovered Denver had a quarterback who threw like a man tossing melons but because Tim Tebow could run, Tebowmania was upon us like an elephant crashing through a jungle, unstoppable.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Federer at 30: 'I Can Still Crush Anybody'

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The warrior is old, comparatively, a man of 30 in a sport of 20-year-olds, knowing the way it was, believing in the way it could be.

"It is always in my mind still,'' said Roger Federer, "that I can still crush anybody."

Which he can, if not when it matters most, in the biggest events...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Tiger, Djokovic, Pujols: Three of a Kind

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – It’s all about fame. Or infamy. All about recognition, for something you accomplished or couldn’t accomplish. All about fans chasing you for an autograph or a photo or no less significantly wishing they could chase you into the next county.

Hero or villain. The roles are virtually inseparable, although from a standpoint of morality and goodwill we would prefer a hero or heroine. Easier to accept. Easier to respect.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: The way to San Jose becoming bitter battle for A's

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

PHOENIX -- The dynasty started 40 years ago in 1972. The A’s won a World Series. Then another. Then another, an achievement since unmatched.

This is going to be a season of celebration, of memories, and two of the greats from the era, Rollie Fingers and Bert Campaneris, stopped by spring training before a recent exhibition game, living reminders of the way it was.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Bees weren't only buzz for San Francisco Giants in Arizona

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Angel Pagan had another hit Sunday. Melky Cabrera had two more. They got things started, and seemingly everybody else, Pablo Sandoval, Aubrey Huff, Brett Pill, wouldn’t let it stop. Only an exhibition game, but for the Giants, a telling one.

And because of the attack of the killer bees — not Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, but genuine bees who make honey — a game which threatened to last until sundown, but in fact took a mere 2 hours, 53 minutes (plus 41-minute bee delay), was a weird one.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): White Sox's Robin Ventura has NY state of mind

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The home uniform pinstripes are black, not the royal blue he wore when with the Mets or the navy blue with the Yankees. Robin Ventura is manager of the White Sox, but the lessons of New York still are a part of him.

Ventura, now 44, played home games at Shea Stadium under Bobby Valentine and at Yankee Stadium under Joe Torre. Then he became the surprise pick to replace Ozzie Guillen. He had been a fan favorite in 10 years with the White Sox but hadn't managed or coached in organized baseball.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: This Alum Embarrassed by UCLA Mess

By Art Spander

For RealClearSports.com

So now it's my alma mater, UCLA, that has made a mess of things. But of course. It was inevitable. That's the game colleges play so they can play - no, make that win - the games.

The whole concept of big-time college sports is nonsense anyway. And the fact that participants are labeled student-athletes - what else could they be if they are students and athletes? - doesn't alter the essential fact that we often judge our educational institutions not on the quality of their libraries but on the achievements of their sporting teams.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 RealClearSports

SF Examiner: S.F. Giants refocused after disappointing 2011

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

They’re just a baseball team this year, the Giants, not the champions, not the club with the attention, baggage and impossibility of doing what nobody had done for more than a decade — repeat.

“I don’t think any of us knew what was coming,” Tim Lincecum said. He meant about the season of 2011, disappointing mainly because understandably it couldn’t match the season of 2010, the championship season.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Manny Must Handle His Bat and Life

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PHOENIX – Everyone is saying the right things, of course. Why wouldn’t they?

The right things from Many Ramirez, trying to escape what he did to himself, to baseball and to his wife.

The right things from the Oakland Athletics, who out of desperation are taking a chance on Manny.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: A humbler Manny working his way back to being 'baseball ready'

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

PHOENIX -- Green-collar baseball? When Manny Ramirez is in camp for the A’s, it’s green do-rag baseball. It’s “Guess who’s in the cage?” baseball. It’s “Can he still do it?” baseball.

It hasn’t been like this for a while at Papago Park, the A’s training complex, a ball player who has to be watched, if even to find out whether he still deserves to be watched.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): Mahan beats McIlroy to win Match Play

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MARANA, Ariz. -- Enthronement will have to wait. Hunter Mahan, who is down the scale of fame, Sunday kept Rory McIlroy from winning both the Accenture WGC Match Play Championship and climbing to the No. 1 world ranking.

