By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
Even as it was unfolding, even as the balance tipped and Serena Williams went from winner to loser, it seemed unbelievable. Serena Williams doesn’t fall apart. Serena Williams doesn’t lose first-round matches in Grand Slams.
Serena is a finisher, not someone who gets finished.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
OAKLAND, Calif. -- George Brett is in the rearview mirror and Cal Ripken is up ahead. Not that Derek Jeter is looking in either direction.
Jeter began Sunday's game against the A's with a line-drive single to left. It was the 3,155th hit of his career, 14th best in history, and moved him ahead of Brett. Ripken is in 13th place with 3,184.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
OAKLAND, Calif. -- He's not far away, about 90 miles up Interstate 80 in Sacramento. That doesn't seem like much, but the distance Manny Ramirez still has to cover until he's back in the majors -- if, indeed, he ever gets there -- is greater than it appears.
Ramirez is playing for the Triple-A River Cats, the top farm team of the Oakland Athletics, as he regains his timing and waits for Wednesday -- his 40th birthday, by the way -- which will represent the end of a second 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
OAKLAND, Calif. -- It wasn't as if the whole city was here. Vallejo's population is about 116,000. But CC Sabathia had purchased enough tickets -- 200 for family and friends from his hometown, a half-hour northeast of O.co Coliseum -- to fill an area of the rightfield stands.
His own rooting section, if you will, and once Sabathia was able to control his pitches Saturday, he gave them a show and helped the Yankees earn a 9-2 victory over the A's.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
On the front sports page of Thursday's USA Today, three headlines: "NBA Suspends Heat's Haslem for Game 6,'' "The Problem of Slow Play'' and "Players Sue NFL, Claim Collusion Over Cap."
This is the toy department of life?
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
The U.S. Open places a premium on emotion and psychology. “A lot of players,” said four-time Open champion Jack Nicklaus, “are eliminated the moment the tournament starts.” Nicklaus, certainly, wasn’t in that category. Neither were Lee Janzen or the late Payne Stewart.
The Open comes to San Francisco’s Olympic Club next month for a fifth time, and for a while now, we’ve been told how in those other four the wrong man won and Olympic, out there across the Great Highway from the Pacific, is the graveyard of champions.
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
OAKLAND — Down in Los Angeles the only thing the Lakers and Clippers lost were games, albeit important games. Up here in Greedsville-by-the-Bay, Oakland is losing its team. To San Francisco.
This is the way it works in the lawless, wild west, where you check your firearms at the turnstile but hold on to your ego: Santa Clara steals San Francisco’s pro football team, San Francisco steals Oakland’s pro basketball team, the one with an all-inclusive name, Golden State Warriors.
© RealClearSports 2012
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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.”
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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 ...
© RealClearSports 2012
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.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
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...
© RealClearSports 2012
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.”
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A lot of words but not enough goals. The San Jose Sharks were forthcoming. You can fool only yourself, and everyone else, when you've lost seven times in eight games to the same team.
Remorse is permitted. Dishonesty is not.
© RealClearSports 2012