RealClearSports: Athletics Aren't Going Anywhere

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — So where are they going? The Oakland Athletics, that is. Not to Portland. No way. And Major League Baseball has as much chance of succeeding in Las Vegas as Bud Selig would in a one-man revue at the Bellagio.

Selig, not trying to be funny, hinted the A's, the why-won't-the-Giants-give-us-San-Jose A's, might move away from the Bay, meaning the body of water separating San Francisco and its sellout crowds — more than 100 in a row to this point — from the sad turnouts in Oakland.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Leinart's Role as Raider: Advise, Back Up

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A Matt Leinart bobblehead, with the likeness attired in an Arizona Cardinals uniform, can be found on the Internet at prices ranging from $28 to $80. Leinart may have been a disappointment — the word "bust'' is simply too harsh — but he has not gone unrecognized.

Or, once more, unwanted.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Latest call-up brings big-league pedigree

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

On one side of the family was a Hall of Fame first baseman, on the other an outfielder involved in one of the more famous plays in World Series lore. The baseball genes were there for Charlie Culberson.

“I guess you could say that,” Culberson agreed, “it’s neat to have that history.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: ESPN Proves Tiger Still No. 1

in , ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

This headline was on ESPN.com: "Tiger Shoots 74 at Players.'' The subject was Tiger Woods, tied for 100th, and not either of the co-leaders, Ian Poulter or Martin Laird? Why, of course.

We're not selling results in journalism, and ESPN, for better or worse, is journalism in the 21st Century. We're selling celebrity.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Too much fumbling, bumbling by Giants

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

“These are the major leagues,” insisted Vida Blue on Comcast SportsNet this week. “This has got to stop.” Not the way the Giants are fielding. Or fumbling.

Who knew the Bad News Bears would be resurrected in orange and black? It was one thing when the Giants couldn’t hit a moving ball. It’s another when they can’t catch one.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: For A's, There's No One There in Oakland

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. – This is the other side of the Bay, the other side of baseball. This is where the Oakland Athletics perform in virtual anonymity, a team caught between an owner’s dreams and the reality of too many empty seats.

The Toronto Blue Jays were here Tuesday night. As usual the fans were not.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Seau Tragedy Leaves Too Many Questions

in , ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

So again the sporting world is confronted by tragedy, and we are left to debate and contemplate.

A gunshot. Disbelief. A haunting refrain, the Beatles singing, "I read the news today, oh, boy, about a lucky man who made the grade ..." A lucky man who took his own life.

All too prophetic. All too real.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Wizard of Ozzie Works Magic for One Night

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO – The subject was baseball, which was perfect for Ozzie Guillen. Hard to get into trouble talking about pop flies. No protests when discussing the pitching rotation.

A few hugs, to his pals on the Giants, a few wisecracks, and wasn’t this why the Miami Marlins had brought him in as manager because of his experience in the game?

He may be a lightning rod, a firecracker ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Expect the unexpected at Olympic come U.S. Open

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Six weeks now. Six weeks until America’s golfing championship returns to that place known as the Graveyard of Legends, San Francisco’s Olympic Club, where the chill settles, the fog swirls and expectations end up buried like a ball in the thick rough.

Olympic, alongside the Great Highway, a couple hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean, where the first hole runs atop the San Andreas fault and the last hole has a green fronted by bunkers that look very much like the letters I-O-U.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: A Capital Offense by Some Bruins Fans

in , ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

And so we return to sport's disgraceful past, when a man's performance was less important than the color of his skin. But hatred and ignorance are now introduced through the modern marvel of social media. Or, in this situation, anti-social media.

A hockey player from the Washington Capitals, Joel Ward, scored an overtime goal Wednesday night that eliminated the defending champion Boston Bruins from the Stanley Cup playoffs practically before they got a chance to get in, the first round.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Warriors' New GM: Childhood Dream Come True

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. – It was his team when he was a kid. Bob Myers saw his first Golden State Warriors game in the early 1980s, when he was 7 or 8.

“My love for the NBA started with this team.’’ This team which now in a different way truly is Bob Myers’ team.

Myers was elevated to general manager on Tuesday...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Tim Lincecum 'stopped worrying,' found success

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What’s to worry? Tim Lincecum wasn’t going winless this season. You mean you thought that was possible? Oh, ye of little faith. And of first-inning jitters. True, he’s not where he would hope to be, but neither is he where he was.

“Baby steps,” was Lincecum’s observation. For Giants fans, it was more like, “Oh, baby, what a step.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: 49ers on same page during busy offseason

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SANTA CLARA -- So the 49ers and Alex Smith will live happily ever after, and please don’t mention that dalliance with Peyton Manning. As far as Randy Moss, the only thing that matters, we’re told, is how Randy acts when he shows up, which presumably he’ll do in time.

Niners general manager Trent Baalke spoke with the media Wednesday about next week’s NFL draft, and because as usual...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Halladay Outduels Struggling Lincecum

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — He gave up five runs, yet his ERA fell. Not much. It still is embarrassingly high, 10.54, but maybe Tim Lincecum has regained some of that edge with the slider and some of that swagger in his manner.

The possibility was enticing. Lincecum, the San Francisco Giants' two-time Cy Young Award winner, against Roy Halladay of the Phillies, also twice a winner of the Cy Young, if once in the American League.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Remembering Robinson's Number - and Skill

in , ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

The number, 42, hangs in every major league ballpark, a reminder of a man who was as much a pioneer as an athlete -- a superb athlete -- talented, proud and courageous.

Sixty-five years now since that April day in 1947 when Jack Roosevelt Robinson integrated the majors.

When he became the correction to one of the game's great wrongs, one of America's great wrongs...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: The mystifying Mr. Barry Zito

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

In baseball, it was pointed out correctly, if not grammatically proper, by Hall of Famer Yogi Berra: You don’t know nothing. Or did you think Barry Zito would be a savior after Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain would be, not disasters, but at least disappointments?

To the contrary, one thing we all know is no matter how the A’s do, and that was a brilliant 1-0 win Monday night, they can’t draw beans, not with the kicking and screaming involved in their desperate attempt to flee to San Jose.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Golf's Immovable Feast And A Guy Named Bubba

in ,

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA -- It always works, doesn't it? What they've got going at Augusta National, at The Masters -- and we'll cut to the chase and cut out the complaints -- somehow always produces a sporting event that seems more than a mere golf tournament. Mainly because as proved once more it isn't a mere golf tournament.

It's a festival, a fascinating concoction of flowery prose...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: Bubba Earns Cheers -- and Masters Win

in ,

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He's not exactly a good ol' boy. But Bubba Watson is from the South - Bagdad, Fla., to be exact. And he did go to the University of Georgia. And he does button his golf shirt to the top, for neatness. So if the fans at Augusta National late Sunday afternoon were acting as if they were at, say, a Georgia-Florida game, that was excusable.

"Bubba, Bubba, Bubba," they were chanting. He had just won a playoff for the Masters, and while he was crying, they were screaming, "Bubba, Bubba, Bubba."

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Bubba Watson walks away from Masters in tear-jerking triumph

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

And now we wait and hope, hope the next major golf championship of 2012, the U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club in June, can be as full of tension and greatness — and, of course, drama — as the Masters.

What an ending Sunday, in the shadows after the setting sun dipped below the Georgia pines, a day of history, only the fourth double-eagle in 77 Masters and, because the winner couldn’t be determined until a sudden-death playoff, mystery.


Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company