Was there motivation because the fans early on were chanting for McIlroy, the Northern Irishman, instead of Mahan, an American?

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Final four set for match play title

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MARANA, Ariz. -- The glamour is one side of the draw, where Rory McIlroy will face Lee Westwood, with a place at the top of golf's world rankings a possibility for the winner. The national interest is on the other side, the American side.

The marathon called the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship has reached today's final two rounds at the Ritz-Carlton Club on Dove Mountain north of Tucson, semifinals in the morning,McIlroy against Westwood, and Hunter Mahan against Mark Wilson.

The final between the winners...

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Westwood beats Watney to reach quarterfinals

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MARANA, Ariz. -- It's strange territory for Lee Westwood. He's played this tournament before, played the desert course at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. What he hadn't done in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in his 11 attempts was get past the second round.

Westwood, a 3-and-2 third-round winner Friday over Nick Watney, the man who bounced Tiger Woods, said he "had a little chuckle'' a couple of days ago about pre-tournament predictions on The Golf Channel.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Tiger Putts Poorly, Talks Optimistically

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

MARANA, Ariz. — He fell short again. Or did he? Tiger Woods putted poorly and spoke optimistically, making us wonder whether we should believe what we saw or what we heard.

Woods was knocked out of the Accenture Match Play Championships on Thursday, maybe not exactly a shock, given his record of late in this tournament and almost every tournament. Yet there was something particularly unsettling about the way it happened.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger falls to Watney at Match Play

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MARANA, Ariz. -- He said he couldn't make a putt. And thus, Tiger Woods couldn't make the third round of the Accenture World Golf Championship match play.

Woods was knocked out Thursday 1 up by Nick Watney, who somewhat in awe said, "To go up against Tiger and beat him is something you'll always remember.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Woods pulls out a victory in match play

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MARANA, Ariz. -- There was a lefthanded shot out of the sagebrush, a couple of erratic putts and considerable bit of coughing from a cold he got from his kids last week in Florida. But in the end there was a narrow victory for Tiger Woods.

Woods said neither he nor his opponent in the first round of the Accenture World Golf Championships Match Play, the Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano,...

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Oakland A's GM Billy Beane an expert at shaking things up

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The A’s? “Team Irrelevant”? Grabbing supposedly the best Cuban baseball playing defector available, Yoenis Cespedes, for $36 million? Then signing Manny Ramirez? The A’s?

Welcome to the New World of Moneyball. No longer when a journalist asks GM Billy Beane whether we’ll recognize any members of the A’s will he be able to respond, if tongue in cheek, “Do you ever?”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Nobody Equals Kobe in L.A.

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LOS ANGELES -- Perspective is required in judging sports in Southern California, a place where the Angels play in Anaheim but call it Los Angeles, the Dodgers have gone from greatness to embarrassment and for nearly two decades the NFL has been an absentee.

The chaos, organized as it may have been, leaves the Los Angeles Lakers as the only pro team north of San Diego which really matters and its main man, one Kobe Bryant, as keeper of the kingdom, not to mention current leading scorer in the NBA.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Global Golf Post: Haas Plays Safe And Is Not Sorry

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolf Post.com

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA -- Jack Nicklaus said he "loved option holes," and the beguiling 10th at Riviera Country Club, only 315 yards long, with a rolling green surrounded by bunkers, was one of his favorites. Bill Haas would like to second the motion.

Haas knocked in a 45-foot birdie putt Sunday at the 10th, the second hole of a three-way sudden-death playoff, to beat Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley and win the Northern Trust Open.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

Global Golf Post: Sergio Surges Into 2012 PGA Tour Season

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA -- Sergio Garcia has started the PGA Tour season with some leftover momentum from two late victories on the European Tour in Spain last year. Garcia raised some eyebrows at the Northern Trust Open on Sunday afternoon with a 6-under 30 on the back nine his first nine of the day. He finished with 64, low round of the tournament...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post